Thursday, March 26, 2009

“God Is Not An Aries”

I coined this expression for a friend with five planets in Ram, whenever it’s obvious that she and God operate on different calendars. I told her once, “You need to practice the P-word.” She had no idea what word I was talking about.

Short on the P-word, Patience: Aries typically want everything yesterday. The Ram charges forward, horns first, bursting with exuberant, fiery energy.

God cannot be an Aries. The answers to our prayers and most manifestations take much longer than an Aries would wait. Unfortunately, most of us are pretty “Aries,” Aries or not. All America is on fast forward. Reminding my Aries friend to enjoy “getting there” has never been very effective. What may be better for us all, during impatience, is understanding why we “just can’t wait” and why we may want to learn, even cultivate this virtue.

Aries are visionaries. This goes for those who are literally an Aries and others, when they are acting like one. Aries begins at the Spring Equinox, the time for planting. Within each seed is contained the entire cycle of life. Aries sense the whole story. It must be murder to have to wait and see if it ends up like his or her considerable intuition is hinting.

So it is for all of us at the beginning of our creations, whether a new business, relationships, or project. Aries is ruled by Mars, the male, yang, or outgoing energy. Mars is “going for it.” We are all acting Aries or Martian when we initiate/create something, especially if it has never been done before. Aries are the pioneers of the zodiac; in their case, that’s often.

Americans move fast because of their affinity to the Ram. We expect Cup-a-Soup relationships, instant financial return, and spiritual enlightenment without the bother of meditation, prayer, affirmations, and study.

Speaking of Mars and Martians, I remember Robert Heinlein’s book, Stranger in a Strange Land. Stranger is about Valentine Michael Smith, the Man from Mars, who ends up a religious superstar in an obvious parallel to the story of Jesus. Smith was slow by Earth standards and often said, “Waiting is fullness.”

I’ll always find it amusing that Smith, the Man from Mars, preached patience. This shows that within all Mars-ruled Aries is the seed of their complementary or opposite sign, Libra.

Libra is ruled by Venus, the planet of love and relationship. Librans’ sense of values is crucial to them, and they are idealistic. So when we are most Aries, the prescription is to become more Libra-like and review our ideal.

In Edgar Cayce on Mysteries of the Mind, Henry Reed states that authentic will is approached not through willpower, but through a willingness to be influenced by an ideal. “Waiting is fullness” when we are willing not just to have something, but when we’re waiting for the outcome match our spiritual vision. Aries wants to be first, but the price may be settling for second best or something picked before it’s full bloom.

Next time you’re Rambunctious, waiting with Aries impatience, weigh these thoughts on your Libra Scales.

~~~


This bit of astro-humor ran in the April 1995 edition of Chironicles in celebration of the Spring Equinox. It honors the sign that starts the natural New Year and the beginning of the zodiac. I am posting it on an Aries New Moon!
This article has been evocative in the past—angered more than one Aries who disagreed that God didn’t share their sign! Made others ponder: If God had a sign, what would it be? Since bearers of each sign of the zodiac claim theirs is divine, some more than others, that could be quite a debate! Whatever your sign, this is the time to celebrate Aries. And, of course, The Radical Virgo welcomes your Comments.

(Dedicated to Jessica Lynn, the woman who inspired it, and one of my three long-time, close Aries friends.)

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Virgos of the World UNITE! Get Radical



Welcome to the launch and first full post of The Radical Virgo blog.

Let’s start at the endbeginning, because every ending melts into a new beginning:



“We are strong, we are invincible, we are Virgos. What other sign could single-handedly accomplish a global reorganization? So, Virgos of the world, UNITE! Get radical. After all, it’s your job.”

The Radical Virgo by Joyce Mason (1992)
Maybe you’re wondering why I’m starting a blog inspired by an article I wrote so many years ago. “The Radical Virgo” is timeless, reposted numerous places on the Internet since its original publication in The Mountain Astrologer. I have gotten trickles, even streams of readers, who tell me how much the article has changed their concept of Virgo—even their lives, if Virgo is their Sun sign and/or they have an abundance of planets in Virgo. I have noted in web searches that the term “Radical Virgo” has been coined and propagated, applied to some of the world’s most Radical of Virgos, such as Amy Winehouse.

But why am I really here? It took just one reader named Phix, a Radical Virgo himself, who took me literally about that last paragraph in my article, highlighted above. He asked innocently enough, “Where do I sign up?” (Hey, is that an astro-pun? Sign up? Since we’re talking the upside of Virgo here, maybe it’s a double pun, and you can guess why I like to call myself a Wordgo!)

Back to Earth: In the intervening years, our tools for interconnection have become sophisticated and global. The ability for Virgos to unite and organize in a big way on issues of healing and wholeness are now literally at our fingertips. We finally have the tools. Now we just have to get organized.

Organizing Virgos—Piece of Cake?
Well, it sounds good in theory; in practice, it may be only slightly easier than herding cats, especially if the Virgos we’re talking about are Radical. But we do love words, ideas, and mind-shares. (Cats, too, in most cases.) That’s what I’m counting on!

Raise Your Hands

Humor aside, I’m not egotistical or Virgocentric enough to believe that the V-Sign alone can change the world. (Do note, though, that in sign language, the letter V is the same as the two-fingered peace sign!)

Each of us, regardless of our astrology charts or unique spiritual and genetic imprints, holds the destiny of the world in our hands. Each of us and all of us. Virgo is closely connected to the centaur planet Chiron, which rules hands, and folks, we need all hands on deck holding Planet Earth together at this time in our space travel through the Milky Way Galaxy.

There are symbols and patterns found in the sign and mythology of Virgo that represent the start of a cycle, culminating in wholeness. Virgo is the first of what I consider the four transitional signs: Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, and Sagittarius. They take us from Self (starting with Aries and culminating in Virgo) to One Other (Libra and Scorpio) to Many Others (Sagittarius through the remainder of the zodiac). Read “Wholeness and the Inner Marriage,” my other oldie but goodie article, to get the details of my theory on the Chiron Sector (the four transitional signs), which pivots on learning the most evolved lessons of Virgo. We all have “something in Virgo,” even if it’s only a house in our chart that falls in the sign. Everyone has some part of their lives touched by Virgo, and now we can see how Virgos touching each other from the mind and heart can impact a planet that can use some hands-on healing.

Some Thoughts on Blog Culture
This blog will evolve to whatever it’s supposed to become, but here are some thoughts I’d like to offer as guidelines that make sense to me, open to comment and discussion:

• Let’s talk less about chart analysis here and more about symbolic meanings and practical applications of astrological ideas. I’d like a place where we talk more about the forest than the trees.
• Do not necessarily limit discussions to Virgo and/or Chiron, my astrological love and specialty, or Mercury, Virgo’s traditional ruler. Virgo may be our starting point, but wholeness is everything.
• Keep fun a part of the equation! Laughter is a great teacher, and when we’re having such heady conversations, we need a few laughs to bring us back into our bodies. After all, Virgo is an Earth sign.
• Share links to this site and help it grow. If you have the “Radical Virgo energy,” you’ll help draw in others who do, too.
• Let’s share ideas. There’s nothing wrong with differences of opinion, even heated discussions, but “The Radical Virgo” has multiple planets in Libra and lots of Neptunian sensitivity. She cannot bear unkindness, unfairness, or disrespect. She reserves the right to decline to post anything that does not foster word peace. (How did you like my imitation of Miss Manners back there? A Virgo? Probably. Radical? Not.)
• Remember, you don’t have to be a Virgo (Sun in Virgo) to play! (See sidebar, What Is a Radical Virgo?)

The Virgo Union
I envision this blog to be completely interactive—not just my blog but ours. I hope you will Comment often, and when you have a lot to say (longer input), contact me about guest blogging. My friends often call me The Queen of Synchronicity. I was editing some educational material today, just before writing this article. Within it, union was a glossary term: A group, especially an alliance or confederation of people, parties, or political entities, formed for mutual interest or benefit.

What could be more mutually interesting or beneficial than a better world? It’s up to us to see how this ongoing, online get-together morphs into its own identity and where we take it. Astrological insights? Social activism? Service projects? Changing minds to change the world?

Join me in this great experiment to harness the energy of becoming our highest Selves. Think about that quintessential characteristic of Virgo—to be self-reliant. Self-contained. Like snowflakes, each of us is programmed in a unique pattern—each one beautiful, needed, and transitory. (Put us all together, and you’ve got a White Christmas.) When we melt back into the water cycle (another endbeginning), we just come down to Earth again in another form. But before we can give our Selves, we have to be our Selves—to have a Self to give.

We don’t have to seek perfection; we just have to see the perfection that’s already there. The I, Thou, and Us of it.

We need to see it, sort it, and make bread from the remaining grains of truth.

Come. Union!

~~~
Photo credit: HOLDING WORLD © Jennbang Dreamstime.com

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

A Quiz While-U-Wait for the Countdown


Only 4 more days till the Radical Virgo launch. Meanwhile, here’s a quiz to get your little gray cells going. Which of these characters is a Radical Virgo?

1. Hercule Poirot, Agatha Christie’s Belgian detective
2. Mary Richards from the old Mary Tyler Moore Show
3. Lily Tomlin (“Laugh In” era) as Ernestine the telephone operator (snort snort)
4. Lily Tomlin as herself

Please Comment with your answer and why. Remember, to a Radical Virgo, there is no right answer—just your best answer.


Friday, March 13, 2009

Countdown: Let Your Excitement Take Root!

Only 9 more days till the Radical Virgo launches with our first full-length post!

Meanwhile, a synchronicity too wonderful not to share:
The Word Radical Comes from the Latin Word for Root. Happy Cusp of Spring! I discovered this amazing blog in the Googlesphere. It reeks so much Virgo symbolism, the root may was well be garlic. The topic is work with the hands, so associated with Virgo. It further reflects Virgo’s Earth sign by making crafts from fruits of the earth. Love the blog title, Resurrection Fern, and the quote that continues after the radical definition:

“… Perhaps the most radical thing you can do in our time is to start turning over the soil, loosening it up for the crops to settle in, and then stay home to tend them. " –Rebecca Solnit

Literal, figurative—only one week till The Radical Virgo takes root!

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Get Ready to Get Radical!

The Radical Virgo blog will be launched in full on or near the “natural New Year” at Spring Equinox. Get excited. Tell your friends!

Ever wonder how people are drawn together? Read Joyce's guest post on Leslie Smith's blog, Inner Sanctuary, Your Cosmic Tractor Beam. If you're here, we're 'beamin'!