Mercury in Virgo, Venus in Cancer

Len Wallick, whose comments to this blog I recommend you study because he’s a much better astrologer than he’s letting on, makes a good point: I haven’t mentioned this bit yet, Mercury in Virgo. It is past midnight and I’ve already written tomorrow’s fairly hefty morning blog, not mentioning any of this — I am on a mission, which I will reveal later in the week — so I’m not going to say much now except:

Mercury entered Virgo conjunct a potentially smarter planet (primarily because she is about the application of intelligence): Pallas Athene: the goddess of strategy and protection. Information — lifegiving, lifesaving, original, protective and quite specific — is coming through. Pay attention to what you hear and what you learn now. If you’re sitting around idly over coffee and you start to get ideas for how to solve your problems, improve your life, create a business or start a brilliant project, take note and take action.

With Pallas, there is one little caveat: the growth theme to watch is daddy-pleasing; especially if you are a woman. Every time you make a decision, ask yourself: am I doing this because this is what my dad would want, or to maintain my image in his eyes? Or am I doing it because I want to? Really ask!

Mercury joins Saturn in Virgo and this is going to be truly helpful. Mercury and Saturn are great friends. Mercury lends the nimble-footedness, the quick flow, the seed idea. Saturn lends the discipline and the structure to get it done, whatever it is. We need a little lift in our Virgo these days, and now we’ve got it: ideas need life and many of them stream out of Virgo; Mercury provides focus and a sense of voice. Yes, we look to Venus for that, in part, but at the moment she is in Cancer, providing some warmth and nourishment and perhaps a voice of affection.

The two transits are related, in that Mercury and Venus will be forming a sextile, actually, they are already in one, and it’s strong and applying and it is a point of contact. I think that sextiles are the easiest aspects to work with; with is the key idea; we do part of the work and they do part of the work and this is about communicating real feelings and real ideas, from the distinct viewpoints offered by Mercury in its own sign and Venus in a sign she thrives in.

Mercury in Virgo is great news for the Sixties generation; we have Uranus and Pluto in Virgo and Mercury will put us in touch with the revolutionary energy of this conjunction. It will move in a wave, as the conjunction peaked close to the midpoint of Virgo in 1965-66. This is like opening a treasure trove of information that came up in the Sixties and that we could be learning from now, but we’re not. Trust me on this, the Sixties are not a bunch of rock songs. This era, which spans Pluto in Virgo В (1957-1972) was one of the great watersheds in modern history.

Though we have squandered most of what we have gained, allowing our petty fears, guilt and authority trip to take [most of] our minds back over in positively boring style, the Sixties are a treasure trove and [most of] the people born in them have yet to take up their voices. They do have something to say, but for the most part have forgotten the ethos of the era, which was: we are all in this together. Service is not a burden; it is indeed our dharma. So let’s quit the petty self-obsession and get the job done.

Hear, hear.

20 thoughts on “Mercury in Virgo, Venus in Cancer”

  1. Hi mystes . . .I can relate to the “forge ahead” no matter the cost to the body (or anything else) that you speak of and hope it WAS worth it and that the cheerful paying for it now prevails.

    Let me thank you for shedding light (ha ha) on this latest eclipse as I’ve combed the internet and astro journals for a thought or phrase that would give me a handle on it. Seems Neptune or Uranus (in Pisces) or just plain exhaustion has the astrologers waxing poetic in their interpretations. I’ve been unable to get a clear clue but, latching onto your thinking, Venus in Cancer and the” touch-like caressing worldwave release” was poignantly displayed this morning with the return of the two freed reporters, along with Bill Clinton. As for the curtain drawn back, well, the Sun is in Leo and no doubt, new Form(s) will be among the cast.

    I’m also intrigued by your dreams of “walking down the stairs” and climbing the “rickety green sculpture” with “spinning stepboards.” Seeing Saturn’s influence here and the three descents might be for emphasis or symbolic in its own right. I’m not a numbers person, are you? Anyway, somewhere in you is a cautious optimism to climb, unless your feeling chased/forced.

    So it is *art* for you this eclipse; very apropos of Leo/Aquarius, but Vesta seems the driving force (burning off some stuff” and “forge ahead”) and since she was conjunct the solstice-new moon-aries point, and she’s sextile Saturn in today’s eclipse, she won’t be letting up soon, but it looks to garner you public appreciation. Go girl . . sending you my venus vibes.
    be

  2. Bee, honey. . . I’ve been sick for the last few nights, burning off some stuff I buried in my body in order to ‘forge ahead’ as they say. There’s always a price, and I usually pay it cheerfully.

    Thinking is a corporeal activity for the likes of me. My brain extends all the way down to the bottoms of my feet (and then some). When the system shuts down, it shuts down.

    That said, the last three nights have all been about art. Um, make that Art. I think this is tied into this Eclipse. The re-mix/refermentationi process that E alludes to is part of it, but even Eno can’t quite say the Real of it (which is why he is a musician,eh?). It’s not just recombination any more than the beauty of your fingertips is just recombination. This is the weakness in the evolutionary argument. It leaves out Art.

    Dreams: walked down the stairs thrice earlier this week, each time thinking: Nude Descending a Staircase. The house became GustavKlimt-world. I climbed up a rickety green sculpture that ascended two hundred feet into the air with spinning stepboards.

    The simplest image that comes to me for this Eclipse is the Aquarian curtain drawn back to reveal a new Form: part voice, part movement, part tessera of speech – but a pure touch-like caressing worldwave released. One aspect I know will be touched is Venus in Cancer, as the Morning Star – She may release a more vibrant note than one might think.

    Nessus plays his part (Caliban), Absolus (dark Matter/Mater) plays his/hers. Those are part of the View I can’t quite hold right now. Have to stay focused elsewhere.

    Anyway, off I go to stretch myself out along this pathway: toes locked around the Gemini Solstice, the Capricorn Eclipse at my belly; Cancer Eclipse at my heart; the Aquarius between my Minds. Attending is not the same as explaining, and apparently I can do one or the other…

    (Back to my forge: Swords made of moonlight, feather-edged and insatiable. )

    M

  3. Hi Chutzpah,

    Thanks for your comment on Pallas Athena. I had never really thought about her process of strategizing before now. Intuitive sounds right though, unless her sign placement has some bearing on it. For example, my Pallas Athena is in air- Gemini – and my stratagy is usually based on logic (and a little cunning maybe!) Not that it rules out intuition, or femininity for that matter. Whatever works. Demetra George says she “symbolizes a feminine-defined quality of heroism, bravery, courage and sensible toughness.”

    Probably the daddy-pleasing aspect appears when she’s badly aspected, like a square from Saturn or something.

    mystes. . . hope you are feeling better now. How about this eclipse tomorrow? It’s 4 degrees from my Moon and my city, Louisville, got flooded today!!
    be

  4. miss M!

    i hope you are healing well and glad you discovered i&w. they’re still a bit mellow for me, but some of their tunes have grown strong with me. i’m learning to love slower in that sense. ha! here’s another one of my favorites from the same album! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8obrc0eA6gk

    oooh hilton-head eh? almost almost almost there… one freaking day at a time is how it goes here… but i’m on the downside of the mountain, which is good.

    sending you much cleansing love!

  5. StormiLaRue… glad you wandered off-topic, I loved the little slideshow (and the discovery of Iron and Wine). Venus in Cancer is pulling some strange stuff through. I am very sick, but very cheerfully sick, pulling out all of the things that took up lodging in my bones during the debacle of the last Eclipse.

    you will never make me
    learn to lay beneath the mountain

    ’cause i’ll only lie
    down by the waterside at night

    Oh, Hilton is renewed. How far are you again?

    Kallimystes

  6. Hi bkoehler,

    no i dont think Pallas is more thoughtful, not conciously any way, many people say she is a pure strategist, i think shes more in touch with intuition than she or anyone else lets on – there are stories of her abandoning her femininity but i dont buy it, she works intuitively as all the best strategists do!

    Im also not sure about the ‘Daddy’ pleasing – Pallas is very prominant in my chart yet i dont know my father so where will thge daddy pleasing come in?

  7. Eric,

    As I think you’ve intuited already, it’s about valuing my own volition and choice as much as anothers (or yours) and it’s about neurosis or self doubt, as in “Geese, did I take that job just to please my dad or was it really for me”? — a difficult decision t’was. Na-ma-ste

  8. Not you, astrology does.

    I think we need to start from the beginning delineating Uranus, Neptune and Pluto.

    We need to look at the mistakes in delineation that were made by the early astrologers who got hold of new planets for the first time. Does anyone know who gave the rulership of Aquarius to Uranus? There was one person…Raphael I, the founder of Raphael’s Ephemeris…this, according to Robert Hand.

  9. Thank you Eric, for introducing integrity to the discussion. i did indeed mis-use the word traditional and it padawan-ed from there. Good points about the evolution from the doctrine of signatures and the progression from first the pre-Uranian ruler THEN to the post-traditional ruler. i’ll learn from this one for sure.

    Gotta remember to tie my shoes first.
    -Len

  11. Guys, traditionally – Pluto rules nothing. Pluto comes after traditional astrology has ended. The modern planets have no rulerships, exaltations or falls — in traditional astrology, which only addresses the “seven lights in the sky.” Rulerships of modern discoveries are a topic of debate; but one thing is clear, they don’t fall under the original doctrine of signatures. It’s a whole new concept, and it’s one not set in stone or barely in ink.

    I know that there are affinities between the modern planets and certain signs (Pluto to Scorpio and Pisces, for example); there are esoteric affinities (Neptune to Cancer for example); but these are different than rulerships. I suggest that when an affinity is used, that the traditional ruler of that sign be acknowledged; i.e., when exploring something involving Scorpio, we go from Mars to Pluto, in that order.

  12. Gauri (and Gaelfire),
    If i may please offer a reply regarding Pluto and Virgo. Traditionally, Pluto rules Scorpio, is exhalted in Leo and in its detriment in Taurus. However, ever since Eric exposed me to Alice Bailey, everything i thought i knew has been called into question. Unlike others, i do not think Ms. Bailey’s work (“Esoteric Astrology”) can be dismissed outright because so much of what she says FEELS right in a visceral sense. SO, taking a cue from her i have started to follow my own intuition and think of planets, houses and signs as having relationships. As such, it is my instinct that Virgo is, in a sense, attracted to Pluto because the mutable and the metamorphic can bring out their mutual energies. Likewise, i intuit that the planet Pluto would be attracted to Virgo as the mythlogical Pluto was attracted to Persephone (if i may so risk to venture with no offense to anyone: a dom with an un-met emotional need seeks a sub to fill it). So, Gauri, i would say that “what makes a lot of sense” to you personally is an indication to me that you are on to something. Gaelfire, you to are on to something in a chiral way in that Virgo (like Taurus) is an Earth sign.
    Hope this has been of some service,
    Len Wallick

  13. Recent letters from Sari to Eric come to mind – we seem to keep reverting back to the ’empowering women over men” equation – which is not the equation we need to be solving. (I reference bkoehler’s comment below).

    I believe that woman have been enabler man’s preverse desire to overopower man (or to suppress himself both man and woman within him) and that when woman stops that shit and become alpha woman again (the woman who loves and accepts all other women as equals and further has no need to competion with men) then alpha male will also redefine.

    Also perhaps Eric was suggesting that Pallas Athena offers something to complement Mercury – intellegence plus use of that intellegence in an intellengent manner or some such. None of these gods are competing – they are complementing – can we see that or are we stuck in that equation that not only separates man from woman but man from man and woman from woman?

    BTW, “Saria” is my Spirit taken from me eons ago at the beginning of the Time of Denial of the Devine Feminine. “She” and I have recently reunited. I found it interesting that such poignant letlters came through Eric to me from “Sari”.

  14. Pluto in Virgo…that’s the Generation Jonesers.

    http://www.jonathanpontell.com/aboutgenjones.htm

    http://generationjones.com/2009latest.html

    Not as idealistic as Boomers but not as cynical as Xers; Gen-Jonesers are pragmatic, so far quiet, hard workers. Obama is a Gen-Jones. Generation Jones is actually a larger population than Boomers because they comprise 26% of the population VS Boomers that only comprise 15%. Hillary Clinton is a Boomer and Obama is a Gen-Joneser; that is why Obama won the election because he appeals to Boomers, Gen-Jonesers and Gen Xers alike. Like all Gen-Jones people, he straddles both Boomer and GenXer worlds and as a slumbering group, Gen-Jones is waking up and finding their voices.

    Now couple this info with the current astrology and you can see where this is going.

    That’s interesting that you mention pleasing Dad….I have been dealing with an emotionally absent father my whole life. Recently, I went out to buy his wife her birthday card and I felt more resentment than I have in a long time. Because of her, (and his willingness to do what she wants) he has not been to my wedding, my children’s baptisms, to my older brother’s (his ‘sonly son’s) wedding or funeral and he has given over control of both his and his mother’s estates to his wife’s only son, a childless married man. I only got the card and sent it to please him….and for the first time in many years I felt a deep resentment about pleasing him. While he lives in Vegas and I live a few hours drive away in Flagstaff, he has never visited me since 1992. A few days ago, he called me just to talk, which he does every so often. When the talking went on for about 30 minutes, I heard his wife in the background telling him to come watch something on TV with her. He said he had to go; I was livid. Even so, I held my anger and told him goodbye and gave my love. After I hung up I was venting about her to my family because I have NEVER demanded attention from my Dad; I have not tried to get more time from him than his wife allows and she has him 24/7 and yet she resented that 30 minutes he was having with me enough to pull him away from me. I was furious for a while but then I calmed down and realized that being mad only upset ME and she wasn’t worth that.

    I had pulled away from him for many years because of this issue and only started being nice back in 2001 because I am compassionate and forgiving. I don’t want to upset his mother, my Grandmother, by stopping contact because she is a 95 year-old kind woman that I love deeply (my dad is her only child). So I go on gritting my teeth about his wife and keep my thoughts and feelings to myself, treating her very well whenever we have visited them or she is on the phone to me. This even though my older brother (now deceased) was HER favorite and my children are now the only living descendants of both of them because my older brother never had any children. That she agrees to allow a non-blood relative to decide on her estate and her welfare instead of her only living grandchild makes no sense unless you understand that both her and my father know I still talk to my mom and they are afraid that if I got a hold of their estates, I might give HER something. Basically, I am paying for my mother’s bad choices and hurtful behavior. This is why I live away from all of them and wish they would just leave me alone….I am happier when they do. Unfortunately, I am a Capricorn moon guilted daughter.

    Family sucks sometimes.

  15. As I understand it, Pluto is in fall in Virgo. Also, since the outer planets move so slowly, the sign placement is considered more generational than individual–for a more personal interpretation of your Pluto, look to its house placement.

  16. This is a bit off topic, but I thought of it because of the reference to Pluto in Virgo generation.
    Is Virgo the sign in which Pluto is supposed to be exalted? I had read that a long time ago in an astrology book but never could confirm that anywhere else.
    Having Pluto in Virgo natally, to me personally it makes a lot of sense. But I was wondering if anyone knew that for sure.

  20. Hello Eric, you surprised me by saying Pallas Athena was smarter than Mercury. I can’t remember you ever comparing the merits of any of the gods before and hope you will further enlighten us. I think of Mercury as quick and clever and sometimes devious, while Pallas Athena strikes me as putting more thought into a subject, therefore less hasty. Is this what you mean? She’s more thoughtful? The conversation(s) have been so “masculine” lately, I suppose because of the Sun sextiling Mars in masculine signs (and what with the Moon forming a yod to them, with great feeling!) so a little yin is a welcome balancer. I think you are right; sextiles ARE easier to work with.

Leave a Comment