Overnight, Venus leaves bold Leo to slip into humble service. This is a big shift for the planet of how we relate–to other people, to what we value, to the world of esthetics, and to the world of values itself.
Leo looms large, commanding attention. Virgo steps back. Yet Virgo’s humility is not based in a sense of being “less than.” Virgo carries a calm assurance that order is possible, offering care is valuable, and strength is quiet as often as it’s loud.
In modern usage, Virgo, the virgin is sexually inexperienced. Sometimes the word refers to anyone inexperienced in any area. Someone who doesn’t know. Who is naive, vulnerable, and gullible. Not fully adult.
Yet its ancient meaning was quite different. A virgin was a woman complete in herself, beholden to no man. In a world where a woman was a daughter, sister, wife, mother, or grandmother, to be one-in-herself was special indeed. This was the word for women of the temple in ancient Greece.
Venus is in fall in Virgo, not at her best. Yet she enters Virgo this year in mutual reception with Mercury in Libra, giving her support.
It’s worth noting that 0 Virgo is the place of the royal star Regulus, maker of kings. Regular is historically associated with Leo, but recently precessed into Virgo. This Venus has allies.
The key aspect to Venus as she enters Virgo is a trine from an out-of-bounds Moon newly in Capricorn.
I’m reminded of Venus’ long retrograde in Capricorn this past fall, which seemed like a journey underground, into the depths of the psyche. I am thinking this Moon is reminding us of what we experienced and learned then, so we can bring it forward now.
Virgo is a sign of craft. Working with the hands. Weaving, carving, gathering, sewing, carpentry. Think of woodcraft, witchcraft. How we stitch together our lives from what we can find, making of it something beautiful.
Venus remains in Virgo until September 29 when she enters Libra, her own sign. For these next weeks, we’re invited to take what we’ve found and shape it into something we value.