A Very Virgo Season
Virgo is a hot spot this Summer, and you don’t have to be one of Mercury’s chosen children to be feeling the heat. Folks with personal planets and points in Virgo have been getting activated since Mars entered this exalted Earth sign on July 28. Mercury joined on August 11, and Venus departed on August 16. Its been a revolving door of activity, but unlike Leo, Virgo doesn’t like flashy stuff, so you may have been feeling these movements on more of a subtle level.
The Sun moves into Virgo on August 22, less than 12 hours after the second Aquarius Full Moon, and we have an immediate shift in priorities from shining to serving. Virgo season is when we take stock of what has transpired since the start of Summer, at the Solstice on June 20, and how to wrap things up in a useful way. Virgo is about conservation, staying low to the ground, and doing things well. The final sign of Summer in the Northern Hemisphere, a time when temperatures can still reach sweltering heights. The Virgo harvest maiden symbolizes the work of crops being brought in from the field. There are no more seeds to sow; we’re now in the reaping period. This is not the opulence of Jupiter’s banquet table but rather the tiny good thing of Mercury that gets brought in bushel by bushel through human sweat and ingenuity.
As a mutable/double bodied sign, Virgo has the ability to look in two directions at once--back towards the glory that was Leo season when the Sun was at its peak, and forward towards the coming cooler days and longer nights of Autumn, when the Sun enters its fall at Libra season and the earth eventually stops producing. It’s chief interest is taking what has been created and making it last through ordering and accounting for every last bit. The virgin archetype did not originally connote sexual chastity, but, rather, that one belongs exclusively to oneself. Virgo never promises fidelity they can not deliver. They have a devoted heart, but also contain the playful trickster magic of naughty jests. The essence of Virgo is captured in the goodness of the dedicated nurse, helpful librarian, and the patient teacher who somehow makes the learning fun.
Over the next month, the Sun in Virgo will help you prioritize what needs to get done to be ready for the change of season. This is the final month in the solar time of year when we have longer days than nights. The drop in temperature and light can be a bumpy transition for folks. Mercury as a psychopomp that guides souls through the underworld has a special role in the liminal space at the end of Summer. The more we appreciate what we have, the better we take care of our things. The less we feel like we’re lacking, the more gratitude we have in our hearts. It can work the reverse way too. Cultivate Virgo virtues by dusting, polishing, sorting, and stacking your life into better arrangement. You’ll end up feeling fresh and clean, and ready to face the Fall and all it holds.
Mercury entered Virgo on August 11, moving quickly, and will be in its home sign for less than three weeks. This is a fast and furious period thanks to the presence of Mars, who entered Virgo on July 28, amping up our mental activity and nervous system stimulation. Mars in Virgo is the ultimate office manager who gets sh*t done, but can also work itself and other people into the ground. Mercury conjoins Mars on August 18, increasing the volume of our inner critic and making us impatient for change. You may have lots of brilliant insights into how to solve situations mid-August, but simultaneously struggle to wait for others to catch up. Thankfully, Venus entered Libra on August 16, which will help you broker a better kind of peace than Mars would create.
Mercury and Mars trine Uranus in Taurus on August 20-22, bringing some flow to a combination that has felt fraught since the beginning of the year. Uranus loves to play the disruptor and when Mars, who rules weapons and militias, entered Taurus on January 6, we saw the most base expression of these forces in the insurrection on the Capital in Washington DC. Hard angles between planets bring more challenging manifestations because there is struggle of force involved, but trines provide motivation from a place allowing. Don’t be surprised if you come up with your best ideas for the year yet during this week. Mars and Uranus can act as a battering ram to knock down obstacles in your path. Remember to tread lightly so you don’t accidentally shatter any structures that need to remain intact. Trust you’ll have the opportunity to expand on these inroads through Spring of 2022.
The air element gets a boost when Venus in Libra trines Saturn in Aquarius on August 23. We don’t usually enjoy Saturn’s icy touch on our tender hearts, but Venus and Saturn can actually work quite well together. Both planets are in their home sign in the air trigon, drafting up innovative blueprints, and harmonizing what has been out of balance. Venus will add an artistic flair to Saturn’s remodeling of your life, and the benefit goes both ways with the Lord of Karma adding some gravitas to Venus’ pleasure principle.
If the trine with Saturn carries you towards a block to love, Venus’ opposition with Chiron in Aries on August 26, will expose the underlying cause. Healing is not linear and its not logical. Sometimes the deeper we go, the worse we feel, yet our proximity to the pain can be a marker of the progress we’re making towards uncovering the root. Chiron helps us learn to live with things that are difficult to bear. The Libra-Aries axis moves us between doing our own thing and cooperating with someone else. At its best, having both sides of this polarity lit up can teach us to temper individual desire in the service of collaboration. Sometimes we just need to take a deep breath and allow the discomfort to be. That relaxation can provide the opening we’ve been seeking.
Mercury in Virgo trines Pluto in Capricorn on August 26, just before moving into Libra on August 30. Both Mercury and Venus’ are spending a short amount of time in their home signs this Summer, but things start to slow down at the close of the month. Mercury will retrograde in Libra from September 27-October 18, but it will enter its shadow on September 6, and not clear it until November 2. This is the final retrograde of the year, rounding out Mercury’s deep dive into the air triplicity. The mental realm relates to personal ideals and collective values, which are some of the overarching themes of 2021. Individual beliefs create shared reality as we’ve seen with behavior around the pandemic. We’ve come to a crossroads about beliefs, and a mirror has been held up to our faces. We can expect that the tension will peak again during the next retrograde cycle, especially once the Sun enters Libra on September 22.
Mercury in Libra immediately moves towards a trine with Saturn in Aquarius that perfects on September 4. The last week of August is the perfect time to contemplate the Libra aspirations of justice and freedom. We’re all called to be beacons during periods of great tumult. Shine a light for someone else by meditating on what your ideal society would look like. Share these thoughts with those you hold dear and ask them to trust you with their dreams in kind. Thinking and talking about what we want to see in the world is a method of conjurating it in being. What we focus on accumulates energy in our minds and grows in our shared mythos. Tell the stories you want future generations to hold in their hearts.
Virgo season blessings. And if you're looking to flash your Virgo vibes with pride, check out the cute Pagan Baby merch here.