Sidereal Virgo & health...?

[Jim Eshelman]

The modern tradition of relating Virgo to health (and, antithetically and more commonly, to sickness) is so habituated that - having the Sun in Virgo, not having had the idea reinforced by my Sidereal teachers, etc. - even after decades of disuse it reflexively flies into my head on occasion.

Obviously the matter is reinforced, and perhaps even rooted, in the Tropicalist analogy of Virgo to the 6th House. But has it any intrinsic legitimacy? Now, as Saturn is about to leave Leo and enter Virgo, and with the health care crisis coming to a public, frothy head, it seems timely to ask the question.

In that last sentence, I noticed something that may be a worthy distinction: That between health/sickness per se, and health care. A priori, I am more inclined to credit the latter to Virgo. I've known various nurses, psychotherapists, and related "service and support professionals" in or near the healing fields to suspect that this, and not health issues per se, may be relevant.

But let's look at Sidereal Virgo and what we know of it, and also what we know astrologically of the medical profession and other health themes.

First, how about the Sun in Sidereal Virgo? Are there preoccupations with health matters in some fashion that makes this a relevant theme? While every sign has its distinctive health themes (and those of Virgo most involve the nerves!), the most I see is an observation that Virgo Suns seem to be "diet and health conscious" - but not fanatically cleanliness- or germ-conscious unless an exaggerated Saturn is involved (to overplay that part of the obsessive-compulsive predisposition). OK, that's at least a bit of something; though, having the Sun in Virgo, I fit this far less than most of my friends. Besides a basic healthy interest in being healthy (and actually less attention to it than most people I know), I only find this in myself as a variant of general curiosity.

In fact, it's much easier for me to relate those (Tropical) traditional Virgo traits to Sidereal Leo, in both a practical and symbolic way. After all, what planet signifies HEALTH more than the Sun? I don't see, in our observed trait list, anything specific about Leo Suns and health-consciousness, but it's easy to draw to mind Leos who are just oh so proud of how tan and healthy they are.

How about interest in the health profession? Well, the biggest studies of physicians (by Firebrace and Gleadow) showed Aries and Gemini Suns predominating. I once started gathering eminent surgeons from a large catalog and, though I didn't finis hthe project, I was noticing that, where the knife was concerned, Aries and Leo Suns were easily taking the leading in the first few hundred birthdays I had collected. (And there's the repeated truism that surgeons all know that they're God <g>.) - Among angular planets, we get different themes, with foreground Saturn in particular (probably to emphasize the issues of science, discipline, sacrifice, hard work, etc. just to get through medical school and up to licensing) and, with surgeons, additionally Mars. (The Tobey study found Sagittarius high for physicians. I don't know how much reliance to place on it, though I do note that his data was gathered from much earlier decades, and the character of the personal physician has certainly changed over the last century.) Cancer ranked high for a large collection of people in "medical professions," but specifically excluding physicians - and Cancer was the lowest, least represented Sun-sign in the Gleadow-Firebrace collection of physicians.

I think nothing here really substantiates a relationship between Virgo and health. (Yes, by symbolism, Virgo is a double-dignity of Mercury, which gives us the caduceus; but that symbolism primarily seems to work itself out through Gemini and the medical profession, not through Virgo.) On the other hand, a case might well be made for linking attention to health and medical matters to Sidereal Leo. Yet it is far from definitive.

If the latter is true, it gives me some confidence in our current national struggle with health care reform. If the Leo link is primarily true, then Saturn's recent time in Leo would have represented a time of heightened negative awareness of health issues, worsened health or worsened confidence about health, even a peak in the costs (monetary value) of health care. That would be encouraging, because, with Saturn moving on to Virgo, we might expect something to happen that breaks this pattern.

Please note that this post is reflective, speculative, musing... not a teaching... more of a meandering.

[Jim Eshelman]

I have moon in Virgo...I have been drawn to healthcare from a very early age...herbalism and alternative therapies. I know two people with sun in virgo who are the same, but maybe that would also be shown in the aspects?

The Tropical astrology attribution of Virgo to health is partly an emphasis on a 6th House correspondence, and partly because they are really Leos.

However - setting aside the "health industry" side of it per se - Virgos are commonly in service occupations, and I've known quote a few who were thereapists, and a few who were in other health industry service and caretaking occupations. (It's the main distinction I made above.)

From charts I have stored on Solar Fire, I didn't do we well - no famous examples, and the bet I could do from my personal list is a couple of therapists, an acupuncturist, and a sex worker.

[Jim Eshelman]

I have a "famous" example (unfortunately for us with the luminaries virgo) That of the surgeon Dr. Thomas Bond, the prime suspect in the Jack the Ripper case. He was born on October 7th 1841