VIRGO
Virgo
in a birth chart
Virgo is a mutable earth sign ruled by Mercury. In a birth chart it describes the part of a person that improves things: observant, practical, useful, and quietly exacting about how work is done.
- Dates
- August 23 – September 22
- Element
- Earth
- Modality
- Mutable
- Ruler
- Mercury
The sign itself
Virgo belongs to the harvest: the part of the year that sorts, preserves, and puts away. Mutable earth adapts material conditions — it does not accept a thing as it arrives.
Mercury rules Virgo, but here Mercury is applied rather than conversational: analysis in service of something working properly.
Where Virgo shows up in a chart
Virgo marks where a person cannot leave things approximate.
- Sun in Virgo — purpose pursued through craft, service, and steady improvement.
- Moon in Virgo — comfort through order, routine, and being genuinely useful; worry as a form of care.
- Rising in Virgo — a neat, attentive, slightly reserved first impression, and a chart run by Mercury.
- Virgo on a house cusp — that area of life gets analysed, tidied, and held to a standard.
At its best and at its cost
At its best: competence, discretion, care with detail, and help that actually helps. At its cost: self-criticism, fussiness, and mistaking anxiety for diligence.
In a child's chart, Virgo reads as a child who notices everything and is easily upset by mess or unfairness — not a small perfectionist to be corrected.
COMMON QUESTIONS
Questions people ask
- What are the Virgo dates?
- The Sun is in Virgo from about August 23 to September 22 each year, with the exact boundary shifting by a day between years.
- What planet rules Virgo?
- Mercury rules Virgo. In Virgo, Mercury's analysis is applied practically — to work, health, and getting things right.
NEIGHBOURING SIGNS
See where Virgo actually falls in your family's charts.
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