Well-behaved women seldom occupy the Aries Point

Today is Thursday, Feb. 9, 2012. Chances are you’ve run across the statement “Well-behaved women seldom make history” many times, whether on a bumper sticker or a greeting card. It’s a catchy, inspiring phrase embraced by many a woman determined to make her mark on the world – or, at least, to live her life fully and by her own rules. It could also be the slogan of today’s Venus-Uranus conjunction on the Aries Point.

The Aries Point is the first degree of Aries, a sensitive spot where personal issues have political, worldly impact and vice versa. Uranus, the high-energy outer planet of spontaneous and revolutionary acts and awakenings, has been hanging out in this spot for months, talking to Pluto as the two of them foment some cultural reorganization (Arab Spring and Occupy are just the beginning).

Now add Venus to Aries – the sign of its ‘detriment’ – where its energy is harder to express and access naturally. You could think of Venus here as rather like a young child without the words she needs to express herself: the tools she has to use may tend toward things like tantrums rather than articulate, empathetic therapy-speak. Offering her a little understanding, clear boundaries and some assistance focusing is (generally) more appropriate than putting her in a corner – unless she needs some quiet time.

Of course, Venus making a conjunction to Uranus looks like too much excitement for any corner-sitting anyway. These two planets conjunct in any sign can bestow personal magnetism, unusual creative energy, a strong self-will and unconventional loving (along with emotional highs and lows). This is Venus plugging into a light socket (or, to return to the child metaphor, eating a pile of candy). The question is, how do you work with that much energy, especially if it’s coming in an unrefined and unpredictable form? As with the child, it takes clear boundaries, empathy and focus coming from someone or somewhere else. And given the powerful position of this conjunction – a point where personal and cultural issues feed each other and make shit happen – it’s worth it to seek out that assistance and use it well.

Well-behaved women may not show up in the history books often, but neither do unfocused loose cannons completely at the mercy of their emotions or surroundings. Where can we find the discipline and structure we need to evolve the passion and spontaneity of Venus-Uranus so we can fully engage with the Aries Point’s potential? Check out Saturn, newly retrograde in Libra, making a trine to Pallas Athene in Aquarius. This aspect is giving us some harmony between how we structure our personal boundaries and balance our relationships, and the negotiating and political skills necessary to situate those things in collective, social contexts. It can take a little strategy (Pallas), in terms of how you convey what you need to, whom you choose as allies and what, exactly, you mean to accomplish while you’re busy not behaving.

And since we’re back to our starting quote, here’s a little info about Laurel Thatcher Ulrich. She’s the Harvard professor of early America and the history of women who wrote that fired-up phrase in an article on Puritan funeral services, and who was amused and surprised when it went viral. She has a fun Aries Point cardinal T-square — featuring Eris conjunct the Aries Point, which embodies the ‘castaway woman’; her Moon in early Capricorn, lending a reverence for tradition; and Chiron in early Cancer, which is the tendency to deep emotional healing devoted to motherhood. Plus, she also has another powerful goddess, Ceres, conjunct Uranus in Taurus. Since Ulrich is a Mormon, we could make a group marriage joke here: a group (Uranus) of mothers (Ceres). But it’s really a perfect image of someone combining the inventive power of Uranus and Ceres to heal and reinvent motherhood.

Ulrich didn’t set out to conquer the world with bumper stickers (all that merchandizing was done by others). But she did put her discipline to work researching women in a way that invites other women to realize their power in shaping the world, whether subtly or with Uranian acts that demand attention. Or to use her own words, she pays tribute to “the silent work of ordinary people” to “show the interconnection between public events and private experience.”

How Aries Point is that?

Looking for insights on how this week’s astrology affects your personal Sun and rising signs? Eric Francis interprets the signs every week, every month and every year. Weekly and monthly horoscopes are in Planet Waves and Planet Waves Light. Annual readings are in a special edition called Revolution. Revelation. Reality Check.