“If you don’t risk anything, you risk even more.”
–Erica Jong
As Venus taxis Virgo’s tag end before taking Friday’s flight into its Libra domain, a question will be symbolically raised. The question is whether the free exercise of personal discretion is necessary or narcissism. Astrology implies the answer will derive from a crucial clash of values represented by the aspects Venus will make upon ingress to Libra at 11:37 am EDT Friday.
When Venus enters cardinal Libra it will square the conjunction of asteroids Icarus and Narcissus at cardinal Capricorn’s threshold while simultaneously opposing asteroid Cuno on Aries’ first degree.
Venus’ return to its airy home this year will hence be the Aries Point event it always is, but more. It will be made more by concurrent Aries Point events which will combine to imply significant tension from which none of us are exempt, and to which each of us must respond.
Astrologers define an Aries Point event as taking place on or near the first degree of any cardinal sign (Aries, Cancer, Libra, or Capricorn). The meaning of an Aries Point event is derived from what happens when the Sun enters a cardinal sign.
When the Sun enters a cardinal sign, a new season begins. It is a personal event experienced at the same time by every being on Earth, regardless of location. That’s pretty special if you are aware of it. If you are not aware of it, you are missing tangible proof in the physical body of the fact that you are unavoidably one with all things.
It’s a pretty big truth. Scientists call it entanglement. The most recent Nobel Prize for physics was awarded to those who proved by objective, empirical, and independently verifiable means what the conscious experience of the Sun entering a cardinal sign has always told you.
By inference, any other object on an Aries Point emulates the Sun and corresponds to a new season for every being after the nature of the object in question. More than one object on more than one Aries Point at the same time implies some tension in your unavoidable entanglement with humanity. When Venus is one of those objects, the tension probably has something to do with values.
Venus is, among other things, about values. Values are the foundation of your conscience, which represents your most important contribution to humanity. Or, at least that’s the way it used to be. The crucial question is whether that is the way it will continue to be from this point.
While in Libra, relationship is the field through which Venus will be expressed. That intrinsic nature, integrated with the fact that Venus is currently quite visible, makes it the perfect anchor for a combined Aries Point aspect that represents tension where your consciousness and conscience connect with each other and the world.
The square aspect corresponds to tension felt inside that only action can resolve. Make that angular relationship between two cardinal points and you can bet it’s something everybody is feeling inside at the same time. Make it a relationship between Venus and a conjunction of Icarus and Narcissus, and the correlation is a remarkably familiar dilemma.
Asteroids are remarkable for how often their names serendipitously provide a meaningful correlation. In the case of both Icarus and Narcissus, there is an unmistakable representation of how the dominant paternal order inhibits the exercise of personal discretion that makes your values and your conscience meaningful in society.
While it is reasonable that society should modulate individuals to not go overboard with self-involvement or reckless behavior, regulation is a two-way street. The individual has a role to play as well, as the repository of conscience. Somewhere along the line, however, the conscientious have been branded criminal, with occasional exceptions such as the Nuremberg Trials of Nazis who wouldn’t risk following their conscience, opting to follow orders instead. Your task now is to act so as to not end up as those hapless Nazis did, which is very possible given how the myths of Icarus and Narcissus have been unconscionably co-opted by the dominant paradigm of power.
The myth of Icarus has been co-opted to incite a fear of flying above the constraints of authority to exercise personal discretion. The story of Narcissus has likewise been leveraged to include independent self-examination (necessary to having any conscience at all) among the psychological pathologies, when in fact it would make more sense for the opposite to be the case. Speaking of opposites, that’s where the asteroid Cuno comes in.
When Venus enters Libra on Friday, it will be opposed by asteroid 4183 Cuno. Unlike Icarus and Narcissus, Cuno has no association with mythology. It is named after an astronomer who conscientiously continued in service to science while living under an authoritarian regime that co-opted the observatory he had built.
By way of what Eric has called “proving moments” Cuno has recently and repeatedly distinguished itself in close association with the Sun at points of departure. Cuno’s closest approach to Earth during this century came on May 20, 2012, the day of an annular solar eclipse visible over much of the United States. That incident was followed by Cuno opposing the 2012 solar ingress to Cancer and conjoining the Sun when it entered Pisces earlier this year.
If you grant Robert Hand’s concise definition of the Sun’s archetype as “day, light, and consciousness”, include the biography of Cuno’s namesake, and take into account the through line of its proving moments, you get a specific picture of how Cuno corresponds to points of departure where your consciousness and conscience relate to each other and to the world.
If you accept Amanda Painter’s recent observation (on August 8) that the implied tension of astrological oppositions “is something we witness in relationship”, the components of the cardinal T-square anchored by Venus’ entrance to Libra will combine to create a holistic perspective of how the entire world is facing a crucial crossroads both inside of and between all of us at the same time.
What is at stake is nothing less than your own humanity, and the relationship between individual and society. If enough of us accept it as credible for the power elite to portray an individual act of conscience as pathological, then no individual is safe exercising the personal discretion conscience requires.
If it reaches the point where no individual is willing to take the risk of acting on their conscience, then the social contract will have been destroyed. If the social contract is no more, then the true value of an individual in society will have been reduced to zero. That means you.
That is what Venus entering Libra on Friday correlates to, and it is something you can feel inside as well as through relationships as a point of departure. It may also become a point of no return unless you can overcome your fear of flying, and prioritize your personal discretion to resolve the tension by acting to keep your conscience, and that of others, visible and alive in the world.
Offered In Service
Len is available for astrology readings. You can contact him at lenwallick [at] gmail [dot] com.
Hey, we should have an Aries point party! Venus for me ducks right over the line into Virgo–sacrifice–but conjunct Uranus is on the other side in Leo, so the sacrifice ultimately benefits Moi, as a beautifully egotistical Leo would say. (I’ve been seeing how a Leo friend has been bearing up under some things that would have flattened me–an ego is not always a bad thing to have!) thanks for kind words, y’all..,
Maria – I felt impelled to write something as another 0 degrees Libra Sun…your words reminded me of our Sabian Symbol – A Butterfly preserved and made perfect with a dart through it….being pinned down, wings clipped by others.
I have a Venus in Leo which helps me counteract this Libran – well – sacrificial bit.
Do you have help from yours?
“been having my spirit broken in the workplace and it’s time for that to stop”. Maria, I have a very dear Libran friend who, once she has plunged into the darkness for a while inevitably comes swinging back into the light again, triumphant and glowing, sounds like you’re on your way up again – your heart and soul are too big to stay down for long. Been in those trenches too.
This piece and the comments are thrilling and a little intimidating to read. About a year ago I clued into the way that for a lot of people, “selfish” means not doing what they want you to to. I’ve also been aware but hadn’t articulated it so well of the way that individual action and choice based on conscience is being positioned to be labeled pathological. Venus also means cash money, and there’s a lot to be made in “mental illness,” just as the lucrative prison market is being tapped out. I’m going to take a minute of sadness over how clipping wings becomes a profit source when flying could get us so much more. (With sun on 0 libra, i’m woven into this; been having my spirit broken in the workplace and it’s time for that to stop.) Then I’m going to satisfy my curiosity about Cuno.
Strawberry- you are a treasure.
Good morning. Basking in the light and treasure of this tribe. I could say more, and I’d rather just be here with you right now. Many Blessings.
I see Len that Venus will pour a lot of ink, or agitation on the keyboard, see also my last article on my blog.
There is also the asteroid Sirona in opposition March, having missed its position on the full moon of July 22 axis, I come back with the light Lunar goddess Sirona. At its discovery the Moon was in opposition to Saturn on the axis of the Lunar nodes and today the Moon framed the North node with Saturn… There was that think that Sirona would have a link with the Moon at the time of its discovery Sirona was square to the Moon and Saturn and opposition mercury… I’ll see if you wrote something about Sirona
@ I return read later 🙂
..and at the same moment, there will be asteroid child entering cancer, squaring venus, opposing icarus and narcissus. kids need their parents (like we/the tribe needs us) not only not-dead, but alive and kicking and teaching them how to fly.
Chief Niwots Son, I don’t know how to thank you. I have felt tribe-less for years; to be welcomed by you means more than I can say. Len, the honor and privilege are mine.
Jann: Thank you for your generous words. If anybody can both discern and integrate conscience with conscience so as to teach us all how to be more fully human, it would be you.
be: Thank you for once again bringing your mastery of the Sibly chart for us to share. Venus transiting to conjoin the mid heaven is favorable for forming and supporting relationships, unless (as Robert Hand puts it) “an extremely unfavorable transit intervenes.” The USA can use all the help it can get forming and supporting relationships. Cuno at the “root” of the Sibly chart (as you put it) can go either way, depending on how many US citizens act conscientiously during its transit to USA’s founding principles.
aword: Thank you once again for sharing your always-instructive transits. Your nativity should be in an astrology textbook for as often as you personally resonate with the current astrology of the world. Right down to having your Cuno return when it is being written about here. Your generous postings are always appreciated.
Chief Niwots Son: Speaking of generous, thank you for your continued support of Strawberry’s continued growth and this blog’s continued service.
Fe: Thank you so very much for your kind appraisal. While Planer Wave’ own Sarah would be my usual go-to for tarot, i will accept your interpretation as far superior to mine. There does appear to be something along the lines of what you are intuiting, and Libra is certainly the judicial robe that fits Venus’ emblem of values best. Too bad Venus moves so fast, but that also serves to help us make the most of the time.
Carrie: Thank you for your insights once again. i recall the losses you refer to. When the leaders murdered were combined with the number of young artists lost in the 1960’s and early 1970’s if felt like living in the presence of a trip hammer tolling away on my consciousness. The weight is still heavy for me. The world’s teeth are still present in my awareness. But i was a conscientious objector then (which resulted in the loss of home, education, and many friends) and i have no regrets in spite of the losses. My main concern now is not those incited to fear (such conditioning wears off if not reinforced), my concern is those who “buy into” the established order’s lame story about how conscience, and acting conscientiously, is evidence of psychological illness. Remember our former president “W” who actually admitted that he avoided self-examination and ignored his conscience – and some people publicly supported him in that horrible way of living. THAT is disturbing.
Strawberry: Thank you for standing in your integrity with us again. Thank you also for the honor and privilege of sharing your awe-inspiring and rapid growth into a formidable spiritual presence.
Strawberrylaughter: “And I’m scared that I haven’t earned the right to have the powers of creation respond when I ask them to… Because the reality is, when I’m standing in my integrity, the powers of creation do respond.”
Dear Friend- I am happy to know we are both in the healer tribe. The powers of creation respond because you are not separate from creation, those powers create you in every moment. The personality and the mind (devious that it is) will tell you you need to be more humble, more this, more that. The truth of healing is that no healer is perfect, is enlightened. Healing works despite the “me,” and yet paradoxically we need to keep “me” off to the side.
What you call yourself has to feel good to you, and know that it is the means by which people who are suffering will find you, but it is not the truth of what happens in the process of healing. Healing is a mystery, but being the agent of healing is Dharma, life path. You have already stepped onto your path, you have healed, and continue to heal, yourself and others.
Most of all please know that we need you, the world needs you, and there’s always a place on the team for another member.
Well Len, “that explains a lot”. I have within days been punched hard in the belly with yet another (life-long) replay of the patriarchal “patterns” of my childhood (family). This time, however, it’s less a blind-side and more a distinctly better-aware-side.
With transiting Cuno so close in passing natal Cuno as to still be conjunct, with said transiting Cuno ON natal Lilith at 0 Aries, with Transiting Narcissus and Icarus conjunct natal Vertex and natal Narcissus….what more could serve to augment your story of what gifts Venus brings us as she moves across the threshold into Libra?
oh! it is this — Natal Icarus is conj natal Sun and no doubt energized by this squaring.
May there be power beneath the wings of those who would rise above (and may our wax remain flexible yet firm.)
Sorry, the U.S. progressed Mars is in the 10th house, not the 4th as I noted earlier./be
Consider that the U.S. Sibly birth chart has 1+ Libra on the midheaven (MC), and therefore transiting Venus is already very near that most public and visible symbol of the U.S.A., as well as being very visible in the night sky. How do you suppose that will affect the way people (and governments) from other countries see it (U.S.+ Venus), since the MC symbolizes reputation? Taking Venus to symbolize values, she will reflect us as a nation by the standards and principles we hold ourselves to and what we expect from our relationships with other people and governments. (She might also make the U.S. more attractive to others.)
I don’t have a good grasp on Cuno’s meaning yet, but he is transiting the fourth house of the U.S. past, and conjuncts the IC, a symbol of the roots from which the country springs. The U.S. progressed chart’s asteroid Isis is also at 0+ Aries. Isis in mythology was known for her determination and devotion to put back together all the scattered pieces of her beloved and she was remarkably successful, lacking only that most defining piece of masculinity. But she didn’t let that stop her and she created, through her divine powers, a brand new part that worked as well or better.
As it happens the progressed U.S. Sibly Mars has turned retrograde, and a retro Mars doesn’t follow the same assertive path that a direct Mars does. He self-examines (“necessary to having any conscience at all”), although to an outsider he might appear (to some) to lack the appropriate (at least for this patriarchal period in history) masculine decisiveness for a super power. Perhaps these two progressions of the U.S. Sibly chart are telling the same story, through their symbolism, of where, how and toward what direction the U.S. is moving. Perhaps Cuno (conscientiousness?) will be a “lens” for we who study the movements of the planets and such. Cuno will, at this moment of Venus’ ingress into Libra, conjunct the U.S. prog. Isis and the IC of the U.S. Sibly chart, while also opposing the trans. Venus conjunct the U.S. Sibly chart’s MC.
What DOES an inward looking (progressed) Mars (in the natal 4th house) learn from the past? How can Venus in transit express a country’s values to the world while still finding balance with a progressed re-structuring Isis (aided by transiting Cuno) that will move the country forward? It could start this weekend with the squares (from the first house of self-awareness) of transiting Narcissus (self-absorbed) and Icarus (youthful folly) to the country’s MC (achievement) + trans. Venus, as well as to the country’s IC (foundation) + trans. Cuno + prog. Isis.
Could it possibly be (part of) a turning point where the U.S. pulls its various parts together through a better balancing between masculine (Mars retro) and feminine (Venus/Isis) attributes in this remarkable period of grand trines providing ease and a super cardinal T-square providing incentive?
Well Len, you have once again pushed the envelope on contemplation for me. The workings of the Universe as described by the planets, asteroids, and all the rest beg to be explored and you make that so irresistible. Many thanks for today’s offering.
be
Potent. Cogent. Sublime. Evocative. Provocative.
As this transiting Venus flies toward conjunction with my natal Venus less than ten days after its ingress into Libra, I shall strive to consciously conscientious and conscientiously conscious.
Len, thank you for an incredible piece of writing and astrology.
JannKinz
I was just meditating this morning on the fixed grand cross Eric has been helping us make sense of. With the Nodes on my MC/Nadir, exact to 15 arc minutes, Mercury in my 12th and Juno in my 6th, it brings up some big issues I haven’t known how to work with.
To me, the fixed cross is saying something to the effect of “Will you please get real (my BML is holding hands with the north node across my Nadir) about whether you’ve got the guts to be a healer or not? Publicly and fearlessly? Can we talk about this???”
I’m not a coward, & I’m not a charlatan. I know I can facilitate amazing changes in people’s health–physical and spiritual. I know I have helped myself and my husband more than all the money we spent on specialists ever did. I know I have a genuine healing gift and it can be helpful & useful & good.
But the opportunities for delusion & self-aggrandizement in this are rife. It’s really a strange situation–to truly be authentically in service to the healing, one has to forget oneself. It cannot be about “me.” Which is awesome, because there’s no fucking way I’m walking into that ring alone. And yet, to offer your gifts & soulfully developed sensitivities to your community, you have to say it at some point: “I am _______.”
I cannot hear myself say that. Not out of fear that someone will think me a quack. It’s not their arrogance that’s the problem, but rather my own. Because I honestly don’t know if I have the inner strength & wisdom to embody the humility this work requires.
I’m weak. I still really like validation. I want to do well. And I’m scared that I haven’t earned the right to have the powers of creation respond when I ask them to.
… And then along comes Icarus. An Icarus, by the way, like no Icarus I’ve ever seen before.
I work my back to something Chief Niwots Son asked me the other day: “Just whose rules are they, anyway?” What rules am I going to live by–those that resonate with what I know to be true inside, that empower me & allow me to help others find their own empowerment, or those that keep me in a box, color-coded by size & shape (& gender!), and fixed with a pre-printed label that makes me easy for them to understand?
Fuck easy.
Because the reality is, when I’m standing in my integrity, the powers of creation do respond. Whose rules matter more than that?
Len, thank you for hewing to your own conscience & letting the stories tell their own story. It’s incredible how much power they can have when we just let them breathe. Your humanity is a light in all this darkness.
Fear of flying, indeed, Len.
As one who was a kid during the 60’s and the Uranus Pluto conjunction, I was part of the “assassination generation.” In less than a decade I saw news of four assassinations; all well-learned activist males. The Kennedy brothers, MLK, and Malcolm X. In my 20’s the movie Ghandi came out and there it was again; the killing of the activist male. As Robert A. Wilson wrote in his book, Cosmic Trigger; “They always kill the gnosis.” I read that book before seeing Ghandi; it was written in the 70’s. What I remember of those assassinations were the families left behind; Kennedy’s small children holding Jackie’s hands in the news replays, MLK’s children and wife, Robert Kennedy’s family, Malcolm X’s kids; all now fatherless.
I think part of the inaction now is because of that “assassination decade.” When I talk to people, both my age and even those of Gen X who didn’t live through it but were taught about it the same thing comes out of them; no one is willing to die for a cause because they have kids and family who will be left behind without them and these kids need them. That’s how I feel, too. Speaking out gets you killed and I still have a young child that needs me and his father.
Conspiracy theorists say those assassinations were done for this very purpose; to make damn sure “the people’ would be too scared to do anything. You see it in the way the French or other people across the pond fearlessly protest while Americans protest but in far smaller numbers. The huge majority of rational, reasonable, people in this country are afraid of dying for that power; afraid for their children if they are taken away, branded terrorist and never seen again. Yes, this is fear mongering at its worst and I think this is why people fail to stand up; the fear mongering worked very well on us.
Note that the recent renegades; Manning, Snowdon, Assange, etc., are all single, (no wife or kids) males so they feel no fear of familial reprisals.
This is also why the internet is such a threat to the conscience-less powerful; there’s no leader to kill off and people can mass and rise up without any one person being targeted as the instigator. No wonder the they wish to muzzle and control the internet.
This is also why the “quiet revolution” is going in under the radar; no one gets targeted and change can happen.
Len, a powerful piece and I sense that something is afoot, at least in the judicial system. I keep getting the Justice card in readings and I am getting the synchronicity with current events. This should be a very interesting homecoming for Venus.