Mercury and The Moon: The Inner Journey of Virgo

The two planetary rulers of Virgo: Mercury and the Moon and their deeper esoteric significance…

Virgo Season is upon us once again bringing with it the opportunity to focus on our true vocation, or Divine Purpose. Virgo is associated with purity, purification, health, healing, well-being, the Virgin Mother, Mother and Child, the physical human form, and Divinity in form.

It is no accident that it is harvest time in the Northern hemisphere, as Virgo is also associated with the harvesting, or results, of what was sown. This is the time of year that we realize the practical reality of reaping what we sow, and if we don’t like what we see, it gives us an opportunity to prepare the ground to plant a different crop next year.  It is the Soul purpose of Virgo to purify and prepare our physical form so that it is more receptive to light and becomes a suitable vehicle for the cultivation and gestation of the Christ Consciousness that will be born in Capricorn. Whether we have planets in Virgo or not, at this time of year it is an ideal time for each of us to contemplate our Divine Purpose and check whether we are fully aligned with our true purpose.

Following the journey of the Soul through the 12 signs of the Zodiac, after the completion of the individuation process in Leo, the individual now prepares for service by ensuring that the physical vehicle is ready to receive the light. Virgo has two planetary ‘space-holders’ (rulers) that create the conditions necessary for this crucial stage of our Soul’s development: Mercury and the Moon. We explored Mercury’s role in Gemini and the Moon’s role in Cancer, and here in Virgo both planets create different conditions because Virgo is an Earth sign, so they are more practically and tangibly conditioning the physical form rather than feeling and thought.

Mercury creates connections and pathways for communication, or communion. Esoterically Mercury creates the ultimate pathway to connect us with Higher Mind, the antahkarana or ‘rainbow bridge’.  Although we are strictly speaking in terms of energy and energetic pathways, it is helpful to think of the analogy of mercury as liquid metal. Imagine the speed and fluidity of liquid metal as it creates tiny sparkling rivulets, then streams and then rivers, spreading and branching out wherever needed to create pathways of light.

At one end of the bridge Mercury connects with the light of the Divine, at the other end of the bridge Mercury is sending roots down into physical form: enlivening and stimulating the growth of neural pathways, natures own communication network for consciousness, so that conscious awareness can travel deeper into physical form. This is a two-way communication. Through the activity of Mercury consciousness ‘communes’ with form, and form becomes awakened, aware of consciousness. As a result, somatic awareness (the felt-sense in our body) deepens in Virgo and the fully integrated Virgo Soul can feel when they are flowing pure Love through their physical work and/or actions. Using your nervous system as a medium for communion, Mercury sensitizes you to spirit. Awakening you to subtler and subtler levels of energy and consciousness.

Whereas in Gemini there is still duality, a perceived separation between form and Spirit, between the Divine and the personality, Virgo is a sign of synthesis. So in Virgo the action of Mercury prepares the physical form to receive. The connections made by Mercury prepare for the synthesis of Spirit and form, so that ultimately there is no separation. Spirit is form and form is Spirit.

This is not an easy stage of our developmental process. Part of the process involves cognitive stimulation, the stimulation of thoughts and cognitive processing, and it is this side-effect of Mercury that leads some people with Sun, Moon or Virgo Rising to feel edgy, anxious or worry to excess. If you are experiencing this it is because you need to ground this Mercurial energy, and that is easier said than done. Having said that, it is part of your Divine Purpose as a Virgo to be a kind of cosmic lightening conductor! Do whatever you need to do to connect with your heart center, it can be Yoga, Reiki, or even gardening, but do whatever you need to do to feel the physical flow of energy through your heart center radiating throughout your body and down to Earth. Once you have done that, your energy will become grounded into the physical, rather than having too much energy in your head!

As we saw in my previous article on Cancer, the Moon ‘rules’ physical form. So it makes sense that once Mercury has created the pathways, the Moon would step into a higher role in holding the space and ensuring the conditions are ripe, for Spirit to be fully imbued into physical form. The sign of Virgo is associated with perfection. This leads the Virgo personality to misguidedly seek perfection in the outer world, where the Virgo Soul seeks perfection of the inner world. In Buddhist teaching the highest perfection is said to be the perfection of wisdom.

There is an ancient Buddhist scripture called the “Holy Heart Sutra of the Perfection of Wisdom” (often just called “The Heart Sutra” for short). This scripture tells of a conversation between the historical Buddha and one of his heart disciples, Sariputra. In this scripture the Buddha says to Sariputra:

“Form is emptiness, emptiness is form

Emptiness does not differ from form,

and form does not differ from emptiness.”

– The Heart Sutra

This speaks to the deepest mysteries of Virgo, and it is important to understand what is really meant by ‘emptiness’ in this context. It doesn’t mean ‘nothing’, but rather refers to space, which is ‘empty’ of physical forms, but is ‘filled’ with Spirit, filled with Love. Filled with all that we value, yet cannot see or touch. It speaks to the synthesis of Spirit and form that happens in Virgo.

In Esoteric Astrology, the Tibetan refers to the Moon as the “Mother of All Forms”. In certain Buddhist traditions, reference is made to the ‘Mother Void’ and the ‘Son awareness’.  This is referring to the karmic cycle through which physical forms arise from the ‘void’ (or space), then awareness (of self) arises through form, and then Divine awareness (Soul) returns to the void (space) through synthesis, after the dissolution of form. Esoterically this is described as the synthesis of Father (Spirit) and Mother (Form) which gives rise to the birth of the child (Christ Consciousness). At a higher level the unified Mother-Father is simply referred to as Mother. The deeper mysteries of this Divine process lie within the Virgo-Pisces cycle of arising, awareness, synthesis and then resolution. This is how the deeper mystery of Virgo, symbolized by Mother (Spirit/Form) and child (awareness), leads to the expansion of Divine Love.

After the Moon has done her earlier work in Cancer, creating the conditions for us to transform negative emotions into positive altruistic states such as compassion, she returns in Virgo to teach us how to flow the subtle physical energies of compassion through the subtle channels that have been created by Mercury. Again this is a two-way street that speaks to the highest purpose of Virgo. Through the channels created by Mercury and under the conditions created by the Moon, we experience a greater expansion of Divinity into physical form and come one step closer to experience our Soul: that ‘droplet’ of Divinity which resides within each of us. Likewise as a result of the expansion of the Human Heart and a greater flow of human compassion, there is a greater experience of human potential, within the Divine. Heaven travels to Earth, and Earth meets Heaven. Interestingly the ‘ruler’ of Virgo at Hierarchical level is the expansive, magnifying, planet Jupiter. So we can see that the expansion of Love on many levels and throughout many realms is deeply connected with the highest Soul purpose of Virgo.

“Virgo stands for the ‘womb of time’ wherein God’s plan  (the mystery and the secret of the ages)  is slowly matured and – with pain and discomfort and through struggle and conflict – brought into manifestation at the appointed time”

-The Tibetan, Esoteric Astrology

The Moon is a bit of an anomaly, an enigma, in Astrology. Technically, She isn’t really a planet at all (for moons are not planets). Indeed H.P. Blavatsky (Author of the earlier esoteric works The Secret Doctrine and Isis Unveiled), Alice Bailey (channel for The Tibetan, Author of Esoteric Astrology), and mystic Vera Stanley Alder, all agree that the Moon is ‘dead’ having no life-force or vitality of Her own. Yet the magnetic pull of the Moon affects the Earth’s tides, and likewise the emotions of humanity. So here we have the esoteric symbology of the Moon: something that is ‘dead’, connected to the past, yet is still tugging at us. The Moon symbolizes those aspects of our past, which are no longer useful, or beneficial for our spiritual progress, yet we collectively and individually (in our personal natal chart) haven’t released them yet.

The Moon thus creates conditions of human experience that are womb-like in the sense of being deep, dark and quiet. In Virgo she creates the conditions for:

“the valley of deep experience wherein secrets are discovered  and eventually ‘brought to light’; [Virgo] is the place of slow, gentle and yet powerful crisis  and periodic developments which take place in the dark and yet which lead to light”

– The Tibetan, Esoteric Astrology

Esoterically the Moon veils Vulcan (according to Esoteric Astrology Vulcan is a hidden planet), and Vulcan is known as the blacksmith of the Gods. In the alchemical fiery furnace of Vulcan physical forms are transformed like molten lead into gold. It is this alchemical action of Vulcan that conditions the physical form to be more receptive to light and thus enables the synthesis of Spirit and Matter in Virgo.

The Moon / Vulcan conditions the form while Mercury lays down a connective network of light on all levels. With this dual action of Mercury and the Moon / Vulcan the physical human form becomes a pure and suitable vehicle for light and the subsequent birth of Christ Consciousness. This time of year, under the influence of Virgo, we all have an opportunity to deeply contemplate our life and ensure we are fully aligned with our Divine Purpose or vocation. If you have Sun, Moon or Rising Sign in Virgo it is important that you be aware of your physical energy and stay grounded. You are here to radiate love into the world. LCM

This post is an excerpt from Ruth’s book “Soul Astrology: How Your Rising Sign Reveals Your Soul Path and Life Purpose” Click HERE to read more and/or order a copy.

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