A famous
episode of the classic Twilight Zone television series
centers around seemingly benign aliens who have come to earth
and pledged their help to mankind. Indeed, one of their most revered
texts is entitled "To Serve Man". Imagine the
dismayed surprise of the humanoids who, having clasped these aliens
to their bosoms, belatedly discover that the book is not a paean
to intergalactic relations, as they'd imagined - but a cookbook.
It's a clever twist on not just the word, but the concept
of service, which in astrology is synonymous with Virgo. The
sign of work, of diligent care on behalf of others, nevertheless
has a rather nasty reputation - not entirely undeserved - for
its hypercritical shadow side. Interestingly, the slang expression
"you've been served" is a taunt that suggests you've
been called out and shown up. And certainly, if you get on a Virgo's
bad side you may feel as though you've "been served"
- or, in the case of those crafty aliens, as though you're about
to be served up!
More positively, Virgo symbolizes the very noble impulse toward
usefulness. It represents the hundreds of people who impact
your daily life, whether or not you ever meet each other. No matter
how menial the task, another's approach to their work can have
a profound influence on the quality of your day. The barrista
who serves up your morning coffee can set the day's tone with
a smile and a little joke or can seemingly go out of his way to
piss you off. A mechanic who's having a bad day might forget an
important step in servicing your car's brakes - and that could
influence the rest of your life.
I'll bet it's easier for you to think of half a dozen people
who've recently given you poor service than it is to name even
half as many who've offered service with a smile. Why does
it seem so many people are unhappy in their work? Apart from
things like sustenance wages and job insecurity, I think it's
mainly for two reasons.
First, it's because their work doesn't connect them to the
spiritual underpinnings of their lives. The difference between
pitching in to wash dishes after a charity pancake breakfast,
and washing dishes at a minimum wage job, is that one feels like
a contribution to society and the other usually doesn't. No one
likes to feel as though she's wasting her life. I would argue
that no task is demeaning if you're doing it for a meaningful
cause. Any task done over and over, day in and day out can get
boring. But washing dishes for my family every day, while it can
get dull, never feels demeaning, because it's a contribution I'm
making to my home.
But the other reason for disgruntled workers is a little more
subtle. At this Virgo Full Moon, the Sun
in Pisces joins ebullient Jupiter in the same sign for the first
time in twelve years.The Pisces realm of dreaming,
imagination, art, and identification with those less fortunate
is holding powerful sway over the collective consciousness. It
sounds like nirvana for the spiritually-minded, a time to dream
big dreams and imagine a new and more inspiring world. But the
Pisces approach to things has its blind spots, too. Dreaming of
a beautiful world is all well and good, but someone has to be
willing to roll up their sleeves and make the dreams a reality.
There usually has to be someone standing quietly to one side with
a clipboard, wearing sensible shoes and a headset, supervising
logistics. Some good, patient Virgo-like soul with a knack for
untangling messes who can get the printer to work and troubleshoot
the problem with the wireless network.
Unfortunately, while every family, every workplace, and every
cause needs such people, they don't often appreciate them.
All too often, the tendency is to take them for granted, to notice
them only when something has gone wrong, to ignore their sensible
warnings about system backups until the computer has crashed and
taken with it all of our art. We think we can get away with it,
because they are such nice people, so helpful, so patient. We
splash around in the waters of creativity and big, important undertakings,
secure in the knowledge that if we get in over our heads, some
kindly lifeguard type will rescue us. And generally, they do.
That's how they're built.
Until one day, they've had about enough. The long-suffering grade
school Room Mother receives an early morning phone call from a
More Important Parent with no time to bake cookies; surely Long-Suffering
Room Mother can do it for her! The long-suffering IT guy, feverishly
attending to the needs of thirty staff members and sixty temperamental
machines, gets an impromptu visit from his supervisor, who needs
help - urgently! - with her personal email account. The
long-suffering astrologer, whose wages barely place him above
the national poverty line, gets yet another epic email from someone
detailing every problem in her life and insisting the astrologer
read her chart for free, because hers is such a worthy and exceptional
situation.
And suddenly, the Virgo volcano erupts. Like all earth
signs, Virgo has a long fuse… which makes its eventual meltdowns
all the more impressive and kind of scary. And because Virgo is
ruled by Mercury, he or she can carve you up with an estimable
blend of withering sarcasm and impressive vocabulary choices.
And then, of course, it's Virgo - the unappreciated, overworked,
underpaid gaffer on the set of everybody else's big-budget motion
picture - who is the bad guy. And if you've ever done a favor
that went unacknowledged or picked up the slack for someone who
took advantage of your kindness, that "Virgo" has been
you. Is it any wonder so few of us are willing to go the extra
mile to help another person?
At this Full Moon in Virgo, by all means indulge the desire
to dream big, Sun/Jupiter in Pisces dreams. These are the visions
that move us forward as a civilization. But remember that the
millions of people who perform society's less glamorous tasks,
who work hard to develop valuable skills, and who patiently midwife
our dreams with push-brooms, wrenches, an editing pencil, and
computer code, deserve our appreciation and respect.
So, take a Virgo to lunch. Thank your kid's teachers. And if
an alien tries to coax you into a large, simmering pot of water,
just say no.
