The Virgo archetype often remains unappreciated and misunderstood, not only by others, but by Virgos themselves. Contrary to the misconception that Virgo is solely about working hard, trying to make things perfect, and complaining if they aren’t, the Virgo archetype is about achieving a state of wholeness wherein our efforts and action are inspired by an elevated state of being.
Our Virgo Stage of Development
The twelve house circle of the zodiac signs is divided into 6 houses below the horizon and 6 houses above the horizon. The first 6 houses and zodiac signs represent our personal make up.
(1) Aries – First we get to experience that we are alive.
(2) Taurus – We experience that we have a body.
(3) Gemini – We realize we have a mind.
(4) Cancer – We have emotions.
(5) Leo – We have a heart.
(6) Virgo – As we activate, get to know, and integrate aliveness, body, mind, emotions, and heart, we become a whole person.
The Virgo-Pisces Polarity Pair
Zodiac signs in opposition share the same goal, but have different approaches to reaching that goal. Or at least it appears that way, until we examine the situation more closely. In general, Virgo uses the rational thinking mind to discern and figure things out. Pisces uses intuitive feeling awareness and acceptance to experience what is. Both seek to simplify and eliminate what is distracting or detrimental. This requires going to deeper levels of awareness where we find spiritual connection through the higher mind.
Earth signs are about improving how we deal with our health, resources, and power so we can embody higher frequencies and wisely use our energy to manifest, experience, and enjoy our short visit to planet Earth.
Earth energy can feel heavy to mystical Pisces, who loves to indulge in floating above the clouds and storms of physical reality. But Virgo and Pisces are paired for a reason – they need each other! Pisces wants to leave a legacy in this world. Virgo wants its work to be meaningful and contributory. So they are perfect partners.
For both Pisces and Virgo, superficial solutions, physical gratification, and material success are not what they are looking for. They desire something deeper, meaningful, and satisfying. Operating in the physical world, Virgo can turn Pisces ideals and dreams into reality.
In unawakened consciousness, both Virgo and Pisces are inherently dissatisfied. They hunger for answers to existential questions. They both seek more. They both seek inner peace and serenity. They both want to experience the realm of non-duality and unconditional love. Tuned into the spiritual realm, they know there are greater forces at play. In the physical realm, we are instruments of that cosmic Force. We are here to serve this force as humble servants. We are here to serve love. We are here to make our personal offering. And in this offering we are able to attain and maintain a higher state of consciousness. It is in this quest to integrate physical and non-physical realities that Virgo and Pisces meet and work together as inseparable partners.
Virgo and Yoga
In yoga practices, Virgo is often associated with physical perfection and emphasis on detail. But the essence of yoga is about experiencing the union of physical and non-physical realities. We practice yoga to activate the awareness mechanisms present in the human body. When they are functioning, it is possible to expand our mind beyond its thinking/analysis functions to awakened intuitive knowing. Again this is where Virgo and Pisces paths merge.
Virgo Takes Mercury to the Next Level
Like Gemini, Virgo’s ruling planet is Mercury. Mercury is about the mind and communication. Virgo takes Mercury to the next level. Its goal is to access and expand body/mind communication and integration. This can happen only at deeper levels of awareness and body, energy sensitivity. The intended result is body/mind resonance with health, healing, and wholeness, where we can relax into the flow of existence and enjoy a peaceful state of being. Our Virgo journey is about achieving this state of being and operating in the world from a magnetic personal presence.
Retrograde Season
Retrograde periods give us space to identify what is holding us back and release what no longer serves our evolution. We can listen to our heart and trust our inner guidance to show us the way.
Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn, Chiron, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto are all currently retrograde. It is interesting that at this time Mercury is retrograde in Virgo; Jupiter and Uranus are retrograde in Taurus; and Saturn and Jupiter are retrograde in Pisces. We will discuss how they are all supporting each other in body/higher mind integration below. First let us note that Venus went direct September 3.
September 3 – Venus Went Direct
Venus ended its once every 18 months retrograde passage at 12º Leo on September 3. (which began on July 22 at 28º Leo.) Venus, the mythic goddess of love and beauty, symbolizes how we like to give and receive love, our values, what makes us happy, and what gives us pleasure.
Because of its retrograde passage, Venus is in Leo for four months (June 5 to October 8), instead of its usual four weeks. We have time to clarify what is really important to us and set our priorities. We also get clear about what we don’t want and consider a waste of time. With Venus direct, we may find ourselves moving forward in a new direction with changes in both our relationships and our life. Venus in Leo guides us from our hearts.
August 23 – September 15 – Mercury Retrograde in Virgo
On August 23 Mercury shifted gears from direct motion into reverse. Mercury will be retrograde in Virgo until September 15.
Mercury retrograde in Virgo illuminates Virgo’s life challenges, which include obsessive perfectionism, a harsh inner critic, and a judgmental attitude.
Due to Mercury’s retrograde passage (August 23 to September 15), Mercury will stand off with Chiron (in Aries) 3 times. We are reminded of the power of our thoughts, words, and communication and the importance of being honest, clear, and compassionate. Is what we are thinking true, necessary, helpful, and kind?
A number of aspects between Mercury and dwarf planet Ceres bring to our attention our relationship with the Earth, nourishment, and the cycles of nature. (Orbiting between Mars and Jupiter, and named for the Roman goddess of agriculture, Ceres represents a metaphysical bridge between individual and social levels of consciousness). Ceres in Libra urges us to bring more balance into our lives by reclaiming the power of the sacred feminine, which understands relatedness, honors emotional intelligence, and supports all life.
Mercury is closer to Earth when retrograde. That means that we can be closer to our instinctual awareness in our bodies. We can be more in tune with how our physical being is in tune with and connects with the Earth energies, nature, and natural forces.
The Next Dimension of Mercury
Mercury retrograde is often used as an excuse when things don’t go as planned. But maybe that is part of the Grand Plan. Maybe we are given this opportunity to pay attention to our frenetic way of life and do something about it.
The mind works differently when Mercury is retrograde. Another part of the mind becomes more available and can even supersede the conditioned mind, which usually dominates and is tediously repetitive, predictable, and reactive. We can become aware that our dualistic mind is unable to see or understand non-physical reality.
Mercury is generally associated with our dualistic thinking mind, but Mercury also represents the self-reflecting consciousness that human beings are gifted with, and the capacity to develop this function into self-awareness, which is the foundation of all experience and understanding.
Mercury retrogrades offer us, just over 3 weeks, 3 times a year, to expand our mode of perception from conditioned thinking to unconditioned awareness. This is a fortuitous time to foster awareness. The brain’s capacity to perceive and experience in the realm of oneness is heightened, more engaged, and if we allow it, more present.
We can slip out of our habitual grooves and awaken to a richer experience of reality. When we pay attention with awareness, our old ways of seeing and interpreting can be unplugged. We must first hone our power of attention. With attention, relaxation, and allowing, awareness can replace thinking. The unseen can be revealed.
The Deeper Essence of Mercury Retrograde
The default mode of operation of our thinking mind is via memory and instinctual drives that are incredibly potent. (This is easy to comprehend when we consider how habits dominate our lives.) Habitual doing and thinking run and rerun the same script from the same limited perspective.
The illumination of the mind can happen only when we unplug from our habitual tendency to operate from conditioning, beliefs, and memories that are held in our instinctual body and emotional awareness.
During Mercury retrograde, our ability to pay attention beyond thinking is heightened. It is easier to witness our conditioning. We can become conscious of unexplored territory. We can enter the territory of NOW. We can open ourselves to new terrain in space that is not cluttered with emotional debris. We can see the unseen. We can engage our mind in consciousness.
Revisiting Mercury Retrograde
We can view Mercury Retrograde as a pattern interrupt in our way of thinking, doing, and being. Mercury retrograde is a time to stop looping the same scenarios and thoughts and to give our old stories a rest. It is a time to clear and open the space in our mind to allow in new ideas and inspirations. The world of possibility is available when we slow down, listen, and let the unseen speak to us. We can make ourselves available to receive, experience, and understand in ways that we have never thought of, permitted, or seen before.
Instead of revisiting, or rethinking the same ideas and plans that are encoded with familiar interpretations and past conditioning, we can open ourselves up to discover something not yet known to us. We can allow space for a new context to appear, within which the future can manifest.
September 4 – Jupiter in Taurus Is Retrograde through December 30
September 4 Jupiter went retrograde, (at 15º Taurus) for almost 4 months until December 30 ( at 5º Taurus. It won’t be until March 23, 2024 that Jupiter once again reaches 15º Taurus.
Like all retrogrades, Jupiter asks us to slow down and turn inwards. Jupiter in Taurus invites us to reflect on what we believe is true and how we are evolving in our life journey. What gives us meaning and is worth living for? This is time to examine the relationship between the value we give ourselves and how things are going in our life. This is a time to examine the relationship between self-worth and abundance, two primary Taurus themes. Prosperity does not find fertile ground in beliefs of not being good enough or valuable.
Some of the questions we can ask ourselves include:
- Where may we be underestimating ourselves?
- What bigger picture could open us to explore new possibilities?
Jupiter retrograde in Taurus gives us time to practice embodiment, being present, and cultivating our personal presence. Our inner journey can inspire self-confidence, which is a vital internal skills that we can apply in the world. It is important to look back and acknowledge how far we have come and give ourselves credit for who we are now. Then we keep going, because there is always more to learn and to celebrate.
Saturn and Neptune in Pisces
Both Saturn and Neptune are currently in Pisces, providing a key to unlocking what we thought was a mystery – We heal pain and suffering through our awakening to and connection with Love. Not romantic human love, but Love as the experience of the nature and fabric of the universe, the Source of all existence.
Whatever we call IT – (God, Great Spirit, Allah, Buddha, Brahma, the Tao, the Divine, the Almighty, the Absolute, the Force, the Great Mystery, Anima Mundi, Oneness, Higher Power, Non-dual awareness, Christ consciousness) – something infinite and eternal is present that not only gives us life, but can release us from our existential suffering.
Neptune and Pisces symbolize unconditional love, accessing spiritual realms and insights, and knowing through awareness (not thinking), from which we can make shifts in perception and direction. For example, we realize that we do not need to save others or be saved. We need to save ourselves by finding love inside, not outside, ourselves.
The answers to all our existential issues concerning freedom, happiness, peace, joy, forgiveness, self-worth, etc. are to be found in awareness of our oneness with IT.
Forgiveness and Freedom
Let’s examine a major human issue of forgiveness. Basically we are stuck in the past, recreating our pain in the present. When we experience the non-dual realm, we are able to forgive ourselves, others, the world, and whatever betrayals, injustices, and wrongs we attribute to the above.
At the human, duality level of living, forgiveness can be misunderstood to to be about
- relieving ourselves or others of responsibility or accountability,
- forgetting, or letting someone off the hook, or
- permitting what is not okay or hurtful.
In the realm of Spirit, forgiveness is a state of being where we understand the difficulty of being human and how challenging it is to live in a state of apparent separation. We are humbled by the challenges we all face being immersed in a culture based on inequality, exploitation, materialistic values, and greed. We develop compassion for ourselves and others given the lack of adequate training on how to live from our hearts.
To live in a state where forgiveness is possible, but we have to be self-empowered and able to free ourselves from the chains of victimhood, anger, hatred, and blame. We have to grieve our human pain and believe in the possibility of transformation and evolution for ourselves, others, and society.
Building Our Sacred Presence
For the next year and a half, Saturn is slowly approaching a conjunction with Neptune. Saturn is currently at 3° Pisces and Neptune is at 26° Pisces. They will be within 1 degree of each other at 28-29 degrees Pisces the end of January 2025 and meet at 0 degrees Aries February 14, 2025.
During this time, we will be working with how to integrate earth and spiritual energies. We will be asking penetrating questions.
- What are we on planet Earth for?
- What is our soul’s mission?
- Our life purpose?
Superficial goals are neither enough nor satisfying. We long for something deeper and more meaningful. What is worth the effort required? What is worth living for?
Pisces follows two Saturn-ruled signs – Capricorn and Aquarius. After we spend a lifetime focused on material security, we get to Pisces. Was it worth it? What’s next before we leave? What motivates us is about making a contribution. We don’t want to leave feeling like we have wasted our time. Actually we are preparing ourselves for the next stage of our lives and for death when it comes.
We are building our presence to make the offering of ourselves. We are strengthening our connection with our higher self. We are learning to find answers within our own hearts. We are learning to embody our soul in our daily activities and to make every moment sacred.
Meditation and Slowing Down during Mercury Retrograde
Our ability to meditate is heightened during Mercury retrograde.
Focusing our attention with awareness is our tune in button that initiates a transformational process. Penetrating focus can illuminate the essence of what is there. Existence is always present. Experience fosters knowing and leads to understanding.
It is critical to remember that we are not using our imagination to think up something new. Meditation is not make believe. Anything that our mind imagines will be created through our existing filters. Imagination is very different from allowing reality to present itself. Awareness opens the gate to reality.
Practice Slower is Better
During retrogrades, we can practice slower is better.
- Slowing down our breath, calms our thoughts and clears our mind.
- Moving slower and more deliberately helps us stay present. Performing our tasks carefully with precision, we can be fully present in the always now.
- Slowing down trains us to present in the moment, where we have access to our intuitive and instinctual knowing.
Prepare for my Next Workshop
To prepare for my next workshop and to take advantage of the Virgo and Taurus earth energy, practice standing exercises to cultivate grounding in your body. This is the foundation for establishing your magnetic presence. The standing warm ups from previous workshops are perfect. Also see ‘Healthy Body Kriya’ in The Gift of Womanhood, pp. 209-11. (available in both printed & eBook versions)
As we find stable ground in our body, we are ready for our next move. With more awareness, we experience another level of peace and joy!
Workshop – Cultivate Your Magnetic Presence – Sunday September 17
The current planetary energies provide a perfect supportive environment for my upcoming workshop
Cultivate Your Magnetic Presence
Sunday September 17 – 10:00 am to 12 pm PDT (utc-7) (1:00 to 3 EDT)
Followed by sharing and Q and A. (Our time together after the class is very special!)
Can’t attend live? — All those who register will have unlimited access to the edited video about 1 week after the event.
In this workshop you will consolidate and ground your personal presence. As you build a contained and self-satisfied experience of in-the-body oneness with yourself, you will experience deep inner contentment and happiness.
Enjoying your sacred presence is the next step in our journey. Let’s all travel together!
Please share with your students and friends. Here is the link
https://gururattana.ticketleap.com/cultivate-your-magnetic-presence/
Sign up now!
I will also be making a special announcement about purchasing past workshops in my Level Deep Series on www.yogatech.com Be the first to know!
