We are in the final days before a change of season, and you may be feeling a little antsy or eager. Tuesday is the Cancer solstice (beginning summer in the northern hemisphere, winter in the south). Unlike the many potent eclipse-like events this spring that are serving as continuity-breaking turning points, the turning of a new season is all about the continuity of a cycle. Leading up to and overlaying the touchstone of the solstice, however, the sky is offering us two reasons to pay attention to whether we’re getting our nourishment from what’s actually true, or rather from what we simply wish were true.
Representing the more worldly side of this theme, retrograde Venus in Gemini is square Chiron in Pisces, which also just stationed retrograde on Tuesday (Venus-Chiron is exact Saturday at 5:23 pm EDT). On the more mystical level, Jupiter in Gemini is square Neptune in Pisces. That one is exact June 25, but at three degrees apart, it’s definitely in full force now. What’s more, Jupiter-Neptune from these signs is a one-time event this time around. Despite the trendy popularity of retrogrades providing multi-contact layering in 2012, this aspect is not one of them.
Given that both Venus-Chiron and Jupiter-Neptune come with an exaggeration effect, I thought I’d try something a little different for this post. I took out my Sustain Yourself deck of oracle cards created by James Wanless and asked what we needed in order to work with this astrology sustainably. (This is a deck of 101 photo-collage cards with various themes, not a tarot deck). The first card I pulled was Lightning/Ignition. A little surprised by that, I pulled another to qualify it: Bacteria/Sustainability. I started contemplating.
Eric wrote in 2009 that “Venus square Chiron is about a wide open erotic/emotional expression of Venus.” That certainly sounds like a form of lightning strike itself (and a fun one at that). But yet there’s something cautionary here, as Barbara Hand Clow suggests in her book Chiron: Transforming Bridge Between the Inner and Outer Planets, “Chiron square Venus sets up the maximum stress between finding a value system which will enhance spirituality, or just giving oneself over to one emotional high after another.” Surfing the highs might feel great, but might not move you forward.
Taken one way, the Lightning card indicates the need to stay alert and aware of these exaggerated emotional/erotic urges so that we can choose more sustainable options – those that align with a higher spiritual values system. Then again, you may be at a point on your path in which you need to open to this overstated erotic flow in order feel what it’s like, learn from it and move past it to something more solid and foundational.
Again, I’m going to quote Clow. Though she is speaking here specifically to astrologers who counsel clients with a natal Venus-Chiron square in their chart, she brings up an interesting point regarding judging experiences:
Guilt always blocks the opportunity to gain the necessary values from experiences we have undertaken, and our judgment about behavior always inculcates guilt into the client who has graciously opened the soul to the astrologer. Aspects between Chiron and Venus are a sure indicator that a client is having experiences which might be a waste of personal energy and a travesty to society for some, but for this native, these experiences are the necessary vehicle for finding the self.
I can’t tell you how to know the difference. But it sounds like if coming alive with life force / sexual energy is feeling compelling to you now (Lightning), it will be most useful if you’re aware of how you can convert it to authentic nourishment as bacteria can do, rather than letting it just be a quick sugar rush. That awareness may come after the fact, though it comes back to tapping into what’s true, rather than what’s not, as you ignite your experience.
That is going to be trickier with Jupiter-Neptune working in the background. This is an aspect known for a lack of emotional control or confused emotions, a predisposition to deceiving or being deceived, and potent dreaming without the discipline to back it up. Again, it comes down to staying alert to where you’re seeking nourishment (especially the spiritual variety, with these two planets), and if you’re in doubt, slow things down a little. It’s worth it to watch your decision-making patterns over the next couple weeks; note when you’re clear about aligning with any dharmic goals or higher purpose, versus when you’re not sure.
Keep in mind that Tuesday is also the second Gemini New Moon this month – one that occurs in a very sensitive degree of the zodiac: 28+ Gemini. This is the degree that factors into such charts as the 9/11 event and Fukushima. We’ll be coming back to the New Moon soon. For now, keep a pulse on any background fear you may be noticing, either within yourself or your wider community. However you choose to work with Venus-Chiron and Jupiter-Neptune, fear and guilt are not going to help you use what you learn.
Thanks I consider Planet Waves as my psychic weather forecaster. This past week has been a lesson in Saturn. I have Neptune (Libra) Sun (aries), Uranus (Cancer) and Chiron (Capricorn) all activated in my chart between the 2nd, 5th, 8th, and 12th houses. Planning, order, limitations, have all come up in a home improvement project begun when the Moon was void of course. It also felt like there was a sense of panic and rapid change all week. Maybe I’ll have gotten the hang of this next time but I hope I have a little while to catch my breath. And now I am being encouraged to blog and comment, so here I am.
hey! I just noticed that yesterday was William Butler Yeats’s birthday! I love his poems. Perhaps a poem of manifestation, of dreaming, of idealism or romanticism. But I love it…I’m a softy what can I say…..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yn6FwUtXhuc&feature=related
HS
Ditto Huffy and Huggings’ remarks. Very nice article, Amanda. Along with Len’s today, I am pondering (lightly ~ hah!) this pre-Solstice period with more contour.
Um, Sam? Flower-remedies? are you an apothecary? (you know, proto-pharma?)
Do tell…
This was truly helpful Amanda. Thank you so much. I have Venus in Cap 5 degrees, and Chiron in Aries 17 degrees. So while not a perfect square, its close. I will just have to see how the next week or so unfolds. But if my radar is serving me well, I will do best to tread slow with care.
HS
“4th move in 13 months” – no wonder you’re on your knees! And hey, cancer babes are also being hit hard by Saturn right now – I’m right at the end of the sign, and the ringed wonder is putting on a special show for me. Rescue remedy is not only for fear and dread, it’s a wonderful pick me up, acts as a kind of tonic. And can’t *you* have a cranial to sort out your back et al?
Huffy, darlin… Thank you!! I will look into the Olive, yessiree. Arnica? I *bathe* in the stuff! I tweaked my back last week during the pre-move packing, and nearly panicked :: oh goddess how can I move if I’m immobilized (literally). I got some homeopathic salve, not at all sure it would work, and it didn’t. At first. But overnight it did the job — woot!
First used arnica on the Little Guy’s exit bruise (that brow presentation? he looked like someone had KO’ed him).
I also used the Rhodiola tinctures I made, which, ironically, exacerbated the exhaustion. 17 drops and my endocrines go yaaaaaay! so I work like a stevedore. Then my body says: : Ahem, we’ve been on this planet for almost 20,000 days.
Moving… is there no end? This is the 4th move in 13 months. I have a storage unit, for the luvahannah. George Carlin would be so proud! Must. Release. Stuff. Soon. (or now)
(rescue remedy? hmmm… for the dread? might work…)
***
**
*
And all that stuff is good for the ‘take the guts out of one’ planetary movements that are going on now. Just went to my ‘pusher’ yesterday for a bach rems cocktail.
Mystes dear, never underestimate the stress and exhaustion of a move. Olive (bach remedies) is great for that kind of exhaustion, Arnica (which I’m always plugging) and loads of rescue remedy. Good luck with your kid’s cranio!
Less than a week until the Solstice/New Moon? Gah! Then we have the countup to the first Uranus/Pluto square. No wonder I am feeling disoriented. Well, that and the umptizillion boxes by which I am surrounded.
Chalking some of this up to exhaustion, but I’ve been fighting off some feelings of despair in the last few days – even as I have *no* time to settle into a funk. This combo, externally-driven demand and a sense of doom (doom…doooooooom I tell you) sometimes creep in to bottom of my lunar cycle, but this New, marking the end of my solar year, seems to going for the kneecaps.
But I have some Big Ideas for the next 12month, so I guess the little ones are rushing the exits. That never feels nice. But is oh so necessary.
(Btw… my kid has first craniosacral therapy this evening. Yaaaaaay!!!!!)
Slogging along…
M
Nice piece of synchronicity with this article from the BBC News website this morning.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-18422288
When comparing bacteria on humans with humans on planet earth, in both cases the little critters have the ability to turn bad and destroy the entity they depend on.
If, as individuals, we lack the power to alter the destructive behaviours of large corporations on the big ecological issues, maybe we can draw some necessary lessons on sustainability from those bacteria which depend on us but somehow manage to stop short of destroying their host.
Ditto.
I have natal Venus-Chiron square: Venus in Sadge square to Chiron in Pisces.
Opposite, to this current transit of Venus in Gemini square Chiron in Pisces.
It’s a relief actually, to read Barbara Hand Clow’s words, “Chiron and Venus..experiences which might be a waste of personal energy and a travesty to society for some, but for this native, these experiences are the necessary vehicle for finding the self”. So true
And also the ‘Jupiter-Neptune, fear and guilt’ business.
Wow! This is just amazing, thank you so much for this (Amanda, I imagine?) – I have natal Venus-Chiron square – and you’ve just given me a huge helping hand with this piece. Thank you again.