{"id":46372,"date":"2011-09-29T00:01:41","date_gmt":"2011-09-29T04:01:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/?p=46372"},"modified":"2011-09-29T13:53:41","modified_gmt":"2011-09-29T17:53:41","slug":"mars-opposite-vesta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/astro-daily\/mars-opposite-vesta\/","title":{"rendered":"Mars Opposite Vesta: Young Women Encounter Desire"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo by Eric Francis.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Today is Thursday, Sept. 29, 2011<\/strong><\/a>. The Moon is now in Scorpio, where it will remain till early Saturday morning. Though we don’t often mention the speed of the Moon, it’s currently near its fastest daily motion, so this visit to Scorpio will be relatively brief. This is the equivalent of the Moon moving in direct motion (quickly, near the Earth) — easier progress and more straightforward communications. Though it never goes retrograde, the equivalent would be a slow Moon (far from Earth), when progress seems slower and it may be a bit more difficult to relate what you feel. <\/p>\n

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The Sun has just made aspects to Chiron, Uranus and Pluto, which suggests we’ve been through a busy few days. Now the Sun is gradually approaching a conjunction to Saturn in Libra. This is a time to focus on discipline, to pace yourself and to refine the nuances of collaboration. Sun-Saturn is the time to work toward long-term goals, but make sure you take action today.<\/p>\n

There is an aspect happening now that deserves some specific focus. Mars in Leo is opposite the asteroid Vesta in Aquarius. Vesta is one of the patron saints of Planet Waves. The brightest of the asteroids, it was discovered in 1807. Named for the goddess of devotion, Vesta is about service, consistent effort and sexual healing. I also view Vesta as bestowing the gift of inner focus, and nurturing one’s sacred flame of creativity and sexuality. [Planet Waves last year published a premium edition on Vesta, called The Sacred Space of Self<\/a>.] Vesta is now in Aquarius, a perfect sign for this energy. Aquarius is the very image of service: the water-bearer gathers the water in her urn, so that she may share it. Vesta is a bit cool and detached, as can be Aquarius. But deep within the energy of both is passion, which drives the willingness to serve.<\/p>\n

Vesta refers to the story of the Vestal Virgins. We know more about them than we do about this particular goddess herself. Many are historical figures. They were honored by Rome, and were present at all important state functions to hold space. That is essential to the delineation of Vesta: the use of space (for example, in a household), and holding space for important functions such as healing.<\/p>\n

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There is another theme, which is young women. People with a prominent Vesta in their charts are likely to be surrounded by young women, and to have some kind of mutual service role. These women are not necessarily sex partners; indeed, Vesta has an aura of celibacy, abstaining from sex, or sex reserved for some special purpose. The Vestal Virgins were among the most desirable, intelligent and beautiful women in all of Rome, yet none could have them. I think this is an interesting image of how we view young women today — as pure, untouchable, naive and virginal, yet at the same time hyper-desirable.<\/p>\n

Vesta is now opposed by Mars in Leo. This is not a routine aspect. It happens about every three years. The last one (with Mars in Scorpio and Vesta in Taurus) was Oct. 18. 2008. There was then a conjunction in Virgo on June 29, 2010. <\/p>\n

Mars-Vesta aspects are evocative, especially this meeting of bold, brash and fiery Mars in Leo, meeting the detached, demur, mentally-oriented Vesta in Aquarius. One image is the hot, mature man meets the young women. What happens in that meeting? Do we shudder to think? Or do we let nature take its course? Do we hallucinate that young women are naive and pure and should remain eternally unsullied, or do we recognize that they are sexual beings, with authentic desires?<\/p>\n

Our world directs a lot of energy at young women; sometimes it seems that the consumer economy is fueled by images of them. They are used to sell very nearly everything, from cars to vacations to shampoo to food. It’s not easy to have this kind of energy directed at you. It’s not easy to have your external presence cause a disturbance in the world while you’re still wondering what you’re made of, and who you are, inside — and that is where many young women find themselves. Western society spends incredible energy trying to convince itself that these young women are too pure to consider touching even as it presents them in advertising and other media as agonizingly desirable. (Think of the sly, female zoom zoom<\/em> whispered at the end of all the Mazda ads.) <\/p>\n

This sexualizes young women — then as a cultural process we keep them in the dark about their bodies, refusing even the most rudimentary health or sex education. It’s a huge contradiction, and one that has a way of driving many of the young women to the brink of madness, not knowing how to handle their own feelings, their curiosity and their insecurities. Maybe it’s time to invest a little trust in young women, including trusting them with actual information.<\/p>\n

Looking for insights on how this week’s astrology affects your<\/strong> personal Sun and rising signs? Try out Planet Waves Light<\/strong><\/a>, our streamlined horoscope service. For deeper cultural context and astrological investigation, the premium Planet Waves subscription<\/strong><\/a> includes the same horoscopes, plus extensively-researched articles on Fridays.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today is Thursday, Sept. 29, 2011. The Moon is now in Scorpio, where it will remain till early Saturday morning. Though we don’t often mention the speed of the Moon, it’s currently near its fastest daily motion, so this visit to Scorpio will be relatively brief. This is the equivalent of the Moon moving in … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7221,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":""},"categories":[1734],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46372"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7221"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46372\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}