The star sign Virgo

Virgo is the sixth sign of the zodiac, from 23 August to about 22 September.

Where it belongs

Element: earth — cold and dry, concerned with matter
Mode: mutable — at the end of a season, in transition
Ruler: Mercury
Exaltation: Mercury as well
Detriment: Jupiter · Fall: Venus

Virgo is the only sign in which the same planet is both ruler and exalted. Mercury is as strong here as a planet can be — and that marks the sign through and through: distinguishing, checking, being exact about the detail.

That Jupiter is in detriment here and Venus in fall is part of the same picture: generosity and forbearance have a hard time of it in a sign whose business is distinction.

What has been handed down

Exactness, a readiness to be useful, an eye for what is not right, restraint in judging oneself. The other side: pettiness, worry, dissatisfaction with what would be good enough.

On the “archetype of lack”

Modern writing likes to connect Virgo with a sense of lack — the feeling that something is not yet enough.

The idea is not far-fetched, but it confuses two things. What the technique describes is a sign whose business is distinguishing. Anyone who distinguishes sees differences — including the difference between what is and what could be. Whether a sense of lack comes of that is decided not by the sign but by the condition of Mercury and by the rest of the chart.

This is the general reservation about the language of archetypes: it describes meaning, not condition — and for interpretation it is condition that counts. A strong Mercury in Virgo is a different matter from a combust one in the twelfth house, and both are the same archetype.

The sun sign alone

It is an eighth of the picture. The ascendant, the remaining planets and the houses belong with it.