Johfra Boss­chart Zodi­ac Paintings

The Great­est Gift            

One of the most pro­found chal­lenges you will face in your jour­ney of awak­en­ing is this: how can you find a place of hap­pi­ness and peace in a world that is torn and bro­ken by human con­flict, and by nat­ur­al and human-made dis­as­ters? How can you be hap­py when so many are suf­fer­ing; how can you be at peace when so many in your world are trou­bled with strife and con­flict? How is this possible?

The answer to the ques­tion of where you will find hap­pi­ness and peace has always been the same. Hap­pi­ness and Peace can­not be found in some spe­cial cor­ner of the world, nor in any cor­ner of the cos­mos. The place that you must start is with­in your­self; hap­pi­ness and peace are root­ed with­in your true heart and held for­ev­er with­in your lumi­nous soul.

We have come to that time of year, yet ever-present some­where in your very own chart, we have come to that sacred time where we give thanks to and hon­or the gifts that Vir­go brings to our lives. After the stretch­ing and striv­ing for greater self-expres­sion and authen­tic­i­ty in Leo, we all have need for a time to reflect, recon­sid­er, and improve our­selves; we all need to know and feel that there is good and beau­ty in our­selves and in the world.

After every Fixed Sign, (Tau­rus, Leo, Scor­pio, and Aquar­ius), the Cir­cle of Life moves us into what we need, the adapt­abil­i­ty and inte­gra­tion that fol­low in the Muta­ble Signs (Gem­i­ni, Vir­go, Sagit­tar­ius, and Pisces). These are the “Tran­si­tion­al Signs”, the Ener­gy-Forms whose pur­pose is help us move from one state of Con­scious­ness and Being into anoth­er. Tru­ly, it is in the Muta­ble Signs that we take what we start­ed with in the Car­di­nal Signs, and then moved towards ful­fill­ment in the Fixed Signs; and now we need to under­stand, so that by our Expe­ri­ence, Wis­dom and Love we may move into a greater state of aware­ness, accep­tance and understanding.

Much like its “cousin” Gem­i­ni, who is also ruled by Mer­cury (or Her­mes the Mes­sen­ger), Vir­go is equal­ly a sign of “The Mind”. Gem­i­ni is about the won­der­ful fac­ul­ty of posit­ing mul­ti­ple points of view, of being thrilled and delight­ed by our won­der­ous tal­ent for ques­tion­ing and re-ques­tion­ing, of fram­ing and refram­ing our points of view; with Gem­i­ni you look at your world with “the eyes of a child”, won­der­ing and watch­ing with a mul­ti­tude of approach­es and angles as you mar­vel at the mir­a­cle that is Creation.

Where­as in Vir­go, we use our mind to find the most ele­gant, ver­sa­tile, and mean­ing­ful way in which to under­stand our­selves and our world. We use our fac­ul­ty of “Dis­cern­ment” or “Dis­crim­i­na­tion”, and with atten­tion to the details, to the intri­ca­cies, inter­con­nec­tions, and lay­ers of the count­less forms of the many instances of spir­it, by see­ing the many in their mul­ti­ple con­nec­tions, we weave our under­stand­ing of the greater whole into the One. Where­as Gem­i­ni is all about fol­low­ing our insa­tiable curios­i­ty, Vir­go is about our mind’s gift for exact­ing analy­sis and refinement.

In this time of Vir­go espe­cial­ly, and as an inte­gral pres­ence in your body, mind, and spir­it, you will become bet­ter by mak­ing use of this gift of clar­i­ty and grace every day. Take some time to pause and con­sid­er, to clear­ly dis­cern what was and what may be, so that you may learn how to “do bet­ter and be bet­ter” every day. It is a time-hon­ored prac­tice among many who are on the path of spir­i­tu­al self-improve­ment to pre­pare for each day ahead by care­ful­ly con­sid­er­ing what lies before you; and then equal­ly close each day by exam­in­ing how you fared and how you might do bet­ter next time.

What­ev­er prac­tice works best for you, by what­ev­er means and meth­ods that help you to main­tain atten­tive­ness and mind­ful­ness, you will see that there is only one way to find the peace that you seek. It starts with the under­stand­ing and accep­tance that the only con­trol you will ever tru­ly have, and the only mas­tery you tru­ly need to acquire, is for you to lift your­self up by your self-aware­ness. It is by this that you stay on the roy­al or mid­dle path of self-con­trol, and this will lead to your self-mastery.

Vir­go is one of the prin­ci­pal por­tals to the expe­ri­ence of Ini­ti­a­tions. As in ancient cul­tures, like in the Less­er and Greater Mys­ter­ies of Greece and Roman cul­ture, and in var­i­ous ways on up to our present age, we have always under­stood that we must pre­pare our­selves for entrance into a fuller par­tic­i­pa­tion in our soci­ety and cul­ture. You must become a mas­ter of the tech­niques for life and liv­ing in your time, as you move from novice to stu­dent, and then adept and even­tu­al mas­tery in the arts and crafts of liv­ing a whole life, of becom­ing a whole person.

You only grow by tri­al and error, by learn­ing from your mis­takes and by your striv­ing to do bet­ter. We only grow when we try and fail, and then try again. Our so-called “mis­takes and errors” are the means to our sal­va­tion. Fail­ure and Growth are insep­a­ra­ble; you can only learn by dis­cov­er­ing what not to do and dis­cov­er­ing how you might do bet­ter. With Vir­go, by your self-cor­rec­tion and adjust­ment, yes by your humil­i­ty and ser­vice to one anoth­er, you will slow­ly but sure­ly lift your­self and one anoth­er high­er. This is known as the Path­way to Per­fec­tion, and this is the Gift of Virgo.

And most cer­tain­ly at the core of this gift is found the price­less reward that all have sought. Many believe that their hap­pi­ness and peace will come if they have rich­es or fame, or pow­er and posi­tion. But the Wis­dom Keep­ers and Sages know that these are not “things in them­selves”; they are mere­ly ephemer­al moments in the jour­ney that is life. The great­est gift, the trea­sure of trea­sures is found by reach­ing a qual­i­ty or state of being, a Way of Being that holds you true to your heart and soul. Yes, the great­est gift of Vir­go is to live with Peace of Mind.

The good life is a beau­ti­ful life, and it is found­ed, formed, and held true by the qual­i­ty and state of your thoughts. The whole pur­pose of meta­phys­i­cal, spir­i­tu­al, and philo­soph­i­cal teach­ings is to help you find the way to Peace and Hap­pi­ness. The Wis­dom held by Vir­go will help you to form the sacred tem­ple of your Mind. When the Lumi­nous path of Wis­dom is fol­lowed, forged by the del­i­cate and inte­gral bal­ance of your Intu­ition and Rea­son, you will achieve a know­ing and being that is lucid, self-crit­i­cal, and open to the ever-unfold­ing jour­ney of Spirit-Life-Consciousness.

Quite sim­ply and won­der­ful­ly, you will walk the path of the One, which is known as the Path of Beauty:

As I walk, as I walk

The Uni­verse is walk­ing with me

In beau­ty it walks before me

In beau­ty it walks behind me

In beau­ty it walks below me

In beau­ty it walks above me

Beau­ty is on every side

As I walk, I walk with Beauty.