Writing these entries has made this stupid year seem like it’s going by suspiciously fast but here we are at Virgo and the 9th card is out! Again I’d remind people that the signs are mapped to the cards by qualities associated with the land type! For the Islands I also tried to play on the association of Islands with illusions by giving them all split horizons. The previous two revealed hidden things below the water while this one plays on the image doubled as a reflection and I designed it with the idea of looking at it flipped either way. I sort of regret not submitting it the other way round with the reflection at the top.
I’ve never really resonated with the symbology of Virgo. Some lady? Why? Boring! But in doing this project I finally sat down to actually look up the mythology and found it to be one of the more interesting ones. The lady in question is Astraea, a cosmic star goddess of justice who was the last of the gods to leave earth, spending her time among mortals trying to adjudicate disputes and compel humans to act fairly. When she finally decided we were simply too lost she ascended into the sky becoming the stars that make up Virgo.
Astrea/Astrape Apulian red-figure loutrophorus via Theoi/Getty images
Ovid, Metamorphoses 1. 148 ff (trans. Melville) (Roman epic C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) (via Theoi) :
"Last [of the Ages of Men] came the Race of Iron (Proles Ferro). In that hard age of baser vein all evil straight broke out, and honour fled and truth and loyalty, replaced by fraud, deceit and treachery and violence and wicked greed for gain . . . Honour and love lay vanquished, Astraea, virgin divine, the last of the immortals, fled away."
There is also an idea that one day she might return and bring about a new utopian age. This is a real myth type to me; Christian myths about the return of Jesus are an obvious point of reference but it’s something you find in a lot of utopian religious movements, including ufo cults like the Unarians and various ancient alien theories like those of Sitchin or Von Daniken, and the association of Astraea with specifically stars and space kind of pushed that to the forefront of my mind. It’s understandable (but probably not constructive) to want to believe that something more powerful than us exists, set this world in motion for some plausible reason, and will one day return with one weird trick to fix the big fucking mess we made. I tried to relay this cycle in making an image where, utilizing the reflected double, the star ascends and descends (and the image reverses).
Because of the position of this sign in the year it’s also often associated with harvest (Astraea is also pictured holding a sheaf of wheat) and the myth of Persephone/Demeter which is also a cyclical myth of descent and ascent, loss and hope, as Persephone descends into Hades towards the end of the year to serve her term as the goddess of the underworld, only to ascend in the Spring bringing new life with her.
Something interesting, that someone who understands the way astrology was formalized may know more about, is the fact that Astraea is associated with both Virgo and Libra, the more transparently justice themed sign immediately succeeding it. The qualities associated with Virgo of meticulousness and order map onto the idea of a goddess who brought calm and order as well. Maya was the one who came up with the idea of a tiny hidden temple on the island, remote and unreachable.
Only 3 more cards to go! I recently got some more proofs so I now have Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces, and Aries, and I have several more on the way. I’ll probably start taking proof comissions once the next batch arrives just so people have a lot of options if they’re interested, and Donny will be managing those commissions as well. When they’re available he and I will both post about it. In the meantime I have an album cover underway and still have to finish my Gogol reprint which I’m hoping to have done by the end of October at least.