WHO IS VIRGO

Will she return with the golden age?

22/09/24

The sun has begun to rise in the constellation of Virgo over the last week or so, and today (Sunday) marks the autumnal equinox, as the sun’s ecliptic path, as viewed from earth, crosses the celestial equator. Our western tropical zodiac tells us this time of year the sun is in Libra but western astrology is based on where the stars appeared about 2000 years ago. In astronomical terms in the present (sidereal astrology), we are in Virgo. This got me thinking about who Virgo is and what she really represents.

Myths and religious texts throughout the world refer extensively, often metaphorically, to the precession of the equinoxes and once you see this you can’t ‘unsee’ it. The bible is no exception and is a book of code of which the Qaba’la is a key. It is clear that kings and gods are aligned with the ages as they shift roughly every 2160 years. During the age of Pisces (christ) , Virgo is the opposite sign, and we are still preceding out of that age. Hence the increasing attacks on christianity (cult engineered). There is no clear cut answer as to exactly when Aquarius will begin as there is no consensus as to exactly where the boundaries of the constellations lie.

Who or what then is Virgo?

Virgo in the bible refers to harvest time, as the position of the sun at this time of year. This is why Jesus is coded as having been born in Bethlehem – which in Hebrew is Bet Lehem meaning ‘house of bread’ a place of feeding, nurturing. It also explains why the part of the body linked with Virgo is the stomach and intestines. The Hebrew name for Virgo is Bethulah which means branch. In coptic it is Aspolia which means ‘the place of the desired branch’. This means the branch of the messiah. In other words the birth of the sun. The new god/king of the age. Virgo is often represented with an palm or olive branch in her right hand and ears of grain in her left hand where her brightest star Spica lies. In Hebrew Spica is Tsemech and in Arabic it is Al Zimach , both mean branch. The beta star in Virgo is Zavijaveh which means glorious/beautiful or beautiful/bright lord.

We can see Virgo below as the mother/leading mourner before the laid out christ figure in William Blake’s ‘Entombment’

This painting above shows her nature being reminiscent of the Hermit in the Tarot.

There are several Greek myths surrounding her.

One is that of Astraea, goddess of natural law, also thus linked with Libra (the sign adjacent to her), hence justice. Astraea means star. She was the last of the goddesses said to live with humanity in the Golden age and when she left Zeus stuck her in the stars as Virgo. She is referred to in Ovid’s Metamorphoses as fleeing away during the iron age of men when fraud, deceit , treachery, violence, wickedness broke out. Sound familiar? Although Ovid’s ‘Metamorphoses’ was based around 4 ages, Iron age could refer to Aries as iron is the metal linked with Mars and Aries. Libra would have been down south (underworld) during age of Aries, being opposite to Aries on the zodiac wheel, and Libra is closely a linked with Virgo due to being adjacent to her on the wheel, so these two signs are invariably closely linked. Often as interchangeable goddesses of Justice . This is why Themis and Dike (both Greek goddesses of justice) can sometimes be confused as Virgo instead of Libra.

So when Virgo is described by Ovid as ‘fleeing away’ Virgo would be departing too along with Libra. In the play ‘Titus Andronicus’ before shooting arrows at the gods for justice Titus states to Tamora:

‘Terra Astraea reliquit’

This means Virgo left the earth. He is referencing Ovid. The writer of that play (whether Shakespeare, Bacon, de Vere or whoever else) goes on to illustrate the dark side of this goddess, Astraea through the character Tamora who retrieved the arrows.

The ‘Shakespeare’ plays and sonnets, whoever the true authorship, are texts which reference sacred geometry and hermetic secrets. They are coded, numerological/astrological texts. Whoever wrote them had to be initiated in the masonic cult, with a deep knowledge of the workings of magic, the qabala, numerology and gematria.

In Virgil’s Eclogue 4 there is a passage as follows:

‘Iam redit et Virgo’ redeunt Saturnia regna’

This references the return of the golden age, apparently with Virgo and ruled by Saturn (Kronos). Aratus in his astronomical poem ‘Phaenomena’ spoke of Themis/Virgo who had lived peacefully amongst humanity for the golden age retiring to the hills away from the new silver crowd. She took up her heavenly abode near the constellation Bootes (ploughman) when the bronze age began. The bronze age is a ninety degree separation on the wheel from the Golden age and this approximates the golden age of the ancients to be roughly 11,000 years BC and this takes us to around the Younger Dryas event where Graham Hancock (author of Fingerprints of the Gods) and Randall Carlson have estimated the great flood to have taken place, due to a comet strike. The Golden age could therefore be that of Atlantis ruled by Virgo, and in a previous article Demons from the Depths , I have described the anti-diluvian race and how all of their kings were called Sulyman (Solomon). This is significant because Virgo is the Hermit in the tarot and the six pointed Seal of Solomon is contained within the Hermit’s lamp.

The figure seen above. from the Rider/Waite tarot, is searching for that perfection as truth. Standing on the lofty heights, shining the lamp to show the way below. He carries the staff of the initiate. The same universal, magical staff as Aaron’s Rod, or the staff of Moses. The lamp is the light of wisdom (sophia). In the tree of life of the qaba’la this is called ‘ain soph’ (total light/pure light). The hermit is key 9 in tarot which in numerology is the number of pure intellect and initiation. He is the Hebrew letter Tet, which really is symbolised by a coiled snake which is the intellect. It is the light before the fall which then becomes separated and the serpent in Egypt signifies separation, the split. The light becomes the word. The word is reason. The 9^th letter in Greek alphabet is Iota, which means the smallest, self contained entity. It symbolises attention to detail, perfection. Concrete minded physicists might see it as the atom.

The association of something small/diminished with Virgo is represented as the disciple James of Alphaus also known as James the Lesser or Minor. At the time of Pisces being in hegemony (the time of christ) , Virgo is at the bottom of the wheel hence anyone representing Virgo will be diminished. James the Lesser’s mother is Mary of Clopas, sister of Mary Magdalen. It is not really clear who this Mary this though, since she could be the ‘virgin’ Mary. James is therefore either Jesus’s brother or cousin. Mary of course can be represented as Virgo but more importantly Mary means bitter sea. So any son of Mary is a son of the bitter sea, something arising from the bitter sea (the south, which is also the underworld or unknown. What the ancients referred to in the sky as ‘the waters below’ meant the southern skies so anything appearing to arise from those parts will often be referred to in myth as coming out of the sea. Hydra for example, the huge snake like constellation that spans a long way down into the southern skies represents the Beast of the Sea in Revelations. One interpretation of The Last Supper painting suggest it is James the Lesser , ie Virgo who is the feminine figure next to Christ, leaning away from him, presumably his brother.

It is not known who wrote James ‘Letters’ in the Bible but it is widely accepted as being the work of ‘James the brother of Jesus’. It reads as if Wisdom is narrating it, ie Sophia/Astraea/Virgo. Ultimately the wise aspect of self. It is very possible that the goat headed Baphomet represents Sophia as wisdom. Dr. Hugh Schonfield when working on the Dead Sea Scrolls, found that with Hebrew Atbash cipher applied, Baphomet spells ‘Sophia’.

A well known Greek myth surrounding Virgo is that of Persephone, daughter of harvest goddess Demeter. She walks in a beautiful garden when a hole opens up and she falls down into the underworld. Demeter, angry, ruins the harvest before she enlists the help of Zeus to get her daughter back. When Zeus approaches Hades, he says that Persephone can only leave the underworld if she does not eat any of the fruit he has given her, but she already has, six pomegranite seeds. Eventually Hades allows her out for six months of the year but for the remaining six months each year she has to return to the underworld. Thus the seasons are formed.

On the one hand this is about a virgin ‘falling’ and then becoming the fertile mother goddess each spring. It is also the Fool’s Journey. Alice down the rabbit hole is another allegory to this myth.

What is the food, the manna from heaven, referenced also in the bible as appearing in the desert? Whether it is Alice with her pills or Persephone with her pomegranite seeds or Eve with her apple/fig, these characters are Virgo. Manna could be hallucinogenic mushrooms, such as fly agaric, or some kind of bark or resin of Acacia or another tree found in the desert or ergot fungus, or even marijuana plant. The Hebrew priesthood used this stuff. Remember Virgo holds a branch in one hand (bark) and ears of wheat the other. Ergot grows on grains like wheat, rye and barley.

Virgo is represented amongst the Annunaki and in Mesopotamian culture as Nisaba . She brought down and established grains upon the earth as well as reed stylus for the scribe which illustrates the link between agriculture, intellect and writing and why Virgo covers both. Hence her association with Hermes/Mercury/Thoth.

Haia , Enlil, Nuska and Nisaba

If we take Virgo to be the initial or first age (the golden age), then the virgin symbolism becomes easy to see. Something from nothing. The word itself, before it is uttered. In the qaba’la this fall into being starts with ‘ain’ ‘nothing’ , then ‘ain soph’ … ‘pure light’, then ain soph aur ‘limitless light’. Then it falls through stages of being.

We can see where the perfectionist in Virgo comes from. She is pure. Pure light. And she is ‘self contained’. Hence allusions to her introvert nature. There may be a key to her golden age nature in the Mazzaroth (zodiac) found in the Temple of Esneh in Egypt. This is a relief painting on the ceiling which has been uncovered by archaeologists, and it has the Sphinx placed between Virgo and Leo and facing Leo with the tail pointing back towards Virgo. This seems to indicate where we should start the zodiac. With Virgo. It is well known that the Egyptian goddess Isis is associated with Virgo too. Sphinx means to bind together which suggests that it is placed there to link the start of the zodiac with the end. https://www.bereaninsights.org/nugget/the-message-of-the-mazzaroth/

In the gnostic text THE THUNDER PERFECT MIND, part of the Nag Hammadi library collection, the Greek goddess of wisdom, Sophia, explains who she (virgo) is:

‘For I am the first and the last.
I am the honoured one and the scored one.
I am the whore and the holy one.
I am the wife and the virgin.
I am the mother and the daughter.
I am the members of my mother.
I am the barren one and many are her sons.
I am she whose wedding is great,
and I have not taken a husband. ‘

This clearly states that she encompasses all. Being able to hold two opposing views at the same time involves cognitive dissonance and it speaks of a mature mind. This is Hermetic stuff and we can see now how to settle the confusion that often lies with Virgo being depicted as earth mother, fruitful and plentiful, when she is a virgin. In truth she is both and hermetically that is not a problem. Wisdom is not black and white. Virgo is a mutable sign and mutable earth has sometimes been seen as shifting sands. She is ruled by the planet Mercury and that means changeable. Her metal is quicksilver and her colours are pale grey and brown, showing her mercurial and earthy nature. Mercury is the Roman equivalent of the Greek Hermes and the Egyptian God, Thoth. She is the intellect.

Numerology, sacred geometry, astrology, mythology and art and music are all linked and involve the same principles of harmonics. When harmonics are ignored, music sounds wrong, four walls feel wrong, paintings look dull/flat, sculptures look unfinished, situations smell wrong, dancers miss each other and love simply does not happen. Virgo is one of the notes and one of the keys in music. However it is debatable which one and it doesn’t really matter as, just as with the zodiac, it is the relationships that matter with those around or opposing her (the degrees of separation on the wheel) rather than the actual name of the note/key as such. So although Pisces is the tritone (opp on cycle of 5ths) to Virgo, it does not mean they are incompatible, just more of an interesting or exciting combination , as with the attraction of opposites being a definite thing. It means during the age of Pisces that Virgo is a diminished sound and for any non musicians that means a sort of haunting quality and often used in jazz. It may be that Virgo is better represented in the A = 432 hz older pythagorean tuning system. It is of note that 432 numerogically is 4+3+2 = 9, the number of the Hermit.

Virgo being pure light does not mean she has no danger. Perfectionist natures can be harsh, driving a person to the limit of endurance. Virgo being the Goddess associated with grain can find that grain becomes toxic for her in the form of alcoholism. Quicksilver is not play dough. Harvest kills in order to nurture, hence American term ‘thanksgiving’ for the national holiday associated with the harvest, recognising those souls, whether animal or vegetable that have given up their lives to sustain others.

In line with the concept of eternal recurrence (so well described by Nietschze in ‘Thus Spake Zarathrusa’ ) it is reasonable to suppose Virgo will return as the Golden Age once more, as both Ovid and Virgil and others have alluded to.

It does seem that the Earth mother, font of all wisdom, Sophia/Astraea/Virgo was the first to rule the earth. Perhaps she will be the last.