•  Virgo Consumers value well-crafted items and understated elegance.

How is Virgo capable?

They are superb artisans and administrators with a discriminating eye.

How is Virgo mutable?

Geared to a life of service, these people adapt themselves to helping others. Ever mindful of perfection, they continually adjust material until it meets their high standards. Their minds are sharp as they are ruled by Mercury, the most mutable of the gods.

 

Virgo psychology

They have such an eye for perfection that they tend to give themselves a hard time – their standards are just too high to measure up to. They are very concerned with the order of things. This sign is very humble, and Virgos tend to be quite self critical. As a result, they often suffer self-esteem problems. However, they are naturally helpful and generous with their time, and this offsets a tendency to worry or find fault. Archetypally they are aligned with the sacred temple virgins – who were not virgins but free women who served the Goddess and celebrated life.

 

Mythic Virgo

A mythology of dedication and purity, and also of sexual initiation.

The Temple Virgin

The virgin in Virgo relates to the ancient temple virgin, who initiated men into the sacred rites of sex. She was beholden to no man or woman, but answered only to her god/goddess. In this way, she was her own authority and autonomous, dedicated to her task, above manipulation and respected in the community.

This purity is the purity of the unchained woman – she is not swayed by her association with a dominating family or spouse. She is able to hold herself apart from others and keep to her dedicated cause – this reflects the focus on boundaries in Virgo.

Astraea was a virgin goddess who used to sit with men in the golden age. But as the age waned and people became increasingly corrupt and gross, she began to hate them. Eventually her father, Zeus, allowed her to rise to heaven and there she became to constellation of Virgo. She was associated with justice and discrimination against the grosser elements of human nature.

This myth reflects the love of purity found in the Virgo personality, and the virtues of justice and wise discrimination – for Virgo is meant to be ‘choosy.'

Persephone

The rape of Persephone is also a Virgo myth. Once, on a pleasant day out-of-doors, Persephone strayed from her mother Demeter as she picked some flowers. Suddenly the ground opened up, and she was abducted by Pluto – god of wealth and the underworld. There she was raped and became his consort.

The earth withered in a long winter as Demeter mourned the loss of her daughter, for this was the goddess of crops and vegetation, and she refused to help the crops to grow whilst her daughter was in the grips of the underworld.

Eventually, after much liaison and pleading, Pluto allowed Persephone to arise back to the earth above, but there was a condition. She must not take anything of Hades with her, or she would be bound forever to its realm.

Just as she was about to leave the passage from the underground, Persephone spied a ripe pomegranate on the way out . She plucked out and ate the seed thoughtlessly – thus chaining herself to Pluto's world through her appetite.

However, Demeter pleaded until a 50/50 deal was struck with Pluto, that Persephone could spend half the year with her mother and half in the underworld. Hence, the summer and winter season. The pomegranate is a sexual symbol.

This myth is relevant to Virgo for its theme of sexual initiation, which was the function of the early temple goddesses, and it also speaks of the boundaries between worlds, recalling Virgo's inclination to discriminate between different domains.