The Zodiac - Virgo
The Myths and Legends of Virgo
The Great Goddess of the Harvest
The winged Virgin, holding the palm branch and the Ear of Wheat which marks her brightest star, was worshipped as the great goddess of the harvest throughout the ancient world.
The earth's bounty - flowers, fruits and fields of grain - were seen as her Beloved, whom she mourned at harvest time, when he was cut down in his prime. Having spent the winter in the underworld, he was reborn each spring and reunited with her.
The origins of the cult of the Great Goddess, who was both virgin and mother, are prehistoric, but since the dawn of recorded history she has been associated with the constellation Virgo, through which the sun passes around harvest-time.
Queen of the Stars
Virgo is also the ancient Iraqi goddess Ishtar, Queen of the Stars, the lover of the corn god Tammuz, whose death
she mourns each autumn, when he is cut down in his prime. Winter reigns during her journey to the underworld
to bring him back, after which he reappears as the new, green corn each spring.
Venus and Adonis
The stories of Venus and Adonis, of Isis and Osiris, and of Cybele, the early Asiatic goddess in her turreted crown who
loved Attis, are all variations on the theme.
In Greece, Virgo is Demeter, the goddess of the corn, as well as her daughter Persephone, who spends the winter in
the underworld and returns to earth each spring.
Urania
Virgo is also the muse of astronomy, Urania, who was believed to have been placed in the skies by Apollo, the god of
music and prophecy.
Goddess of Justice
To the Romans she was Astraea, the goddess of justice and of the laws of nature, who was the last of the immortals
to leave 'the blood-soaked earth' after the Gold, Silver and Bronze Ages gave way to the wickedness of modern times
and the Age of Iron. Her promised return, and the imminent birth of a child who would restore the Golden Age, made
it easy for the Christians to see Virgo as the Virgin Mary. Astraea is also connected with the constellation of Libra,
which lies next to Virgo on the zodiac band.
The Modern View of Virgo
In astrology, Virgo belongs to the element of earth and is ruled by the intellectual planet Mercury, which were both allotted
to it in the second century AD.
This combination fostered the idea of 'practical mind' and so the ancient goddess of fertility and the harvest slowly changed
into the Ideal Secretary, the tidy analytical perfectionist, which is the classic image of the sign today.
But the real nature and meaning of Virgo lies in the matriarchal virgin goddess of the distant past, who was later turned into
the Virgin Mary. A symbol not of chastity, but of synthesis and wholeness, she was a virgin because she was independent,
free and self-contained.