Order in Chaos: Virgo at Work

I was retrenched at Christmas last year.

Because the MotherShip closed down the company I worked for, a number of us were retrenched. It was done with plenty of communication, lots of warning, and all of us were left with integrity intact. We all had our choices and those choices were respected.

One of my ex colleagues, a guy who had helped me through some pretty tough projects in Brisbane last year, decided (as did many of us) to take a break over the summer before looking for work.

Unlike the rest of us, though, he quickly became despondent during the break. Why? It was because he wasn’t being of any use to anyone. My ex-colleague is a Virgo.

When I suggested this to him, he denied it.

‘I’m not a typical Virgo, Jo,’ he said. ‘I’m not a clean freak’

Then he thought a little about it.

‘I just like things to be where they should be and to do the best that I can do,’ he said. ‘You know, provide the support so you can do what you need to do.’

‘I couldn’t have done Brisbane without you,’ I said. And I couldn’t have. Together we worked well. I’m a big picture girl and can be across a number of different projects. I relied on people like my colleague for the detail. Where I would say things like, ‘do we really need to be faffed with this? Let’s just leave it until later- it must be the network, or the flipping system. Anyway I have a builder to deal with…’ He would say something like, ‘Jo, stop hovering, let me sort out the finer details, work through the root cause and we’ll talk in an hour.’

We worked well together. I could deal with the chaos, but not the order. He was the opposite.

Now he said, ‘It’s just that when I’m organised things work better, and when I’m in chaos I have no idea what to do. That’s how I’m feeling now.’

That’s Virgo.

‘Hey, that’s Virgo, isn’t it?’ he asked.

Yes, it is.

Virgo is an Earth sign- we know that. We also know that in the body, Virgos job is to make order out of chaos- to analyse what we take in (food) and direct it to the part/s of the body where it is required.

Virgo is useful. Virgo needs to be useful. At this point I usually get emails and tweets from Virgos telling me that this isn’t the case. Apparently this isn’t a glamorous trait.

Virgo is associated with the 6^th house, and the 6^th house is, amongst other things, associated with outsourced work, service and practical day to day work. Apparently this isn’t glamorous either.

I recently heard a podcast featuring a prominent Australian Chef. This guy has a number of restaurants, a number of cookbooks and is a judge on Australia’s highest rating TV reality show. When asked what he does? He serves. Not in a servant, master type of relationship, but as in a feed people, keep them happy, be useful type of way. My Scorpio husband, who has a packed 6^th house, has a similar attitude- his job requires him to provide customers with what they need. Gordon Ramsey also has a Virgo Moon, again reinforcing that concept of service.

This is what Virgo is good at- not that they really care to admit it- many Virgos (especially younger Virgos) would much rather have a different reputation. Virgo is always hard on themselves.

The thing is, all signs have a range of behaviour- from the bright side, to the dark side and all points in between and extremes at either end.

So who is the typical Virgo? The clean freak scrubbing away at white tiles and mirrored surfaces? The person living in absolute chaos and dust bunnies who has thrown up their hands in despair and declared that they can never bring order, so why bother?

Somewhere in the middle is the Virgo who wants to do the best they can, someone who wants to be useful. It’s someone like my ex colleague- who deserves to be valued and appreciated.