Yesterday Venus left Aries (a tense, though impetuous and passionate placement for the goddess of love) and entered Taurus (one of its home signs of rulership — the other is Libra). The sign change brings Venus into aspect with Neptune, Chiron and Jupiter in useful, even playful ways. We could, on the surface, liken this to someone coming home from work and slipping out of heels that pinch and into soft fuzzy slippers. Now that Venus has shed the martial psychic armor she’s been wearing in Aries (sign ruled by Mars, the god of war) she — that is, our own feminine sides — can be more at ease with what our senses perceive, and bring the physical and emotional into harmony.

Venus, by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres. Venus (Aphrodite) was born of sea foam, and in astrology, the planet has a great affinity with Pisces' oceans.

This blend is heightened by the fact that Venus is also strong in Pisces (it’s the exalted planet), and there is a lot of Pisces energy right now several ways.

The first and most obvious point of Pisces contact is a sextile with Neptune in that sign. Venus in this flowing, supportive aspect to Neptune adds the essence of meaning to what we call love. It’s about gently dissolving boundaries and attachments. This may be an especially useful aspect if you’re finding yourself drawn into certain characteristics of Venus in Taurus, such as possessiveness and a certain quiet stubbornness (or alternately, persistence and devotion).

The first pair are mental/emotional postures that can take hold, especially if we feel threatened by some kind of loss (literal or ego-based). If you can allow yourself to soften your grip a little, Neptune’s dissolving property can connect you to the more transcendent quality of Venus.

Venus is also approaching a sextile to Chiron, which is just a smidge further into Pisces than Neptune is. Plus, Venus is beginning to activate Chiron’s discovery degree, which is 4 degrees Taurus. The degree where Chiron was discovered can act a lot like Chiron itself; this accentuates the sensation of emotional contact as a deep driving force in the psyche. Venus-Chiron has a mystical quality to its passion.

Love is about being open to more than a person or a feeling; it’s about being open to existence. If you’re feeling constrained in love, you may need to open up to the next few levels. The physical body is a vehicle for what some call ‘cosmic consciousness’ because it’s our way of experiencing the cosmos, at least while we have it to explore in. Going beyond the limits that we perceive the body to have, as it becomes an instrument of awareness and not of limitation. This can take practice, including meditation or experimentation with mind-altering substances.

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You can expect your mental landscape to zing and your emotional waters to bubble this week, along with a beautiful opportunity to ground everything so you don’t feel off center. On the roster: Mercury conjunct Uranus in Aries; the ingress of Venus into Taurus; and finally on Thursday, the Virgo Full Moon.

This is what a conjunction looks like -- Mercury and Uranus have the same number value (3 degrees and 25 minutes). That is near Vesta, which says: if you think of something smart, the idea counts for a lot -- and then you need to devote yourself to following through.

The Moon — currently in Leo, as of Sunday — is waxing toward the full phase. Because the Sun is in Pisces, the Moon-Sun opposition (also called a Full Moon) will be in Virgo. That will happen Thursday at 4:39 am EST. As with most Full Moons, this translates into a culmination of energy and possibly tension, since it is an opposition of the Sun and Moon. It’s the Moon phase when our emotions and interpersonal situations can tend to feel the most polarized, like we’re at opposite ends of any given situation or emotional spectrum, and we’re pulling whatever material is connecting us to each other into some tension. But this can be useful; the Full Moon is a time to resolve situations that seemed stuck. It can be a great creative time, though many have some difficulty sleeping with all the vibes in the air.

Currently, retrograde Mars in Virgo is just a little past its opposition with the Pisces Sun, and the Virgo Moon conjoins Virgo Mars the day before the Full Moon. So Mars is in the mix, adding some edge and heat to the buildup this week. Be aware in the next few days of any tendency to turn on yourself if your emotions get the better of you. Watch out for that strange thing called ‘passive aggression’, which is really veiled aggression. Judging yourself won’t get you anywhere productive, though one way you might know you’re doing that is if you’re angry at others (that’s the nature of an opposition — we can see the obstacle as being outside of ourselves).

Noticing the tendency to judgment, anger or projection (should these arise) and taking time to follow it in to its roots could yield some useful information. It could reveal ways you may be prone to cutting yourself off from full emotional expression and self-understanding. This lunation blends the mental realm of Virgo with the emotional realm of Pisces. They’re not as different as we think, especially now.

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