After Scorpio, I’d say Virgo is the next most misunderstood sign. It does not have the flash or heat of the fire signs (Aries, Leo & Sag), cuz it’s not supposed to. We may be drawn to the fire, but can it be sustained. After all, ‘how do you keep the music playing?’ Water signs of Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces intuitively know how. The intellectual air signs of Gemini, Libra and Aquarius may not even ask this question, and if they do it is not from an emotional place. The earth signs don’t ask about music (unless it’s to change the playlist), but they do want to know if someone or something is going to last. What is our commitment?
Virgo wants to be committed to service. It is associated with service, that is,humbly submitting your ego to a person, mentor, work, project or a shared ideal. As an earth sign, these folx know that ideals belong to mind which are under the purview of the air signs. Any self-respecting earth sign (Taurus & Cap too) instinctively know or are in the business of learning that acceptance of knowing the imperfections of the physical plane is good work. Instead of ideals, think of Virgo as having high standards. Their service is a reflection of their ego. Their knowing that to expect imperfections allows them the ability to stop working, cease serving to take a break. Most importantly, while on ‘break’ they allow for no guilt or shame, imposed from within or without.
To muse over a larger picture built upon compassion and mercy is where their opposite sign of Pisces flows in their earthy pragmatic beings. The soulful qualities of the sign of the Fishes brings a consciousness of the infinite soul that illuminates a multidimensional picture unified in love and grace.
Each Western sign has a corresponding I Ching verse called a ‘calendar hexagram’. They are directly associated to the amount of light (yang) in relationship to dark (yin) in our year. Sagittarius, for example, is when the nights (yin) get progressively longer culminating in the Winter Solstice. This mutably expansive fire sign connects to all yin lines with is #2 The Receptive. Likewise, Virgo is the last of the summer signs before days and nights are equal. Realize that at the Fall Equinox, night (yin) begins to take over the day (yang). Virgo sets up the equality between yin and yang, which is #12 Standstill.
Heaven over Earth. The three yang lines in Cosmic Ideals sit above Human Affairs represented by three yin lines. When Heaven and Earth, yang and yin, respectively do not interact, there is stagnation. Likewise, when Virgo doesn’t use it knowledge of consistent self-improvement based upon higher principles, they can become cynical under a mask made of interjected ‘realism’ tropes. ``Without a vision, the people will perish’. The vision comes from Pisces which in this instances slides in through an adherence to what or who will aid the Virgo in maintaining their faith. Faith can be elusive to these practical beings when they cease to focus upon what abundance is sustainable and what abundance is not.