It's Time to Trust Your Gut
It’s Virgo season, with its back-to-school, new notebooks, and number #2 pencils energy. It’s also the new moon (the second one this month) which, for the astronomy geeks out there, only happens every 2 ½ years or so.
This year Virgo season begins August 23 and lasts until September 22, and chances are, for many of you reading this, you either have a birthday during this time or know someone who does. Why? Because in the U.S., and in the northern hemisphere, the month of September, by many calculations, contains the greatest number of births. Positioned as it is—nine months after the holidays and the cold, dark months at the end of the calendar year—it’s not hard to guess why.
Citing data from polling and statistics firm FiveThirtyEight, the website The Bump says that for people born between 1994 and 2014, 9 of the top 10 most prevalent birthdays are in September (9th, 19th, 12th, 17th, 10th, 20th, 15th, 16th, and 18th).
Thank heavens for Virgos! They get things done, and they get them done well. Regardless of whether or not you were born with the sun in Virgo, everyone has a Virgo placement somewhere in their natal chart. Why? Because the constellations that ring the Earth’s orbital plane around the sun are always there. As the Earth travels around the sun over the course of the year, our Earth-centric point of view makes it appear that the sun shifts from sign to sign.
The constellation Virgo is the largest one in our solar system and the third largest visible in the sky. It looks a little like a stick figure drawing made by a child. It comprises more than a dozen named stars, including Spica, one of the brightest in the sky. Catalogued and named in the 2nd century by the Greek astronomer Ptolemy, the constellation was associated with fertility and agriculture goddesses by much earlier Mesopotamian and Egyptian observers. (Spica, in fact, refers to an ear of wheat or corn in Greek or Latin, respectively.)
The apparent movement of the sun into the sign of Virgo signals the conclusion of the growing season in the northern hemisphere. Virgo season is reflected in the Greek myth of Persephone—daughter of harvest goddess Demeter—stolen by Hades and forced to live in the underworld half the year. I’m tempted to digress into tales of other young women described as “stolen” and dragged into the underworld, but sadly, this tale lives on in our modern human world.
Ruled by the planet of communication and information, Mercury, Virgo is the most pragmatic, methodical, and analytical earth sign in the zodiac. (No offense, Capricorn and Taurus – ambition and steadiness are where you both shine extra bright.) The ancient Greeks associated the signs of the zodiac with parts of the body, and Virgo rules the digestive system – the “gut,” or quite literally, our second brain. As an article on the Johns Hopkins website notes: “If you’ve ever ‘gone with your gut’ to make a decision or felt ‘butterflies in your stomach’ when nervous, you’re likely getting signals from an unexpected source: your second brain.” Messages are passed between gut and brain in a bi-directional communication system.
For many of us, these are frightening times. This may be on a very personal level in our lives, or because we are witnessing the intense bids for power reflected in violence, war, and authoritarianism across the globe and at home. Extreme nationalism, authoritarianism, and militarism together are what some term fascism, a political environment that thrives on people’s fear and conformity. What can we do to resist? We can start by trusting our guts – by tapping into our own “intestinal fortitude” to do what is right in our individual lives, to speak out when required, and to take actions that align with our individual values. This is all very—Virgo.
