Sunday, September 02, 2007

Reality comes a-calling on Virgo

Saturn Enters Virgo, 9:51:57 am EDT Ypsilanti, MI

Saturn means structure, it also means limits and order and reality. Where Jupiter represents faith, Saturn represents religion. Where Jupiter represents commerce, Saturn represents business organizations, where Jupiter represents education, Saturn represents the school board and so forth.

Saturn has a way of bringing things down to earth, and providing the structure and standards without which we cannot produce excellence.

Saturn has finally moved from Leo into Virgo.

Saturn in Leo, like Saturn in Cancer, remained in a nasty mood for the duration. Saturn’s hard pragmatic edge is rubbed up the wrong way by Cancer’s strong nurturing and familial spirit, and Saturn’s mechanical group-think is not fond of Leo’s self-aggrandizement and die-hard loyalty. We’ve had the worst 5 years Saturn has to offer. They are now behind us until Saturn moves back into Cancer when my now 4-year-old is almost 30.

We can now breathe a collective sigh of relief.


For Virgo, the challenge over the next two and a half years will be to "make it real". Virgo tends to dither, Saturn will cure it of that. Mercury will find it has some backbone. Either that, or Mercury will become depressive, finding that saturnine reality is more than it wants to deal with.

This will be a period where the bean-counters will rise to the top and make a nuisance of themselves. We will find more CEO’s appointed with financial and accounting backgrounds.

Saturn in Virgo is great for folks with placements in Capricorn, less fun for those with placements in Taurus, but its not all bad.

Virgo is a mutable sign. The Mutable signs tend to require structure to function, so Saturn here could be a stabilizing influence where the mutable signs are up for the challenge of stability, or a disruptive influence where the mutable signs are content with chaos.

The mutable signs are Virgo, Sagittarius, Pisces and Gemini. The planets that rule those signs are Mercury and Jupiter.

Realty comes a-calling... can the mutable signs make up their minds? Will Mercury gain some backbone or wallow in depression? Will Jupiter use the boundaries to achieve excellence or burn itself out in the name of freedom?

It all comes down to the attitude we take to the circumstances in which we find ourselves.

And, after all, the attitude we take to our circumstances is the only freedom that is wholly our own to administer.

Take Care

Rod

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Rod,

Thank you for a very interesting analysis. As for me, a sun-in-Leo and pretty-much-everything else in Virgo, the last few years could have had more structure, so I'm looking on the bright side (Leo) of a coming period of hard work and service (Virgo).

I did have one tiny question though. You ascribe the ruler of Virgo to Mercury...but don't a few astrologers credit Virgo's ruler as the asteroids Ceres (goddess of the harvest) and Vesta (goddess of the hearth). Others say Virgo's ruler is the planet Vulcan, or the dwarf planets Sedna and Eris, or the asteroid Chiron. May I ask, what are your views on that? Of course Mercury is still seen as the ruler by a majority of astrologers, to my understanding.

--ypsidixit

Rodney Smith said...

Hey Ypsidixit

New planets and asteroids have apparently been ascribed to various signs due to perceived affinity between sign and planet. This represents a complete misunderstanding of the basic function of rulership, in my not-so-humble opinion.

Ancient rulerships are part of a complete philosophical model that has been part of Astrology for 3000 years.

Not only does the rulership describe the characteristics of a sign or planet, it also describes both the relationships that exist betwen the signs and the relationships that exist between the planets.

The symmetry of the ancient rulerships can be effectively used to describe the relationships between the players (and departments) in any hierarchical organization, a very useful pattern when working out which planet relates to what part of real organizations in the real world.

To introduce the recently discovered Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto into this symmetry is a stretch. I personally don't try. I don't ascribe rulership to any of them.

As you might have gathered by now, I'm not about to ascribe rulership to asteroids either.


This is not to discredit the work of those who researched many thousands of charts to determine the affinity of modern objects and planets with various zodiacal signs, I simply approach the subject of rulership from a totally different philosophical base.

To me rulership is about more than just strength or afinity, it is about a cohesive interrelationship between all of the signs ands all of the planets.

I use Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, Chiron and the nodes of the moon in my astrology, I just don't ascribe rulerships to these.

I hope this answers your question.

Rod

Anonymous said...

It does. Very interesting. Thank you for your comment, Rob. --ypsidixit

Anonymous said...

Rod,

You talk about how Saturn's move into Virgo will effect the mutables, of which, being a Pisces, I am one. But, how does it effect other signs, such as Cancer, Capricorn and Aries?

Rodney Smith said...

Hi Kate,

The reason I left the rest alone is it all gets a bit murky. The crystal clear indicators are the signs square and the sign opposite. The signs trine (Capricorn and Taurus) were touched briefly, the signs sextile (Scorpio, Cancer) may find a measure of assistance here, but its pretty hard to quantify in a sentence, the signs either side of Virgo (Leo, Libra) are not going to feel much - though a lack of structure and order may be noticed, Aquarius is Likely to lack polish and direction for the next two and a half years, and Aries is not likely to feel much from it beyond a background sense of disorder.

These are all weak statements because the influence of Saturn in these places (while it is transiting in Virgo) is pretty weak.

Take care

Rod