Before next week gets up any steam, Mercury and Venus will have come home in some way. That’s a lot of shift on the zodiac fan in a short period of time. It could correspond to some astounding events coming home for you.
Mercury enters its esoteric Aries home at 10:37 pm EDT Saturday. (Mercury is the ‘esoteric’ ruler of Aries; according to Alice A. Bailey, each sign has three ruling planets. Mars is the ‘orthodox’ ruler of Aries that most people know about.)
Venus enters Taurus at 3:25 EDT Monday, where it is the ‘orthodox’ ruler. You’re probably aware of the Venus-Taurus association (Venus is also the ‘orthodox’ ruler of Libra).
Regardless of events, the implied grounding of two energetic archetypes (Mercury and Venus) should help you to handle whatever manifests. The key will be to balance confidence and restraint.
Mercury expressed through Aries is not all that much different from Mars, orthodox ruler of the same field of cardinal fire. In both cases, there is the astonishing energy of a seedling pushing up a sidewalk. The same refreshingly impulsive initiative away from equilibrium can also be expected from either. At variance is where the energy comes from.
There is an intriguing mystery to where brash and visceral Mars comes from at home. The indiscriminate and elemental nature of Martian assertion, however, rarely transcends its own sake. Mercury at Aries’ helm channels the same energy from a different place, usually to a different end. That place may be said to be intent, but astrologers of the esoteric persuasion have their own worthy language.
Esoteric astrologer Alan Oken has distinguished Mercury’s portrayal of Aries’ character by noting that “the initial impulse to act, comes from the Divine Mind.” Whether you take that characterization with your whole heart, an open mind, or a grain of salt, your role is the same: as a restraining influence.
Restraint does not mean inhibition. It means being appropriate. Even if you feel sure that your mouth, pen or keyboard are channeling the highest and most holy truths, the responsibility for what comes out is your own. Then again, any credit due for acting on what springs to mind is also yours to seize. Therefore, restraint is as much confidence as it is discretion.
Venus coming home to its traditional Taurus digs can help with the confidence, if you feel it down to where your toes dig into the ground. That’s what it literally comes down to. It’s the liberation of matter. It’s earth animated. It’s breath and clay with an affinity for each other rather than alienated.
If you think about it, what could be more confident than the joyous dance of Venusian coherence and the fecund dust of Taurus? Yet, physical life is also a very fragile alliance. Our species is far more proficient at taking, and losing, life than giving or preserving it. Which cycles us very neatly back to restraint.
In a way, it’s a shame that Mercury and Venus don’t enter their respective esoteric and orthodox homes at the same time every year. The fact that it is happening this year is no coincidence. Now is the time, and yours is the change.
It’s just enough change all at once to shake you awake. It’s also just enough grounding to to act from your most altruistic intent and breathe a little life into everything you make. All you have to do is be present with both confidence and restraint for the remainder of April in order to fulfill the highest purpose any human being can hope to attain: serving to connect what is above with what is below for a homecoming of your own.
Offered In Service
Len is available for astrology readings. You can contact him at lenwallick [at] gmail [dot] com.
beleciaire, Mia, Burning River: Thank you for your supportive comments. You inspire me to “mine” my character flaws for creative inspiration in your service. Lemons into lemonade, lead into gold, and, ultimately, hopefully, actually being as good as my word someday.
Thank you, all Commenters today,
who have responded to this post as I would have if you had not already said it for me.
No need for repetition;
and, so, Len, I sincerely hope that you will allow yourself, as Mia suggests, to receive from us (and all the other invisible readers who appreciate your service)
the energy of our gratitude and appreciation for you back into your own soul.
((((((Len)))))
–Lea
Thank you, Len,
For this insightful article and your continued guidance. You are a gift to all of us here and to everyone of your “pupils” whether it be for astrology, Reiki, or life in general. In total agreement with beleclaire, please don’t be so hard on yourself. We can only carry so many rocks, bricks, books, whatever, at one time and need to let go a bit when our arms are tired. The support and encouragement you give time and again through your comments to individuals on this blog provide a major contribution to everyone who reads them. Like all of us, your energy needs to be replenished, too. Your service is of tremendous value.
Len, your comments are really helpful – thank you.
Please don’t be so hard on yourself.
beleclaire: Alice Bailey was an originator, more concerned with channeling her vision into the world than making it accessible. Alan Oken’s work is inspired by the same source as Ms. Bailey, but he is considerably easier to understand. Your path to study the esoteric branch of astrology must be your own, whether to begin with the originator(s) or more recent (and coherent) innovators. There are others as well, and the streams do flow together here, apart there, to connect and/or overlap all the schools of astrology into an enterprise that stretches to cover the breadth of human existence. Hopefully, you will not find my answer to be a failure. There have been occasions where i have failed those who it is my life’s purpose to serve. If that is the case for you, please let me know and i will endeavor to do a better job of serving you.
Thank you Lizzystillalittlehuffy :::}}}
Thank you Len – your answer serves me exceedingly well, in two ways.
I have been a student of astrology for 20+years and on an active spiritual path for a similar amount time and they have existed in parallel….why I am wondering? Well in the UK they are pretty much separate disciplines. So I am inspired to work at some integration now!
Wonderful to hear that Uranus is the hierarchical ruler of Aries. I have Moon at 11+ Aries and I am now feeling that at last I will move out of my 8 year hermit existence with all the rulers set to transit it.
Would you suggest I start the integration with Bailey or Oken.
Many thanks again
beleclaire: Thank you for your kind words and for your question. As regards to your question, the third type of sign ruler delineated by esoteric astrology is the “hierarchical” ruler. The name really says it all. For esoteric astrologers, there is a hierarchy of sorts, or levels of interpretation if you well, and the hierarchical rulers are considered further along the path into the esoteric means and ends. For Aries, the hierarchical ruler is Uranus, which is pretty cool since Uranus is in the midst of a 7-year tenure through Aries, currently in a continuous series of squares to Pluto that define (or at least provide a big-picture background) to our times. Please, does that answer serve you well? It is not really possible to describe everything about esoteric astrology in this space – it is an entire system to which a number of dedicated astrologers are still devoting volumes in development.
Thanks beleclaire! Hmm… I’m not sure I’ve shrugged that huffy off completely… (love your Thatcher comment btw, ex-Londoner meself).
Lizzy – saw your discussion with paola a couple of weeks back…I too had wondered where Huffy had gone. So pleased you are still here..and not so huffy anymore!
*Be present with both confidence and restraint *
Wise words Len, thank you.
I agree with others comments…this piece is bang on the money for me too. I can feel all the Aries energy revving up in me but must remember how others, those without it in their charts, can experience Aries – as *too much*
Please can you say who the third ruler of Aries is?
“breath and clay with an affinity for each other rather than alienated”. There is a person in my life right now with whom I feel both affinity AND alienation. I’m ready to chuck it but I don’t want to. Maybe this time will help clear things up for me with that.
I’m with Lizzy, this is exquisite, Len. Every time, you manage to weave a brilliant and beautiful tapestry of threads whose colors come alive in your hands. Many, many thanks.
Sorry, they *give* me….!
Thank you so much for your words Len, they me a lot of comfort.
Also very inspiring your exchange with Be!
Lizzy: You are welcome. Since esoteric rulers have a lot to do with soul (weary or otherwise), or “inner space” if you will, you may well find some energy (originating from your mind’s connection with the divine) in the offing. If not, Venus in Taurus will almost certainty correspond to a livening of the body.
be: Thank you so much for recalling the 2012 Mars retrograde in Virgo (from January 23 to April 14 of 2012, not counting echo/shadow phases). That was a time when the critical functions of many went into overdrive, stressing relationships to self and others. Some people (for whom Mercury and/or Mars are influential planets) are still stuck in that inner quagmire of criticism, having been unable or unwilling to move on when Mars did. Now that Mercury (which indeed is a traditional – or orthodox – ruler of both Virgo and Gemini) is returning to its esoteric rulership those so stuck in the mode of Mars long past have an opportunity to be liberated. The only hitch is, one must want to be free as a requisite to be free, especially of the past. Hopefully this reply provides the more about what this means that you asked for. Best of luck on the preparations of your home for visiting relatives.
Great news Len, cuz what’s coming home for me very soon is my family and I’ve got no time to lose to get everything ship-shape.
This recalls (for me) that time when Mars was in Mercury’s sign of Virgo (where he [Mercury] is, I assume, the orthodox ruler) for what felt like years. Part of that time Mercury was in Aries and it seemed to some of us that he was more influential than we would have supposed he would be there, and chalked it up to his being in mutual admiration, er, reception with Mars. Now we know of this esoteric side of rulerships and that might explain a lot about what was happening this time last year.
Please, tell us more about what this means when you get a chance Len!
be
What exquisite writing, Len! Thank you. Sure hope the dynamic duo livens up my rather weary soul…