4.9.4.1 Western Zodiac: Virgo (Walker 295-296)

• Egyptian symbol was a woman holding a stalk of wheat (European "corn")
  • meant she was virgin form of Grain Goddess (Budge GE)
• she was identified with Ceres, Mother of the Corn by the Romans
• her month was made sacred to Ishtar by the Babylonians
  • who called her sign Ab-sin, the Furrow
• the alpha star, Spica, was called the Goddess's Ear of Corn (Lindsay)
• she was Sanskrit Kanya; Persian Khusah; Greek Parthenos
  • all meaning virgin or maiden
• some early representations of her were as a winged eagle
• Virgo was often identified with Egyptian Goddess Maat
  • Lybian Goddess of Truth, Astraea (Starry One)
    • whom Romans regarded as an incarnation of Justice
    • her balances also entered the Zodiac - Libra (Lindsay)
• she was viewed in many areas as the great judge of the world
  • who assessed souls arriving in heaven
  • assigned them places according to their merits
• Gypsies believed the cathedrals of France
  • were laid out so as to form the stars of the constellation Virgo
  • across the face of the land because they were all dedicated to the Virgin
  • gypsy tradition: the famous Black Virgin in the Crypt under Charles Cathedral
    • was really Sara-Kali, the virgin mother of the gypsy race
    • assimilated to the Virgin in heaven (Derbon)
• the sign is ruled by Mercury, hence devoted to agriculture and the arts
  • communication and handicrafts
• qualities included tact, intuition, skill and musical ability
• with a "feminine" sign, Virgoans (male or female)
  • were associated with feminine attributes as fastidiousness, neatness
  • affectionate nature; difficulties in love affairs, overemphasis on the trivial
  • but those were qualities wished on women by patriarchal experts
    • who probably wanted to sever former associations
    • between Virgo and the original Great Goddess

4.9.4.2 Western Planet Associations: Mercury (Walker 214)

• Mercury was Roman name for Greek god Hermes, Egyptian Thoth
  • apparently derived from Latin mer or mercator, a merchant (Huson)
• as a god of commerce as well as magic, illusion and treachery
  • Hermes-Mercury often seen as the joker in the deck of cards
  • a sharp dealer, very clever but not altogether trustworthy
• in Greece and Rome, he was patron of merchantile endeavors, metals, smithcraft
  • and the arts of "natural science" that became medieval alchemy
  • only metallic element liquid at ordinary temperatures, Mercury
    • aka "quicksilver," "living silver")
    • difficult to pick up or pin down, like "mercurial" personality of a god
• as his sign suggests, complexity of his character may be based on
  • his intimate association with the Goddess
  • both planet & metal shown by essentially the sigil of Venus with horns added on top
    • a distant resemblance to the Horned God who was her consort
  • alchemists seemed to recall it
    • identified Mercury with the female Anima Mundi, sometimes called Anima Mercury
    • or Rebis, in the bisexual duality (Cirlot)
  • sometimes the sign used to mean all hermetic arts in general
• sign also for Wednesday, dies mercuri, to Romans
  • in English it is Wednesday; Mercury identified with Wodon in northern Europe
  • and with nearly every other major god among barbarous tribes
  • as far as Romans were concerned (Green)
• like Hermes, he was a god of the dead
  • his sign found in catacombs and other subterranean places of worship (Silberer)

4.9.4.3 Zodiac: Virgo, Virgin Isis (Phenomenon 64-67)

• direction is Mutable; feminine, earth sign; ruler is Mercury; exaltation is Mercury
• Hebrew, Arabic, Greek and Hieroglyph associations
• body part - intestines; meridian - large intestine
• alchemical, distillation; tarot, Hermit; geomancy, conjection; Genii, Tabris
• Egyptian Virgin Isis; Greek Demeter, Persephone; Roman Ceres
• weapons, the Lamp and Wand; perfume, Narcissus
• Virgo produces discrimination, distillation, discretion, conservation
  • practical intelligence, detail work, work relations, formal perfection
  • health and hygiene, diet, secondary education
  • craftsmen, doctors and dentists, artisans, servants, laborers, statisticians
• Egyptian Isis, Motherhood and Fertility; Greek Demeter
• Roman Ceres, Goddess of the Harvest