The silver stars and silhouette of Virgo are illustrated in this handmade block print. The Greeks and Romans associated Virgo with their goddess of wheat/agriculture, Demeter, who is the mother of Persephone and often shown like this with a palm frond and a sheath of wheat. Parts of the constellations of Bootes, Libra, Corvus and Crater and the dashed line of the ecliptic are also shown. If you imagined all celestial bodies we see in the night sky as mapped onto a sphere (the Celestial Sphere) around our Earth, the ecliptic would be the line you would draw to map the apparent path of the Sun through the various constellations. The word Virgo and symbol ♍ appear at the top of the image. The lines linking the constellation appear in silver-on-blue or blue-on-silver as appropriate. There are a few bright galaxies or star clusters shown as circles. I printed an edition of ten prints, 10 inches by 7.5 inches (25.4 cm by 19 cm) on lovely, deep blue, handmade, Japanese kozo (or mulberry) paper with silk fibres.

The large bright star near her left hand is Spica, Latin for "ear of grain", since the Babylonians associated the constellation with "The Furrow" for the goddess the Shala's ear of grain or corn. and the 'Frond of Erua' in the western sector. The Babylonians associated the western sector of Virgo wtih The Frond of Erua, depicted as a goddess holding a palm-frond. This is why we now see depictions of Virgo with both grain and palm frond.

The constellation overhead at a person's birth was thought to provide insight into their character and fate. Well into the Renaissance, medical doctors were expected to be trained in astrology, as it was deemed an important diagnostic tool. Though today, astronomy tells us that Sun now appears in the constellation Virgo from September 17 to October 31 (approximately), the traditional dates which determine a Virgo 'sun sign' are August 23 to September 22.