Planetary Transits & Cosmic Interplay for the week of Sep 1–8
One person can look at something and see its flaws and imperfections while on the other hand another person can look at the same thing and perceive it as perfect just the way it is. These are two extremes when talking about the perspective of perfection. After all, isn’t that what perfection truly is—one’s personal perspective? Of course, there are several different angles that can be taken from this argument, especially when taken into a spiritual context, but for the course of this discussion we’re going to dive down the rabbit hole of personal perspective.
The Pursuit of Perfection
So, why are we going to focus on this topic now? That would be because of the arrival of Mercury this week into the sign of Virgo where it will be conjunct the Sun. This particular combination really lends itself towards the seeking of perfection and of making things “just right”. There are a few layers to peel off this onion to get to the heart of why this combination is so apt to produce this energy, so we will take an in-depth look at the players behind this combo.
Firstly, we will look at where this conjunction is occurring. It is happening in the sign of Virgo. The gist of the latent energy of Virgo is to improve things and to constantly seek a better way. What comes with this energy is that of finding flaws in things that can be improved. Sometimes those flaws need to be removed, sometimes they need to be repaired, and sometimes they just exist without need for either. The key here, as we’ll discuss later, is about knowing which method to employ given the circumstance.
To further exemplify the nature of Virgo, let’s look at a common type of indication given by it. If a person has certain planets and houses regarding career located in Virgo in their natal chart, then this can be an indicator towards them becoming a lawyer. The thing about a lawyer that really relates to Virgo is that they are efficient not only when they are able to present their case, but when they effectively are able to dismantle and tear down the opposing lawyer’s case. This fault-finding nature of Virgo can make a person very argumentative and sometimes seem to argue a contrary side just for the sake of arguing.
While Virgo is especially able to improve/dismantle things, they can also get so caught up in this process that they feel like things always need to be improved. With all other factors equal in one’s chart, a Virgo native typically needs to work on acceptance and not feeling like they need to change everything. The fact is that they have some decent degree of capability in their own sphere, but the work to be done is to learn that they don’t have to fix everything—especially other people. It’s about appreciating what is there and letting it be the way it is and seeing that there’s a chance that it’s there for a reason.
Sun & Mercury Heighten Criticism
Mercury and Sun bring a whole other level of this dynamic of perfection to the table. Firstly, Mercury is the planet that rules the sign of Virgo and, in fact, its main operating principle is related strongest to the energy of Virgo. This means that Mercury, with everything that we know about it ruling communication and such, is about improving things. In a sense, it is about fault finding, which can be the cornerstone of improvements and making things better. Mercury is known just for that—always working to find the best possible way to do things.
Sun is the brightest thing in the sky and we can look towards this to arrive at a couple of distinctions about the Sun. The Sun is hot and so it is said to be related to purity in the sense of wanting to distill things down to the best possible version. The Sun being so bright and the center of the solar system has an energy of granting certain things in life this same distinction to us. So, with the Sun in Virgo there is a certain sense of always wanting things to be the best they can be. Whereas this is a positive thing to a degree, the Sun does not operate in such a smooth manner but tends to sacrifice other things to achieve its goals, even at the destruction or hindrance of those other things.
Now, putting Sun with Mercury in Virgo, it brings about feeling an urgent and important sense of things needing to improve and be better than they are now and the need to take it to the highest level: perfection. This is an energy of being very critical and sometimes too critical for one’s own good. This conjunction indicates a time when either one is looking very critically at how they are going about things or they are being looked at in this sense, and it is usually from a source of authority with which they are being judged. It is a very judgmental time in which one is either holding themselves or others are holding the individual to a very high standard and analyzing how they measure up to a metric that may even be impossible to attain.
The Risk of High Standards
When evaluating the success giving nature of this conjunction, it’s not necessarily a bad thing, but neither is this an incredibly positive thing. One may actually achieve new levels of success during this time because of setting the bar extremely high and working as hard as possible to make it happen. Is that the healthiest mindset to have, though? If someone sees themselves as never quite good enough, yes, it can bring them success, but it can also bring them crashing down if they hit some stumbling blocks.
On the negative side of this conjunction, it can be downright debilitating. This can indicate times where someone is being judged by some authority figure in a manner that they will never quite be able to realistically live up to. This is about being held to impossibly high standards and being reprimanded or disrespected because you can’t do it.
What can you do now?
So, the real key to this time is to make sure that we are really appreciating the reality of our circumstances and situations that we are put in, whether they meet our expectations or not—just taking life as it is. It is a time of reining in our big lofty goals, or at least of learning to be ok with things working out in whatever manner they do. My remedy for this time period is to take a healthy dose of reality, sprinkle it with a glaze of humility, and pepper it with equal parts acceptance and understanding.
