Full Moon in Virgo: The Gaze of the Kore
On the Full Moon in Virgo
The maiden lingers at the liminal meeting of summer and fall, gathering flowers along the distant forest edge, knowing that the golden-bright days will soon dwindle to cooler dark nights. She seeks to prepare us, to midwife the extroversion of summer into the introversion of autumn with grace and care, with an awareness of the necessary duality of life and death. This maiden is, of course, the symbol for Virgo, the sixth sign of the zodiac, a mutable earth sign ruled by Mercury, the sign of the Full Moon on March 7th.
In late winter, the Sun is swallowed by the deep salt-waters of Pisces, moving through the starry celestial sea, as our zodiacal year winds itself to a close and inevitable rebirth. Each Pisces season is punctuated by a Full Moon in Virgo, as if to say it’s not only the twinned fish who offer us passage into cerulean endings and fresh solar beginnings, but we must also meet with the maiden, with Virgo, who guides us through the fields of winter-dulled grass, pointing us on the path back to springtime abundance.
The Virgo Archetype
Virgo is often written and spoken about as a kind of nerdy perfectionist, a young girl who tries obsessively to get things “right,” no matter the cost. Dogged by an obsessive vision of “neat and tidy,” pop-astrology Virgo gets flattened in such a way that begs for correction.
Our culture has long associated the “virgin” with the inexperienced young women, still often quite naive and innocent, attached to her parents or in particular to her mother, like a timid fawn shaky on its delicate legs. The most famous virginal figure in myth is Persephone, daughter of Demeter who was abducted by Hades. In ancient Greece, though, there were endless proliferations of statues of the “Kore,” the virgin, in religious temples. As Safron Rossi writes in her incredible study of the Kore, “the cultural outpouring shows the Kore to have been a significant figure in religious ritual practices and arts…[these] young women [depicted] in service of a goddess or god.” (41) The Kore, the virgin, Virgo, was not simply an attendant to the mundane, but played an important role in helping mortals reach the divine, acting as intermediary between human prayers and the blessings of the gods.
Greek definitions of the word kore include “a treasure that one guards (phylassein), a value that must be respected (therein)” (Rossi quoting Guilia Sissa, 69), and this brings us deeper to the true message of the Kore, or Virgo archetype. The Virgin-goddess is owned unto herself completely and fully. Her underworld abduction need not be read as a horrifying true crime encounter, but rather is a symbol of the initiation into the dark psyche that we all must take, in order to be fully self-actualized, self-possessed. Rossi writes, “In other words, korehood means authenticity, that how I feel, what I say, and what I do are aligned. When I am with another, I am equally present to myself as I am to that other.” (69) And so we see that reaching back into the ancient vision of the Virgin yields a more multi-faceted perspective of Virgo—not a fussy neat-freak who loves the opportunity for extra-credit, but someone who strives to be fully self-possessed, a feat that, in our contemporary moment of instant gratification and fractured attention, is truly something to strive for.
“In other words, korehood means authenticity, that how I feel, what I say, and what I do are aligned. When I am with another, I am equally present to myself as I am to that other.”
- Safron Rossi
We would also be able to flesh out the Virgo story by remembering Persephone’s descent to the underworld, and her re-ascent to the dayworld, each year, to mark the turning of the seasons. The Persephone who descends below the earth for winter is the maiden goddess, but while reigning as the queen of shadows with Hades, she symbolizes the process of self-actualization. Her return to the dayworld brings the season of spring, and she ascends as the integrated, self-possessed goddess, to be transformed back into her maiden iteration. And so the cycle goes on and on, a process of rising and falling, like the sun, moon and stars, above and below the earth. We can see in this story an episodic “kathodos,” or descent, opposed to “anodos,” or ascent, as part of our own coming to terms with self. This cyclic experience is contained in Persephone, and therefore in the sign Virgo.
Astrological Full Moon in Virgo
As the Pisces Sun moves through the last moments of its solar cycle, it catches the meditative gaze of the Virgo Moon, and at 4:40am PST, they will perfectly oppose at 16°, bringing the Full Moon to total brilliance. To deviate from the mythological and veer into the astrological, we can see this Full Moon as our annual opportunity for a few different things:
This Full Moon brings a release, or culmination, or manifestation, of the intentions you set, or the experiences you initiated back on the Virgo New Moon on August 27th of 2022. Where were you then, and what can you connect from that point to this one?
Each Virgo Full Moon occurring in Pisces season activates a binary of magic and practicality, psychic energy and the physical body, dreaming and daily routines, art and nutrition, and so on. How do you blend the binary components of this axis together in your life? This is an annual opportunity to shed old attachments where these themes are concerned. It’s also a culminating point, or the expansive terminus of a storyline, around these topics. What’s coming through for you?
Looking to the chart itself, we see that this Full Moon is squaring Mars, which lingers at 21° Gemini. Themes from our Mars transit of Gemini which has been ongoing since August of 2022 are brought to a head by this Full Moon, so stay wary of repeating patterns around your Gemini house.
The Full Moon sits perfectly opposed to the Sun, who is perfectly conjunct the asteroid Nessus, an asteroid named for a powerful centaur in myth and astrology. Nessus’s story is a heavy one, he is the centaur that tried to abduct Heracles’s wife Deianira, after posing as a helpful ally at a difficult river crossing. Heracles vanquished Nessus, but upon breathing his last breath, Nessus bade Deianira to take some of his blood, telling her it was a love potion that would keep Heracles attentive to her forever. Foolishly she believed him, and her use of Nessus’s blood on Heracles would eventually bring about Heracles’s demise. Nessus therefore can symbolize revenge, abuse, and duplicity, from a mythic standpoint.
In astrological terms, Nessus represents the place where we break away from ancestral abuse. Nessus placements often represent how a person is encouraged to break karmic cycles, and instigate deep healing through accessing the inner dark—another Kore-like figure for us at this time. The Full Moon catching the Sun-Nessus conjunction in its exactness feels like a powerful nod to our deep collective need for healing, and the kind of healing we can access is that of looking into the ancestral dark, and finding new light through that underworld path.
The lunation is also ruled by Mercury, who answers to Jupiter, our planet of abundance and excess, currently conjunct the centaur asteroid Chiron, the expression of the wounded-healer. The triple conjunction of Jupiter, Venus, and Chiron last week (on March 1st) spoke to a renewed cycle of healing, specifically through the act of loving, the use of art, and the acceptance of our personal power (after all, it did occur in Aries!). The main message of the lunation seems to be that of initiation into the chthonic dark being our only way through at this time. With that said, I’d want no one else but the Kore, Virgo, to light the way forward for me.
Horoscopic Poetry
VIRGO
As you are the Kore,
your path explodes
potentiated—
new flowers bursting
through the mud, rock
opening to caverns of mycelial
glow. Choose yourself now, and
again, and now. Know thyself—
the oracle insists.
LIBRA
Deep dreaming yields
green velvet visions.
Early to bed, to meet your
meant message.
Keep space for ever
renewing self—
acceptance brings you
closer to fate.
SCORPIO
An arrow from the quiver of trust
strikes heart and frees you in a starry flare.
Do you speak in riddles, still so much a sphinx?
Find crystalline words— a message is received
by those who await you.
SAGITTARIUS
The crown of fire must be
worn with care and tenderness,
crown must be conscious
of the great light,
fast heat.
Your beams shine far, finally,
with warmth. Release yourself
from diligence, and exhale.
CAPRICORN
Mystic, traveler, diviner, translator—
you are all and one at the same time.
A philosophical culmination
rings out! Blending hard hoof
and iridescent fin, you orchestrate
songs to the gods who laugh
like pealing bells sounding on wind.
AQUARIUS
Interior fertility has been long hidden,
and now your underworld is laden
with flower as harvest bounty comes
from shared truth,
the brilliant light
at dark places,
a way to be received—
PISCES
Know that the face of love
can be found in nature,
in accordances struck
between earth and air.
Is it true that you seek
after self in other?
Or is it a mirror of pearl
you chase?
ARIES
Each detail like:
flower petal, stem, and stamen
rings with truth.
Assemble the pieces
to find the song of self.
Take each breath with care,
oblations offered to alveoli
bring new days.
TAURUS
Are you the artist or are you the child?
The senses lead to a deepening of joy,
and a reclamation you seek, of heart.
Weaving then and now,
you finally arrive.
GEMINI
With roots of air you venture forth,
stabilized by elemental power.
To reach into the depths means
your mind shines like glass on opal.
The conclusion of each sentence begets another.
CANCER
Lunar pith is flavored like sea,
sweetened by nocturnal touch.
Your fellow travelers bring you
gifts and in turn you teach all
lessons of circularity
((you know there is no end.
)
LEO
What is it to touch, to want, to prize?
You glow so golden, and can afford to
relinquish your jungle-cat jaws,
pawing instead through
the realm of give.
Catch prey with lionsong:
soften rigid claw.
