Venus in Capricorn

Venus Verticordia by Dante Rossetti (1886)

The Sun will be getting ready to cross the Scorpio cross-quarter point when on November 5th, Venus moves into Capricorn.

In the wake of the solar eclipse, Venus’ change of signs along with the cross-quarter crossing are the first signs of life moving on.

Moving on from…what?

From that strange Scorpio ability to freeze us in our tracks even as we are magically (even for some, magickally) transformed.

Scorpio has a strange quality which philosophically we associate with it’s representation of water (the energy of fluid emotions) in its ‘fixed modality’ or state – thus water’s ‘frozen’ state. And there’s no question but that things which happen under a Scorpio influence…or things which strongly activate factors we associate with Scorpio in your personal chart can freeze you - in your mind, in your tracks, in that moment or those weeks of experiencing the depths of some transformative or even traumatic issue.

It can also elicit the experience of those place in our emotional psyches (in particular) where we are particularly ‘frozen’…stuck somewhere in emotional time.

Then again, there are things which benefit from freezing. That’s something which occurred to me as I considered Scorpio’s various facets as being both about our darkness and our light. All astrological emblems can be something better…or something worse. They can even simultaneously function to our advantage and our disadvantage.

Which yes, can – and often does drive us half past bonkers.

As I thought…suddenly it hit me: only that which has been frozen can thaw.

Put that in Scorpio terms, and we come to the things which are most precious to us are also the most frightening as that’s where we stand the most to lose – especially in our own eyes.

There may be someone alive who has seamlessly come to love…for whom life has been peaceful and devoid of even a single bruise, but in general, that doesn’t seem to be the human rule.

And when it comes to the pitfalls of interaction, Scorpio pits us against the pittiest of pits in the most pitiful and pitiless of manners. And there, even as we shake in our frost-bitten misery we experience the heat of ‘being burned’ in that singularly Scorpionic sort of way. Exposed to our own foibles we stand naked, whipped by the cold fury of our shame, our regrets, our feelings of helpless haplessness.

So it’s been very Scorpio of late. And even now as Venus moves into Capricorn, Scorpio is still compressing our attentions. Despite the deceptive brightness of floating normalcy, we have each been confronting and confronted by personal ghouls we would like to blame on anything but our own inability to cope…to grapple…to be honest…to own our feelings.

As the Sun moves over the cross-quarter point early on November 7th (UT/+0) we are being moved into a realm and phase of life which requires of us that we deal with greater things. The bigger picture, the fact that the microcosm of our life or of our situation exists as (and reflects) dynamics in the greater realm and in our greater outlook…that would be the focus.

Some reality has come upon us. For you it may have many parts…or one driving issues which like some mythic monster, has many heads, each one of which you face in turn.

For most of us, the underlying Scorpio dynamic of asking us to face whatever it is about our Self which frightens us the most lies at the heart of all. And though we may not yet know the answer to our quandaries, Venus’s shift into Capricorn does mark a new phase in what we might call ‘the process of our processing how to get where we want to go’ in our life, with some situation – whatever.

Venus in Capricorn elicits life’s endless ability to show us the worth and acceptability of our being, our direction, our efforts and our choices. The Venus energetic being that which creates results (where causal Mars efforts ‘become’ the result), the very long Venus in Capricorn passage ahead of us will show us what works…and what doesn’t work.

An orbital Sunrise with Venus and Mars

(photo credit: NASA, Aug 1995)

And through that…and while that is going on…and while we are trying to figure out if what we’re trying so hard to achieve is even worth it – as all that happens we will reflect on life’s opportunities and how often times the effort to not be seen becomes a form of self-imprisonment.

Venus enters Capricorn on November 5, 2013. As of November 13th it will conjunct the North Node as Neptune goes on station, challenging us to take on some act on faith which.

Will this be easy? Probably not. But is it necessary? Probably yes. That the Sun’s movement enters a transiting period of trining Jupiter on November 5th (UT/+0) as Jupiter is just going retrograde marks a shift of our tide. The very act of the Sun crossing over the cross-quarter point is what brings it into orb to ignite this massively energetic trine…and let’s remember, both Sun and Jupiter are in position to highlight…and to push and pull at how we are feeling about our lives. About how life works and doesn’t work. About the difference between how life would be if we could run it merely from our own perspective against the incredible difficulties of living in a world with other people who are equally as bent and as fervent as we are.

That trine will last into November 17th – a period which will have most of us dedicatedly pushing to get things done (Mars is still in Virgo representing our efforts to keep ourselves on track). But there will be some of us who during this time will realize that we have embarked on some path or effort which isn’t worth our while, our precious and un-refundable time.

If you’re one of those people, expect life to seem like a drudge…one long wade through peanut-butter-and-molasses-filled days which are both sticky and cloying, which feel not at all good and which are telling you that you have forgotten something very vital.

But it’s not ‘out there.’ It’s inside of you. Those of us who have ‘left out’ some intrinsic part of our nature in what we have ourselves invested in will be meeting up with it at this time. How difficult that Self encounter becomes is not about the quality of what that part of you is… remember, this is Scorpio turf and we’re just coming out of a Scorpio eclipse. So no, the issue isn’t what the thing ‘is’ – it’s how you feel about it. And that it is part of who you are.

Only that which has been frozen can thaw.

Difficulties with Self will reflect now and increasingly as we move forward through lack of positive results, an ever-bothersome sense that ‘you’re in the wrong place’ (no matter how hard you try to tell yourself otherwise) and a lingering, drifting sense that life’s externals don’t validate our internal being.

That’s the point. If we are not being who we are, or being the whole of that Self honestly – replete with whatever mistakes we have made – then we will find this period moving forward particularly shallow. Hollow. Unrewarding. Even numbing.

And when come November 19th Venus enters the shadow of its upcoming retrograde, the ‘cocooning’ effect of the shadow will have us shadow boxing with ourselves. And our disappointments and quandaries, all of which reflect our realization that reality isn’t cruel…it just Is. Whatever need we have to anthropomorphize Existence and make it 'loving' or otherwise, that's not Existence...that's our desire, our willing life to be good to us when life - as Venus - merely responds to the quality and qualities that we put out there.

We can neither sacrifice ourselves nor try to command all. We cannot succeed without being whole nor wholly succeed at being whole.

Life is what it is. Ultimately, quality and the qualities of relationship to Self are what create what comes back to us through others. The avoiding our injuries through not feeling them fixes nothing just as the refusal to value our Self as a Self worth valuing (which so often manifests in our rejecting those who really care about us while we busily glom onto those who in...REALITY...don't give a tinker's darn about us)...all that is Venusian.

Venus is the quality in all things. It cannot be feigned or fake or the effect is merely fleeting - like makeup.

Besides, we cannot wear makeup with ourselves, on the inside. There we live a naked life with our bare-faced Self.

Venus enters its shadow at 13 Capricorn – the degree it will retrograde back to and go direct at come January 31 (2014). Known for qualities of integrity and a willingness to be committed to the very difficult as well as walking away from any  personal (or worldly) battle when it cannot be won within the present temporal parameters, 13 Capricorn is a degree which focuses on correctness as opposed to ego and other-worldliness as opposed to this one.

That may seem odd for a Capricorn degree, considering that Capricorn is the heart and soul of worldly accomplishment and tangible results. But Capricorn isn’t just about any result. Yes, it is a sign about bringing things into being…and thus Venus in Capricorn is a very good combination which amounts to manifesting the goal.

But if that goal isn’t a lasting one? Or if it isn’t true to your nature? Capricorn is often thought of as the sign of penalties as in, you broke the law and now you have to suffer the consequences for having broken that law.

With Capricorn – the sign at the top of the zodiac’s natural wheel – all that may be true in a worldly sense, and then again, also be true in the spiritual or energetic sense. If we are not doing something we were intended to do, Capricorn transits will tend to manifest as blockades, limitations and ‘realities’ which plainly show you that you’re doing “it” wrong, in the wrong place, using the wrong tools or in the wrong company.

Or else it just manifests as malcontent. Or ennui. Or that awful feeling that you’re alone in this world…or devoid of any chance to be happy.

Venus actual turn to retrograde, on the other hand, will occur on December 21st (UT/+0) at 28 Capricorn. And 28 Capricorn is a degree which underscores the above by being all about whatever our ‘burden’ is in life.

Consider the Scorpio solar eclipse and the fact that it is now being followed by Venus working over the degrees 13-to-28 Capricorn. The eclipse was seeking to get us to face our own emotionality and now Venus is testing our externally driven sense of contentment with our life.

Yes, astrological tales are ongoing and truly epic. ‘War and Peace’ ain’t got nothing on real life for poignant trials.

Question: does this mean everything is just going to be miserable for the whole of this Venus-in-Capricorn transit? Does this mean the holidays and the start to 2014 are going to be just plain miserable?

Answer: Not if we are willing to be real about who we are. Under most circumstances we would simply look at the reality of the situation…but with that which we have seen rolling through of late plus what this astrologer knows will be coming down the celestial pipleline in the next six to eight months, the better bet...the more profitable direction lies in going within. Everything is pointing us to our Selves. Everything in life is asking that we get perspective on who we really are so that what we invest in, what we put so much effort into…so it will last.

Lasting durable structures are the Capricorn aim. Under Venus in Capricorn (November 5 – January 31) we will have many a structure tested. And not all will come up as being sound.

To the extent that we are willing to make corrections and deal not just ‘what it is’ buy why we got ourselves to wherever we are now…if we deal with the truth, then we can better our lot. That’s another really important concept to think about now. Though we might think things are ‘settled’ or ‘immutable’ or ‘set in stone’ the universe is a far, far bigger place than we imagine.

And we can be free to the extent that we are willing to free ourselves – first and last – from our urge to limit what our Self is, especially when that’s not the whole truth…and nothing but our truth.

There is help in Existence, in our existing, and in our willingness to exist for who we are as who we are.

We just have to be that person, in totality at the individual level and as part of that greater world which would honor us if we could only bear to the enduring beauty of our imperfect humanity rather than the being beautiful merely in our flesh. 
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