The only two planets closer to Sun than Earth have started our week in tandem. Venus entered its rulership in Taurus earlier today and will consummate the ingress with a sextile to Neptune tomorrow. Mercury conjoined Uranus in fiery Aries this morning and is a day away from linking up with nearby Vesta. The combined activity of Mercury and Venus symbolize an inner and outer environment rich in energetic possibility but needing your conscious contribution to achieve its potential within your life.
The potential of your inner and outer worlds right now is in its sheer energy. The question is whether that energy will be wasted in reaction, or function as a stimulation to creativity. Mercury is well positioned to support a stimulated mind.
In fact, Mercury in Aries is a stimulated mind. The quality of Aries is cardinal, which confers a sense of initiative. The element of Aries is fire, which easy to understand as something light and energetic. As you have probably noticed already, this morning’s conjunction of Mercury with Uranus takes the mental quickening up a notch. That’s because Mercury and Uranus share a symbolic connection with electricity and sudden events. Your simply reacting to a rapid pace and galvanizing occurrences will accomplish little more than burning you out. Vesta is on the scene in Aries to help with managing the inner combustion.
Vesta’s discovery chart for March 29, 1807 has both Sun and Mercury in Aries, so the origin of its identity in our consciousness (Sun) and its function in our thinking (Mercury) resonates with Vesta’s current placement in the cardinal fire. In addition, Vesta’s very name has a legendary connection with the management and conservation of vital energy within a structure. That’s because the Roman temple to Vesta was where a sacred flame was kept and cared for, symbolic of the hearth flame, which for most of human history has represented home on Earth.
The presence of Vesta in functional conjunction to both Mercury and Uranus thus implies a way for you to be present to the fire within without being consumed by it. The key will be conscious devotion to sustaining the energy in your bodily temple with a disciplined maintenance of its level and container. You know how to achieve those objectives from experience. The key is to shift your focus and attention to the task. That task will be complicated by the likelihood that your inner level of nervous energy is being matched by what’s coming at you from the outside.
For every person like you, present and conscious of the ambient astrology and how it is functioning in your life, you can be sure there are a multitude of others who are simply living a runaway chain reaction right now. Since avoiding contact with others is not practical for most of us, your challenge is finding a way not to get caught up in the frenzy you are likely to encounter. Since you can’t control anybody but yourself, the means to dealing with a frenetic environment lies in exerting control over what you attract. That’s where Venus comes in.
Venus, in the words of Robert Hand, “rules the spontaneous power of attraction.” Living, as most of us do, in a culture that encourages us to make things happen or go out and get things done does not cultivate the skill of employing the Venus archetype. Indeed, most of us see the power of attraction as a native ability mysteriously conferred to the physically beautiful or socially charismatic. That’s where Venus’ sextile to Neptune comes in.
Among other things, Neptune is associated with perceptions that are not valid. Among such invalid perceptions is the idea that attraction is not consciously attainable. Sextiles, like scholarships, support the effort to attain. Venus in sextile to Neptune encourages you to make the receptive, tangible qualities of Venus work for you by getting a fix on its practical side and actually putting out into the world some of what you’d like to attract. Now is a good time to try that because Venus is in Taurus.
Taurus is a fixed earth sign. That combination of quality and element implies a practical and tangible milieu for any planet, but especially Venus. That’s because Venus rules Taurus, which means it is strongest and most comfortable there, and that gives us a valuable clue. It is a clue that the true nature of Venus and attraction is not mysterious and ethereal, but genuine and accessible. The archetypal power of attraction associated with Venus is not alien to Taurus, it is essential. Just as what goes up must come down and fix to the Earth, what you put out into the world will be attracted to you, and that is how Mercury and Venus can be made to work in tandem for you right now.
Mercury, in its Aries conjunction with Uranus assures that what you put out can have abundant energy. Consciously including the modulation that Vesta represents gives you control over how your energy is perceived. If others perceive that you are above merely trading reactions, they will reflect a thoughtful response back to you and you will attract the same level energy from without that you attain within. It may take a little practice, but if there is anything to astrology as we have interpreted it today, there is no better time than now to begin.
Offered In Service
I have the sextile in my birth chart. Mars in Taurus, too. Then there’s Libra rising. I’ve always felt at odds with the uber culture’s grab-life-by-the-balls approach. It seems that the less I grasp at things and the more often I can remember to vibrate on the frequency of gratitude, the more in tune my life gets. The more I follow the culture’s lead and start trying to impose my will on the world the more resistance I find. Oh, my Saturn is retrograde, too. It seems to me given this context for my Capricorn Sun it’s the task of the goat-fish to cultivate the internal discipline necessary to keep the mind from falling into the traps of dissing and grasping that render my native skills useless. Grab life by the balls and don’t be surprised if it breaks your nose. Thanks for illuminating this, Len.
Jude: Thank you for your expressed and generous understanding. Your eloquent and elegant contributions to Planet Waves are among the the examples of excellence i strive to emulate.
amelie: Thank you for accepting my service, may my poor words serve you richly.
be: Thank you for your affirmation of resonance and especially for keeping us aware of the impending Venus transit of the Sun. You are profound and generous teacher.
Huffy: Thank you for sharing the joy of your awakened awareness.
Sarah: Thank you for your gentle and compassionate heart. You profound and insightful readings continuously inform and educate my own work.
Hugging Scorpio: Thank you for the link that puts a little extra spin on Venus and for broadening our horizon of Venus in Taurus.
a_priori: Thank you for getting that. It is you who are to be saluted.
len
my bodily temple salutes you
If anyone wants to read this article, it’s about the spin of Venus slowing down:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/02/120214-venus-planets-slower-spin-esa-space-science/
Thanks Len,
I love how you worked Vesta into these aspects. I’m also looking forward to Venus making other aspects as she venture across Taurus (chiron, jupiter, pluto). It’s special.
be, you were in my thoughts when I read about the storms. I’m not entirely sure why – just that I had this thought that you lived in the area. It’s good to hear from you. I hope everyone is receiving the support they need.
S x
Yes, absolutely lovely, dear Len – thank you! Am particularly aware at the moment of my ingrained negative mental patterns, and how life reflects them back to me. Time to work on the energy I’m putting out…
I love this line from you Len. . “Venus in sextile to Neptune encourages you to make the worldly expression of Venus work for you by getting a fix on its practical side and getting it grounded in reality.”
Venus has been on my mind for several days and in several ways. Just this morning I read (most of) an article called Venus Returns. It is written by Jodie Forrest and appears in the Mt. Astrologer magazine for Feb/Mar. 2012. In it she makes a case for looking at a chart for when transiting Venus returns to conjunct your natal Venus. She believes that, unlike other inner planets whose return potential is revealed by house position, Venus’ potential is based on her relationships to her fellow planets. This return chart would have influence until the next Venus return.
Well, the last few days has had Venus opposite Saturn and, along with the Mars opposite Sun aspect, was manifested through remarkably violent weather in my part of the country. Almost simutaneously, there was a remarkable outpouring of generosity and love from the “spared” neighbors, sometimes hundreds of miles away, for their devastated neighbors, many who lost everything. Not that we don’t always see that support when disaster strikes. This time though, based on scenes shown on television news, it seemed more of an awakening for both the givers and the receivers. That in turn affected the viewers of those televised scenes.
Or maybe it was just me, but it seemed that people, both givers and receivers, were determined to “get back up and running” rather than stay in a dazed and depressed state. Or maybe the TV reporters are just getting better at this. Whatever it is, this was Venus bridging beyond her own aspect, in this case opposite Saturn, to be included in the Sun-Mars opposition. That she is exhaulted in the sign Pisces, where the Sun is now, and rules the sign that Saturn is in makes it doable I suppose.
Maybe too it was this nearing aspect to Neptune and it’s partner in tandem, Mercury conjunct Uranus that makes it seem more poignant to both the participants and the viewers. Possibly it is the contact between inner planet and an “outer-beyond-Saturn” planet that gives off a different vibration making it seem extraordinary. Whatever, Venus was and still is expressing from her most practical side which was definitely grounded in reality.
I’m also continuously finding new things about Venus’ occultation of Sun this June. Not only is she in her rare aspect but her fellow planets are not idle either. Her association with relationship might carry over to more tandem partners like the Moon who is conjunct Pluto and Jupiter opposite his wife asteroid Juno (no surprise there), and even asteroid Pallas-Athene who will be cozying up to Uranus. Is there a pattern here? Are the planets preparing us for new cycles of relationship and attempting to find harmony and balance in old relationships? Well, Venus herself and with the Sun will be opposite the Great Attractor, pitting attraction against attraction, and Mercury the ruler of her resident sign of Gemini will oppose the Galactic Center perhaps in an effort to communicate the secrets of keeping one’s balance in relationship. And how about this one; a wee little yod of Heracles in Pisces sextile Ceres in Taurus form a yod with Saturn in Libra, all three signs connected to Venus. Now what Venusian magic do you suppose that will bring us? No doubt it will pretty as well as practical.
be
This has helped me so much Len-thank you 🙂 I am a Sagittarius, Aries Moon, and Pisces in my 4th House at the moment. Will be working carefully with this current energy 🙂
Offered in service and beautifully, as usual, dearheart. CHOOSING how we respond, rather than reacting in sleepy, knee-jerk fashion, is so important to peeling the layers that keep our light “under a bushel.” Lovely to have the Universe conspire to help us out, and equally Divine to have you to point it out! Blessings on you!