Venus in Cancer Square Saturn in Libra: Standing Your Ground, Speaking Up, and Disarming the Feminine People-Pleasing and Passo Aggro

Venus in Cancer is currently moving to a square with Saturn in Libra, exact in the wee hours of Monday, September 3. Some building tension is possible in relationships this week as we enter our first major test coming out of the June 15 Cancer New Moon.

Depending upon the foundation laid so far, we could pass this test smoothly with flying colours, or we could find it frictional.

You'll recall that the Cancer New Moon in June occurred within a square to Saturn in Libra, just as soul mate asteroid Juno stationed direct in Scorpio. That New Moon opened an opportunity to get real with the energies and themes of the Cancer-Libra square, a square that is prone to many less-than-real characteristics.

From A Sugar and Spice and All Things Nice Cancer New Moon With Puppy Dog Tails Brought to You By Juno Direct in Scorpio:

"You have the mother (Cancer) and the diplomat (Libra), and both are invested in being nice - or at the very least, in appearing nice. Both these signs like to be seen as giving, congenial, and self-sacrificing for the happiness and betterment of others.

Both Cancer and Libra have a tendency to deny any characteristics - in themselves or in the people around them - that would show them in a different light. This is particularly prevalent when bodies in the signs are being squared, as they are now.

The truth is, both these signs have "dark" characteristics (as all the signs of the zodiac do) that they like to keep off the radar screen, and as far as signs of the zodiac go, there is very little discussion of these...

Both Cancer and Libra, particularly when in square formation, are prone to avoidance of uncomfortable issues, denial, phoniness, blaming others for their own disappointed expectations, underhanded social or familial power plays, and guilt-tripping. All stuff for which Scorpio has little tolerance.

It's the "I bend over backwards for people, and this is how they treat me" syndrome. The "I give and give and give, and this is the thanks I get" thing where people are held hostage by all that "selfless" giving and concern.

Because these are two signs that will go to great lengths to keep up the nice, self-sacrificing image and because both like to avoid conflict at almost all cost, they'll agree to do things they don't really want to do but then rebel by acting out in passive aggressive (yet still, on the surface, "nice") ways.

Both signs have a tendency, unless overcome, to pass the buck rather than standing their ground in an honest and upfront manner. 'Selfless' becomes 'complete loss of self,' and chaos follows. At a certain point, it becomes impossible to know where these two signs really stand, and their word becomes very slippery.

Both signs love to be needed by others, but there is a tendency to overestimate how much they give altruistically and how much is given with an already-expected return.

Cancer is certainly warm, cosy, and sweet, but it will bitch and moan to anyone who will listen about everything it does for you if it doesn't find an expected level of gratitude coming its way.

Libra is lovely and socially-welcoming, but be careful accepting its graces, as it will often be looking for a tit-for-tat reward. It'll wag tongue about you, too, if that reward is not forthcoming or if it does not meet preconceived expectations.

Both signs will give too much (their own issue) and then become resentful when they do not receive what they believe is their just desserts, placing blame on others."

The influence of Juno in Scorpio at the time of the June 15 New Moon, potent in its direct station, worked to bring some of the slippery underlying dynamics of the Cancer-Libra square up to the surface. Juno and its associated soul mates were our "getting real" catalysts, and this influence continues even more strongly as Venus moves to square Saturn September 3.

At the time of the square, the North Node will be in Scorpio on the 29th degree, with asteroids Juno and Eros conjunct in late Scorpio.

Mars has now moved from people-pleasing sign of its detriment, Libra, beyond the conjunction to Saturn, and into its domicile of Scorpio. It's ready to get down to business and will be exactly sextile Pluto in Capricorn on the day of the Venus-Saturn square.

The Sun and Mercury will be in illusion-puncturing Virgo at the time of the square, opposite Chiron in Pisces, trine Pluto in Capricorn, and sextile Mars in Scorpio. Getting the details right here ensures that we move out of wounding Piscean era relationship themes.

Pallas Athene, the asteroid related to the female warrior who did it better than the boys, will be conjunct Uranus in Aries at the time of the Venus-Saturn square (exact September 5), ensuring there's more than enough fuel and feistiness to break old patterns. Pallas Athene will then square Pluto in Capricorn September 7, ahead of the second Uranus-Pluto square September 18/19. Major detrimental feminine pattern buster.

This feminine warrior asteroid is absolutely potent at this important time on the planet and will not be shuffled to the side. Pallas Athene was right up front in the proceedings, exactly conjunct Uranus in Aries and square Pluto in Capricorn, during the first of the seven Uranus-Pluto squares on June 24, 2012, and it has stayed there ever since. This asteroid holds crucial position for women and for the feminine, in general. It simply won't back down. Like a dog on a bone, it moves retrograde, step-for-step, in tight conjunction with Uranus into the second Uranus-Pluto square September 18/19.

Pallas' final pass direct through the conjunction to Uranus and square to Pluto occurs in late January to mid-February 2013, before it enters Taurus at the end of March.

The influence of the feminine warrior remains very strong, though, as is usual with the feminine force, it is invisible to many.

From a previous post:

"We're at a push-coming-to-shove point when it is imperative that the feminine stand up and be counted all over this planet. Letting things slide and refusing to stand up now - even in seemingly small issues - means the Pluto in Capricorn regressive force makes big gains.

The Uranus-Pallas Athene fight is about human beings as free and sovereign individuals, able to determine their own courses through life, with structures set up and available to support them in that. The areas most in need of improvement on this front relate to the treatment and condition of women...

In Aries, Pallas Athene is fighting for the rights of women as self-sovereign individuals, outside roles and identities as wives, sexual partners, mothers, daughters, sisters, workers, or domestic labour."

Uranus in Aries is leading the charge into the astrological Aquarian era, and this indicates new facets of identity coming forth in everyone. We're planting our flags as raw individuals, outside any other role or relation. New directions and flashes of personal will are necessary, but they are also shocking at times, seemingly out of character.

This is what many women (and men with the yin skills) struggle with now.

With the strong influence of Pallas Athene in Aries at both the first and second Uranus-Pluto squares, however, nowhere is it more important to bust out of phony roles and repressive moulds than in the world of women and the feminine.

Excluding the Moon, this square from Venus in Cancer is the last major hard aspect we experience with Saturn in Libra. Consider this Saturn's last stand.

In light of the importance of this square, here's the plain talk:

As Venus moves into square position with Saturn, you have one last chance to stand your ground and disarm aforementioned dynamics wreaking havoc in your life and in your relationships. Anything you've refused to work on and resolve during Saturn in Libra remains a thorn in your side in relations with others. Anything glossed over now or swept under the rug is carried forward into Saturn in Scorpio, where it can cause much more damage and distress.

If you don't want to do something you've been asked to do, don't do it. Speak up. Stop letting things slide. Break the pattern of ill-suited expectations - both your own and others'.

With Saturn completing its last pass through the sign of relationships, no one holds responsibility for these dynamics but you from this point forward. If you're doing things you don't want to do or agreeing to things you don't really agree with, there's no one to blame for that but you.

If you're doing things you don't want to do simply to please others or to avoid conflict, stop. If you're consistently setting people up to disappoint your expectations, discontinue that.  

Disappointed expectations on cyclical repeat were a theme of the astrological Piscean era. Now, no one holds responsibility for your disappointed expectations but you.

In actuality, there can be few expectations under an astrological Aquarian era umbrella. (Though that is not to say people don't hold responsibility for their actions.) The unexpected, the shocking, and the rapidly changing are over-riding Uranian themes. Rigid expectations won't just be disappointed - they'll be shattered. Busted up. Smashed to smithereens.

Women and the feminine have to break out of the glossing over, the conciliation, and the people-pleasing, which lead to the passive aggressiveness, the phoniness, and the resentment. Dig in here, on this point, at this square. Break form, break the role, break expectations.

Or provide the resistance and boundaries to help someone else do that. Refuse to play the game. Call people on their behaviour - gently at first, and then more sternly. Change the way the dynamics are set up. Hand people back the responsiblity for their own lives and relationships. Saturn is on your side.

Venus and Saturn are at 26 degrees Cancer/Libra at the time of the square. Saturn leaves Libra for Scorpio October 5.