24 August to 23 September Above dates can vary +/- 1 day

THE VIRGIN Ruled by Mercury Feminine, Negative, Mutable Earth Sign

For those born under the earth sign of Virgo, work may play the central role in your existence. Such work is often of a service or health-related nature. If this is not so and ill health befalls you, perhaps you should consider a task in life that suits your temperament and soul's desire. Since the planet Mercury is assigned to Virgo, you are essentially searching for knowledge that will allow your ideals to be put to practical use. You have a sense of pride in achievements and little or no patience with beauty that has no function.

You are diligent, analytical, meticulous, and industrious, although at times you may be finicky, worrisome, and a procrastinator. You like to create order from chaos and may analyse your surroundings down to the smallest detail. At times you may get so caught up in the details that you cannot see the forest for the trees. With experience, you can learn to differentiate between essential facts and trivial details. Yet, you should avoid the tendency to mistake your efficient intellectual capacities for divine knowledge.

You should also be careful that you do not narrow your focus too much. You may find it impossible to talk of anything but your job and lose all interest in things unconnected with your working environment. As you become more experienced, you may learn that people do not have to exhaust their bodies with anxiety, worry, suffering, and too much work--this can lead to health problems. Nonetheless, you have an excellent natural resistance to illness. Natural foods taken in the correct combination will greatly help you. On the other hand, if anxiety and concern over health runs high, you are likely to be something of a hypochondriac.

Virgo is an earth sign, and so you appreciate material progress. Like most earth signs, you have a fear of poverty and this may contribute to some of your worry. You love good food and value practical physical comforts. Nobody can surpass your perfectionism. Eloquence impresses you, particularly when well-chosen words are put together like gems on a necklace. Such words sound like a symphony to your ears, and you prefer this kind of attention to other less sophisticated signs of affection.

The sceptics and the critics of this world often have some Virgo energy about them. Your individual sense of pride and humour can be revealed in a satirical way. You may like to tease others and in extreme cases, take on an Athena type of personality, becoming impatient and condescending to those of a more sentimental nature. You like to use reason to understand the world and despise bias and bigotry.

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Below, in the music world, find out who shares a birthday with you.