Venus in Scorpio, Pallas in Leo

A Pulsar's Hand

(photo credit: P Slane/Harvard-Smithsonian CfA et al, CXC, NASA)

Venus begins just over three weeks of transiting Scorpio on September 11 at 6:17 a.m. (UT/+0 time). Hours later – at 1:49 in the afternoon, asteroid Pallas enters Leo.

These two positions are about as much in square to each other as they can get, which is the first indicator that September 11th is going to be a day when we can be challenged…feel our challenges…or when by getting ourselves not to hold onto attributes associated with one side or the other of the concepts expressed either one of these concepts, we empower ourselves to move forward in (Scorpio) sync with our world and in a (Leo) manner which can lead to great things.

That said, neither one of these placements is a bowl of ice cream with a cherry on top, so that bears a little thinking through.

But let’s start with the square. Long regaled as the bad guys in the world of aspects, a whole lot of astrological research and gathering of statistics and life stories has shown that the ‘difficulties’ often associated with squares is a matter of imbalance.

On our parts, I mean.

Think of it this way…the 90 degree square angle is the angle used most often in construction. But in order for that ‘construct’ to hold together and bear weight, the substance and internal structure – the very nature of the ‘materials’ (i.e., what we invest in a particular attribute) have to be within – as architects and engineers might say – within tolerance.

And that tolerance isn’t about preference – it’s about the very nature of the materials involved. If the ceiling is some massive slab of lead and the walls are made of cardboard, it’s unlikely those walls are going to support that ceiling.

Each thing needs to be proper for what it is, and when we do that, the joining of the two structures becomes something which is a very good example of that proverbial expression ‘greater than the sum of the parts.’

In a natal chart, squares are what we build with. They ‘feel’ inconvenient to start with, but when we master the precepts involved, often we are led to those things which form the actual “building blocks” of our life – that which with we engineer the structuring of our life and our world.

As for Leo and Scorpio, these are two of the zodiac’s four fixed signs – the signs of processing the business of that part of the zodiac. Leo is part of the 2nd quadrant, a quadrant about learning how to operate within ‘our realm.’

Scorpio is part of the 3rd zodiacal quadrant, a quadrant all about learning how to operate in an interactive public realm.

Here’s a diagram of the ‘natural’ zodiac wheel which gives a visual in this regard…

The 2nd quadrant is localized. It’s about growing into our abilities and learning how to manage or operate them to the best of our abilities. Water sign Cancer is the first sign in this quadrant and it’s about the operating of our basic emotionality. Leo is a fire sign all about what we are able to envision ourselves being or doing – and taking our first steps (or our thousandth step!) in figuring out how to bring that ‘vision’ to life and make it ‘be’ what we want it to be. A lot of frustrations are experienced in the world of Leo because in ‘practicing’ terms Leo follows Cancer and Cancer is the first water sign of the zodiac. So we’re talking about basic reactions to our own ability to have things be what they want them to be as we go into Leo.

Being focused through Pallas, this Leo ‘striving’ and desire to make things come into being or be as they want them to be encounters a bit of a cooling off as Pallas (short for Pallas Athena) refers to the sense of ‘dispassionate wisdom’ which we might otherwise think of as ‘perspective.’

Pallas is going to be in Leo until it moves on into Virgo late on November 9th. So these next few months are a time of ‘getting perspective’ on things. Or maybe for you it’s about doing the Leo thing (creating something in your life) while employing a greater sense of perspective…a cooler passion, if you will.

As soon as I say that, it may occur to you (as it did to me) that this may surface in some lives as more of a tendency to ‘operate things’ with an eye to getting what we want from them…or getting what we want from others. If you jump to the term ‘manipulation’ you’re not incorrect. But this could also refer to guidance – the providing of it, or being guided by someone in the learning of something new.

Or maybe it’s just about support and being supported through something or by someone who has walked the same path before you.

Scaling this back into the next three weeks (plus) however, there is the Venus-in-Scorpio thing to contend with. Scorpio is the fixed sign which sits in the middle of the zodiac’s third and interactive quadrant. This is the quadrant all about ‘getting ahead’ in whatever you’re aiming to do, which is why questions of and contests of power are so vibrantly (illustriously?) connected with Scorpio. Whatever the scale…whether we’re talking about friendly competition, the interpersonal emotions we all experience through relating and relationships, the vying for dominance in business or the full fledged war complete with bullets, bombs and missiles, Scorpio essentially is the realm of having our personal relationship with ourselves tested. Yes, we tend to think Scorpio is all about ‘the other guy’ (or gal) but it isn’t – it’s about what we want and that ‘want’ as a sign of the values we hold in general and for our Self. We contest others when we’re either convinced they’re wrong or when we don’t want to admit (to ourselves or anyone else) that there’s something amiss in our thinking.

Or, since Scorpio is a water sign, in the internalized imperatives of the emotionality we bring to any given relationship or situation which calls for us to relate to someone else and where they’re coming from.

Our greatest Scorpio successes occur when we find the right people or the right ‘formula’ which gets everybody to agree to go forward with an equal amount of give and take on all sides, an equal measure of ‘getting what I want’ granted to all parties and when everyone is on the same page as to what the goal(s) are. We don’t have to all be aiming for the same thing in a Scorpio situation – but we do have to be honest about it. The simplest example of this is the all-so-frequent differences in intimate relationships where one person is all about sex and the other person is all about security and being in a relationship they can rely on. Or where one person is all about money or social status and the other person is all about love.

None of these are ‘bad’ combinations so long as we are honest about where we are coming from and what our priorities are…and so long as the person who is agreeing to be in relationship with us understands that what’s important to them is their thing and what’s important to us is our thing and that we are both equally responsible when it comes to respecting the other person as an individual with priorities we should accept – not judge – and that by entering into any relationship of any kind we are accepting…in other words CHOOSING TO ACCEPT the need to honor that other person’s needs AS THEY HAVE BEEN NEGOTIATED GOING INTO THE RELATIONSHIP.

Business is very Scorpio. In fact, high finance and investments are one of the hallmarks of Scorpio. We all know that there has long been a problem with ‘fine print’ and not fully disclosing many facts in the financial world…but on the other side of the coin there are a whole lot of people who want to get into complex financial transactions without bothering to get educated in how they work.

Asteroid Pallas as photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope

(photo credit: NASA, September 2007)

This is very much part of the Scorpio issue. While trust is a lovely thing and yes, there are people in this world who are entirely trustworthy, the person who wants to get into relationships in the Scorpio realm had better be willing to pay the price for their unwillingness to own their own personal power.

When things go wrong in the Scorpio world we feel hapless. Stupid. Unworthy. The instant tendency is to retreat.

Not so instant – or automatic – is the necessity to understand not what they did…but what in US caused us to pick them to ‘get into bed’ with - be that physically, emotionally, in business or any other way. We also need to think through what it is (specifically) in us which is so hurt…and whether that part of us has truly (honestly) been badly treated, or whether we are simply so sensitive or maybe unrealistic or perhaps just underdeveloped/underutilized that we are unable to stand the “normal” amount of daily rough and tumble which is part of human life.

Those who ask themselves these questions, those who are willing to learn and grapple with that they need to learn often return to the Scorpio foray and do very, very well the next time out.

Those who don’t, repeat their mistakes – sometimes until they refuse to emerge from their shells ever again.

There are aspects of these lessons which are about the ‘crucible’ process of being a human. The heartbreakingly tough time so associated with Scorpio loss, Scorpio defeat, Scorpio miscalculations, Scorpio abandonment – even the experience of being the object of Scorpionic abuse – these are all ‘shaping experience’ which cause us to realize what life really is…as opposed to what we want to think it is. In his masterful book “The Prophet,” Kahil Gibran wrote ‘out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars’ and that is a poignant Scorpionic statement. 

No matter who we are, respect – including that we have for ourselves - is earned.

And often the greatest amount of that respect is not earned through being the naif who ‘lucks out’ but through being the person who has felt the pain and been knocked down and who has gotten back onto their feet. ‘Older but wiser’ as we say, they learn more about who they are and about how others are and how to value both…and how to work with both…and the dangers of ignoring one or the other.

That is the Scorpio process.

All of this now comes into play with Venus’ entrance into Scorpio. That the first couple of weeks of this passage will have Venus in Scorpio against Sun In Virgo suggests that providing we are willing to be invested in knowing our own values and what we are getting into…and how that may affect us and thus our feelings about ourselves moving forward. Virgo being a sign about improving who we are, how we do what we do and our ability to grapple with our Self while taking the needs of others into account in an honorable manner, this is a period when the Venusian cause/effect. Why? Because Venus in Scorpio is all about the ‘what we do’ turning into ‘into how we are received or responded to’ – which with the Sun in Virgo can be all applause and ‘thank you’s or critiques which can feel very harsh.

Once the Sun moves into Libra on September 22nd the aura of life becomes more airy and that leads us to reflect…and contemplate…and think through and over what is going on. And what we think we should do. And what we need to understand before moving forward…or what we need to understand before making a choose to move forward in one direction or another.

This is a good time to get input from others. It’s also a good time to have as open and honest a conversation you can muster with people whose experiences mirror yours (or your proposed path forward). Understanding the thinking of others is important during the second half of Venus’ transit through Scorpio as this is where we have the greatest opportunity to understand the values of others (which we need to take into account and treat honorably) and where/how we are invested, under-invested or over-invested in one aspect of our life or another.

Given Sun in Libra against Venus in Scorpio, emotional investments are at the top of our list – and that doesn’t just mean personal or professional relationships, but rather our relationship to emotional investing (in ourselves and others)…AND our involvement in any situation which affects us emotionally.

And let’s face it…that’s just about everything!

Which calls to the fore another Scorpio issue: priorities. Scorpio is the land of emotional priorities and prioritization of emotions and emotionality. Understanding what (and who) is more important to you now can be challenging. But on the other hand, this well may be the challenge you need to face. Scorpio is the land of reconciling through negotiation with nothing ever being 100% what we want it to be.

And that calls out the best from Sun in Libra – namely, the Sun in Libra as the insight which ALLOWS us to negotiate and strike a bargain with ourselves and others which all parties can live with.

Still…don’t plan on any Libra/Scorpio love fests. These are sequential signs and sequential signs always feel a little bit awkward. Moreover, if your personal chart is very air-born or very water-logged (logged into this life as watery and therefore emotional) your tendency is going to be to ‘favor’ on thing over the other – which with Venus in Scorpio may mean ‘fighting’ for the right to splurge however you tend to splurge, whether that means ‘doing too much’ or ‘doing not at all.’

As photographed from space, an orbital sunrise with Venus and Mars just visible in the glow

(photo credit: NASA, Aug 1995)

Both are splurges in the metaphysical sense. Any time we ‘polarize’ and indulge, that’s a splurge!

Going back to Pallas…hopefully Pallas’ dispassionate nature will help us think things through. With Mars also transiting Leo throughout this time there’s no lack of will to operate…but there may be some unwillingness to see any perspective other than your own.

And that is just the nature of the beast…and hopefully not the beastliness of this time.

That all is not going to be totally cool, calm and collected is to be anticipated going through these next few weeks if only (only?) because Pluto will be going direct on September 20th and – though you might be bored with hearing me say it – we are in the auspices of the approaching Solar Eclipse.

Some things will be insecure now. Some things will be crumbling even as we try to hold onto them. Why they are no longer stable - that's the question to ask. That which is not working is not working because it has outlived its function at least in the format which it now exists. Maybe you can reinvent it? Venus in Scorpio would be good for that. Maybe you need to reorganize your priorities - the 'investing' of your time, your feelings, your regard for self-versus-others?

Maybe. It all depends.

Speaking of which, Venus will hit the degree of the eclipse ON September 20th or 21st, depending on where you live. The days around Pluto’s station – considering Pluto is the ‘outcome’ ruler of Scorpio – is going to tell you a lot about the choices you have already made, and pose a few new choices which need making.

Hopefully you will employ your very best Venus in Scorpio in making them. The combining of Venus in Scorpio with Pallas in Leo which will deeply color September's mid-section and lead us into the Pluto station is all about what we might call 'dispassionate passion' - the ability to care about the internal functionality of something and its integrity as much as 'what it looks like' or how that relates to some other thing (or how someone else relates to it).

The more we remember that what we want has to be gotten from someone else, the more we are likely to realize that what we do and how we go about doing it has a far, far greater chance for success if we remember that others have feelings and needs and aims which are quite as strong and quite as valid as our own.

We don’t need people to be like us…we need people who will be fair and caring about who we are.

And that starts with our being fair and caring about who everybody is. We change our world by changing ourselves and our relationship to that world. We can’t shut it out and expect it to take us in, we can’t dishonor ourselves and expect to be respected and we can’t be our best Self except in the company of others who are dedicated to being the best human being they know how to be.

There are lots of posers. The conservative bet now and moving forward however, goes to those and that which embodies lasting quality.
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