Cycles of birth beget fruits of labor

By Cal Garrison, a.ka. Mother of the Skye
This week’s Horoscopes are coming out under the light of a Void-of-Course, Aries Moon, just as the sun leaves Leo and enters the sign of the Virgin. As I sit down to dream up yet another batch of astrological musings, it occurs to me that half the people I know are Virgos. I pay attention to these things, and trust me: they are everywhere.
My theory on the overabundance of representatives from this sign is based on the fact that Virgo is nine months away from Christmas. It’s safe to say that people have sex more often than usual during the holiday season – and therefore, the chances of giving birth in late August and September are exponentially increased. (Statistically, more Americans are indeed born in August and September than any other month, with Sept. 16 being the most common birthday, according to a report in the New York Times.)
If you’re in the mood for a little astrology lesson, here’s a piece about Virgo, and the energy that comes to life when the sun moves through this sign. I hope you enjoy it and that it gives you something deeper to chew on as you read this week’s ‘scopes:
You can’t “party all the time.” Too much of a good thing is bad. And the celebratory energy that permeated the Unified Field while the sun was in Leo has run its course. As soon as the sun enters Virgo the proverbial “coach” turns back into a pumpkin and we have to face reality. If you just keep applauding yourself for being such a “beautiful dreamer” nine months of effort will go down the tubes. Even fruit rots on the vine if you don’t pick it and find a way to preserve it. And while a good roll in the hay is undoubtedly fun at some point we have to pull up our drawers, bale up the hay, and bring it into the barn, or we’ll be in big trouble come winter.
Harvesting our dreams is about getting down to business and doing something with them. The question is “what?”
For the next few weeks we have to find a way to integrate them. In order to serve our highest good everything we’ve done has to be assimilated and stored within us because it is part of our experience now; it’s part of who we are. When the visions from this cycle find their ultimate use they will serve to nourish the visions of the next cycle because life is a continuous spiral and one dream begets another. And even though last year’s dreams have fully materialized they won’t feed us indefinitely any more than one corn harvest will feed a herd of cows forever.
So how do we place the lessons that have emerged from this cycle and what do we know about life and ourselves that we didn’t know before? Whatever we’ve learned is there to take us to the next level. Just like the school kids who move from one grade to another in early September, we’re here this month to figure out how well last years lessons have prepared us for what we don’t know yet.
I have to confess, I am a Virgo. Most Virgos hate to admit it because all the astrology books have given us such a bad rap. They paint us up to be uptight, anal, nitpicking, control freaks who do nothing but clean behind the refrigerator and work all the time. It’s also widely accepted that all of us are prudes… No wonder we’re self-conscious about telling people what sign we are! Who would want to be this way? It’s taken me years to figure out what Virgos are really all about and in the course of developing more love for myself I’ve developed a deep appreciation for this archetype.
Virgo is the point in the zodiac where the real world and the world of spirit become one. It’s where the Hermetic Axiom, “as above, so below” installs itself in the collective mind. The obsessive-compulsive tendencies that are characteristic of most Virgos spring from a deep desire to witness spiritual perfection, or see it reflected on the physical plane. The need for order, the love of purity, and the willingness to work harder than anyone else, come out of an innate understanding that behind what is apparent, absolutely everything we do is really a sacred act.
When the sun’s in Virgo what is of this earth is being consecrated and blessed so that it can symbolically be handed over to whatever its ultimate purpose is. The fruit that gets picked off the vine doesn’t become truly glorious until it goes through the alchemical process that preserves it for future use. Transmuting lead into gold is sacred work. And at this point in the dream cycle our visions are being transmuted so that we can bring them into the core of our being and understand at a deeper level how they are meant to serve us.
Virgo is the sign of the High Priestess. In the Egyptian temples the High Priestesses were the intermediaries who superintended the rituals that kept life going in the right direction. They knew where the all the sacred objects needed to be placed so that the proper energies got stirred. They were also the guardians of the sexual mysteries and acted as conduits for the spiritual force that comes through all of us at the sexual level. Contrary to popular belief the Vestal Virgins were far from celibate. In fact, it was part of their job, their ultimate purpose, to be sexual.
It’s hilarious to me that Virgos are written off as prudish. I think it has something to do with the fact that the sexual force and the spiritual force were so intermingled in the Priestess archetype. And 13,000 years of patriarchal programming have led us to believe that sex and God can’t occupy the same space, so Virgo can only be seen in public as the “resident prude!” The truth is that all the power and force of creation resides within the womb of the female.
It’s no mystery. The sacred and the profane are one and the same.
God and light flow through absolutely everything. The fine line between what is apparent and the spiritual energy that fuels it may be invisible but it’s the point where we can tap into our own divinity. There’s so much more to what we do than meets the eye. All the visions that we’ve fostered have spent nine months in the womb of creation. And they are on the verge of being alchemically transmuted so that their highest purpose can be served. Open your heart to that idea and use this month to recognize that all of life and everything you do is sacred.