"Service"

"Service" is a word that gets thrown around in a lot of astrological texts, but it's typically not defined very well. Let's fix that, because it's about to become increasingly relevant (Saturn will enter Pisces in a little bit and I am going to link back to this article more than once).

The most important thing to keep in mind is the spirit in which service is offered. Think about an infant: babies are helpless, and to tend to them is service, because babies can't give you anything in return. So you can take care of the baby, because you know that taking good care of a baby will help it to someday become a productive member of society and further the human race, OR, you can give it what it needs to make the screaming stop. The former is service, the latter is not.

Service happens when you have something to offer that will help another person (place, or thing). You can get paid for service: again, it's about the spirit of the thing. If you are performing a service and are feeling that you are owed something, especially recognition, you're no longer doing service, you're doing business. If you're using skills you have that you're happy to use to contribute, and you know you're making a difference in the life or lives of others, we're back to service. You can tell if you've received service or if you've received business by how you feel when you're walking away from the transaction. If you felt personally looked after, that's service. If you feel like you were just attended to because your number was called: business.

Broadly, service has two flavors: Virgo and Pisces. This is part of why it's so hard to define, because it can look like two vastly different things.

Virgo is about concrete stuff. Virgo will redo your kitchen and talk (sometimes endlessly) about some really specific and technical details of why they're doing what they're doing. I tend to hide from these people and just let them do their thing, because I cannot fake interest in label makers or different paint shade names. I respect the hell out of these people, but I tend to accidentally offend their exacting sensibilities. There’s a huge population of people with strong Virgo in medicine, for example.

Pisces is about holding your hand when you're scared or sad, and selflessly tending to people/things who can't help themselves. Pisces is fueled mainly by vibes.

The dark side of Virgo is feeling like they're the ONLY one who can perform certain tasks, and assigning themselves those tasks until the list of tasks is a mile long. Virgo does not leave much room for its own humanity. An overworked Virgo is no longer doing service, it's doing what it does because the ego feels good about accomplishing things.

The dark side of Pisces is a fun little game of "look how much I can sacrifice" and a martyr complex accordingly. Sometimes Pisces starts helping the less fortunate as a way to make themselves feel superior, because there are people worse off than them.

If you have no planets in either Virgo or Pisces, good for you, but you have a Mercury and a Neptune, and you have a 6th house and a 12th house, so examine which one of those seems to be more active in your life: are you building a bookshelf or kissing babies? Also, there are people with lots of Virgo AND Pisces and sometimes those planets oppose each other. Or they have Mercury and Neptune in aspect. These can be some of the most understanding and selfless hard workers you've ever met, OR they can be long-suffering and deluded. Sometimes (somehow) it's both...but usually in different arenas of life (think: good at doing yeoman's work, but might be in a cult).

People who do service need to eat, sleep, and tend to their human needs, otherwise it's somehow an out-of-control ego trip OR an attempt to kill their ego. But we have egos, and bodies, and needs. That's part of the whole human deal. So this is where things get really, really distorted. No doubt you've known a few people who fit this description. Not to knock on them: everyone has their issues. But service to an ideal can quickly become something pretty ugly if there's no balance.

Word that is kryptonite to both Virgo and Pisces populations: “should.” I hope it’s obvious that guilt is a huge motivator for the service oriented, but burnout occurs when they feel like the only people who can do whatever it is they feel they need to do. These people need to learn to say no, teach others how to do what they can do, communicate about their goals, or relax their standards to “good enough” rather than perfect. Here's a different pitfall in the same vein: deciding for someone else what is "best" for that person. I think we can agree that it's probably best for toddlers not to play with electrical outlets. But think of a Virgo or Pisces on a diet who then insists that everyone around them be on that same diet because what is "best" for them must be good for you, too. Another example: presents that are actually suggestions in disguise. My Pisces mother felt I had an attitude problem as a teenager and gave me an artisanal angel wall hanging for Christmas that said something (I don't remember what) about being nice. I hung it above the toilet in the bathroom I shared with my sister.

So with Saturn in Pisces, which begins in March, you get to ask yourself what it is you're serving: a sense of peace? A sense of guilt? Someone else's needs? What's "best" for someone? Wherever Saturn is, we either concentrate our efforts or begin to build, and usually it's both but in different ways: you limit behaviors that aren't working and gain mastery in areas that are working. I'd challenge you to begin to notice where you're putting your time and energy in the spirit of helping, because you may find yourself asking whether you're truly helping after all...in 2023 and beyond.

XO,J