Mars and Venus, an Allegory of Peace, Louis-Jean-Francois Lagrenee, 1770
(Image by Ed Bierman) Details DMCA
The great gift the cosmos is bestowing on us during this Lammas season is the union of Venus and Mars, occurring on the royal star, Regulus, in the heart of the Lion. Whenever Venus and Mars get together, a new energy of relationship emerges relationship to self and others and to Nature. To occur on this Royal Star, which has just recently moved into tropical Virgo, is auspicious. The royal energy now flows through the divine Feminine. And this is a Wise feminine energy being birthed this season.
This sacred marriage of the archetypal energies of love and desire (Venus & Mars/ Psyche & Eros) occurs at 5* Virgo. The core Shadow theme of this degree is our distrust of others, especially in relationships. It is all about dishonesty. We're afraid to show people who we really are, and so our Shadow comes into play. Be truthful with yourself and you can be truthful to others.
This conjunction takes place in the underworld because both planets cannot be seen they are both too close to the Sun. Venus will conjunct the Sun on August 14th, just before the Aquarius Full Moon. She has just swung around behind the Sun and is on her way to becoming an Evening Star, visible again around September 20th. Mars is just approaching the Sun, and will conjunct it on September 2nd, and it will appear as a morning star around October 17th.
So this meeting of Venus and Mars on August 24th is hidden from our view and our consciousness. It will bring up those unconscious places within us where we need to be honest with ourselves. If we don't look at our Shadow, it will act upon us unconsciously, it will meet us in the outer world. If we dance with our Shadows, we'll integrate them. If we stay conscious, we will pick the energy up through the body. That is the place it will manifest first. So pay attention to your body wisdom. The Body Knows!
Astrologer Adam Gainsburg is a living sky astrologer, someone who actually looks at the heavens and tracks the planets in the night sky instead of on a computer. He's written a book on the phases of Venus called The Light of Venus where he tracks the 13 phases of Venus' journey through the sky. (He's also working on a book on Mars' phases). As Venus disappears into the glare of the Sun, she also moves behind the Sun so we don't see her until she moves far enough away to appear as the Evening Star in late September.
Adam calls this phase of Venus' cycle the transmutation phase of Venus, when She sheds the old garments, beliefs and qualities of her Morning Star phase and transmutes and alchemizes it into something new. As Adam says, "Such intense light as love forces us to meet our dark self or opposite, everything we're convinced that we aren't. An invisible Venus forces us to see our Other inside ourselves." (Light of Venus, page 119). Adam says transmutation is essentially feminine, with changes occurring within you at first so you concentrate on who you're becoming. It's future oriented.
We must learn to embrace our sovereignty, our wisdom of both Heaven and Earth. Our feminine wisdom, love and compassion must rule the day.
While Venus is heading away from the Sun on August 24th, Mars is heading into it, joining the Sun on September 2nd. This allows both energies to look at their shadows, for what else can we see in the bright glare of the Sun? Both archetypal energies are purified by our Star's fire. Our ego steps into the fiery furnace of life and hopefully emerges ready to stand up for truth, justice and life. The fact that these energies meet on the fixed star Regulus, which is the Lion's Heart, awakens our own lion-heartedness. We need to be fierce in our defense of our Earth, our people and all our relationships.
This is an interesting season because three planets conjunct the Sun besides Venus and Mars, Mercury also dives into the Sun's fiery furnace on September 3rd. Three very personal planets are being renewed in the Sun's fire. We have to make conscious our love and wisdom, our desires and goals, and our ability to communicate those needs honestly.
Planetary shifts and Sabian Symbols
There are four shifts in planetary direction this season. When planets are retrograde, our energy is directed within to remember, review and restructure. When a planet stations and turns back to direct motion, the energy we've been working on within turns back into the world. Mercury turns direct on July 31st at 24* Cancer. Two directional shifts occur on August 11th: Jupiter at 15* Sagittarius turns direct and Uranus at 7* Taurus turns retrograde. And Saturn at 14* Capricorn goes direct on September 17-18th. Try to feel the energy shift in your body on these days. And also pay attention to your dreams, which show us what's going on in the unconscious.
The Sabian symbol for Mercury direct at 24* Cancer is: A woman and two men castaways on a small island in the South Seas. What aspects of our psyche have been 'cast away' or lost? What can the woman/soul do? The doubling of the men suggests that we are beginning to see a new way of 'doing' things. Jung always said that when an image is doubled, it means that part of that energy is becoming conscious, while the other part is still unconscious and needs to be worked on. What does your soul yearn for and what can you do to give it what it needs?
The Sabian symbol for Jupiter at 15* Sagittarius is: The ground hog looking for its shadow on Ground Hog's Day, February 2nd. This image suggests that we try to get a bigger perspective on events. Ground Hog's Days is Imbolc the Celtic gateway to Spring, when we look to the future. Be aware of what happens on the 11th, taking it as a clue to future events. It's a great time to journey and meditate on what's ahead for you.
The Sabian symbol for Uranus at 7* Taurus is: The woman of Sumaria at the ancestral well. The story of Jesus meeting the Sumarian woman at the well symbolizes a transition from the old tribal order to a new order based on Universal Love. Jesus revealed his divine nature to a woman who guards the wellsprings of life. The Water of Life. Our Christ consciousness greets our Wisdom/Sophia consciousness. We have to really believe we are spiritual beings, so we can access the wisdom we need to face our collective evolutionary crisis. A new quality of being arises that transcends the old ways of patriarchal being and doing. This is what we have to awaken within ourselves during this retrograde, which lasts until January 10, 2020, when Uranus turns direct on a Full Moon lunar eclipse.
The Sabian symbol for the sacred marriage of Venus and Mars at 5* Virgo is: A person becoming aware of nature spirits and normally unseen spiritual agencies. What a great symbol! We are learning to go beyond what we see in 3-D reality and now can look deeply into the world around us. It is through the use of the creative imagination that we see so deeply. Isn't it time to learn how to exercise this important muscle? I've been working with it for over 30 years and it's the most important function we can learn work with now, since it has to do with manifestation. We need to own our own imaginations before we can transform the world. So get your head out of TV and the mass media and create your own reality!
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