The Virgo/Porno Complex

    Virgo is one of the four “mutable” signs of the zodiac.  Mutable signs are more flexible, multi-faceted, and adaptable than their Cardinal and Fixed brethren.  They also come at the corners of the year preceding the equinoxes and solstices- meaning they come just before the seasons change.  For this reason they are also called “dual” or “double-bodied” signs, for they sit in those spaces of time where the season has exhausted itself, and the next knocks at the door, yet does not deign to enter.   The other “dual bodied” signs are represented by symbols which actually have two bodies- Twins for Gemini, 2 fish for Pisces, and a creature composed of both beast and man for Sagittarius, the Centaur.  Virgo, on the other hand, is represented by a lone figure- the Virgin.  And yet this simplicity conceals the complexity of the Virgin’s figure.  She is indeed dual bodied, but knows better than to let the world know about her other half.

   Any psychoanalyst will tell you that the virgin is a libidinally charged figure, a vision of the feminine as pure, her womb still untouched.  And yet she symbolizes unlimited fecundity, infinite potential to give birth.  She is defined by what has not happened, but certainly will.  It is one of the reasons that there are thousands of websites and magazines devoted to what has been aptly titled “Barely Legal.”  The virgin, the maid, cannot exist without her promiscuous shadow, the whore.  Indeed, the two often find themselves side by side in what has come to be called, in psychological circles, as the Virgin/Whore Complex.  And it is complex.

Indeed, it is the complexity that comes from the exploration of polarity, the trademark of all of the mutable or dual bodied signs.  One of the dualities that Virgo is most often associated with is “Clean/Dirty.”  One cannot cleanse without an intimate knowledge of what is dirty.  And the line between the two is an uncertain one.  As always, sex and hygiene are intimately linked.  Ever called someone a “dirty whore?”  I have.

As the Mutable Earth Sign, Virgo represents the process by which the material is refined and purified so as to serve as the most effective vehicle for the spirit.  The material is the dirty part, the whore, and the spirit is the clean part, the virginal.  But there is no life for the spirit without the filthy material playground we all make our home in.  This fundamental contradiction of our state that Virgo focuses on is worthy of a complex or two.  People react badly to such dualities.  Intolerant of an internal war, they pick a side.  The nun and monk deny the body, siding with the spirit.   Doing so, they deny the spirit its vehicle, leaving it without wheels.  The corrupt materialist, the “whore for money,” solves the problem prematurely as well.  They enrich and embellish their vehicle, but without regard for their travel plans.  The Virgin/Whore Complex goes deeper than dudes masturbating to pictures of nuns in fishnets.   I swear.  It is one of the fundamental dilemmas of embodiment.

And so, Virgins of the Zodiac, the next time someone asks you what your sign is, you may respond “Virgo”, which is Latin for “Virgin.”  Or, if you prefer to stride out from the shadows, you may just as accurately respond, that you were born under the sign of “Porne,” which is the ancient Greek word for prostitute and the “Porno-” in our English word “Pornography.”  Me?  I’m a Pisces.  But I have Saturn in Porno.