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1st decan of Virgo: dates and rulers

Virgo’s first third is said to join precision with the wish to see your skill recognized, or to remain purely methodical.

  • know-how
  • precision
  • pride in work well done
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1st decan of Virgo: Sun (faces), Virgo (triplicity)
The essentials

The 1st decan of Virgo at a glance

For you

Skill brought into the light or cultivated for its own sake: the Sun shows it, Mercury refines it.

A strength

Passing on a clear method that makes other people’s work simpler.

Something to watch

Waiting for a thank-you that is slow to come, or endlessly correcting what already works.

The sign
♍︎ Virgo
Decan planet
☉︎ Sun
Associated sign
♍︎ Virgo (Mercury)
Read more
Calculate my decan

By Thomas Guilhot · updated

The 1st decan of Virgo: the meaning

The Sun follows Mars in the Chaldean order, so it opens Virgo.

The triplicities give this initial slice to the sign and its master, Mercury. Virgo, a mutable earth sign, associated with harvest and sorting, would take on two faces here: that of a skill that wants to be seen, or that of a skill that is self-sufficient, discreet and meticulous.

With the Sun, one would describe a person who likes to sign their work: the cake everyone asks for at every birthday, the tracking sheet the whole team uses, the tutorial they post online. With Mercury, a more self-effacing person, who rereads an email three times before sending it and spots the typo on the restaurant menu. Both share the pleasure of careful craft and a well-chosen tool.

The downside differs by ruler. The Sun might make a person sensitive to lack of recognition: flawless work passed over in silence would hurt more than criticism. Mercury would push toward endless correcting, doubting every detail. Accepting that a piece of work is good enough, and saying so yourself without waiting for others to do it, would free this decan. A list of the week’s successes, reread on Friday, would help it see how far it has come.

Sign
VirgoEarth, mutable; ruler: Mercury
Degrees
0° to 10°Longitude 150° to 160°
Faces (Chaldean)
SunPlanet 4 of the Chaldean order
Triplicity
Virgo (Mercury)The sign itself

The 1st decan of Virgo: tradition

What tradition says

Virgo gives the Sun nothing in the way of dignity; Mercury, by contrast, holds both domicile and exaltation there according to Ptolemy, a unique case of a planet twice at home in a single sign.

How is it calculated?

The faces give Sun; the triplicities give Virgo itself and its ruler, Mercury.

Frequently asked questions about the 1st decan of Virgo

Which planet rules the 1st decan of Virgo?

The Sun by the Chaldean faces, Mercury by the triplicities. The faces follow the series of the seven planets, which arrived at the Sun after Mars, the last decan of Leo. The triplicities, for their part, leave the opening of the sign to Mercury, which rules it. Both rulers are given here side by side, with what each would add to Virgo.

Is Mercury really exalted in Virgo?

That is the position of Ptolemy and the tradition that follows him: in Virgo, Mercury would be at home and, in addition, exalted, at the fifteenth degree according to later authors, so in the next decan. No other planet combines the two dignities in a single sign. It is a symbolic construction, with no forecasting value.

Does the 1st decan of Virgo seek recognition?

In the reading by faces, the Sun would add the wish to see your skill acknowledged. In the one by triplicities, Virgo would remain discreet, focused on the quality of the work more than on its echo. The rest of the chart, notably the Sun and the midheaven, says far more about this relationship to recognition.

Neighboring decans

The three decans of Virgo

The decans of Sun (faces)