Virgo 1

This degree seems on the surface to be very different from its corresponding Omega Symbol, yet both show a similar relationship to the world of human affairs. The volcano obviously cares nothing for them—it simply spills into them, and people must get out of the way. The man of the Omega Symbol is retreating from them; as he climbs the stairs he rises above them.

The volcano clears pressure that has built up deep inside the earth. The man coming home is in the process of releasing the pressures of the day. The volcano’s release is grand and dramatic, the man’s release quiet and private. Release must happen in some form, and this degree will not stand for repression, for repression violates the purity of Virgo. It is ready and willing to give in to deep release—not only of its own repressed energies, but, as much as possible, of the repressed, denied, and rejected energies of humanity at large. This is the most primitive and direct purging that Virgo is capable of.

In one way the power and intensity of the volcano seem non-Virgoan, yet Virgo is a mutable sign, and the rock of the volcano is in liquid, mutable form. This degree is about raw creative energy spewing forth and then spontaneously congealing into form.