Venus Re-enters Scorpio: Sticking With our Considerations

 Venus and Mercury over Paris

photo credit: Josselin Desmars

Today, a few miscellaneous notes and thoughts on this long, long (long...!) Venus cycle!

The 2008 Venus-in-Scorpio period was late September into October: pretty much when economies around the world began to crumble like so many stacks of crackers hit with a mallet. Mars having joined Venus in Scorpio was the proverbial one-two punch...and certainly serious testimony to Mars/Venus not always being such a plus!

It's all in what we do, people. When we exceed the bounds, we find ourselves what...? Out of bounds, yes!

Venus' 2009 romp through Scorpio began on November 8th (after the US presidential election) and ran to December 1st. If we all remember, this was a time of great fiscal furor around the world.

The Mars-in-Leo touch during this time (describing a natural "whole sign" square between planets) describes rather well how people around the world expressed various mixtures of optimism, disgust, impatience, hope and frustration. Squares are funny things - they are aspects of great strength if/were determination and resources described by both 'corners' of the aspect (in this case, Venus and Mars') are harnessed in equal tandem...and all sorts of headache when we linger in only one point of view. Or cling to the problem instead of opting to find and implement a solution.

Venus and Mars are a pair of lore and mythic proportions. Astrologically, they are far more than about romance and intimate moments, too - they are the premier partners of the greater lunar principle of feeling and response to situational input. So wherever Venus is, it's always good to consider where Mars is, too.

And yes, whatever the sign relationship between them is.

Our retrospect now bringing us into 2010, April had Venus in Taurus with Mars in Leo...the oppositional aspect to Venus in Scorpio/Mars in Leo (Taurus being opposite Scorpio). This is another square, but where the Leo/Scorpio square of 2009 emphasized 'doing,' this 2010 square emphasized 'what's this going to do or give to/for me?' And I think if we all look at news reels for the time, we see that's pretty much what was going on. When things are desperate, everyone gets into an 'okay, something's got to be done' mode. When things then ease up even the littlest bit, a lot of people start thinking more personally.

Or...well, let's be honest here: more selfishly and short-sightedly.

Venus went back into Scorpio mode as of September 8th, 2010 - with Mars joining it in Scorpio about a week later. Remembering that this is the same whole-sign combination which ran when world economies took a tumble, this illuminates how personal planets set a mood but outer planets describe the dynamics.

It would take a good quarter mile of blog space to describe the difference between 2008 and 2010, so we'll just go with the idea that back then we were heading into a dissolving-stripping down process and now we are trying to decide how to rebuild: Venus/Mars as the symbol of creation in progress.

Which yes, does put a whole light on "other" activities!

As we've discussed elsewhere on the blog, Venus in Scorpio tends to be about wanting to get what you want out of some situation when the better road to travel is seeing what is possible to GET out of any situation. One is personal, the other is more global: looking for results and estimating from that what everyone can get in terms of what each person wants.

And that's a really (REALLY) important idea when it comes to anything in Scorpio: we don't get to define to others what they want. We have to ask. And when we can't ask, the default has to be opting for formats which will allow everyone to choose for themselves.

 

This requires thinking the problem through...which hardly anybody associates with Scorpio! And yet...and yet...Scorpio really only works when we think about what we are doing and choose based on understanding the risks and the values which are causing us to take those risks. Inevitably, those we go 'after' under Scorpio influences can be made to "pay," but in the long run, there is a price. Justice is one thing - and it's not Scorpionic. Vengeance is Scorpionic, as is abject sacrifice. And neither of them are classed as Scorpio pluses.

 

So we all had this really sticky, sluggish, emotionally daunting, frustrating, self-confronting time while Venus was in Scorpio. It went retrograde on October 8th, and we felt even more confined.

 

Some of us opted to use Venus retrograde as a time to size things up and get real about our lives - a good and positive use of influence. And as Venus backed into Libra on November 8th, things turned relational and we all began considering how we really should invest a little more...and maybe a little more fairly in relationships of every nature and kind.

As Venus came onto its two-day station 'allowance' (to go direct on November 18th), we got at least one interesting display of how such cycles work - the November 16th news of a royal engagement coming out of Britain.

Clarence House is the official London residence of

Charles, Prince of Wales and sons William and Harry -

and thus the 'source' of the announcement

of William's engagement.

That it happened just before the station tells us that this is an event yet to come. That it happened with Venus actually in Libra at the time described well the news being about relationships...both of the betrothed (to each other) and as a couple, with the world.

For the 'royal watchers' in you: buzz can be expected to continue for yet a bit...with Mars currently in Sagittarius we're all looking for something new to think about and some sense of 'yes, there's more which can happen.'


And yet, there is something of an aura of 'did I go to sleep?' 'Is this still a dream?'

It's as if we all fell asleep beneath a tree which dropped leaves all over us. Now we've awoken and we're shaking off the leaves and getting them out of our hair. We're almost ready to go again.

And reality will hit soon enough - as Mars enters Capricorn in early December. Not to worry - a double dose of hard reality is on the way, folks!

 

But between the station of November 18th and now, all has seemed more or less pretty buoyant. Lighter. Less oppressive. Almost...unguided.

Then...enter the shark theme: as of November 30th (at 34 minutes past midnight UT/+0), Venus will re-enter Scorpio. With Mars in Sagittarius until early December, the question is one of proportion - what for us and what for others? Have we learned that everyone has rights...or at least should have rights? Have we learned that to have a good life in this world the world itself has to be healthy and functional?

Maybe yes, maybe no. Given that Venus will not clear the shadow of its retrograde (the degrees involved in said recent retrograde) until December 20th, we can expect lingering effects of recent events to hold over until that time. With Mars shifting into Capricorn in early December as mentioned...? And Mercury going retrograde shortly thereafter?

Let's just say the question is as it ever was: have we learned that our security and happiness really does depend on everyone else having a modicum of security and happiness?

Sure, we all know this in theory...we even know it at our core. But will we live it? Can we live that talk and walk that walk?

That's the Venus/Scorpio question.

From An Astrologer's Notebook: Prince William's Engagement

 The arms of Prince William of Wales

Unless people have been living under a rock (or otherwise studiously avoiding public news), everybody seems to have heard that His Royal Highness Prince William of Wales (son of Prince Charles, grandson of Queen Elizabeth II) is now officially engaged.

As the astrologer who is local-to-no-one-and-everyone-at-the-same-time (a heady feat at best) I wasn't shocked to get a few questions about the engagement.

First on everybody else's mind was that said engagement was announced while Jupiter and Venus were still in retrograde.

After I got done sighing heavily (I type and I type...do you people listen?) ....I roust myself to patiently remind you all that the reason why we have little notices about 'station effects' is because there really is a notable occurrence of important events just before and after planetary stations. Never mind a dual planetary station!

Two days before...two days after. The announcement came on the 16th and Venus and Jupiter went direct on the 18th. Voila - station effects!

The wedding is yet to come. Okay - that fits too: things which happen before the station have to do with things yet to come...things which happen within the 'station effective' period but after the actual station are events having to do with a playing out of decisions, situations or whatnot which came up prior to this time.

Also: astrology doesn't dictate the nature of what happens. What it tells you is the nature of the event... and thus what we can learn from it.

Venus was in Libra at the time. Libra is not only about relationships, it is about the 'one' communicating with 'the many' the actor on the stage before an audience, for instance. Or a manufacturer offering a product. Or in this case, the spokesperson for the English Royals letting the world know the engagement was like, ON!

Personally (which is to say as an astrologer) I think it's more interesting that in being about to experience his first Saturn return, Prince William is marking the classic transition from the 'timelessness' of youth into the reality/responsibility world of adulthood by getting married. In his chart, the most exact of aspects is that of Saturn to Eris...

 Prince William of Wales

b. June 21, 1982

....so among other things, this is a natural moment for him to leave his childhood - and yes, the loss of his mother - behind.

Although granted, it's not quite that easy. But there's time enough to discuss all that....his intended's chart, the wedding chart...all such. There's time.

Like many, however, it took me a little aback and sideways when I heard that the engagement ring was none other than that given by William's father to his late mother. And yes, I've already heard the "dire" pronouncements of many on that score...to which I say a polite "twaddle!"

Sapphires as a stone were actually not known as gems per se until Roman times. So to attribute core 'from antiquity' beliefs to sapphire rings seems a bit off the mark. As a material, sapphire is the same stuff as ruby - it's all corundum. If it's red, it's a ruby. If it's any other color (blue, yellow, green, pink etc.) it's a sapphire.

 The Logan sapphire - at 423 carats, currently

one of the largest sapphires known

photo credit: Thomas Reudas (June 2007)

The most right-off-the-top-of-my-head associations I'd make about the ring is that for Prince William to give it to his fiance is a classic 'combining of families' gesture.

Let's face it - many a young man who has been so unfortunate as to lose his mother early on keeps her rings in the family by doing exactly the same thing. So to attach anything but that seems left over from the world's general modern addiction to media coverage and gossipy speculation - and that's about us. Meanwhile, Prince William is being a son proposing to his sweetheart, offering his mother's ring as a token of his love and his desire to marry his and Kate's pasts and futures together.

But with that said, there is an astrological point here - namely that sapphires are associated with Saturn. So again, this engagement and impending marriage seems to be all about Prince William's relationship to Saturn: responsibility, time, dedication, commitment, maturation - and the rest of it.

With Saturn in his natal 9th house, this is part of Prince William's effort to grow into the person he wants to be. It won't be easy - he's one of a very few people who royal-born lives his life in the spotlight whether he wants to or not.

Then again, growing into the people we want to be isn't easy for any of us. So I for one, wish the couple well.

Which isn't to say there aren't many interesting astrological facts and events to be observed here. Part of being royal is the inevitable and unavoidable part one plays in the pantheon of national and world societal history and that is astrological grist for the mill.

So rest assured, there will be more to come on this whole splendidly regal event. But for now, let's just enjoy, while learning just a bit more about how Venus, Jupiter and planetary stations really work!