Jesus – the Virgo personality

23/08/09 | Posted by Steve Hollinghurst

The Virgo personality is what one would call a details person. They will see the slightest thing out of place and seek to run an orderly, logical and well-planned life. They also are strongly concerned with health and hygiene. But if this was a trait seen in Jesus as a healer it was also very much in evidence in the Pharisees who often opposed Jesus in those very acts of healing because he broke what they saw as God’s rules. So how might people like this give their talents in the service of others but avoid becoming rule-bound at the same time?

 Virgo (traditionally August 23rd – September 22nd)

The Virgo personality is based in the earth/strength element. Yet unlike some of the personalities this is not about physical power but deftness of hand and practicality. This goes well with their attention to detail. People with this personality type will make sure the things they turn their hand to are completed efficiently and with great care. They are also modest and discreet, often they are the kind of people who make things happen quietly in the background whilst louder types might grab the attention but may also never see the important details that lie beneath the big picture. They are also good analytical thinkers and may have much to offer as academics, accountants and in secretarial roles as well as in various forms of medicine.

In Jesus healing miracles we see this attention to detail as well as the care that leads to the desire to heal others. Jesus often shows awareness of the wider issues involved. So when he heals lepers he is aware that they need to be reconciled to society as outcasts as much as they need their physical condition healing. So he is careful to make sure they go as the law stated to the priests so they could be declared clean and allowed back into society. A similar concern seems present when the woman who had suffered from bleeding for years, and thus making herself unclean according to the law too. When she touches Jesus he makes sure her healing is made public or her re-integration to society cannot be assured. What he doesn’t pursue however is that her act in touching Jesus made him unclean and could thus be seen as an act of law breaking in itself.

Unfortunately for those with Virgo personalities attention to detail can become a pedantic fussiness and obsession with order which can make them petty and over-critical of others. When Jesus was at the house of Simon the Pharisee and a woman came and anointed Jesus feet and kissed them as sign of devotion Simon judged Jesus negatively because he should have known this woman had a scandalous life and was shunned by all in respectable company. Jesus however is more interested in helping the woman than keeping to social rules. Similarly when Jesus heals somebody on the Sabbath day of rest the Pharisees are more concerned that this may mean Jesus was breaking the rules by working than they are pleased someone has been healed. Jesus responds that the Sabbath was made for people not the other way round; if there are rules they are meant to bless people not be used rigidly against people.

It is the spiritual sensitivity that comes from the water/spirit element that is needed here to keep things in perspective, indeed to help us keep to the spirit and not the letter of the law, a phrase that enters our language from one of Jesus followers St Paul. It is this deeper insight that means for Jesus the letter of the law is never to be used to oppress others, especially those in need of helaing, care, compassion and forgiveness. Jesus warns us that we our selves will be judged as we have judged others. Those who are legalistic and judgemental will find mercy hard to come by. Too often when we judge others we also fail to see the true picture, allowing our strict sense of what is proper to cloud our judgement. It is better as Jesus advises not to judge and leave that to God. Instead we need the spirit at work in us to make us compassionate, and then attention to deal and concern for doing things properly becomes a blessing to others and not a curse.

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