Virgo season has arrived, in full swing. As the maiden sweeps through the landscape, she is veiled and true as we are ripe for transformation. Summer brought us BIG energies, both sweet and challenging, and now it is time to thresh the wheat from the chaff.
To cut away the excess. This is the wisdom of refinement, that Virgo is attuned to like a fine instrument. The intelligence of the Earth in all Her cycles, Virgo knows how this goes. She stands at the gateway to remind us that in order for life to sustain itself long-term, we must reap what we’ve sewn, and take only what we need.
Our sacrifice is an offering. When we willingly offer up some of our Abundance to the Earth Mother in gratitude for her generosity, we create a sacred hoop of reciprocity. “We are the ones that know how to say thank you”, as Robin Wall Kimmerer reminds.
It is easy to take for granted the abundance of Summer when we’re in the midst of it. Starry-eyed and intoxicated by the solar rays and buzzing lifeforce all around, we become entranced in its glory. For good reason!
Virgo brings the sobering reminder that everything in nature moves in cycles. There can be no eternal summer, my friends. It is just not the way. Death must come, and with it, our grief. This is the way it has always been.
Virgo has connections to Demeter, mother goddess of agriculture, wheat in hand. She strips the wheat from the chaff and offers seeds back to the Earth, for next years harvest. She has honed the fine art of preparation, of modesty. Taking only what we need now, so that we have enough to sustain us through the winter months.
Mabon, which occurs in September in the Celtic Calendar, has a clear connection to Samhain, at the end of october/early november. These seasons are connected by an agricultural wisdom our ancestors knew thousands of years ago; if we harvest too much now, in late summer, we will not have enough left at the end of Autumn to sustain life through winter.
Virgo is often associated with modesty or prudence, which to me is a nod to the above; there is wisdom in taking only what you need, so that you may preserve your energies long-term. To be so attuned to the cycles of nature that you know better than to give way to greed and excess, is not only a gift to your future self, but also to your community. This form of modesty is a skill we seem to have lost as a culture.
Offer up your sacrifices my friends, as a way to say Thank You. Invoke Mother Demeter, in all her beauty and power, to thresh the excess and offer it back to the soil in gratitude for the fruits of your harvest.
✧ Week Ahead ✧ August 25th, 2024 - Virgo, the Threshold Keeper ♍