By Len Wallick
Sun enters Virgo tomorrow morning at 7:21 am EDT. That is a substantial change. During its time in Leo, Sol has been the exclusive ruler, occupying its own castle. Now the solar archetype of day, light and consciousness will be expressed through a sign traditionally ruled by Mercury, the Sun’s nearest satellite.That, in the terse words of Robert Hand, “is quite different”.
Interestingly, both Mercury and the Moon (Virgo’s esoteric ruler), are presently positioned and moving as if to reinforce Hand’s perception. As our Sun symbolically turns from one’s personal space outward to the realm of personal relations, you can participate and make the difference real. It begins by simply watching the sky, aware of what you are seeing. At the beginning of solar Virgo, the Moon will be in Gemini, the other sign ruled by Mercury. The mercurial archetype combines thinking and communication. Sharing our thoughts with others is where we begin the process of turning ourselves towards relationships.
As befits its own relationship with the night, Luna is associated with emotions and mental activity we may conceal, even from ourselves. Having both luminaries subject to the disposition of Mercury on the Sun’s first day in Virgo implies a pattern: an integration of conscious thought with mental processes underneath our awareness. Here we now have the opportunity to include everything going on inside ourselves as part of the process of turning outwards towards others.
That symbolism is further reinforced when we consider the cyclical stages of the Moon and Mercury. Luna is moving closer to its monthly conjunction with the Sun. It is rising later and spending more of its time in the daytime sky. That is literally exposing the Moon to the light, exposing all that the Moon represents to consciousness. At the same time, retrograde Mercury is visible again and within a few days will be stationing direct in latter Leo. When it begins moving forward, Mercury will cover the same ground a third time, but this will be in plain sight, bringing that territory to awareness.