Venus Enters Capricorn

Well I had in mind to talk about Venus entering Capricorn today and getting a new team of dispositors.  Dispositor is the astrological term for what I call a subcontractor, or some might call expert.  The people newscasters introduce to explain a complicated situation, referred to as authorities, are like dispositors.  The dispositor is the planet best equipped to dispose of the task at hand. Today with Venus entering the sign Capricorn, the task is to build something, or keep a structure in existence, through times of low energy.  The authority on keeping things together, when there is a deficit of energy, is Saturn.

So Venus is leaving the umbrella of Jupiter (Link to Venus entering Sagittarius post) and coming under the roof of Saturn.  The planet of making the best of what there is, is now crossing through the territory where there isn’t very much.  This is a tough place for beauty (Venus), and while Saturn is away on private business (Saturn still has another year in Scorpio) it is even more challenging—because, taking a look at our List of Rulerships we see that Scorpio is ruled by Mars. 

Don’t get lost.  We went from Venus to Saturn, because Venus is in Capricorn, the land ruled by Saturn.  Now Venus has to look at what Saturn is doing if she wants to survive in his territory.  We look and see that Saturn is in Scorpio, which is ruled by Mars.   

Here’s the deal with Saturn; it is kind of like a parent with the responsibility of keeping things together through hard times.  If you put that parent in an atmosphere of moral and physical break down (Scorpio), well, I guess it is kind of like sending an experienced drill sergeant in to shape up demoralized troops.  There is a big difference between training new recruits who have no idea what they are getting into and training people who know very well what war is all about.  Saturn in Scorpio is not trying to prepare innocents for the world, but to convince battle weary soldiers of life that their integrity still matters in a world which they now know to be full of corruption. 

Saturn was in Scorpio Nov 1953-Jan 1956 then again Sept 1983- Nov 1985.  Anyone born between those dates ‘has’ Saturn in Scorpio.  They started out in life at a time when the planet of discipline was in the sign of loss.  Scorpio is the sign where the ecliptic descends below the celestial equator; we see it cross under in Libra, but in Scorpio the descent becomes starkly visible.  The Mars rulership of Scorpio mirrors this separation.  Mars is the planet of primitive individuality.  It rules this portion of the life cycle where the energy is steadily decreasing and reserves are visibly low. 

Most of us can easily see how Mars would rule Aries, the sign of life exploding into being; the association with Scorpio is not so obvious.  In Scorpio, Mars is preserving life for the future, it is storing its essence, or seed, for a time when the energy levels will again rise.  So Saturn in this sign of secreting something away helps keep the storage area free of rot. 

Many Saturnian types get pegged with being bitter.  How does a tree keep its growing mass of cellulose from being consumed by opportunistic organisms?  It produces a chemical that tastes bitter.  It is this bitter chemical in the flesh of the expanding trunk of the tree that keeps it from rotting, which is really just the process of being eaten alive by another organism.

Saturn in Scorpio is like an old soldier among a bunch of battle weary troops suffering from war and overindulgence in pleasure.  Saturn has the time, the experience, and the integrity those people who have been through the worst can admire.  When they talk about what they have seen and done, Saturn does not shrink in horror.  Saturn in Scorpio gives people who have something to be ashamed of a chance rebuild their self respect one small step at a time.  And for those who think they have nothing to be ashamed of, Saturn has ways of relieving them of their illusions.

It takes a lot of courage to face ugly stuff- where is the planet of courage now?  Mars is now in Virgo, the sign ruled by Mercury.  So the work now is being carried out in the clerical pool and communications battalion.  Corruption is being dealt with on a logistical level, as in let’s figure out where the problem is entering and how it is spreading once it gets in, by examining the situation…..as opposed to lets spray it with bullets or napalm.  Mercury right now is in Scorpio, so the planet of facing challenges and the planet of investigation are currently working closely together.  You could say they are codependent. 

And this morning Venus comes under the influence of this pact of war makers.

Yesterday I flipped through a book about the artist James McNeil Whistler, whose mother fled the chaos of the American war between the states to live with him in England.  If the bohemian painter’s puritan mother had not felt the need to travel to England, we would not have the painting that is now so popular in western culture.  Just one example of how great beauty comes from great trials and losses. 

Arrangement in Grey and Black no. 1
James Abbott McNeill Whistler  Portrait of the Artist's Mother

Looking at the lower left quadrant of this morning’s chart you can also see that the sun is meeting Saturn.  Earth is now lining up on the exact opposite side of the Sun from Saturn.  That should be about as far as we get from the planet of discipline; so why did I feel so melancholy yesterday?  I agree with Johannes Kepler; it is difficult to accept this ‘sublunary’ influence of the outer planets, how can something so far out there have such profound effect on us down here?   But like him, I find the evidence of my observations to confirm that of the ancients.  The Sun conjunct Saturn is not fun.

I love working for artists- the book about Whistler and his mother was at an artist customer’s house- on a different artist customer’s kitchen wall (right near the control panel for the security alarm) there is a small illustration of white bearded Saturn with his scythe as a staff, standing beside the luxurious bed of a sleepy woman.  On such a cold morning as this I can feel the warmth of the wine colored comforter she is not ready to leave.  The caption reads something like this: “The problem with the Father Time wake up service is that there is no snooze button.”

Link to Cape Fear Civil War Round Table essay about Whistler's mother (and brother).