Where the Spirit Meets the Bone; Virgo Season as the Gateway to Fall

Taylor Swift's autumnal masterpiece Evermore contains many heart-wrenching ballads soaked in natural and spiritual metaphors, but one that stands out, to me, are the opening lyrics to 'ivy'. "How's one to know? /I'd meet you where the spirit meets the bones / In a faith forgotten land". And yes those exact same words are ripped onto this blog title, for we are now in a faith forgotten land, for what it is sadder that a land that begins to forget summer?

Summertime, as an experience, is forever indebted to its three dynamic zodiac rulers; feisty Gemini opens the season of possibility, melancholic Cancer imprints its remembrance, and bold Leo sustains its spirit of adventure. And what about Virgo, you may ask? For, yes, Virgo is also a ruler of summer, and yet no one ever quite remembers Virgo as a summer sign. No, this zodiac sign is often lumped with the autumnal lot of Libra and Scorpio. We also associate the characteristics of Virgo with the elements of fall: back to school, planning, organization, and the list goes on (LISTS! the most Virgo thing of Virgo). Whereas Gemini, Cancer, and Leo are more in tune with the magic of summer, Virgo is more grounded in its reality. We might see it as a Debbie Downer of sorts, a party pooper, the schoolmaster reminding us that hey it's time to go back to school. But while some of us are returning to actual school, all us are in fact returning to school of life. For Virgo is as always its tarot ruler, they are the Hermit coming down the mountain with its bright lantern. "Child," they say, "Summer is over and Winter approaches, let us sit."

Where are we sitting? Why I have told you: where the spirit meets the bone.

Virgo goes beyond lists, schedules, or organization. They are simply put: where the spirit meets the bone, Virgo is Earth energy meeting Spirit. They are mutable Earth, grounded yet flexible. Supple yet unyielding. They rule the nervous system for a reason; they are alchemists (very much children of Mercury) searching for the spirit in the body. Is it instinct or illness? Intuition or anxiety? They sit and ponder. They may make lists; for they like the tangible. But the feeling, the feeling in the body that is, triumphs all else. And it is there that they find a deeper truth: that all that is holy (god, the universe, spirit) can be only be accessed through the body.

If you are heavily ruled by water and air (like me) or are simply a traveller of other worlds and planes of existence, you may detest this idea. "What the fuck do we need the body for?," you might ask. "We ARE spirit. We are free!" And yeah that might be the vibe in other seasons, but that is not the invitation in Virgo season. For if we look deeper, we see that yes, we are pure spirit expressed through matter. And all energy is matter. In fact, all energy can only be expressed through matter. And it is here we return to the truth of Virgo: all that is of spirit (energy) can only be expressed through the body (matter). This is no soft lesson, it is no an easy pill to swallow. Some say space is the final frontier, but the body remains the final human frontier. Accepting this flesh as an eternal vessel, as an eternal gateway to all that life has to offer, it's a lot. To accept our body as the primary meeting ground, the rendez-vous of the soul, the only realm where we can access the holy that is but the work of Virgo season. But let's deconstruct this, let's take a closer look the symbols that surround the energy of the season.

The Hermit is the arcana card from the tarot that corresponds to Virgo, however, at first glance nothing in the Rider-Waite Smith's depiction screams Virgo. At least not in the classical, pop astrology sense. Where's the Hermit list? Where is it being anxious meme holding a plant? Do not misunderstand, I love the memefication of zodiac signs though we must always look closer less we lose their depth. In the case of Virgo, the Hermit is a text book Virgo if we look deeper. They wear plain robes, modesty perhaps but comfort first; all Virgos do love practicality for there are always more important things to tend. They wear no adornment, except for a walking stick, once again for practicality. They live in a lonesome terrain, but they are intimate with it. They love nature, they respect it as they see it as an extension of themselves and spirit. The Hermit lives in its mountain but it comes down every so and then. And when they do they carry a bright lantern, they are here to guide others for they are the act of service itself. And no other sign is ruled so deeply by the act of service. But this is not an act of service that needs recompense, for the Hermit has a sense of duty, they will happily come down from the mountain when the time is ripe. Lastly, we see the sky is a strange turquoise, a shade darkened by the falling of night. On a closer look the color depiction is the epitome of Virgo, the green of nature (earth) and the blue of sky (air). The meeting of the physical with the spiritual. Here is the Hermit's terrain, here is what Virgo teaches us.

But the wise old man is not the only traditional depiction associated with this sign for the name itself reveals the other icon associated with it: the virgin. The concept of virginity is highly flawed and misconstrued in the modern world, yet for today's purposes let us examine the archetype from a holistic lens. The word 'virgin' originates, like many english words, from Latin and it was a term commonly attributed to the vestal virgins. Vesta was the roman goddess of the hearth and home (Hestia, being its greek counterpart), and the virgins where those women who pledged their life to her service. Perhaps it is here we find the true meaning of a virgin, not the patriarchal one of a non-sexual woman, but of a woman committed to service. "Not yet touched, used, or exploited," reads one of the definitions for the word 'virgin'. A person not yet touched, used, or exploited in the capitalistic world is indeed hard to find. For it is when we commit ourselves to our own passions and devotions an act of rebellion is formed. Perhaps all virginity is rebellion when observed properly. While a virgin does not have to be a woman, gender is after all a very human construct, there is a powerful symbol here to behold: Virgin Mary.

Exploring the energy of Virgo through lens of virginity and Mother Mary herself is an exploration of the body as the holy spirit, of the purity of the soul being held in the body. One does not have to be catholic or christian to find beauty in the depiction of Mary. A woman with a long flowing blue robes, arms opened, eyes soft, a sweet smile; she is what many would like to call mother. And she is mother to all, even to you, if you will allow it. However, it is not the mother aspect we are here to explore, but rather her virginity. Mary, of course, gives birth to Jesus, the son of God, 'unspoiled'. An immaculate conception, it is called. I'll spare you the theology lesson and say she is venerated for being the mother of Jesus and being 'pure' in body. And yet is not motherhood, or rather childbirth, the most physical and raw of human experiences? How can the body be considered 'pure' in the often bloody and painful act of birth? Mary is pure beyond any immaculate conception. Her body is tied to the material world, the coarse, the physical, the tangible, and still gives birth to the son of god, the spiritual, the holy, the metaphysical. We must look at Jesus and Mary beyond actual people that existed and read them as complex symbols in the larger collective consciousness of human life. What is it to call the physical birth of something metaphysical 'holy'? Immaculate, they called it. Could Jesus, representing spirit, the soul, source, be birthed in any other way? No, for energy can only come into existence through matter. God had to come through the body of Mary. Spirit has to move through the flesh. Once again we are where spirit meets the bone. The bone of Mary it was and spirit moved through it.

So what is the essence of Virgo when we break down these two archetypes? We are simply left with beings bringing down god to earth. Those who commune up the mountain and bring down the message of holiness through their body. Virgo is the juxtaposition of the earth and spirit, where we are devoting ourselves to spirt through our body. Where we know we can only commune with source through this earthly vessel. Where we recognize divinity moves through us. Where we prioritize divinity moving through us.

All this to say; what does this have to do with the coming of fall? Well everything. And nothing. There is a beautiful liminality towards the end of a season. We both grieve and relish the end of summer. Some cry over losing sunlight and its gift of freedom; many are afflicted with SAD and struggle as the colder months draw closer. Some savor the return of crisp autumn and moody rain to unearth a secret longing. But whatever side you fall on today or tomorrow, for we can feel both at the same time, it is true we all feel the space of liminality. With its vast question marks and its air pregnant with possibility, Virgo season rears its head and says to us: "Sit and consider the body; all the answers come through there. Sit and admire your body; all holy lives in there."

So here we are now, write your lists, dot your i's, make your plans, all of spirit lives there. All within, so without. All the physical is metaphysical. All earth speaks of source. The Autumnal Equinox approaches and we will quietly sit through it all. Knowing well that our bodies will get us there. Knowing well we are always spirit meeting the bone.