Pluto Stationing Direct in Capricorn Conjunct Saturn and Resisting Everyday Fascism

Lord of the Underworld Pluto stations direct at 20 degrees Capricorn on October 2 (11:39 p.m. PDT) within a conjunction to Cosmic Daddy Saturn, and patriarchal bureaucratic hierarchy's got us down!

Even recognizing the invisible, top-down, coercive hand of Everyday Fascism in the functioning of mainstream society is challenging and exhausting, let alone resisting it while using our own steely wills to chart a different course.

But recognizing and resisting this Everyday Fascism and then choosing a different course through our daily lives is exactly the challenge that has been laid at our feet under the Saturn-Pluto conjunction in Capricorn (exact in January 2020).

The rigid, artificial rhythms for daily work and life that have been set out for us are internalized by most at a very young age. We're born into it. This is just "what's normal." It's "what's done." It's "the way things are."

The Machine tells us: when to wake up, when to eat or drink, when to get in our cars or on our buses or trains, when to start work, when to stop work, when to take a 15-minute break from work, when to speak (and what to say), when not to speak (and what not to say), when to take a piss, when to pay our bills, when to take our allotted leisure time, when to be entertained, when to have sex, when to go to sleep. Then rinse and repeat.

Above all, The Machine tells us: faster, faster! More slick! More efficient! More impressive! Just more!

Can't rest. Can't slow down. Can't re-direct. Can't stop. Can't show signs of weakness with the wolves at our doors.

Venus in Scorpio and Addressing Socially-Accepted Addictions

Love, relationship, and society planet Venus re-enters Scorpio on December 2, following a retrograde period that spanned from October 5 to November 16. 

We were taken to some deep and complex social/relational places during the retrograde, and now Venus is direct, moving full speed ahead through the sign of its detriment as we close out 2018.

Venus is moving over the wake that was kicked up during the retrograde process, and anything we experienced in relationship or with society since September 2 (when Venus first entered the retrograde shadow) may be coming up for full integration.

Venus is advancing the social/relational scene in transformative fashion as we close out this year, but in the sign of deep, dark, sometimes-disturbing emotional and psychological subtext (Scorpio), the realizations we're integrating into our relationship dynamics are not the easiest to swallow.

We're looking at things like: power and control dynamics, the role of fear in our relationships, detrimental karmic attractions, manipulation, underhanded motivations, frenemies, energy drains, abuse, mistreatment, lack of integrity, suppressed emotion, unresolved trauma, and the things the society around us tries to keep buried.

Venus is a planet that likes to keep a smiling, congenial face no matter what the conditions, but as it moves through Scorpio, that smile may turn into a snarl a time or two... 

There's a lot of social/relational yuck associated with Venus in this hardcore sign, and with Venus moving direct over this socially-charged zone, we are required to address it and change it once and for all, rather than looking the other way and pretending it isn't there.

Venus Stations Retrograde in Via Combusta Scorpio October 5: Hematite Shields Up!

Relationship planet Venus is slowing down on the 10 degree of Scorpio, preparing for a retrograde station October 5 (12:05 p.m. PDT).

Venus will be spending an extended amount of time traipsing through Via Combusta (particularly combustible) Scorpio, and Scorpio is considered the sign of Venus' detriment. Scorpio is opposite Taurus, a sign Venus naturally rules and operates within comfortably, so this means we are experiencing an extended dose of relationship themes and dynamics that might not be so comfortable.  

Venus in Scorpio particularly relates to the hidden dynamics of relationships, the emotional and psychological subtext, and that emotional and psychological subtext is not always pretty or easy to navigate.

Co-ruled by war planet Mars and Lord of the Underworld Pluto, the relational themes of Scorpio can be a bit feisty, to say the least. At their worst, they can be downright poisonous, attacking, abusive, or emotionally/psychologically detrimental. 

Crystals and stones can be very helpful in dealing with all kinds of scenarios and dynamics. Some of the stones that are particularly helpful for Scorpio are black, grey, or red in colour.

A particularly helpful substance to use for Scorpio themes is hematite, which is an ore rather than a stone.

From November 1, 2012:

"[With strong Scorpio in the astro atmosphere], people (and energy dynamics, in general) are looking for weak spots, and it's best that we protect ourselves on metaphysical as well as physical levels.

I've found that hematite is a great material for deflecting nasty emotional and psychic energy. I have a pendant and ring I wear a lot, and hematite beads can be made into other jewellery.

Hematite is the mineral form of iron oxide. Some of it is red, and its name was derived from the Greek word for blood. Some varieties are even referred to as "blood ore." I have a hunk of that stuff, and it's pretty primordial feeling.

Did I mention it's good for dealing with 'blood feud' energy?

The hematite that is processed for beads and jewellery becomes a shiny, gun metal grey. It's extremely hard but not brittle. In other words, it can withstand and deflect some major abuse.

Hematite beads

Hematite was discovered on Mars, astrology's war planet, which gives it a sort of hardcore fighting connection.

To me, it's a very Plutonic material. It has an industrial feel and would possibly be too heavy for a strongly lunar or Neptunian person, but I find it protective and shielding in difficult circumstances. It both deflects energy and absorbs and draws it away. It also seems to have a clearing effect on electromagnetic excess.

If you're going into a situation that instantly makes you think "yuck," or if you're going to be in contact with people you will possibly be frictional with, this stuff can help you through it.

Plutonic/Scorpionic types often unintentionally trigger nasty reactions in other people. Hematite can keep us safe from those reactions, which are often directed toward us.

As far as metaphysical protection, one can conjure up in the mind's eye a shiny, gun metal grey hematite shield covering the entire body. Any slings and arrows tossed our way are easily deflected, and nothing can penetrate through it to injure us. As far as I know, it's pretty much indestructible. Just make sure it's covering every inch of exposed self, and pay special attention to buffering your known weak spots.

Whenever your Scorpionic spidey sense starts going off in a bad way and things start looking a little dicey, you can call "Hematite Shield!" and place it around you."


For more of the Venus retrograde through Via Combusta Scorpio/Libra, consider becoming a Willow's Web Astrology patron. Patrons received a juicy and in-depth article on the Venus retrograde in August, and this article is available to all new patrons, as well. 

A Via Combusta Venus Retrograde: Reaching Escape Velocity From Old Hurts, Heartbreaks, and Relational Trauma-Prints

A Couple Welcome Shifts With a Side of Mutual Reception Relational Angst as We Close Out 2015

Fall Colours

Photos: Willow

We have a couple energetic shifts on the horizon, which should provide an interesting change, if not relief, exactly.

Taskmaster planet Saturn is currently moving through the tail-end of its retrograde shadow at 3 and 4 degrees Sagittarius and will move into fresh degrees of the zodiac on November 8. As of November 8, Saturn will be in a sort of "clear progress zone," moving through most of the rest of the first decan of Sagittarius in one pass only (from November 8 to December 19, 2015).

This indicates that we are coming into a period of time when we can accomplish some very big things and set down some very important stepping stones - if we are willing to work for our progress. This is as unencumbered as Saturn's movement gets, so let's make good use of it.

This also indicates that there could be some powerful completion and resolution events occurring (internally and/or externally) during the first week of November as Saturn finishes up in the retrograde shadow. Watch for opportunities to lay certain themes to rest - especially as we head into the 19-degree Scorpio New Moon on November 11 - cementing your footing and progress as you do so.

Saturn in early Sagittarius has been a bit tough. We've had a lot to chew on as we came to a point of truth, understanding, and ultimate meaning related to the dark and difficult experiences we've encountered over the past three years of Saturn in Scorpio in mutual reception with Pluto in Capricorn.

But now, as Saturn grinds out the last of the retrograde degrees, we're ready to move on. We're ready for new challenges and structure to take our minds off the sucking black holes we've dug ourselves out of. We've established that first foothold on the other side of Scorpio, on the other side of hell, and we're damn sure going to use it.

We can drop a great deal of the emotional and psychological load now if we can only set our sights on the new and more inspiring territory up ahead. We can move out of the sticky, suffocating tendrils of pitch black emotion and we can drop ties to people and scenarios that have hurt us. But we have to work for it (Saturn). We have to work for brighter skies and for more inspiring and optimistic times in our lives.

Saturn in Libra and Beauty at Every Age - AKA Society (Libra) Makes Me Tired (Saturn)

The transit of Saturn (aging) through Libra (beauty) has drawn my attention again and again to how revolting and screwed up mainstream versions of beauty are. This is a subject that is certainly not new, but the particular Saturnine issue here that has my rancour up is the assigning of beauty strictly to the young.

As Mercury in Aries - the most youth-oriented sign in the zodiac - moves into opposition to Saturn in Libra (May 5), the theme is strong, particularly in media.

I find this, along with all the attempts to maintain youth - surgically, hormonally, or otherwise - horrifying, not to mention enraging. I can't get over how eroding it is. How false it is. And I also can't get over the acceptance of this as "the way things are" by people who, I feel, should be rebelling against it.

I'm tired (Saturn) of hearing people, especially women, talk about the "aging = losing your beauty" paradigm as if it's a real thing. "Betty, you just turned 50? Well, I guess it's time to hand over the hot." Looks shift and change with age. Health problems crop up that can make people feel less attractive. There's no doubt about it. But that doesn't mean people automatically lose their beauty and appeal as they move through the seasons of their physical lives. Quite the opposite in many cases.

This is a version of youth-obsessed physical beauty created, programmed, and reinforced almost entirely by monied mainstream media in order to keep people grasping and buying.

Real beauty doesn't make you feel jealous or 'less than' when you behold it - that's socially-engineered glamour and the energy of beauty as some sort of false hierarchy. It's "who's the fairest of them all" stuff, created mostly by males for the male gaze, and it keeps women insecure, competing, and divided - in this case, along younger versus older lines.

It's a false version of beauty I do my best to steer clear of, but I can't help but see it seeping into the psyches of some wonderful people I know, and I can't help but want to bust that shit up in a major way.

I've never been enamoured of youth. Even when I was in my teens and twenties, I wasn't that into it. I don't look back on my younger years as the good old days or as the point where I hit my peak in any way, shape, or form. I've also always found people of all ages attractive - both men and women - and still do, so I just don't buy this idea of the aging woman or man as some sort of fading flower, past its prime.

Photo: Willow

But man, that is one insidious idea to purge once it has gotten hold. It's amazing how many people believe this on one level or another and how it's continually reinforced culturally. And once this idea has gotten hold, it really does start to suck the radiance and vitality out of people as they internalize it. In my mind, this is what's chipping away at people's attractiveness - this poisonous and faulty idea of age, not the actual aging process.

Now, you have to understand, this is coming from a person with Venus in Scorpio in the natal chart. This might sound eyeroll-worthy, but Venus in Scorpio really is about the beauty of the soul, primarily, radiating through the physicality. It's like an old leather jacket perfectly worn in. A pair of cowboy boots that have walked a couple hundred miles. The beauty of wisdom through experience, of an authentic life honestly lived, scars and all. That wary, weary, wise look in the eyes that says, "I've seen your kind before. Don't even start with your bullshit."

The lit and make-upped, fake boobs, fake teeth, fake lips, fake hair, fake tan, Photoshopped version of beauty does nothing for Venus in Scorpio. It isn't interested in pretty, empty vessels. What it's looking for won't be found on the pages of Maxim or Vogue or People magazines, and it won't be found in the Hollywood blockbuster. It wants the battle of life worn through flesh and bone. It's one placement that finds the changes and processes people go through throughout life - including the difficult stuff - fascinating and attractive. The beauty (Venus) of metamorphosis (Scorpio).

One of the reasons I bring Venus in Scorpio up is that the energetic flavour is similar to what we are about to experience with Saturn's movement from late Libra into early Scorpio. As Saturn completes its transit of Libra, the issues around age and beauty are up front and centre. And as Saturn begins its transit of Scorpio in October of this year, the issues deepen.

One of the truly beneficial aspects of Pluto's transit through Capricorn is the opportunity (should we take it) to completely change the ways in which we view aging and older people. This is going to require a breaking down and re-structuring of programmed ideas about aging, as well as the institutional ways of relating to older people, and it's going to require people resisting, rejecting, and proving wrong the current ideas and ideals.

Things hit extreme catalytic/metamorphic potency on this front with Pluto in Capricorn in mutual reception with Saturn in Scorpio (October 2012 into September 2015) when we have two heavy-hitter planets double-teaming issues around aging - Pluto over the longer term and Saturn over the shorter term.

This will bring the opportunity to face deep, collectively-ingrained fears related to aging and death, shifting the orietation to those things dramatically and sloughing off current ideas about what those things even are.

Throughout the Saturn in Scorpio transit, we'll have the opportunity, personally and collectively, to shrug off once and for all the phoniness and fakery we're told is beauty and to appreciate the depth and gorgeousness of our own souls and the depth and gorgeousness of those around us - at every age.

A strong alternative to the current paradigm can be solidified and strengthened during this transit - one that appreciates the mystery and magic of life on this planet, the deep beauty of its continual metamorphosis, and the processes of aging and time passage as the modus operandi of that metamorphosis.

This is one of the best case scenarios for the Saturn in Scorpio transit: people honouring their beauty and attractiveness, simply refusing to accept a version of reality where a person loses appeal past a certain age marker. People of all ages, of all shapes and sizes, working it, confident that they're hot tamales, no matter what the current paradigms are telling them.

Pluto in Leos, you lead the way.

Venus Clears the Fall 2010 Retro Degrees and Makes it Official With a Sun-Juno Conjunction on the Anaretic Degree of Libra

Venus leaves the degrees of its previous retrograde tomorrow at 13 degrees Scorpio, and if you've gotten through the past two weeks relatively unscathed as far as the sticky, tricky dynamics of relationships past popping up, consider yourself lucky. 

Actually, luck doesn't have all that much to do with it. If the clinging tendrils, unfinished business and ass-burning dynamics of previous connections haven't gotten their greasy hooks into you at this point, it's more likely a case that you've worked Saturn in Libra to the fine points, navigated your way out of the residual charge, and made different moves this time around. 

If a greasy hook or two is still latching, never fear. We're heading into a blisteringly potent Scorpio New Moon conjunct Juno and sextile Pluto in Capricorn October 26. Coming out of that New Moon portal, greasy hooks can be purged once and for all as long as we don't waver from the intention of ending the old attachments and attractions that would keep us from present and future relationship success. 

It's not necessarily all that simple, though: 

Mercury and Venus, conjunct in Scorpio, are opposite Black Moon Lilith in Taurus, and nothing gets past BML unless it's Super Hardcore Gritty Real X 10. If you want to be free of unsavoury and unsatisfying relations, don't let up on even a single point. 

The Sun and Juno also form a conjunction on the anaretic degree of Libra October 22 just before both bodies enter Scorpio and move into position for the New Moon. The anaretic (29th) degree holds the final exam lessons for the entire sign. At 29 Libra, there's the ability for absolute social artistry, wonderful, mutually-supportive reciprocity and masterful balance as well as lots of shoddy, shoddy, shirking behaviours that let everyone, including ourselves, down. 

The Juno soul mates in our lives right now are working with us to create true fairness and balance within long-term supportive frameworks of relationships. They're also triggering the last decan of Saturn in Libra work - what we're going to be working on until Saturn ingresses Saturn in October 2012. 

Juno connections don't always feel great. They involve a deep level of soul work that is not always comfortable to do and can involve difficult emotions and highly-charged trigger points. It might feel as if it's not fair (Libra) that we have certain people and certain relationship situations going on in our lives right now, but Juno is triggering the last of the relationship stuff here, and it's in our best interests to work with the people in our lives on these points. 

Juno hasn't been in Libra since 2007, and we haven't experienced a Sun-Juno conjunction in Libra since October 2002. It can feel a little overwhelming on the last degree of the sign like this, and the weak points of the sign of Libra screwing various pooches is possible. 

Give it all you can to keep your equilibrium and hold out for real relationship fairness heading into next week's New Moon.

Venus Enters Scorpio: An Energetic Discharge of Venus Retro 2010

Before you diagnose yourself with depression or low self-esteem, first make sure you are not, in fact, just surrounded by assholes. - William Gibson, sci fi novelist and Scorpio South Node  

Venus in Scorpio - October 9 to November 2 

From October 6 to 19, Venus moves through the degrees of its previous retrograde in Via Combusta Libra and Scorpio (27 Libra to 13 Scorpio). This kicks up any unfinished business from the fall of 2010 (with roots to fall 2002, fall 1994, fall 1986, fall 1978, fall 1970, fall 1962...), allowing us to complete some things and to energetically reconstitute ahead of the upcoming Venus Transit and Venus retrograde in Gemini in May/June 2012. 

As Venus moves through this area, we're given a status report on how far we've come in relationship since last fall and on what points might still require a little alchemical pouring-of-the-coal-to-it to move beyond. 

It's possible, if one has very responsibly dealt with his or her relationships in the past year(s), to get a free pass here. Nothing left to examine, resolve, or purge. No etheric tendrils left to disconnect from at all. 

However, this is a fairly charged little stretch of the zodiac at the best of times, intricately connected to collective dynamics, and this is even more the case due to the previous Venus retrograde through this zone. Things can flare up in unpredictable ways with little provocation, especially if transiting Venus is making aspects to the natal chart. 

Love planet Venus is in detriment in Scorpio, the sign of all things socially uncomfortable and hidden. It's difficult. (Venus in Virgo hears what I'm sayin'.) 

Communication planet Mercury conjuncts responsibility planet Saturn in the sign of balance, justice, and equality Libra today (5:01 p.m. CDT). The Sun is also moving to a conjunction to Saturn in Libra October 13 just as Venus in Scorpio sextiles Pluto in Capricorn, and the key is to responsibly deal with any flares. (Keep a box of baking soda at the ready.) This includes staying out of other people's relationships and steering well clear of associated Plutonic detritus. Scorpionic relationship issues can sometimes be tempting to get involved in, but, for the most part, it's best to let the dramz move on past without our involvement. 

We're moving through a time frame when a lot can be energetically laid to rest. The focus is on allowing things to resolve themselves and moving onto new ground, not getting deeper into relational muck. Things shift, and new foundational steps gain traction here, but it won't necessarily be easy. 

Just before Venus enters Scorpio, it trines Neptune Rx in Aquarius from late Libra on October 7, bringing in the ghosts of relationships past and tempting us with mirages. Over the next month, don't be alarmed if you have a cringe-worthy "Not this again!" relational experience or two involving patterns, dynamics, or people you thought you had put behind you. This includes receiving poorer treatment than you warrant from people around you - Scorpio is a sign that deals with abuse and mistreatment, however subtle. Draw on the primal anger and strength of your lineage, hold your value, and respectfully demand better - for all of you. 

Work through the Scorpy paranoia and fears, stay conscious, and show unwanted dynamics to the door - firmly. Don't give them anything to attach to. Unravel from participation in the hyper-charged figure eight dynamics, ground them, and walk away. Make no bones about it. 

Consciously move out of reach of old attractions to people and situations that are not in your best interests, and keep moving. This is not the time to let things slide that really and truly need to be eliminated from your life and from your relationships. Scorpio relates to reading and heeding red flags and disentangling before you get sucked into an enervating black hole Plutonic vortex. Eventually, we get so good that we see the red flags a mile away, avoiding vortex territory altogether. Venus in Scorpio will lay out the path: we just need the trust, the grit and the courage to follow it all the way through the exit ramp. Easier said than done. 

There are things that need to be resolved amidst insecure and fairly dicey conditions on many fronts, creating a truly new energetic balance in relationship before we can move on, and this process takes longer than we think. 

With Saturn currently in Via Combusta Libra, soon to be disposited by Venus in Scorpio, we're challenged to responsibly bring to a close connections, dynamics, residual emotion, and entanglements from the past ahead of the whole new relationship ballgame indicated by next spring's Venus Transit. 

Until November 3, Saturn transits, in one pass, new degrees of the zodiac (17 to 22 Libra) that it will not be returning to. 

Until November 2, Venus transits Scorpio as the dispositor of Saturn in Libra. 

There is a lot of long-term relationship progress possible here, and masterfully working with tricky, sticky Venus in Scorpio is the key. Getting a solid foot-hold is more complex and challenging than most will realize. Under Saturn in Libra, we're building a new framework of relationships to sustain us over the difficult years ahead, applying lessons we've learned from previous partnerships. Simultaneously, we're required to responsibly extricate ourselves from past connections tying up our emotional, physical, psychological, and psychic resources. 

As we head into full-on Sun in Scorpio season October 23, we're working to shift deeply ingrained energetic dynamics while setting new standards for relationship (Saturn in Libra). Personal efforts to get down to core reality on this front shift things on broader, collective levels in ways that desperately need to see some movement. Every little flicker of 'intolerable' that enters our personal relationships has a long, dark, deep root to a broader collective issue. This especially relates to the piss-poor ways in which many women (Venus) are treated on this planet: domestic violence and mistreatment of all varieties, sexual and energetic control and exploitation, rape, devalued work, domination, financial dependence, poverty, invisibility, under-representation in positions of power, lack of access to resources, being shunned and stigmatized for not fitting traditional feminine moulds. 

Each individual who refuses to let things slide and digs in to set things right in personal relationships helps get things moving in a more beneficial direction on a larger scale. 

Scorpio asks us to go as deeply as we can into ourselves, to be truer to the actual experiences and emotional, psychological, and psychic realities of our souls in these human bodies. And with Venus transiting Scorpio, testing us on all the retrograde points, it's also about sharing this, responsibly sharing our process, with another person or people. 

With Venus in Scorpio, especially Via Combusta Scorpio, we have an access point where we can burn through artificial, socially conditioned ideas of what relationship is, what love is, what beauty is, what value is, what a healthy sexual relationship is. 

This transit is a time for a final energetic house cleaning, getting to all the nooks and crannies you might have been held off on during Venus Retro 2010. 

If you still have people and dynamics in your life that just don't do it for you, this transit is the time to gently shed them while coming together more fully with those that do. (It's also a time to work through the difficult emotions if you're one of the ones being shed.) 

This is about future success in relationship and releasing anything that would hold us back from that, but it isn't emotionally easy territory. 

Venus in Scorpio is a good time to forgive ourselves for getting involved with people in the past who hurt us, burned us, did us wrong, and did not have our best interests at heart. It's a time to forgive ourselves for allowing people into our lives who did not have the character to be there, and it's a time to make a strong commitment to ourselves that no one with those character flaws gets through the gates again. 

With the sign of Scorpio, there are themes related to the difference between meaningful, reciprocal, mutually-supportive and empowering relationship dynamics and relationship dynamics that just end up with someone getting used and burned. 

 Getting out from under relationship dynamics that drain our energy and resources is of especial importance now as we head closer to Saturn's ingress of Scorpio in October 2012, when it will be in mutual reception to Pluto in Capricorn. 

This Scorpio season is about putting ourselves in good position ahead of the Saturn in Scorpio transit. Make your choices with cold, hard Scorpionic resolve now to avoid being dragged through the Plutonic muck later by those who have not been so energetically responsible. 

Venus in Scorpio - October 9 to November 2 

Mercury in Scorpio - October 13 to November 2 

Sun in Scorpio - October 23 to November 22 

New Moon in Scorpio conjunct Juno - October 26

Saturn Retrograde in Libra and the Via Combusta Venus Themes Come Up For Review

Saturn retrograde, 17 to 10 degrees Libra - January 26, 2011 to June 12, 2011

"This is not your standard Neptunian-glossy, Hollywood-manufactured love and relationship, either. This is Saturn in Libra dispositing Pluto in Capricorn love. It's gritty business. Remaining Neptunian illusions about love and togetherness are unceremoniously stripped, a big part of which being the money drying up, and people stop being able to fake it."

This is what I wrote after Saturn first entered Libra in June 2010 and moved into cardinal t-square formation. It remains relevant, as difficult as it is to hold relationships and relationship dynamics under the cold, hard light of day without Neptunian buffer.

Neptune is messing with us on multiple fronts this far into tail-end Pisces, and following its familiar siren song is a surefire false path designed to waste time we don't have time to waste.

Saturn has just dipped into the early Via Combusta degrees of Libra and gone retrograde. Until June 12, we're doing backtrack restructuring of the relationships (and relationship issues) that have come into focus since October 22, 2010, post-cardinal t-square summer. Things shifted in a big way this past summer. They got very real very quickly. And during this retrograde, we work on getting our legs solidly under us with the partnerships we find present in our lives after the dust has settled.

Jupiter is back in Aries, heading to its final incendiary square to Pluto in Capricorn February 25, and the themes stirred this past summer of movement, forging out way out of the muck, dynamism, action, new territory and survival in the face of brutal Pluto in Capricorn corpo-governmental oligarchy intensify.

There is a necessity here to work together with those compatible with us in whatever ways will catalyze win-win forward progress, especially along structured career lines.

Banking on glossy potentials and wished-for outcomes remains perilous. Concrete, here-and-now, show me my return on investment.

The themes of the most recent Venus retrograde through the Via Combusta degrees of Scorpio and late Libra also remain potent until May/June 2012 when Venus retrogrades again in Gemini.

Because Saturn is in Libra and Venus is considered by most to be the ruling planet of Libra, Venus' transits through the signs until October 2012 add a crucial layer of influence to our successful dealings with Saturn in Libra. Venus in whatever sign it is transiting is referred to as the dispositor of Saturn in Libra.

Regardless of the sign Venus is transiting, though, until the next Venus retrograde in Gemini, the overarching thematic flavour of our relationship work has been set to "Scorpionic deep" and "cut the crap." There is a necessary ruthlessness here, a clarifying realism, with an impetus to intricately rebalance and restructure especially the subtle energetic and vibrational levels of relationship.

We're working for and carving out a new level of justice - energetic justice - in our relationships "related to the hidden energy exchange (Scorpio) between the sexes, which includes money as well as misuses of sexual energy. Huge issues, culturally reinforced for millenia."

Scorpio is a healing energy. It intuitively knows where the trouble is and gets right to work, divining and digging to trigger multi-layered release points. It isn't just treating symptoms, either. Scorpio knows it's either go deep or go home, and it puts forth immense stores of energy to go to the mat for people, driving right to the root of the problems that keep them locked up, inauthentic, programmed, and less effective than they could otherwise be.

Scorpio digs the poisoned thorns out - and if it's masterful enough, it gets them all.

But Scorpio's mastery is also it's downfall. Here's where the betrayal aspect of the sign comes into play. Scorpio is a liberating energy, an almost magical transformer of all things oppressive and stagnant and intolerable - and its emotional, psychological and psychic currency is woefully undervalued. Quite often, it's used and abused with little to nothing offered in return. It's left holding the bag with nowhere left to put the shit.

What Scorpio does is mostly in the energetic realms, and because so few people have developed the sight to see this type of energy work, people take it and run. Often, they take it and run right back into the same unhealthy patterns and dynamics Scorpio was expending so much energy to extricate them from in the first place.

Moving out of the ass-burning, should-have-known-better depleting and into the vital and mutually sustaining. Choosing carefully when and how to apply the potent Scorp medicine. Determining the most worthy recipients - and ensuring they are ready and willing to take full responsibility for what is given. This is Scorpio territory, and this is a major theme embedded in our Saturn in Libra relationship work.

"We're in the midst of a five-year gutting, restructuring and energetic rebalancing process in relationship that will not reach ultimate completion until the end of a period of mutual reception between Saturn in Scorpio and Pluto in Capricorn when Saturn leaves Scorpio September 2015...Our collective progress out of the Pluto in Capricorn rubble hinges on the successful rebalancing and restructuring of relationship constructs and dynamics, especially related to the ways men and women interact."

So all these tricky, winding, hidden dynamics are being brought back into play for a Saturnine sober second look during the Saturn retrograde in Libra.

We've got a blazing opportunity now until spring of 2012, infused by the Via Combusta Venus retro, to forge through and beyond complex layers of relationship dynamic detritus and half-decayed constructs that will constrain us, keeping us from the love that will truly nourish and sustain, if we allow it.

More on the Via Combusta Venus retrograde review later...

Venus in Scorpio Works its Magic on the Era-Shifting Mutual Reception and Fighting for the Right to See Through Our Own Eyes...Part Two

Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie,
Five thousand and twenty blackbirds fall from the sky.

Venus in Scorpio is just moving out of its square to Neptune-Chiron in Aquarius and trine to Jupiter-Uranus in Pisces.

Venus is the last body to march through Scorpio, applying the Scorpionic X-ray vision to the astrological era-shifting Uranus-Neptune mutual reception, which comes to an official close March 11 when Uranus re-enters Aries.

The Venus aspects were exact the day of the January 4 Capricorn New Moon/partial solar eclipse, and we're experiencing a little Neptunian media-driven deja vu.

In late October, as Mars in Scorpio passed through this hot spot in the zodiac, the official line on three massive fish kills in Louisiana was: oxygen depletion unrelated to Corexit or the BP oil disaster.

This despite independent testing that found oil in the gills and livers of the fish.

Now, as Venus moves through late Scorpio, the last in the cavalry of the asteroids and personal planets to move through these aspects from Scorpio, we hear "experts" telling the mainstream media that the deaths of 5,000 red-winged blackbirds and starlings near Beebe, Arkansas just before midnight on December 31, 2010 were caused by: a loud noise (possibly fireworks) that startled the birds into flying into low-lying structures like buildings.

Yes. All 5,000 of them. Flew into buildings. To their deaths. In a town of 5,000 people. At the very same time. One last hurrah for 2010.

The blood clots and internal hemorrhaging found in the birds is simply evidence that they experienced a "traumatic event."

Another massive fish kill of 100,000 drum fish in the Arkansas River, 125 miles from Beebe, and the deaths of 500 more birds (red-winged blackbirds, sparrows and starlings) in Labarre, Louisiana at around the same time are unrelated, these experts say.

Apparently, the location of the Pine Bluff Arsenal outside Pine Bluff, Arkansas, a U.S. military facility that stores and distributes chemical and biological weapons, is also unrelated. It hasn't warranted a mention in the mainstream channels.

Here's the deja vu.

"A robotic, manipulated, insane official explanation that defies all basic, human logic - and the requirement to shrug that off and dig for the real story ourselves.

Getting beneath the permeating official line created by such crafty manipulators of the collective ethers takes all our skill, determination and courage. Tearing multi-layered masks off the soft-lit illusions that persistently work to keep people enmeshed in insane constructs not their own is a step-by-step process requiring us to go slowly and carefully, countering every official line with raw, gut-level Scorpionic authenticity - and research."

A CNN story shows a drugged or poisoned John P. Wheeler III, ex-Pentagon official, defense adviser and expert on chemical and biological weapons, stumbling through surveillance videos two days before his body turned up in a Delaware landfill. Wheeler was a Council on Foreign Relations member, an adviser to both Reagen and Daddy Bush.

The Wheeler murder story runs two stories prior to the official line blackbird story.

In plain sight, but the connecting threads are not offered by the coiffed and make-upped CNN anchors.

New Moon in Libra As We Complete the First Leg of Saturn in Libra

Our Libra New Moon on Thursday, October 7 at 14 degrees (1:44 p.m. CDT) happens loosely conjunct Saturn in Libra as Venus, almost stopped in the zodiac, stations retrograde in Scorpio. Things are getting serious. There's a pervasive feeling that if we don't get on top of this relationship stuff now, we miss a major opportunity, one that might not come around again.

Mercury in Libra is coming up on a conjunction to Saturn at the time of the New Moon (exact at 6:35 a.m. CDT October 8), and our communication skills are highlighted as the key to further progress in the ongoing restructuring and rebalancing of partnerships of all kinds.

This is the energy work we're doing for the planet now through our interpersonal relations - and this is why there is such a serious tone to all this Libra rebalancing of yin and yang. The energetic imbalance on Planet Earth between men and women and between the masculine and feminine (internally and externally) is reaching the point of no return. The influence of Saturn in Libra challenges us to dig in here and commit to finishing the job with even the thorniest and most trigger-happy of issues, if for no other reason than we have to. The continuation of humanity on this planet hinges on it. No joke.

Saturn most definitely has its work cut out for it in this sign.

In a society of easy come, easy go, quick-fix divorces and leaving partners in all sorts of bunged up emotional heaps, emotional responsibility in relationship is something many people aren't even aware is required, let alone practise in their own lives and relationships. We become oh-so-aware of the lasting emotional/psychological damage and trauma (and the effects of it collectively/globally) caused by this irresponsibility as stationing Venus, Eros and Mars transit Scorpio and we start to untangle, repair and heal. We mess each other up and get messed up in a lot of ways before we're conscious of what we're doing in relationship. With Venus, Eros, Mars and soon Vesta in Scorpio, we have the opportunity to become aware on very subtle levels so that we can completely rework and repattern our relational dynamics and energetic exchanges. There's really no excuse for going forward unconscious from this point on.

The Moon in Libra conjuncts both Mercury and Saturn Thursday morning prior to the New Moon as it completes its Dark of the Moon phase. This indicates unfinished emotional business that needs to be spoken about before we can unfold into the new relating and relationships indicated by this New Moon. Within the Dark of the Moon phase in Libra, we're challenged to balance the inner stillness required to close this cycle with the required communication and relating with others that will be stirred and impelled.

Mercury conjunct Saturn in Libra with dispositing Venus in Scorpio indicates that the conversations could be more difficult than lovely Libra would like. But the overlay of Venus in Scorpio will not waver from its path of uncovering core relationship realities, especially underlying and previously unspoken energetic ones. Finding the words to do our situations justice, to speak the authentic truth from our positions, especially if coming from a subtly disempowered or subjugated one, is a tight process. Then, on top of finding the right words, we're challenged to keep them palatable enough for others to receive and swallow. There is a masterful responsibility required now in our choice and use of words as well as in our unspoken communication.

At the same time, we're required to go right to the core of the matter with Vesta, Venus, Mars and Eros in Scorpio while not irresponsibly spilling our emotional processes all over other people. Knowing what to share and what to keep to ourselves for internal processing - and at the same time, not allowing triggered people to dump their stuff all over us. There will be a lot of that going on in people who have not-so-responsibly kept up with the Scorpionic processes thus far.

At the New Moon, we have a window of time, a newly emerging portal, to enter a more mutually respectful, responsible and honest way of relating. It's a delicate beginning, as New Moons generally are, and it will take some effort (Saturn) to get it cemented into our relationship foundations. But with the influence of Saturn, the opportunity to build a more just way of relating and exchanging energy into our relationship foundations is certainly there, with Mercury holding the hammer and the nails.

An exciting aspect of this New Moon is that we have just about completed the first leg (or 10 degree decan) of Saturn in Libra. The territory we covered this past summer with Saturn in cardinal t-square position has been cemented into place, and there's no going back. Saturn has initiated big long-term progress since re-entering Libra July 21, and we've been veritably zooming through the first decan of Libra - as much as Saturn can zoom, that is.

Saturn completes this first decan and enters the degrees of its retrograde shadow October 22 at 10 degrees Libra, and at that point, we're in territory we'll be going back over so as to restructure and solidify. Saturn retrogrades January 26 to June 12 from 17 to 10 degrees Libra.

Now comes the more plodding and sometimes arduous movement of Saturn - more of the energy we're traditionally used to with this planet - without the potent initiatory impetus of the cardinal t-squares.

The Sabian Symbol for the Libra New Moon is Circular Paths. This is apropos considering our deep Venus-Mars-Eros in Scorpio work at this tail-end Piscean era. We're being drawn back into the etheric imprints of relationships past (where did this all begin, anyway?), often through the people in our lives. Dating some ghosts.

I think this New Moon gives us the opportunity to take a new path, out of the circular maze that brings us right back to where we started. But only if we accept and successfully complete the challenges related to the new path - staying conscious every step of the way, humbly receiving guidance from our higher power/intelligence, and then doing what we know is right, even when it's the more difficult emotional path, even when we're being compelled to take the familiar karmic loop.

Mars-Eros-Venus Conjunct in Scorpio Form a Bonded Channel - Potent But Emotionally Deadly

Today, Mars at regular direct speed finally catches up to slowing-to-station Venus at 12 degrees Scorpio. Both those bodies are in tight conjunction to Eros, asteroid of erotic love and beauty, and we're getting into the good stuff.

Things have taken a turn for the deepest depths as these three wrap themselves around our hearts and squeeze out our truest and most profound soul's desires for love, intimacy, sex and togetherness. Our emotions run to extremes with this conjunction - from the devastating and detrimental to the sublime and mystical in a matter of minutes - and the feelings of deprivation if we are not with a love so true can cut exquisitely sharply. Self-esteem can take a hit with these energies, so be loving and gentle with yourself and others despite the edge.

The Venus-Mars conjunction is exact at 4:58 p.m. Central Daylight Time, and at that point, Mars and Eros move out ahead of Venus in the zodiac and start to create some much-needed breathing room as they continue direct while Venus turns retrograde. There's such thing as too much togetherness, too much keeping it real, and these three are at the brink of experiencing it in this conjunction in Scorpio.

Things are not going to let up from this sometimes nearly intolerably intense zone entirely as Venus stations retrograde October 8 just a day after our Libra New Moon (1:44 p.m. CDT October 7), increasing the power of its influence in the sky. At the point of the station, we've got Mars, Eros, Venus and Vesta in Scorpio with Ceres and the North Node coming together with Pluto. Prepare for bumpy navigation through psychic and emotional storms up ahead as we wrest ourselves free of unhealthy attractions, old, karmic ties and outdated attachments in love. Scorp territory.

Saturn's in Libra, and we're challenged to sternly keep ourselves from tipping back into old behaviour patterns in love, driven by desires that have already proven time and time again to be not in our best interests. Examining our desires and holding ourselves back from acting on the ill-advised ones can be just what we need now to slough them off like a dirty shirt.

If you do fall back into Scorpionic siren song territory, never fear. No beating yourself up. Just get back on the right side of things as soon as humanly possible. A Venus retrograde in Scorpio is just begging us to get drawn back into old crap we had the strength to pass over before, but don't let yourself get drawn too far. You can dip a toe in the murky waters, but no diving in, no matter how lovely and sexy and appealing they seem.

Everything we've been experiencing related to love, money, relationship, sex, emotion and shared resources of all types since the beginning of September shall be gone over again as we comb through the imprints of loves past, disengaging from dynamics that keep us repeating more of the same and powering through to healthier, happier and more soul-satisfying ground.

Venus retrograde cycles through the same sign every eight years, so anything love-related from around October/November, 2002 will be especially ripe for discharging here.

There's a lot of heart heaviness to clear before we can come together fully in the types of unions we would really like to experience. It's a bummer, for sure, but we're close - closer than we've been in a good long time.

Drawing From the Venus in Scorpio Vault

When the sign of Scorpio is prominent something is changing from one state to another. As Venus transits and retrogrades in Scorpio over the next four months (September 8 - January 7, 2011), Eros, Mars, the Moon, the Sun and Mercury will also pass through, keeping the Scorpionic state-changing process in the astro headlines. 

Under the astrological lens, we all have Scorpio in our charts, just as we have all 12 signs/energies/functions represented. If you have a strong Scorpio/Pluto contingent represented by planets, points, transits or aspects in your natal chart, the transformational changes in state will be ongoing and a much stronger, deeper theme in life - relating to a longer-term process of pressurizing and purging, tending and melding to continually wrest something truer and more to our soul's liking for growth and divine alignment from the elements with which we have to work on this planet. 

Wherever Scorpio lies in your chart is the area that will be undertaking this alchemical transformation over the next four months. With Venus, Eros and Mars involved, it is coming about through alchemical changes in relationship and relationship dynamics. The way we relate is ready to change. This especially involves underlying male/female and masculine/feminine energetic exchanges and dynamics, as well as money, value, self-worth, beauty and needs - especially emotional and sexual needs. 

Certain figure eight energy dynamics we've been ingrained into in the past must now be re-routed. Certain crystallized emotional pathways and roles we've been conditioned to take - or have allowed ourselves to be placed in again and again for the convenience of others - must be shed through conscious effort and use of will. Certain attractions and relational tracks we've taken again and again that prove not to meet our deepest needs must finally be moved beyond. The societal concept of relationship in general, especially love partnership, is undertaking a massive maturation process with Saturn's transit of Libra. 

As a culture, North America has a very juvenile idea of what love and partnership mean along with an often energetically irresponsible use of sexual energy, reinforced through media. As Saturn digs in in Libra, Neptunian-illusory versions of love relationship, beauty, money, sex and what our needs really are within relationship are dissipating quickly. As a culture, we're being forced to grow up quickly around these concepts. But after the initial sting, reality within relationship will become much more attractive and much more deeply sexy than facade versions we've been accepting and reinforcing. This is how we get to the true relational power we can wield together for grandscale collective change. 

These themes are hinted at now as brave warrior woman Pallas Athene, out way in front of the pack in Scorpio for the past nine months, prepares to square Neptune-Chiron in late Aquarius at the end of this month. 

Pallas is wielding her etheric sword in Scorpio and will puncture wounding illusory bubbles, many of which were pumped up and reinforced during the Aquarius triple conjunction of Jupiter, Neptune and Chiron May-July 2009. Neptune and Chiron have retrograded back to that degree. Now, as Pallas disconnects us from ties to the manipulative Neptunian illusions/delusions that can so easily be our downfall, we can dissolve them and come back to Earth - which is the truly healing path in the long run. Clearing them away is a process, however. Isn't it always? Pallas leads the way, but the themes grow in intensity October through December, coming to a head at various times during the Venus retrograde as the Moon, Mars, Eros, the Sun and Mercury also square Neptune-Chiron in late Aquarius. Especially feisty is a time period around October 22 when we power through the illusions with sheer strength of committed will as Mars-Eros square Neptune-Chiron. 

There is great healing potential through relationship with this Venus retrograde, but only if we're masterful with the energy, refusing to cheapen, dilute or downplay our experience as human beings at this time on this planet. Refusing to fall for the old tricks, the old detrimental attractions and the old plays on our hopes and dreams and the way we wish things were. 

To fortify ourselves for the journey ahead, I thought I would draw on some information previously posted since Mercury is retrograde in Virgo (going back over previous work). I sometimes find it fortifying to go back over pertinent information ahead of a big transit. 

In addition to a couple recent posts on the Venus retrograde ("Venus Trines Neptune-Chiron and Enters the Retrograde Shadow at 27 Libra" from September 2 and "Venus, Eros and Mars in the Via Combusta and Karmic Love Cleansing Through the Alchemical Fires" from August 25), here are some older excerpts: 

 A post from the second last time Venus transited Scorpio (September 23-October 18, 2008): "Venus in Scorpio, I Love Your Hardcore Ass! And Yet, You Make Me Want To Die...," October 7, 2008. 

"...we're the people who can never deny the dark and twisted elements of human experience. We see through the glossy, personality veneer right to the soul, right to the denied parts that people try to cover up and pretend don't exist. We see through the song-and-dance right to the hidden motivations of each individual we come into contact with. We know what they want from us and see the ways they're not being straight about getting it... Unlike other people, we can't pretend we don't know about this stuff. We can't pretend that we don't know you're trying to manipulate us. We can't pretend we don't see you doing the wrong thing and getting rewarded for it, gaining power from it. We can't turn a blind eye when we see you sucking other people dry and using their energy for personal gain... 

This is also why most Plutonic/Scorpionic-types can't stand the current "everything has to be happy, happy and positive" propaganda in the pseudo-spiritual circles. Scorpio knows negative and positive, light and dark, co-exist. They are yin and yang. To deny the dark and negative is to deny the realities of life. And it's this denial that actually gives the dark free rein to come out in ugly, twisted, unconscious ways - ways that can then be even further denied. 

When the masses insist that the dark doesn't exist, or that it doesn't exist IN THEM, it leaves a disproportionate amount of dark and ugly for the people who can't refuse its existence. In other words, it's just not fair, not balanced, when people refuse to accept and integrate the reality of light and dark co-existing. When people refuse to take responsibility for conscious awareness of the darker aspects of life and self, they leave a very skewed reality for those who know otherwise and can't bury their heads in the sand." 

And a post from the last time Venus transited Scorpio (November 7-30, 2009) "It's Been a Long Time Coming...And It STILL Ain't Here!" November 15, 2009. The Moon was conjunct Venus at the time of this post, just as it will be September 11. 

"The Moon in its dark phase came together with Venus this morning. A conjunction of the feminine planets, merging forces in the deep, dark sign of ancient soul knowledge, Scorpio. Feminine strength and its raw, powerful beauty - wounds, scars and all - holding its position as Saturn in Libra and Pluto in Capricorn square off in the first of three closing squares. Holding its position as the Old School Masculine believes it's divvying up the world and serving it on a silver platter to its cohorts at the top of their man-made pyramid-scheme hierarchies. Dividing it into dollars and cents, euros and yuans, rupees and dinars. 

All the raw, soul-deep Scorpio is squaring the triple conjunction in Aquarius and trining Uranus Rx in Pisces. Eyes on the future, eyes on the future is the constant refrain. But what about now? And what led up to now? It's been a hurtful trip to this Earth for many of us. A long succession of hurtful trips through the lineages. And we're supposed to believe a change is coming. That it's almost here. After lifetimes of dirt in our eyes and salt in our wounds, after being ground down and ground down until we barely had the strength to go on. After having the faith diminished to the tiniest pinprick of candlelight. After having what's right and good punished and abused and mocked for so long. 

Scorpio is intuition. The soul knowledge we kept inside and carried with us through generations like the most valuable of family heirlooms. Like the best china or lace or silver or pearls. Because it is the most valuable family heirloom. 

And we agreed. No, we'll never forget. We'll never give up. We'll continue despite derision and opposition and every dirty trick in the book. We'll use that derision and opposition and all those dirty tricks to get better and wiser and stronger and more effective. Until the change is here. Until we can see it with our own eyes and hear it with our own ears and taste it with our own tongues. And everyone who kept that promise, who kept his or her soul close, who protected the connection and the knowledge above all else and fought for that right in others, knows the struggle. 

We know it's the only battle worth fighting here on this beautiful little planet. 

Here's Beth Hart, an Aquarius Sun, singing about the real change - not the co-opted Obama-fied version: Beth Hart's A Change is Gonna Come 

It's an old song written by Sam Cooke that has been covered many times, but her version really captures the feeling of this Scorpio square to Aquarius and trine to Pisces to me. She's singing about all the times our hearts have been broken because the change didn't come. The sweet, child-like hope we had for it that was crushed so many times. And the times we went out on a limb for what was right and good and were left hanging because what was supposed to be there to support us wasn't. And she's singing about the never-say-die resolve. The sheer strength of will of what is right and good. The power of soul truth. And the love that is so strong it keeps us getting back on our feet to try again...and again. We can be thankful for the particular brand of Venus in Scorpio love here because with it, the heart has been broken and betrayed so many times that it won't be fooled again. Venus here is not an easy sell. Glossy words and social charms will never impress. Only the real change will suffice." 

From "Let's Be Thankful for Mercury Retrograde in Taurus Right Now," April 26, 2010. This also talks about the dynamics of a Scorpio Moon, which we will be experiencing as precursor to the Venus in Scorpio retrograde this Saturday, September 11. 

"The Moon wants to hold on, but Scorpio knows that to do so is death - at least soul death. So we have to be gentle but skillfully ruthless with any ways we've been conditioned to dish out or accept subtle mistreatment, severing ties to energetic dynamics that will never truly nourish us. There are themes of emotional deprivation/starvation here - and of fighting our way out of that and into truly nourishing territory. Psychic surgeon Scorpio, cutting away whatever snuffs us out emotionally so that the truly vital connections can strengthen and grow. It's a precise application now, more often working with people and relationships rather than simply cutting ourselves off from them altogether."

It's Been a Long Time Coming...And It STILL Ain't Here!

The Moon in its dark phase came together with Venus this morning. A conjunction of the feminine planets, merging forces in the deep, dark sign of ancient soul knowledge, Scorpio. Feminine strength and its raw, powerful beauty - wounds, scars and all - holding its position as Saturn in Libra and Pluto in Capricorn square off in the first of three closing squares. Holding its position as the Old School Masculine believes it's divvying up the world and serving it on a silver platter to its cohorts at the top of their man-made pyramid-scheme hierarchies. Dividing it into dollars and cents, euros and yuans, rupees and dinars.

All the raw, soul-deep Scorpio is squaring the triple conjunction in Aquarius and trining Uranus Rx in Pisces. Eyes on the future, eyes on the future is the constant refrain.

But what about now? And what led up to now?

It's been a hurtful trip to this Earth for many of us. A long succession of hurtful trips through the lineages.

And we're supposed to believe a change is coming. That it's almost here. After lifetimes of dirt in our eyes and salt in our wounds, after being ground down and ground down until we barely had the strength to go on. After having the faith diminished to the tiniest pinprick of candlelight. After having what's right and good punished and abused and mocked for so long.

Scorpio is intuition. The soul knowledge we kept inside and carried with us through generations like the most valuable of family heirlooms. Like the best china or lace or silver or pearls. Because it is the most valuable family heirloom.

And we agreed. No, we'll never forget. We'll never give up. We'll continue despite derision and opposition and every dirty trick in the book. We'll use that derision and opposition and all those dirty tricks to get better and wiser and stronger and more effective. Until the change is here. Until we can see it with our own eyes and hear it with our own ears and taste it with our own tongues.

And everyone who kept that promise, who kept his or her soul close, who protected the connection and the knowledge above all else and fought for that right in others, knows the struggle. We know it's the only battle worth fighting here on this beautiful little planet.

Here's Beth Hart, an Aquarius Sun, singing about the real change - not the co-opted Obama-fied version:

Beth Hart's A Change is Gonna Come

It's an old song written by Sam Cooke that has been covered many times, but her version really captures the feeling of this Scorpio square to Aquarius and trine to Pisces to me.

She's singing about all the times our hearts have been broken because the change didn't come. The sweet, child-like hope we had for it that was crushed so many times. And the times we went out on a limb for what was right and good and were left hanging because what was supposed to be there to support us wasn't.

And she's singing about the never-say-die resolve. The sheer strength of will of what is right and good. The power of soul truth. And the love that is so strong it keeps us getting back on our feet to try again...and again.

We can be thankful for the particular brand of Venus in Scorpio love here because with it, the heart has been broken and betrayed so many times that it won't be fooled again. Venus here is not an easy sell. Glossy words and social charms will never impress. Only the real change will suffice.

Venus "Affliction"

I got an e-mail about the last post, and I thought I would clear a few things up...

When I talk about my "afflicted" Venus, I really should put that in quotation marks. I was being a bit cheeky there in the previous post. I just think it's an amusing way to shut people up when they ask me why I'm not married with kids.

"So...why haven't you gotten married yet? No men in your life? No kids? Why is that?"

I mean, how do you really answer that, anyway?

"Afflicted Venus in the 4th," seems as good an answer as any.

Or maybe: "I'm a Pluto in Libra, and my generation has a lot of soul-crushing, crystallized relationship dynamics to break down. Instead of attracting karmic relationship after karmic relationship into my life to break the old, toxifying constructs down, I choose to process it on my own until I've cleared enough collective debris and the timing is right for a real, long-term dude." Better?

Or how about: "Well, I sense that you and your significant other have about another six months, tops. You're really just buying into what you think a relationship should be and letting some serious problems fester, there, rather than building on true compatibility. I just want to avoid situations like that."

Yeah, "afflicted Venus in the 4th" it is.

It's not actually the definition of afflicted, so that was a bit of a misnomer. Afflicted generally refers to a heavily stressfully aspected planet. My Venus is what they call "in detriment" - in the sign opposite one it rules. Venus rules Taurus and Libra, so it would be considered in detriment in Scorpio or Aries.

(The Sun is considered in detriment in Aquarius, the Moon in Capricorn, Mercury in Sagittarius or Pisces, Venus in Aries or Scorpio, Mars in Libra or Taurus, Jupiter in Gemini, Saturn in Cancer, Uranus in Leo, Neptune in Virgo and Pluto in Taurus. Sort of like a concentrated oppositional energy. Trying to find expression through a sign it lacks compatibility with in certain respects.)

My natal Venus has also just turned retrograde, almost stopped in the sky, so I consider in detriment + just stationed retro to be "afflicted," if only in the general (not astrological) sense of the term. Retrogrades can bring delays and a feeling of going back over old territory to finish off situations begun previously, so there you go. Then being a Sun/Pluto Libra, with Venus as the dispositor of that - it's very influential.

I can see the possibility of someone holding the idea that he/she has a "bad placement" and that causing problems, but for me, it's the opposite. I've lived these dynamics my whole life and wondered why, and the astrological symbol just clarifies what is going on. It helps me to work with the process, tailored to me, instead of trying to set my life up according to the usual rules.

I don't read things in a fatalistic way or tell people, "Oh, you're being punished for past lives. It's your bad karma." *cough* bullshit! *cough* (Although there is often an element of necessary personal growth or adjustment, collective karma is the overwhelming battle these days.)

I believe everything in a birth chart is purposeful. You just have to look deeper sometimes to see the purpose (and benefits) of difficult aspects and placements. That is not to say they're easy or fun things to deal with. My Venus is a bitch, but I sure do love that bitch. I don't go overboard with the supposed "negative" aspects of placements, but I don't believe it's helpful to sugar-coat them, either.

The people I know with the strongest character, morals, integrity and will to help and do the right thing - the people I admire the most - have lived very challenging, often difficult, sometimes hellish lives. They've dealt with knock after knock, and they came out the best stuff humanity has to offer.

From my experience, afflicted planets or planets in detriment are somewhat difficult placements involving a process that requires more time, effort and challenge to master the themes. They're not easy, flowing placements. They're a bit of a bitch and a bit of a mystery, and you have to give it your all to really understand and work with the dynamics. They relate to working out some really tight knots that have existed in the collective for a very long time now.

But these are also often advanced placements, for people with the mad skills, and come with big rewards if they should be mastered. And if not, well, at least we did everything we could, and the next comrade can take it from there.

It's the idea of whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Although with Scorpio/Pluto involved, you often feel that it will end up killing you. (Or sometimes wish it would?) Warning! Super off-colour humour up ahead ---- For Scorpionics/Plutonics, if you haven't fantasized about sucking on the business end of a shotgun before, you're not doing it right.

My particular Venus "affliction" (Venus Rx in Scorpio in the 4th House) has to do with "going back for people" on a soul level, so it's a meaningful placement. A lot of completions of the soul, so to speak. I've travelled to some very odd outposts to reactivate people who had become lost in the set-ups of it all. The interactions triggered necessary endings, transitions or transformations. They got things moving in that alchemical Scorp way. And it was often energetically dangerous stuff because those reinforcing the set-ups don't want people reactivated on that level.

So from an outside perspective, this looks unfortunate to a lot of people. And in a way (on a personal level), it is. But the conditions have been such that I had to give it my all to try to tip the tipping points. My energy up until now went into other things rather than the traditional life with a husband, home, family. I know these things will come if they're meant to. I trust cosmic timing. But this situation does come with it's frustrations. I just try to be completely honest about it and put it into words on the blog for myself and anyone who has similar themes to deal with.

As far as it being a choice to do this work (or to live under any particular conditions), again, these are decisions I've made while taking the collective circumstances into consideration - so considering the conditions I live within on Planet Earth, my particular skills to deal with those conditions, and how things need to change, the amount of "choice" involved is highly limited.

For myself, I know that choices are often made for long-range progress/to assist the collective whole that aren't necessarily the choices that would be made if free will and immediate personal gratification were the only forces at play. (Which is one of the reasons I'm not a proponent of The Secret or the so-called law of attraction.)

I don't believe we're born into a blank slate. I believe we're born into and are connected to what has come before on this planet, what exists at the moment, and what is yet to come. For myself, I know that I have to work with the circumstances as I understand and experience them. I have to understand my own personal context in order to do what I came to do with this life. It's not strictly about me...

I guess it comes down to the fact that the majority of people on this planet seem to think soul or spiritual direction is in the realm of "make believe." They don't understand this type of work or this type of motivation and think I'm just putting off becoming an "adult" and taking my place in the rat race. Not so.

For those who think this isn't work or that it doesn't take any particular skill, I'd suggest they give it a whirl themselves, and then they can make their judgements. As far as astrology, they can learn it, gain some mastery of it, start their own astrology blog, start doing readings and see for themselves.

That's a problem with Virgo energy - it makes things look too easy, as if anyone could do them. Again, have a go at it, and then we'll talk.

As far as dealing with these dynamics, I love myself deeply, and I love the people I'm here for equally as much. That's why I work hard for us.

I'm guilty of helping people who didn't deserve my help in the past. I've also been guilty of continuing to try to help people when they didn't want or maybe didn't know how to use the assistance I was trying to give. I've been bitten in the ass in that way many times. But that's something you have to live and learn and adjust accordingly - also a strong Virgo-Pisces polarity theme.

I'm not actually sure why, but I find that a lot of very good people (the best people, really) are often treated badly by others. I don't think it's a lack of self-worth that "creates" the dynamics. I think it's actually a very strong, unshakeable sense of self, purpose and self-worth that triggers other people, somehow. If you're not insecure in the ways that they are and living life in the ways that they are, they want to somehow make you that insecure. Break you down or push you down.

I think in a way, people are threatened by those who live by their own values and internal guidance/sense of right and wrong. And by those who have simple motives to help and do the right thing.

I'm not sure if it makes THEM feel badly about themselves/resentful and they lash out. Or if it's just that they try to attack what they don't understand. Hard to say, but it sure is irritating.

Venus in Scorpio, I Love Your Hardcore Ass! And Yet, You Make Me Want To Die...

Disclaimer: This is a personal post, so if you're not down with that, please don't read further...)

So I'm one of those lucky, lucky people with a Scorpio stellium. (A stellium is three or more planets in one sign.) There are a lot of us out there, and we all pretty much feel each other's pain because we're the people who can never deny the dark and twisted elements of human experience. We see through the glossy, personality veneer right to the soul, right to the denied parts that people try to cover up and pretend don't exist. We see through the song-and-dance right to the hidden motivations of each individual we come into contact with. We know what they want from us and see the ways they're not being straight about getting it.

Basically, we can tell who's full of shit right from the get go.

(People without a stellium in Scorp can also live these phenomena - any of the personal planets in Scorp would do it, a strongly placed/aspected Pluto or bodies in the 8th house, etc.)

Unlike other people, we can't pretend we don't know about this stuff. We can't pretend that we don't know you're trying to manipulate us. We can't pretend we don't see you doing the wrong thing and getting rewarded for it, gaining power from it. We can't turn a blind eye when we see you sucking other people dry and using their energy for personal gain.

If we try to look the other way, it makes us weak and sick and attracts all kinds of hell-type karmic experiences until we finally give in and live what we know to be true. Basically, we get bitten in the ass and energetically exhausted so many times from being dragged into hideous situations that we have to look this shit right in the eye and live with it as a prime motivator for our own actions.

This is also why most Plutonic/Scorpionic-types can't stand the current "everything has to be happy, happy and positive" propaganda in the pseudo-spiritual circles. Scorpio knows negative and positive, light and dark, co-exist. They are yin and yang. To deny the dark and negative is to deny the realities of life. And it's this denial that actually gives the dark free rein to come out in ugly, twisted, unconscious ways - ways that can then be even further denied!

When the masses insist that the dark doesn't exist, or that it doesn't exist IN THEM, it leaves a disproportionate amount of dark and ugly for the people who can't refuse its existence. In other words, it's just not fair, not balanced, when people refuse to accept and integrate the reality of light and dark co-existing. When people refuse to take responsibility for conscious awareness of the darker aspects of life and self, they leave a very skewed reality for those who know otherwise and can't bury their heads in the sand.

At this time of the year, as we slide from "keeping it all socially nicey nice" Libra to "I'd rather die than live like this" Scorpio, some ugly shit is bound to be spun off and into conscious awareness.

Venus and Mars are currently in Scorpio. The Sun will be there in a couple of weeks, and the currently retrograde Mercury in Libra is ruled by Venus in Scorpio.

So wherever Scorpio is in your chart, this is the area being rooted around in by Scorpio planets right now.

But for me, it's Venus and Mars in Scorpio all year round! Lucky me.

Whatever house a stellium is in is the area of life where the themes of the sign(s) involved will be prevalent. For me, the Scorpio stellium is in the 4th house. A placement that makes family, home, roots, inner, emotional world and early life areas where this dark, twisted, hellish bullshit comes to the forefront. Stuff that is being brought to conscious awareness and regenerated for the collective, not just for me, personally, I might add.

So true to form, I learned some extremely hurtful information a few days ago about what one side of my family truly thinks about me. It's always a betrayal to find out that people have been talking shit about you, especially when it's your own family and especially when what's being said is false - just mudslinging designed to denigrate my character. But it's always best to know exactly what people's underlying concept of you is - especially when it's mostly a fabrication. Says more about them than it does about you, actually.

Mercury is retrograde, so the information I got was slightly off, but it led to the root of the issue, which was this side of the family constantly treating me like a second class citizen, talking behind my back and running me down, making derogatory comments with insidious tones in my presence. And inviting me to their family gatherings just so they'd have more fodder.

Their view of me is connected to my Chiron in Taurus placement.

Let's just say there are themes, among others, of not having myself or my contributions valued or appreciated by the mainstream business world, and consequently, often not being paid well for the work I do. It is an aspect that leads to being invisible or treated badly in the public world, to not achieving what the mainstream thinks you should achieve, to not being considered a valuable member of the mainstream hierarchy because you just don't fit in. It's about your own personal values not being the same as most other people's or the same as those of the traditional hierarchical structures. Never having the safe, secure career path because you are working within the structures for change and justice, not to maintain the status quo. Not having the material rewards or recognition that others have because you can't use money or public prestige as your prime motivators. Doing spiritual/emotional/energetic work that is not recognized or valued by the current structures or often by other people. It's being compelled to do the work you do, reward or not, because you know it has to be done and because there aren't too damn many other people who would take it on and then be shit on for it. Because, as I said in the October update, most people don't like being around Scorpio energy at work and eventually try to get rid of it - even though it's necessary, now more than ever.

Anyway, I've always had to deal with these issues. As many people experience, my family thought they knew better than I how I should live my life. They always treated my work as if it were a triviality, pushing me into getting a corporate office job or marrying rich (using the Scorpio part of the polarity).

What they could never accept was that a corporate office job would be death to me - literally. (As would marrying strictly for money.) I have a very specific life path. I'm not here just to go along with the crap I see going on and collect my paycheque. I'm here to do the work that I consider important to change things, and it doesn't matter a good Goddamn if anyone else thinks it's important. I know it is.

As I said before, with a Scorpio stellium, I see things other people don't. And I'm compelled to act in ways that other people are not.

I know what I've done during my time on the planet. I know what I've done spiritually/energetically. I know the changes I've initiated, from the time I was 13 years old in small-town Saskatchewan until now. And I know that my work has been absolutely priceless - whether other people know it is not really my concern.

Although it does hurt (Chiron) not to be recognized or paid well for what I do, that doesn't make the work less valuable, and it doesn't make me less valuable as a person. It doesn't mean I'm wasting my education or my life.

If my family (or anyone else) doesn't know that, that's their problem. Short-sighted people, these...

So thank-you, Scorpio. I've been working on this stuff for years (since birth? longer?), and you finally gave me the proof I need and the strength I need to sever unhealthy dynamics in my life related to these family members. The thorn finally came out, and we got it all out. I'll no longer be connecting to a source of enervating poison out of an outdated understanding of what family is. I don't have to accept this treatment from anyone.

And thank-you because now I don't have to sit through their Goddamn bullshit Thanksgiving meal dodging their toxic barbs!!! Woo-hoo!!

Now that's something to be thankful for.