Information Synthesis
and Global Service
Article © 2013 by
Joyce Mason
All Rights Reserved
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| Radical also means root. |
This is a continuation of The Radical Virgo,
an article I wrote in 1992 that inspired the name and creation of this blog.
It’s an update and an expansion, and if you haven’t read the timeless original
yet, I recommend as a prequel to this article.
The Virgo Maria
My mission to revision the public image of the sign Virgo
was written in my birth name, an irony I only realized in writing this new
article. Before I was adopted by the Mason family, I was born Maria Teresa
during the last hours of Virgo on the cusp of autumn. I was literally the Virgo
Maria or the Virgin Mary. Along with a full-impact Catholic upbringing that I
took very seriously, there are certain aspects of the assignment to see the
sign of Virgo in a new light that come to me naturally.
The more I have studied astrology and my specialty Chiron in particular, the more I recognize fulfillment isn’t so much doing what we’re destined to do but having the courage to evolve into and be who we are.
In expressing our own seed patterns, the doing takes care of
itself. We offer to others insights about, and reflections of, parts of
themselves. Hopefully, I am doing this at some level just being “The Radical
Virgo,” which people have long called me as a nickname following the original
article of the same name. Everyone has the sign of Virgo somewhere in their
chart. Even if you don’t have planets in Virgo, Virgo is on the cusp of one of
your houses. It makes sense to me that someone with her Sun in the last degree
of Virgo—the culmination of the sign—might have some observations to offer
about Virgoness. Since Uranus squares my Virgo Sun, I suspect this is why I
have such a sense of where the Virgo energy is evolving and its role in our
unfolding future.
Knowing how much Virgos tend to like qualifications, now you
have mine for writing on this subject. Onto some of those observations. In the
original Radical Virgo article, I wrote at length about Virgo’s connection with
sexuality, work and enlightenment. I won’t repeat those ideas here but refer
you to Radical Virgo I. Let’s start
Radical Virgo II with a recap and expansion of the definition of a Radical
Virgo.
A Bigger Definition of a Radical Virgo
When I speak of a Radical Virgo, I mean the word radical in these
dictionary senses, the Virgo energy carried (1) to the utmost limit, extreme;
or a Virgo known for (2) favoring or effecting evolutionary or revolutionary
changes. I want to add to this definition, (3) A Virgo who expresses the very
root of the Virgo archetype, because radical
also means root. This doesn’t mean the superficial tics of the
“young” Virgo such as being prissy, nitpicky and germophobic, those things we
joke about regarding the sign, even when the “older soul” Virgo still may
retain some vestiges of them. This Virgo represents the core values of the
sign—purity, self-containment, the ability to analyze and act on higher
knowledge and to serve humanity, a destiny to which she gives herself as freely
as a woman who has saved herself on her wedding night for the man she loves.
This time ‘round, I’d like to focus more on the root imagery of the
definition of a Radical Virgo. Imagine your favorite image of the Virgo maiden
planted in lush surroundings who morphs into a living composite entity, part
human and part plant. She sends her deep taproot into the ground through her
legs like a mighty oak. She is the Earth Mother whose feet are planted firmly
in the ground and whose head is open to the stars. This is a snapshot of her
role, to help us ground divine whispers and direction and to grow things on
Earth with the creative inspiration she receives.
To Sort and
Know, the Consummate Virgo Quest
Most Virgos cannot stand to “sort of” know. They have to know exactly,
to gather information and sort it into knowledge. They acquire as much
information as possible, separate what’s useful--what contributes to health and
wholeness--and then eliminate the rest.
This skill is absolutely invaluable in the Digital Age where
information is flying at us at a pace we cannot begin to digest mentally. (See Information
Indigestion.) Another needed Virgo skill is the ability to organize all that information. It’s great to be a Gemini during this era, too, because Gems are
wired to handle a lot of informational input. Gemini tends to be more focused
on information than knowledge, but this is not to say Gem is stuck there.
Obviously, information leads to knowledge.
The general difference between a Gemini and a Virgo, both ruled by Mercury: Gemini wants to know something about a lot of things. Virgo is happier to know about fewer things in more depth.
You might say that Mercury, metaphorically, is the planet Earth
revolves around in our current Age. If humanity is already in or on the cusp of
the Age of Aquarius as many astrologers contend, our current
Mercury-centeredness supports another concept. That’s the idea that Uranus, the
ruler of Aquarius, represents the higher octave of Mercury.
If we follow that logic, Virgos, whether they have a Uranus-to-Virgo
planetary relationship or not in their natal charts, are likely to become more
“Uranized” these days. It’s as though Mercury has deferred to the higher resonance
of Uranus to take the lead during our current transitional times. No surprise, transiting
Uranus is part of a three-year square with Pluto
effecting major, universal changes. This is why the sign of Virgo is becoming “Radical
Virgo” as part of a larger cycle of evolution.
Synthesis,
the Survival Skill
I have never experienced a time where I have had to sort through more
information and make more decisions in a single day. What I do in a week, I
didn’t do in a month as a young adult, let alone as a kid. The effect is a
sense of time speeding up, of its being more mercurial, changeable or fluid.
When I look back on a month, it often feels like I’ve just lived through a year.
Some days, time almost seems to stand still; there is so much happening. My
friends and I refer to all the growth we’re experiencing, a considerable amount
of it painful, as thick times. As odd as it sounds, there’s a sense of time
being both faster and slower all at once.
There’s only one way to be able to get through the mental and
emotional bombardment of rapid evolution. That’s to be able to process
information and synthesize what you need from it at higher and higher speeds.
Feelings come from how we think about or perceive things. There is an
inexorable link between thoughts and feelings. They are as intertwined as the
root structure of the living Virgo Green Woman we have been envisioning as Root
or Radical Virgo. Those roots are actually the networks connecting us via the
Internet.
