........but on the whole the Neverlands have a family
resemblance, and if they stood still in a row you could say
of them that they have each other's nose, and so forth.
Virgos admire the Taurus strength of purpose, although they have little tolerance for the Bull's stubbornness in the face of an obvious mistake. Taurus is somewhat in awe of the quick Virgo mind, though the Bulls have little sympathy for health nuts, cleanliness bugs or the finer nuances of Virgo hair-splitting.
But what are a few minor differences between friends? These two will normally find plenty of things to be friendly about, not the least of which is common sense. The phrase may at times, however, annoy the critical Virgo, since the Virgin knows the kind of sense referred to is far from common. It's extremely rare. Someday, you can be certain, some Virgo will finally succeed in correcting this particular inaccuracy in the language.
Taurus and Virgo will hang on firmly to their mutual principles while the rest of society is flipping out in an insane dance of tragedy - and frivolous foolishness.Neither the Bull nor the Virgin makes much of a distinction between tragedy and frivolous foolishness. In their sensible opinions, the latter is a direct path to the former. Virgos remember every flaw they have ever seen, from a torn shower curtain to a character defect in a friend. The memories are painful,and they keep the Virgins eternally disillusioned, not to mention pessimistic about human nature. Still, in a way, Virgos give the impression they almost enjoy their memories of the cracks and dusty corners of Life. It gives them something to do with their bright and busy minds. Taurus remembers everything he (or she) has ever seen too, though the Taurean really doesn't want to remember.There's a nagging voice inside the Bulls which tells them that wasting time is somehow sinful - and wasting it on things in the past you can't change is wasting it as surely as any other way. Yet, they helplessly cling to their old memories,and the lessons they've learned, as if they were graven on their foreheads in letters of stone. Taken as a whole, Virgos have more complicated fears (including their own health, and the danger of accident) than Taurus. Whatever the Bulls are afraid of, it's not physical.
This is not a lively pair you would want to hire to sell the Brooklyn Bridge in a hurry, collaborate on a book of faerie tales, promote a get-rich-quick stock in a bucket shop - or operate a fast-moving blackjack game in Las Vegas.These two were both born under feminine negative Earth Signs. Which means that they're passive and receptive (feminine) - suspicious, somewhat fearful and cautious (negative) - although loaded with integrity and dependability (Earth). It's a wonder they ever get around to meeting each other. However, once they gather the courage and aggressiveness to say "Hi!" to each other, and make a date to meet again (which will be kept punctually), the friendship, or business partnership, or whatever (usually a combination of both) will probably flower slowly, surely and serenely into a beautiful relationship. Within a family group, these are usually the two who get along smoothly together, and feel isolated from the rest of the radicals around the breakfast table.
I once knew a Taurus musician and a Virgo singer. They used to meet almost every morning in front of the Brill Building in New York (the headquarters of Broadway songwriters). The Bull was - and still is - an extremely talented composer. With or without formal musical training, he'll eventually make it to the top of his field. But he harbors the typical Taurean resentment against fate, because family responsibilities prevented him from attending Juilliard, and therefore he carries a fair-sized chip of wood on his shoulder (which can make your posture sag a little, along with your spirits, when you're also lugging around an electric guitar all day long).
This Bull is suspicious of singers who want to use his songs without paying him first, or signing a contract, and he also stubbornly refuses to let anyone sing his tunes if he thinks they're not right for him (or her). However, the Virgo male vocalist could usually talk the Bull into or out of anything. The Virgin singer (and of course I use the term Virgin symbolically) was picky and choosy about the material he recorded, and invariably wanted to change a note here or a word there in the lyrics, before he thought the song was perfect enough to match his perfect voice, and his perfect judgment of public taste. Still, he had fewer objections to the Taurean's songs than to anyone else's, because an association between Taurus and Virgo is influenced by the harmonious 5-9 Sun Sign Pattern. Somehow, they rang clear and true to his critical and acutely sensitive ear.
These two once considered a business partnership in a publishing company,but Virgo is ruled by the restless planet Mercury (until Virgo's true ruler, Vulcan,is discovered and identified) and so the Virgin singer eventually became annoyed and impatient with the Bull's lack of aggressive drive, left New York, and married a bright Sagittarian girl named Sharon, who cheered him up for a while(Sag and Virgo being a tense, 4-10 Sun Sign Pattern, it was a very short while,but they could still reconcile, when their stars cross again). It was good for him,however brief, because all Virgos desperately need cheering, and after beingtouched by Sag Sharon's Jupiter vibes of joy and luck, the Virgin vocalist finally drifted into other areas of show business he felt needed to be perfected by his kindly, courteous and meticulous attention.
Taurus just shrugged his strong shoulders, adjusted the wooden chip on his shoulder, and his guitar strap, kept plugging and plodding, and quietly waited for his big chance. (With Taurus, it has to be big - huge - or forget it.) Now I hear he's writing the musical score for a Hollywood film, featuring two top stars.Patience pays.
That's how Taurus often wins out over Virgo - in the area of patience.Taurus always has it. Virgo usually lacks it. Virgins can appear to be tranquil,calm and patient on the surface, but their minds are constantly ticking away,and tocking them with all sorts of inner frustrations when things don't happen
as quickly or exactly in the manner they'd like. The flesh is willing, and able to remain on Earth (for a while) but the mental attitude is changeable and restive.Mercury is the true ruler of the Air Sign Gemini, and is not at all at home in its temporary association with the Earth Sign of Virgo. Consequently (possibly through sheer boredom) the tricky Mercury sometimes agitates Virgins into behavior against their real natures, and contrary to their deepest desires. Virgos may take heart, however, for, as detailed in the Virgo-Virgo chapter of this book,when Vulcan is recognized and named, within a few years (or sooner) it will begin to express its powerful, magnetic vibrations through the personalities of all Virgins, causing them to be stronger, tougher - and less likely to switch horses,ideas, girls or career in the middle of the stream of Life's little annoyances and
irritations.
Still, it will always be more natural for Taurus to succeed in a larger way than Virgo (which the Virgins don't really mind terribly) because Taurus is a Fixed Sign, "Fixed" meaning, astrologically, steady, organized and supremely capable of building a lasting foundation beneath a career, a house (making it an enduring home) or a marriage. Virgo is a Mutable Sign, "Mutable" meaning to change, to move around, to communicate between others, to carry information and truth back and forth, with both vertical and horizontal opinions. The Virgins don't feel a burning need to build a great empire or ride around in a flashy car to the sound of cheers, with ticker tape confetti falling all over them and messing up their neatly brushed hair. (Not to mention the rolls of squeezy-soft toilet tissue some people toss out the window at heroes in a parade - how vulgar can one be?)
Virgo's driving urge is to serve the world and all the individuals in it, or on it, by pointing out their faults - to bring order out of chaos and anarchy - and accumulate a reasonable amount of personal security for the future at the same time. If a Virgin should happen to wander beneath the glare of a spotlight of fame through an accident of Fate, he (or she) will blush, perhaps shyly enjoy it for a brief period, then often alienate the Press with critical remarks, express irritation with the clamoring, great, unwashed public - and finally exercise the Virgo birthright option to make a firm, clear-cut decision to retreat to the very private life most Virgos seek above all else.
Taurus wants to retire into seclusion too. And the Bulls usually have very definite ideas of where it will be. The country. Sooner or later, somewhere between the ages of six and sixty, every Bull, whether male or female, will gravitate heavily and fixedly toward the countryside - anywhere the Taureans can indulge their passion for the Good Earth, trees, grass and quiet streams, free from the interference of noisy, foolish, chattering people. But when the Bulls do finally settle down with the chickens and ducks and cows and haystacks, they don't want to depend on fickle Mother Nature's harvest for their security. This is why they'll endure the confusion and frivolity of the cities, no matter how many years it takes, so that when they leave, it will be with a large bundle under the arm - which will not be full of what the farmers use to make the grass grow green. Taurus people mistrust that substance, in all its forms. It will be filled with what is already green - beautiful, crisp pieces of currency, engraved with the glorious eagle of the United States of America. (Bulls are nearly always fanatically patriotic. Their motto is: "My country, right or wrong - my family,right or wrong - my friends, right or wrong - and last, but not least - my opinions, right or wrong.")
When Taurus and Virgo show a harmonious Sun-Moon aspect between their birth charts, in addition to the natural harmony of their 5-9 Sun Sign Pattern influence, they can happily retire together to the country. The Bulls will sit on their assets contentedly, while the Virgins dash back and forth to town for supplies . . . and to straighten things out now and then. Virgo may nag a little when Taurus is sloppy, and they may indulge in some affectionate bickering, like the characters in Neil Simon's The Odd Couple (who are, indisputably, a Bull and a Virgin, a Taurus-Virgo team), but on the whole, they'll be compatible.
It must be astrologically confessed that Virgos can be as opinionated as Taureans. The only difference is that the Bulls are opinionated in a Fixed, rather general sort of way, and the Virgins are opinionated in a hair-splitting, detailed sort of way. Once upon a time, there was a small Virgo boy, named Charles Edison Cameron. One day in grade school, in Fayetteville, North Carolina,Charlie's teacher goofed. A rather normal, unimportant trifling mistake,but the young Virgo simply couldn't bear it. The teacher placed two dots on the blackboard, across from each other, like so:
She then informed the class that these dots represented "two points." "Now,"she instructed them, "the lesson today is to prove that a straight line is the shortest distance between two points. Do I have a volunteer?" Up shot the hand of anxious Virgo Charlie, a worried frown on his face.
"Teacher," he said, very respectfully and politely, "you are wrong. A straight line is not necessarily the shortest distance between two points." The teacher flushed, visibly annoyed. "Really?" she asked the eleven-year-old,Mercury-ruled youngster. "Would you like to step up to the blackboard and explain how you can dispute such a basic theory of mathematics?" Virgo Charlie trotted immediately to the blackboard, picked up the chalk and demonstrated the proof of his statement, as the entire class rocked with laughter and the teacher's face turned bright red. His demonstration looked somewhat like this:
"You see, Teacher," Virgo Charlie said courteously, after the laughter had died down, "that line appears to me like it could run all the way to China if it wanted, and golly knows how much further than that if it was goin' straight up,instead of down. So, how could a straight line be the shortest distance between two points?"
The teacher had, of course, neglected to take the horizontal-vertical aspect of her example into consideration. And she had also goofed on her terminology,using the word "between," instead of saying "the shortest distance connecting two points." It's a common mistake of educators, even erudite math instructors.
But Virgo Charles Edison Cameron could not allow such an error of thinking and speaking to stand uncorrected. In the not too distant future, you'll be hearing more about Virgo Charles Edison Cameron, through a brilliant and blessed "breakthrough" invention of his which will be of even more importance to the world than the discovery of his namesake - so remember his name.
If Taurus and Virgo should ever decide to write a book together, the Bull will see to it that the plot is substantial. Virgo will supply the dialogue, correct the spelling and grammatical errors, punctuation and other mistakes. Taurus will then add some rich humor, market it wisely, and make sure it earns money.Sometimes people think Virgins are too timid and self-effacing, too courteous to be so super-critical. To these people, I submit a letter I received in 1970, shortly after the publication of my first book, Sun Signs. It reads as follows, verbatim:
Dear Ms. Goodman .. . I find, on page seventy-eight, line one, in the paperback edition of your book, Sun Signs, a mistake. I quote from the book the phrase: "the sandal clad people of Chaldea ...." The phrase should read, "the sandal shod people." Otherwise, you give the reader the impression that the Chaldean people wore sandals, and nothing else. Sincerely, Janine Hartman. P.S. I am a Virgo.
I wish to take this opportunity to thank Janine. As for my other readers,please permit me to correct here and now the impression I may have given to modest Virgins, conventional Taureans and the like, that the people of Chaldea all ran around naked, except for their footwear. My normally ultra-cautious and super-bright Sun Signs editor, Capricorn Bobbs Pinkerton, is properly chastised also. (A Ram may be excused for such carelessness, but never a Goat!)Isn't it fortunate that Janine added her P.S.? I would never have been able to guess her Sun Sign if she hadn't.
If there are any major publishing houses on the East or West Coast who are looking for a terrific copy editor, might I suggest they hire Janine? I'm sorry to say that in typical careless Aries fashion, I've mislaid the envelope with her address.But I feel certain I'll hear from her again, when she reads the Virgo-Virgo chapter of this book, and this time, I promise to hang on to her address. I think she's neat! My present scholarly Taurus editor, Dr. Charles Muses,agrees - firmly, of course.
