Venus-Saturn Mutual Reception November 26 - December 20: Ants Get More Play Than Grasshoppers

Venus enters Capricorn from much more ebullient Sagittarius November 26 (6:36 a.m. Central) and immediately squares Uranus stationing direct at zero Aries - the birth point of the zodiac. This is a tense, jarring, electric reminder of the Uranus-Pluto square series just up ahead (2012-2015) that forces us on our way immediately by initiating necessary and radical new directions, truer to individual courses, within established relationship structures. 

The monthly Moon-Venus conjunction at 10:27 p.m. that night provides grounding and soothes the emotional edge, though it does not relieve us of our responsibilities or alleviate the serious tone. Saturn is just clearing its beneficial conjunctions to fixed stars Spica and Arcturus and moves back into full-on Via Combusta zone until next May. 

With its dispositor ingressing Capricorn, the uplifting Sagittarian wind beneath Saturn's wings also peters out, and we settle in for a landing. Whether that landing is harsh and depressing or validating and sustaining depends to a certain extent on how well we've been learning and applying our Saturn lessons in the sign of the scales. That's not to say Saturn only lays its particular brand of reality-based smack-down on irresponsible n'er-do-wells. Everyone goes under its thumb at one point or another. But people who have been actively attempting to wriggle their way out of Saturn's squirm-inducing, step-by-step relationship and relating lessons will certainly be getting a reality check here as well as one last chance to get it together. 

We're running out of time, see? 

We have less than one year remaining with Saturn in the sign of its exaltation, Libra. Saturn can get things done in the sign of its exaltation. It can make progress that sustains over the course of time, as long as we don't waste time. Wasting time is a distinct possibility with Saturn in Libra as the Saturnine proceedings in this sign often have a less arduous weight about them and a more social, less serious tone. Wasting time while Saturn is in Libra is a big mistake, though. Saturn in Scorpio is coming, and that one isn't going to let up. 

Venus in Capricorn and Saturn in Libra will be in mutual reception - that is, inhabiting a sign the other rules - until winter solstice, creating a close and interwoven energetic relationship, and this has a sobering effect on relations of all kinds. Love is serious business here. Love is business. We're going to be made aware of how important it is to get on top of every action item Saturn has flagged. 

Issues that have been pushed aside will come to the forefront again to be dealt with by amicable (as amicable as possible, anyway) adults before things take a distinct turn for the not-so-amicable October 5, 2012 to November 23, 2015 as Saturn moves through sticky, tricky, potentially ass-biting Scorpio. Anything left on our plates during Saturn in Libra is stirred then in ways that can be truly nasty, so it's in our best interests to keep noses to grindstones. 

Luckily, Venus in Capricorn comes out of its square to Uranus in Aries and catches the tail-end of the grand earth trine formed in the zodiac by Jupiter Rx in Taurus, Mars in Virgo, and Pluto in Capricorn. Venus in Capricorn trines Mars in Virgo exactly December 5. 

We're assisted to get things done on all fronts, especially in and through relationship. Venus conjuncts Pluto in Capricorn December 1, giving us a further energetic reminder of just how nose-to-the-relationship-grindstone we need to be, kicking up distortion in any relational areas that require more laser-sharp awareness and honing from us. 

As we close out 2011, we're looking for relationship resolution and are doing our best to make peace with relationships past and present. Progress needs to be made in and through current relationships to put us in good position for what's up ahead, and as clean a slate as possible is needed for Saturn in Scorpio. This Venus-Saturn mutual reception keeps us sober, serious, grown-up, and pragmatic as we make big strides toward that and is especially good for the progress of women (and the feminine influence, in general) in business. There's a solid groundwork that should have been built by now - new relational rules and standards, a heightened command of social responsibility, the ability to maintain equilibrium under pressure, as well as a new maturity in the tone of our relationships, especially between the sexes. At this point, people either have it or they don't, and this mutual reception serves as a status report. 

This far into Saturn's transit of Libra, we start to see the social and professional results of having put this groundwork in. We also see the results of not having put it in, as well as the areas that contain hazardous holes and breaks in structure. This is especially apparent when we relate with those who have shirked the full effort. 

Under Saturn in Libra, we've determined who makes for a favourable partner and who doesn't, and now these standards must be applied across the board. The free-wheeling, boozy, philosopher king who spends his free time at the track might have been attractive under Venus in Sagittarius, but his debts are being called as Venus enters Capricorn. We're looking for long-term pay-off in relationship here and nothing less than that is worth the time or energy. Those who prove they cannot be responsible toward us, in relation to us, are not worth the time or energy. 

Only take on the responsibility toward others that feels absolutely right to take on, and don't give anyone a level of responsibility in relation to you that he or she is not meant (or equipped) to take on. 

With the influence of Venus here, there is definitely such thing as too sober, serious, pragmatic, number-crunching, and dry. Love, beauty, and romance need to be worked into the mix. However, it's a person with solid integrity, with some financial savvy, with a nose for legitimate advancement, with expertly handled personal responsibilities, and with the ability to dig in and get the job done even if it means deferring personal pleasures who is most attractive under these astro energies. 

Venus in Capricorn is seeking partners with strong shoulders who bear their burdens well, partners who act their age (even older than their chronological age). Venus is seeking a partner who understands the full realities of life, including the difficult, sombre, or "unfun" aspects, who understood them early on, and who worked with them pretty much from the get-go rather than sloughing them off. 

All this reflects, in mutual reception, what Saturn has been requiring of relationships and potential mates throughout its transit of Libra. People who are obviously playing catch-up on this front are not going to hold as much appeal. We're looking for the results of long-term efforts - what a person has built and what progress has been made over the course of the lifetime. 

Charm is a quality with a decreasing amount of value the closer Saturn gets to Scorpio if it is not also attached to absolute integrity and authenticity. Those are the qualities that make bank under Saturn in Scorpio. People who have skated by on looks, charm, charisma, or social prowess and facade are going to find these qualities don't get them nearly as far as they used to. Playboys (or girls), those who refuse to grow up, the skittish, the cheaters, the fibbers, the non-committal, those who can't manage limitations, restrictions, or adult responsibilities - these people become less and less attractive. Flaky artist types also fall out of favour with Mars now entering a two-year Virgo-flavoured cycle. People who have been let out of many practical, adult responsibilities because they're so talented or so interesting or so tortured are going to have many fewer people hot for them. 

Mars relates to desire, and in Virgo, only those with shit together - and with a history of having shit together - need apply. 

This is all part of the shift out of Piscean era relationship and partner ideals - a shift that gets a super charge this spring with the Venus Transit and Venus retrograde through Gemini. Relationship changes dramatically over the next while, and we can either move with the show or cling wailing and pining to old forms and old ideals that no longer get the job done and never really did. 

That said, there are a lot of people who are being kept out of relationship at this time so as to sidestep the harshest of the tail-end Piscean era relationship detritus. This Venus-Saturn mutual reception can be emotionally difficult for those who are not in a relationship and would like to be as it indicates the beginning of yet another cold winter with no one to keep their toes warm in bed. 

Again, though, this is Saturn we're talking about, and we have to be aware of the positioning of ourselves (going on right now) for long-term relationship success rather than for short-term toe-warming gratification. (If you can get both, more power to you!) It doesn't necessarily make it easier, but there are times when it's actually in our best interests to not be in relationship, and in many cases, this is one of those times.