I am the Alchemy of Harvest
There’s no nicer witch than you
Symbol – Virgin, Ruler – Mercury, Metal – Mercury, House – 6th, Element – Earth, Modality – Mutable, Humor – Melancholic, Body – Digestion, Polarity – Pisces, Quality – Feminine
The name Virgo comes from the Latin word for maiden or virgin. The Virgo glyph ♍️ is said to represent M for maiden, the symbol for Virgo.
Virgo is the sixth sign of the zodiac; it presides over the sixth house, the house of health, and is the second of the mutable signs. Mutable signs are flexible and adaptable. The mutable houses, called cadent houses, come at the end of each quadrant. Virgo starts at the autumn equinox during the wheat harvest. Virgo is associated with the Greek goddess, Demeter, mother of Persephone, who was abducted by Hades; after which, Demeter stopped tending to the crops, and the earth began its descent into winter.
The Sun in Virgo is a time for gathering wheat, separating it from the chaff, and indeed, characteristics of Virgo are discernment and purification.
Virgo is ruled by the planet Mercury, and like the messenger of the gods, Virgo is clever, eloquent and detailed. The energy is yin and quintessentially feminine. Virgo is an earth sign which correlates to the melancholic humor, cold and dry.
Mercury is in dignity in Virgo as it is in Gemini, but it is also exalted in Virgo, so it wields and weaves its magic with aplomb in this sign.
Astrologer John Wadsworth captures the essence of Virgo’s sixth house rulership as it relates to health and well being. He says:
“Through this Mercury ruled sign we learn that intelligence does not simply belong to the realm of abstract thought, but that it is intricately woven into the very fabric of our embodied experience. The body carries its own innate wisdom, with its own built-in healing system. A mindful engagement with everyday tasks and practices can get us into a rhythm that the body recognises and is able to respond to. A ritual attitude toward simple repetitive procedures can help us to transcend the mundane aspects of what we are doing, and enter into a more sublime, transcendent, understanding.”
Virgo is known for being critical, fastidious, detailed, precise and efficient. They may worry a lot; they may also be hypochondriacs. Many Virgos are found in the medical profession, and in times gone by, were herbalists, midwives, wise women and witches.
Homeopath Luke Norland associates Mercury with Sankaran’s acute miasm. “winged messenger moves between the underworld, earth and heavens.”
The archetypal remedy picture of Virgo is Arsenicum Album. Arsenicum is often indicated for individuals who experience anxiety, restlessness and a strong desire for order and control. They are perfectionistic, fastidious, meticulous and easily worried. Arsenicum individuals may be hypochondriacs and have a fear of death. Arsenicum soothes the more negative traits of Virgo: their anxiety, their punctilious hair splitting and their hypersensitivity.
Virgo rules the organs in the solar plexus where nutrition is assimilated and waste matter eliminated. Virgo is forever separating and refining what is useful and what is not. It governs the intestines, the gall bladder (alongside Capricorn) and the liver (alongside other signs).
By its Mercury rulership, Virgo is also associated with the nervous system, which impacts digestion via the vagus nerve.
Virgo pathology comes from anxiety, their perfectionism, their excessive worry and an exaggerated sense of beauty, as in everything must be in order, symmetrical and harmonious, or Virgo cannot concentrate.
Ailments are often related to digestion; irritable bowel syndrome and gastritis are common. Migraines are also common due to over work and over concentration. The sensitivity of their constitution makes them prone to allergies.
We might therefore consider remedies that have a strong affinity with the digestive organs, such as Lobelia, Magnolia, and Colocynthis.
In his writings about astrology and the periodic table, homeopath Luke Norland maps stages 13 to 18 of the periodic table to the mutable signs. He equates stages 14 and 16 with Virgo, which governs the melancholic realms.
Sapphire, the birthstone for Virgo, is also associated with the themes of this sign. It is the remedy for warming a cold heart, a possible Virgo characteristic. It is also an excellent medicine for creative ideas as it opens the mind to new perspectives and different views of the world and its phenomena.
Interestingly, Sapphire dreams of crocodiles (as a Virgo native, I dream of crocodiles living under the sofa). Furthermore, this animal has been mapped to stage 14 of the periodic table, which, as referred to above, governs the melancholic humor to which Virgo belongs.
Homeopath Madeline Evans, in her mediative provings, cites Damascus Rose as an indicated remedy for Virgo. The rose carries the meaning of purity and perfection and was said to be used by Mary Magdalene in sacred anointing rituals.
Virgo may be a melancholic earth sign, but it is mutable earth, thus not grounded like Taurus or surefooted like Capricorn, but mercurial like Gemini. There is a restlessness to it and a delicacy. It therefore shares some of the remedies indicated for Gemini, such as Mercury, and as with Gemini, there may be a tubercular taint, so Tuberculinum and Bacillinum may be well indicated, notwithstanding that Phosphorus is closely related to Tuberculinum in the treatment of TB.
To paraphrase homeopath Peter Morrell on Mercury:
Mercury is the chatterbox, ceaselessly talking and gossiping, sometimes harmlessly, sometimes bitchily. Mercury makes a good messenger, diplomat or go between, yet they can be two-faced and cannot keep a secret! They appear as all things to all people, somewhat promiscuous in every sense and rather changeable. They love books, letters, newspapers, magazines, journals, correspondence, reading, writing, telephones, crosswords, languages, jobs like teachers and writers, servants, doctors, diplomats, entertainers. Mercurius, Tuberculinum and Stramonium are related remedies.
Kali Sulphuricum is the designated tissue salt for Virgo. It supports digestive processes and is useful for skin issues such as acne, eczema and fungal infections as well as sinusitis and upset stomach.
There are many other remedies that may suit the Virgo archetype; we are all a unique mix of finely tuned energies, and the role of the astrologer/homeopath is to discern that uniqueness and match it to a remedy that will make it flourish, so that you can be the best version of who you came here to be.