Venus in Sagittarius

 Fractal image by Electricsheep

(image credit: Chris Ursitti)

Venus enters Sagittarius on Sunday, December 16th at 4:29 in the morning, UT/+0 time.

Will we notice? Probably yes, though initial effects are likely to be fairly subtle. Where Venus in Scorpio (which we’re leaving behind) is intense and focused on ‘what works,’ ‘the value’ of this or that and what kind of options may be found, Venus in Sagittarius is a bit more lighthearted – more into the fun and frolic than Venus in Scorpio, one might say.

Sagittarius being a sign which functions at a quicker pace than Scorpio, responses, results, costs and consequences will be more obvious and more readily generated in the next three-plus weeks ahead.

On the other hand, Sagittarius is a mutable sign. Where Scorpio evokes various sorts of ‘do it once, do it forever’ feelings, Sagittarius is more about enjoying things in the moment and if necessary, changing things (ideas, methods, aims) as you go or on the run. Venus in Sagittarius tends to be more about the ‘good intention’ than the ‘thoughtful choice’ which, considering that this Venus/Sagittarius transit will carry us through the balance of the holidays, fits with the idea of just having a good time as opposed to finding that perfect gift, menu, guest list, travel plan…etc.

 Shoppers on Dundas Street in Toronto, Canada going about their December business (Ian Muttoo, December 2009)

Of course as always, there’s a down side. Where Venus in Scorpio will have promoted more caution, Venus in Sagittarius can manifest as a carefree, slap-dash quality which can cause people to think you don’t care. 

(Or care enough, yes.)

As Venus enters Sagittarius it parts company from the “obliging-versus-obligatory” North Node, which will enhance momentary feelings of having gotten past some ‘heavy matter.’ And with Industria sitting just ahead of Venus (at 1 Sagittarius) as Venus makes its ingress, this sounds a bit like I’ve done all the things I HAD to do…now I can get on to what I WANT to do!’ with the ‘had to do’ part having been dictated at least in part by (North Node in Scorpio) other people and the needs/demands of others…or obligation to others.

With Jupiter being the ruler of Sagittarius, and since it pays to check the sign ruler as any planet makes an ingress, we look to Jupiter, which is still in Gemini, in retrograde and (of all things) conjunct Aldebaran to the degree. And since Aldebaran is in opposition to Antares (at 9 Sagittarius, let’s toss a thought or two on that into the pot, too.

 Jupiter in the Night Sky over Old Saybrook, Connecticut

(Tushar N Dadarwala, January 2012)

We don’t always consider Antares when we consider Aldebaran no. But since Mercury is at 7 Sagittarius as Venus makes its ingress (and going to conjunct Antares and oppose Jupiter on the 17th – one day after Venus enters Sagittarius) this is probably worth a moment of contemplation.

Mercury in Sagittarius is a thought, deed which stems from a vision of how things can be. Or maybe should be – this being why Mercury in Sagittarius is sometimes said to be righteous, dogmatic or ‘my way or the highway’ insistent. (And of course there are gradations of any of same.) The premier question with Sagittarius is will it work which when we add Mercury becomes the idea or the statement which works – and if it doesn’t, why it doesn’t…the idea not taken into account, doing something without knowing all the facts, etc.

Jupiter in Gemini is thought, communication and activities increased. Or maybe hyped. Or maybe done too quickly (in hyper-drive). Jupiter in Gemini is famous for doing too much or too fast. The thought gets over-thunk, the boundary gets overstepped, the necessary thing gets overlooked because there’s so much going on.

With Jupiter currently in retrograde, we’re all considering how these ideas work (or have worked) in our lives. Have we gone wrong, or do we merely see things a different way? Gemini is always about choices and Jupiter in Gemini gives us too many choices or we may choose to do too much.

Yes, Jupiter in Gemini can be the moment, the idea, the ability to be incisive and insightful. It can also represent the statement, action or period of time when we are – or discover that we have been -truly derisive and painfully dismissive.

At Venus’ Sagittarian ingress, Jupiter is conjunct Aldebaran, a fixed star which famously represents success which is achieved ONLY when we have maintained our standards of integrity. When, where and if we haven’t, Aldebaran will expose those… um… oversights and errors in judgment. (We’ll just call them that.)

Mercury conjuncting Antares is a whole other ball of mental wax. (Sounds anatomical, doesn’t it?) Antares is another royal star, a star which promises success only IF we don’t cling to or focus on one thing obsessively.

Antares and Aldebaran are in pretty permanent opposition. That should tell us that they’re “balancing forces” in our life, right? Too much obsessing on what we want to think or want others to think true undermines our integrity.

The astrologer’s honest call here is that Mercury conjuncting Antares does tend to manifest as obsessive thinking. What you do with that is up to you. Since this ties into the 2012 end-of-year / holiday season Venus in Sagittarius transit, this can easily all relate to money, income, expenditures and ‘gift’ issues. It can also represent a barrage of media output during this time, which may or may not have anything to do with holiday issues. (Think politics, education, travel, religious teachings, etc.)

The good news here is with Jupiter in retrograde, this is less likely to be a moment of public exposure and more likely to be a matter of personal realization. So don’t be shocked if you (or someone else) suddenly changes their mind about what they like. Or don’t like. Don’t be surprised if something you never wanted to do suddenly sounds attractive.

One other interesting factoid here is simply numerical and I may be able to get a scan made here…(turns on the scanner)…to show you what I’m talking about.    

 From 'The American Ephemeris for the 21st Century (2001-2050) at Noon'

programmed by Neil Michelson with revisions by Rique Pottenger

(c. 1996 by ACS Publications) 

Above is a scan from the ephemeris I use on a daily basis when I’m writing here at the blog. Sorry that the images is a tiny bit crooked and that I didn’t quite get the right hand Pluto column all in there perfectly…(do me a favor – don’t tell Pluto!)…but for those who don’t read ‘astrology glyph’ I’ve given you an arrow to the symbol for Venus at the top. You’ll also  probably recognize the numbers on the left with the abbreviations for the days of the week as the sequence which matches our December.

Okay….now go down to where I’ve highlighted the page in Venus pink. (Yes, that’s what I’m calling it!)

When I talk about planets being in decanates, this is what I’m looking at. As of December 24 (UT/+0), Venus will arrive at 10 Sagittarius and thus move into the second decanate (second ten degrees) of Sagittarius. This is the emotional decan of Sagittarius where ideas and hopes and aims are felt, expressed, even insisted on most fervently.

What I’m really getting at here becomes most evident when you look at all the other planets and where they are during the balance of the month. From the 24th through the end of the month, while Venus is traversing Sagittarius’ most emotionally intense area, all the other planets (standard planets, that is) are either in first decan positions (Sun, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto) or third decan positions (Mercury).

Mars is doing it’s own thing: on the 24th it’s just wrapping up its transit of Capricorn, and on the 26th it moves on into Aquarius (which yes, means Mars will be at 29 “critical” degrees of Capricorn on Christmas day, ho-ho-ho).

The point is that Venus is all alone in the 2nd decanate. By astrological rule, that means nothing will be aspecting Venus. And when a planet is unaspected, it does it’s thing like nobody’s business and does it to unheralded degrees.

If I were a retailer, I would be loving this. After Christmas sales are likely to be really, really good. A lot of people may take some time off during this period and it wouldn’t surprise me to hear that travel has a definite up-tick during this time.

 A Qantas A380 arrives in Los Angeles after flying from Melbourne, Australia

(Skinnylawyer, December 2011)

As we’ve already touched on elsewhere, Mercury moves on into Capricorn on New Years Eve, which is pretty much in tandem with Venus moving from the 2nd into the 3rd decan of Sagittarius. And since the third ten degrees of any sign have to do with worldly input/reactions to what we’ve done, this tends to say that the last week of Venus’ transit of Sagittarius will be the oh-so human and philosophic recognition that for all the saying how everybody would like it if people held onto that ‘good holiday feeling’ throughout the rest of the year, that it just never works that way.

One last ‘up’ note here…if you’re someone starting on some sort of new venture (or even a new form or format of an old venture) this Venus in late Sagittarius-Mercury in Capricorn-Mars in early Aquarius is a good time to get to work and get things under way. Results won’t be immediate, but anything we’re aiming at benefits from attention, effort and input during the first week-plus of January.

Have a fine Venus in Sagittarius!
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