The Sun entered Virgo on August 22nd 2017 at 22:20 UTC. In the Northern Hemisphere, as we enter Virgo Season we experience the first inklings of Autumn. The air is cooling down. The mornings may be damp and misty, a sign of the colder weather that is to come. Some of the ripening fruit has already fallen to the ground and is quickly disposed of by small animals and insects, reminding us how quickly the world of form changes and is broken down, so that energy can be released and recycled by Mother Nature. Virgo Season is a time of change and transmutation.

For many peoples in the Northern Hemisphere the main focus was (and in many cases still is) the Harvest. The Harvest is when all the fruits of our labour from the preceding year are gathered in and stored, to sustain us through the winter months ahead. For all of us now it is time to take a deep look at our 'work'. What have we sewn in the preceding year, and what 'fruits' are we harvesting now? Under the influence of Virgo Season these questions become relevant to us all, not just those with personal planets in Virgo (although if you do have personal planets in Virgo these questions become life themes for you, and if you have Virgo Rising it is your Soul work)! 

In Soul Astrology we take note of the 'lower' fear-based expressions of a sign, and strive to manifest the higher 'love-based' expressions of the same energy. At the fear based ego-personality level, Virgo can be driven by unrealistic expectations of perfection, in which case work, and sometimes even play, can feel like a burden or a chore. If you are feeling over-burdened at the moment, or as though life is a chore, it is time to take a deeper look at what is motivating you. What unconscious limiting beliefs might be driving your actions and choices?

At the higher love-based expression, Virgo is all about love. When your motivation is love, nothing feels like a chore and your 'work' becomes your 'vocation' (your spiritual calling). Work becomes love in action. But this has to be a genuine felt-sense arising from the heart, not simply a thought or 'idea' of how things ought to be, and therein lies the challenge for Virgo.

At the personality level, Virgo is ruled by Mercury, and Mercury rules the movement of mind. Mercury is also responsible for the creation of the Rainbow Bridge (the antakharana) between higher and lower mind. So if you have personal planets in Virgo you are working on your mind. At the personality level Virgo can be associated with over analysis, worry, and anxiety - and in some astrological circles Virgo was even known as the 'sign of the stomach ulcer'! If you simply follow the movement of mind without question, you will dissipate your life-force energy like a dog chasing it's tail.

Virgo is an Earth sign, and when we are dealing with Earth, things seem pretty solid! This is why Virgos can have such a hard time in terms of worry, because your thoughts (Mercury) can seem particularly real, immutable, and 'solid' to you. One of your biggest life lessons will be to recognise the 'mutability' (changeability) of thought. Virgo is actually a mutable sign, and mutable signs are mastering change in all it's forms. One of the biggest Soul lessons of Virgo is learning to transmute thought into spiritual energy, through the power of love.

Virgo is also deeply associated with somatic awareness (the felt-sense in the body). All earth signs have a capacity for deep body sensing, bringing your awareness deep into the body and understanding the language of the body, and it is through this somatic awareness that Virgo transmutes thoughts into a real, tangible, love that can be expressed out into the world. 

When you shift your awareness from thinking to sensing, you increase the flow of pranic energy through your body and increase it's capacity for delivering energy and healing to the physical body. Once you master this art, Virgo becomes like a Cosmic lightening conductor, able to ground and flow higher spiritual energies onto the planet. As the mutable earth sign it is your job to bring Divine Love down to Earth, by transmuting your thoughts.

In the Soul's journey through the 12 zodiac signs, we arrive at Virgo having completed up to eight lifetimes in Leo. Leo is the sign of the heart, and the sign of self-realization. If we have learned our 'Leo Lessons' well, we will arrive at Virgo with some sense of who we are (our true nature as a spiritual being), we will have an open heart and understand the language of the heart, and we will recognise the power of Divine Love flowing through our own heart. 

In Virgo it is time to harvest those fruits and continue our journey by transmuting thought into Love, through somatic awareness, and then to anchor that Love into the world, in order to be of service to humanity. During Virgo Season this is something we all need to focus on, whether we have personal planets in Virgo or not.

Drawing upon Esoteric Astrology, the Greek myth of Hercules, and ancient principles from spiritual masters, the author describes the journey of your Soul through the twelve signs of the Zodiac. This book offers a way of using your birth chart to answer life's big questions by recognizing the energy that you were born with and how it is wanting to be expressed in this lifetime.