Decan walk continues with Virgo decans! And here comes Virgo I…

As Virgo season is loading, I thought that it could be nice to write about the first decan of this mutable, earth sign in advance. I have personal attachment to this sign since I have my natal Sun (3rd decan), Mercury (2nd decan), Saturn (1st decan) and NN (3rd decan) in Virgo. How do we know Virgo? What can we say about this sign? I think that we all have some keywords ready in our minds for every sign so I wouldn’t come up with a long list of adjectives to explain Virgo. What a curious approach by someone with those placements in Virgo:))) It might be always worth remembering that regardless of what planet is expressing itself in Virgo, all the ways may circle back to Mercury and where it’s placed in to have more idea about the essence of that possible expression. And this could be valid for natal charts as well as the transits, progressed charts etc. So, for the first decan of Virgo in this upcoming season, it might be good to know that Mercury will be in Leo until midday on Aug 25 and for the rest of the first decan it will stay in Virgo where it’s known to be home and exalted at the same time.

Having said all, let’s now look at the decan rulers in the first decan of Virgo. We have Sun and Mercury as the decan rulers according to Chaldean/Descending order and Triplicity order respectively. In a way, the sky will be reflecting the same energy coming through the decan rulers with Sun being in Virgo and Mercury mostly being in Virgo in this decan. That could be the moment when we might ask ourselves how we can turn creative ideas into practical ones. And after having demonstrated enough of our confident, fun and authentic parts via our outer expressions, maybe it could be more like a chop chop time to organise and simplify all this great performance in an efficient way and transform it into something perfect with a sense of duty. It’s like a painter being in need of a good art gallery for exhibiting their pieces or an actor being in need of a manager / agent who can make the necessary connections and do the real talk. We can more or less guess who is who in these situations!

What do the older texts say about this decan?

“On the first face of Virgo — The first decan of Virgo has the face of the Sun. Its name is Zamendres. It causes affliction of the belly: It is a serpent put together awry. Its head is the likeness of the Moon. It rules the climate of Arabia.” That’s the definition on Liber Hermetis.

When we read through the pages of The Daimon in Hellenistic Astrology by Greenbaum, it’s interesting to see that according to Cosmas of Jerusalem, the first decan of Virgo was associated with Themis. If you ask me who Themis is, I can provide you with the following short section from https://www.theoi.com/Titan/TitanisThemis.html : “THEMIS was the Titan goddess of divine law and order–the traditional rules of conduct first established by the gods. She was also a prophetic goddess who presided over the most ancient oracles, including Delphoi (Delphi).”

“In the first face-of Virgo ascends the figure of a good maide, and a man crafting ſeeds; it signifies getting of wealth, ordering of diet, plowing, ſowing, and peopling ;” was written on the 2nd book of Occult Philosophy by Agrippa.

And the image appearing on The Complete Picatrix sounds very similar to that of Agrippa: “There rises in the first face of Virgo a young girl covered with an old woolen cloth, and in her hand is a pomegranate. This is a face of sowing, plowing, the germination of plants, of gathering grapes, and of good living. This is its form.”

When we think about the harvest time as we approach to the beginning of Autumn in this part of the world, it’s not surprising to read about sowing, plowing with an image of a young maiden which is embedded in the symbolism of Virgo.

Before looking into the associated Major and Minor arcana cards, I would like to make the opening of this section with a quote from Dreaming the Decans by T. Susan Chang:

“Common sense and humble acts.

Skip your theories: just the facts.

…

Golden silence, careful speech:

Craftsman, practice what you preach.”

The Minor Arcana card associated with this decan is the 8 of Pentacles. However, just for the beginning, we can see what the Major Arcana cards the Hermit (associated with Virgo) and the Magician (associated with Mercury – traditional ruler of Virgo) may tell us. I will put them together so we may explore their messages together.

All images are taken from Wikipedia – RWS deck (The images are part of public domain)

It’s very interesting the repeating pattern of number 9 in general. The Hermit is number 9, the total of the 8 of Pentacles and the Magician together with the Hermit reduced to single digit is also 9. Also, the total number of the minor arcana cards of Virgo reduced to is 9. What I remember from numerology lessons in my Tarot training, by the way anyone more informed about numerology please share your thoughts on this, 9 could be associated with spiritualism as well as endings sometimes even though especially in the suits. It’s not like number 10 but there could be this feeling of transition from one reality into another one. And in my harmonic lessons at the Faculty of Astrological studies, I remember that again spiritual leaders, clairvoyants, visionary people having the ninth harmonic charts quite strong. There was kind of a Neptunian flavour in the ninth harmonics.

Having said all, the Hermit may feel like a person that guides us with their wisdom, with their experiences, illuminating our paths even in the darkest times…I believe that Virgo being a mutable, earth sign may really offer different, practical perspectives, in detail, not to make the life complicated but to make it much easier. You may trust me that the chaos and web are within them, what you might see is the final, perfect product which generally proves my point of ‘there is order in chaos’. And I really think that when the Hermit holds up the lamp, maybe sometimes he is trying to show us some small but important details we might miss and that could be really crucial in solving a problem or continuing our ways.

The Magician seems to have it all but the trick is how to use ‘all’ or blend them in the best way possible. We might be quite talented but sometimes skills on their own may not serve us. We may need to learn how to improve them, how to embed them in our daily lives or where to use them and when. This might require a lot of thinking, reflection as well as planning. Maybe sometimes writing down, then erasing, then rewriting or saying from a different angle could help if we want our voices to be heard, our talent to be understood, our value to be appreciated…

The symbolism in these cards are rich but I am not after dissecting them at least in this article. I wrote about them in the past in my blog here but they need a good upgrade:))) After that, I can share them here again as well.

What about the 8 of Pentacles? A level of perfection might be achieved only when we practise a lot. And practising may be more fruitful if we can put it in a routine. I agree that as routines bring order, they might sometimes make life monotonous. However, at this point we might ask ourselves what we would like to achieve or gain out of this practising routine. There is a risk of being part of a comfortable but vicious circle or we may really want to take our practise one step ahead in which the guidance and honing our existing skills, and working on new ones could be useful.

The moral of the story: Keep the people with placements in Virgo (Sun, Mercury, Venus etc. you choose) close to yourselves even though they could be sometimes annoying (as per my personal experience:))) self criticism and honesty can skyrocket!) with their corrections, sentences containing ‘but’ or just ‘I told you so’ itself.

All the best,

Teri

by Teri Nudelman a.k.a. amethystastrotarot as in Hello from Amethyst! –