Venus Going and Coming while the Solar Court Faces Pluto

Tues Aug 4 Venus will meet Jupiter again in the last duad  (12^th) of Leo.  The last section of Leo is Cancer, meaning by the time we get to the end of Leo we are in a very tender place.  Imagine performers at the end of a high energy production, or the audience leaving the theater.  It is strange to make the transition from bombastic exaggerations dramatizing life, to the real thing.  We pass through the still darkened theater to the lobby and then the light of day, or streets lit by passing car lights and lamp posts.  This return to reality follows an intense hour or more of raised or amplified voices, high powered lights capable of melting a candy bar in seconds, and a repetitive order that would take years to emerge from the everyday chaos of events swirling around us.  The last 10 minutes of the scripted production are an emotional coming together designed to foster communal healing.  That last 10 minutes where what was inevitable comes to pass, and the survivors hold hands under the lights and bow in deep breathing sweat soaked appreciation to the audience filling the darkness with the sound of applause, is the Cancer 12^th of Leo.  Then the Virgo review; from the perspective of life outside the theater, considering works by the same actors, authors or directors, other productions of the same plays, comparing and finding similarities and differences, begins.

Venus going back to meet Jupiter is like the little baby benific going back to ask another question from the young adult benific.  Everybody loves them both, but one is blind, Venus.  Venus is blind in the same way Mars is, but even more so.  Mars at least gets to stray from Sun’s side and be seen on the dark side of Earth every couple of years.  Venus, bright and beautiful as it is, never gets more than a couple of hours to reflect the Sun’s light without being overpowered by the source.  Jupiter gets to do it for months at a time, every year.  Jupiter is not just big and stormy, and popular with the Moons, but the first planet as we travel from the Sun that gets to shine all night long for several months of every year.  That brightness is unmistakable.  It is brighter than any celestial object other than the Sun whose light it is reflecting, or the Moon.

By the way a week or so ago I said blessed be Jupiter and I should know better than that.  This week has been pretty awful, not for everyone of course, but certainly for me, and it’s got me down on my knees paying homage to Mars.  Venus, the planet of acceptance, standing still makes me appreciate the planet of will.  I would be hopelessly addicted to this life if it weren’t for the pain and suffering that comes with it.  Some people are wise and don’t need suffering to turn their attention away from material gain and success.  They already understand the futility of these Earthly endeavors.  I am one of those who need a good dose of failure, fear and hopelessness to be reminded that this is no more than a ride through the body of Nature who is ultimately at the controls.  If I bless the benific I have to do the same with the malefic.  It’s not my place to curse parts of nature’s body.

Back to Venus, the little benific that could.  It is now retro, approaching not just Big J the Party Master, but also Mercury, then Sun and yes, all the way back to Mars, the one bearing responsibility for the troubles we have endured in the last month.  Let’s talk a bit about this last month.

Mon July 6^th the Sun passed into Pluto’s 7^th house.  The few days leading up to that would be considered the beginning of opposition between the Spirit and the Exile. Using houses to visualize a precise border crossing we see that the few days leading up to July 6, Sun was in the end of Pluto’s 6^th house of apprenticeship.  The Spirit was completing its period of studying under the exile for this year.  On the 6^th they were once again on equal terms beginning the mature phase of their relationship.  Then, as Earth proceeded to swing between Sun and Pluto, and Mercury and Mars followed their course on the far side of Sun, we had a parade of invisible lesser luminaries wrapping up their apprenticeship with Pluto and moving into partnership.  The healing Moon came through Wed July 15^th just as Mars was stepping over the line, the last debutante out on the dance floor, face to face with the Cinderella of the solar system. 

Such a strange partnership, the Moon and Mars seen together, but after all it happens every month.  There was the Moon in Cancer, as wise and powerful as it ever gets, it was old, invisible, but in that leaky sign of energy slipping away, give, give, giving.

Except for Venus, not yet retro, the Sun was leading the Cancer pack.  Mercury was gathering speed, not quite ready for the incredible Solar pass it executes like a miraculous race horse every 4 months.  We would think the Sun is strong in Cancer as it shines on summer fun, but Cancer marks the spot in the yearly cycle where the time a planet is above the horizon begins decreasing.  The change is only seconds/per day, but it is the difference between the last trickle of water topping off a bucket, and the dripping leak from a widening crack near the bottom. 

 

The Sun doesn’t rule until it gets to Leo and we see the widening leak, the increasing loss, stemmed.  Leo is where the giving is brought under control and generosity is managed.  The Sun’s cycle with Earth is our most predictable cycle; it does not weave and bob above and below the ecliptic, as the Moon does.  It doesn’t stop and go back to look for something forgotten, as the other planets.  It is the baton carrying leader at the front of the parade, who gets passed once in a while, as the reflecting lights flow around with complete respect.  The Sun in Leo is the planet whose ability to give never dies in the sign where loss of energy is first seen coming under control.  That’s where the Sun is now, Leo, but it was in Cancer when it first balanced the see-saw with Pluto July 6^th.

Venus was the only member of the pack in Leo, way out there having reached greatest elongation in June.  Venus has been slowing down ever since reaching the end of her string with the Sun.  She just made it into Virgo, not her favorite sign, and there she turned just as the Sun was rising on the east coast this morn.  So Venus is now out in the lobby or on the street after her period of Leo performance that began June 6^th.  She’s going back into the theater, it is not yet time to read the reviews.  The audience lights that were brought up as people left the theater will be turned down on Aug 1 and she will be on stage under the hot variety of lights, and in the darkness of the theater seats.  The production will begin from the end where everyone held hands and bowed as a team of people who trust in each other.  The sound of applause from the audience will fill the hall.  The drama leading up to the final moment will play out in reverse, not to the curtain opening, but just past the scene where youth reaching blindly for the stars meets a veteran of the spiritual path of love.  The story will look much different than the first time, not because it is in reverse, but because things never stay the same, the planets, every one of them, are always moving, as we are always changing, and we can never return to the exact same moment, even in a scripted play.  Ok.  Cut from the poetics to the mechanics.  During the first passage of Venus past Jupiter (July 1) they were both in the high energy part of Leo, kind of like the part of the play where there is a lot of scary action, and even though most people know the outcome, the performers are running around or raising their voices, or singing all together and maybe even waving swords around and the audience is gripping the armrests of their chairs, the Aries part of Leo, is where Venus met Jupiter on July 1.  How fortunate the blind aspirant of love (Venus) was to find herself beside the party animal of generosity (Jupiter) at such a challenging moment.

This time, as the production is played in reverse, and everything seems different, the generous veteran of celebrations that bring people together and give them hope to carry on, the planet that makes life seem worthwhile (Jupiter) will be going to school!  As they are holding hands for the last bow the Big J will whisper to little one determined to love no matter what, that he has enrolled in a school for what?  Little one determined to love no matter what may not be able to hear the details.  The passage will be quick and there will not be as much time for talk as there was the first time around.  Big J going to school?!  But her hero knows everything there is to know about love and reaching for the sky!  

Then, in the beginning of September, just as our little aspirant of kindness meets Mars in the very sober part of Leo, the place where maybe the cops show up and say to turn the music down, or some earthly law must be recognized above self expression, ugh! She will stop again.  Once again after slowing down to a standstill, right in the middle of the production this time, Venus will turn around.  She’ll make her way through the singing and dancing, the lines with other players in the production, it will be strange to go over the same territory and see everything looking so different.  No one will be the same in relation to each other as they were before.