09/13/2019
MY FRIEND ROY, VIRGO ASTROLOGER EXTRAORDINAIRE
I first met Roy in September of 1990. We were both showing up for our first day of work at a new business called The Psychic Source. Along with us were about 20 others hired to answer phones as tarot readers, psychics and astrologers. Each new hiree introduced themselves in turn. Roy got the most attention. He dressed immaculately, had a shaved head, spoke eloquently with enthusiasm and, at 42 years old, was older than the rest of us. Right off the bat, it was obvious that he was in another league in terms of astrological proficiency, experience and knowledge. He exemplifies his Sun sign, Virgo, in some the most positive ways I’ve ever come across. Let me enumerate some of these traits, as Roy lives them out.
First of all, he’s a power talker like many of his sign-mates. Virgo is ruled by Mercury, planet of the written and spoken word. I used to try to keep up with him in conversation. Over time, though, I’ve learned to just listen for long stretches. The thing is, everything that comes out of his mouth is either entertaining or informative, or both. I can’t remember one single time when he droned on about something boring. Never happened; not gonna happen. The man is encyclopedic on more topics than you can shake a stick at: jazz and classical music, marshal arts, geography, food and drink, computers, plus a bunch of other stuff.
Virgo is known as a helpful, service-oriented sign. Speaking for myself, he helped me make a quantum leap as an astrologer. I often refer to myself as self-taught in this area, but that’s strictly true only up to the point I met Roy. With me, as with other Psychic Source workers he selflessly and patiently gave us the benefit of his years of experience and expertise. The more difficult the technique or concept, the longer he would spend getting us to wrap our minds around it.
Don’t ever let anybody tell you that Virgos are boring. They’re characters. Part of it has to do with their wiry nervous energy. Part of it also has to do with the fact that they are relatively self-contained and happy being on their own. Maybe that makes them more immune to the creeping forces of uniformity. Whatever the reason, they stand out in a crowd without trying to attract attention. Roy, for instance, has never held a conventional job that I know of. Even when he came closest to having one, he was working from home a long distance away. If anything he’s overqualified for most employment, what with his facility with computer programming and the unbelievable speed with which he learns unfamiliar tasks. Most people of his age and ability would have been heading a team at one of the big tech companies.
Roy epitomizes Virgo’s preoccupation with health, diet, alternative medicine, etc. During the early years of our friendship he was a strict vegetarian and abstainer from intoxicants. I’ve never known a better cook of hearty, satisfying vegetarian meals. He has always been a font of information where it comes to herbs, homeopathy, Chinese medicine, dietary supplements, etc. He now enjoys a good beer, scotch or glass of red wine, alongside having an appreciation of fine food. That said, his cabinet of homeopathic remedies still gets plenty of use.
Unlike the other earth signs (Capricorn and Ta**us), Virgo has an insatiable appetite for change and variety due it being mutable and mercurial. In person, he is animated. Even when sitting down he gives the impression of being constantly in motion. Roy has done his share of relocating geographically. Buying a house or co-op to settle down in has never been a priority for him. Mentally, his restless, inquisitive mind has delved thoroughly into every single branch of astrology: modern Western, Cosmobiology, Western sidereal, horary, Vedic, Chinese, Medieval and Hellenistic. To have become an in-depth practitioner in all these areas is unheard of in our profession.
If Roy could be said to have a glaring fault, it would be a stereotypically Virgonian one: overwork. As with many astrologers, retirement is a non-starter. You’d think, though, that in his early seventies he could reduce the work load a tad and take it easy. Oh no, not him. Activity is his natural state, even if necessity is also a driving factor. In September of 2015 we arranged to be in Stockholm, Sweden for the same four days. The photo above is of him holding a map of spots featured in the Millenium novels and movies (Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, etc.) which we explored one afternoon. He’s shown pointing to the apartment of co-protagonist Mikael Blomqvist. That evening we stayed out late at a Sodermalm bar joking and shooting the breeze with some local regulars. When it was time to head back to our respective hotels it was almost midnight, at which point he offhandedly said: “I’ve got to get some work done on the computer for a couple of hours or so.” The life of a Virgo, I suppose.
Roy’s ceaseless industriousness and curiosity is our gain. I deeply hope that he publishes a book one of these days. On top of that, it would be nice if he could get out and lecture on the circuit of astrology conventions and workshops. The man has so much to impart from his years of experience and study. For the most part, though, self-promotion has never been a big motivator for him. Maybe it’s the supposed Virgo virtues of modesty and taking pride in craftsmanship. I wish this were true of all of them.
