Jupiter in Tail-End Libra and a Final Propulsion into New-Era Dynamics of Relating

We've just passed through fall equinox in the northern hemisphere as the Sun entered Libra (September 22), the sign of the scales, indicating equal hours of day and night. 

There is a momentary pause in the action and busyness for us to take a breath and see where we stand, particularly in relation to others and to the world around us. 

Greater Benefic Jupiter is completing its transit of relationship and justice-oriented Libra at this time and forms a final exact opposition to Uranus in Aries on September 27 (9:25 p.m. PDT), just as Pluto stations direct at 16 degrees Capricorn September 28 (12:36 p.m.) and Venus in Virgo opposes Neptune in Pisces September 29 (5:11 p.m.). (Mars in Virgo opposes Neptune in Pisces September 25 at 12:49 p.m.)

This astrological context indicates a final propulsion into new-era dynamics and rules for relationships and social scenes, one final surge past the sticky, tricky tendrils of karmically-loaded Piscean-era relating that will not bring us desired results as we move forward.

The current astrological context indicates that there is some stuff to clear in our relationships and in our dynamics of relating now - some old Piscean-era stuff that, if continued, will not create the healthy and loving relations and connections we desire. 

As Pluto stations direct, we're doing the big purge, shedding skins, moving through a process of energetic moulting and streamlining. As we move to the dark half of the year, we're dropping the non-essentials. We're dropping the drama. We're dropping the excess charge. (Ain't nobody got time for that!) We're dropping the weight of things that we do not have the strength or energy to continue carrying or dealing with or putting up with.  

We may have to reality check ourselves a little on this front, being brutally honest about any areas of emotional or energetic over-extension. With Pluto so strong in the zodiac, we may be tempted by "moth-to-flame" scenarios that have burned us in the past, and we're battling our own inner fascinations, compulsions, and desires at this time as much as anything.

With the combination of the Jupiter-Uranus and Venus-Neptune oppositions occurring at the time of the Pluto direct station, we're dropping the dead carcasses of Piscean-era ideals, fantasies, and dreams, as well as old rules around what other people "should" do in relation to us and how love and relationships "should" be.

From a previous article:

"Pisces is known for the heroic lengths it will go to in order to long and pine and sigh and hurt and torture itself over ideas and ideals of love and over the projected object of its affection.

Old school Pisces wants complete immersion in love and in a loved one. Always. And forever. It wants to be wrapped up in a cocoon of unending love, adoration, and support from the universe and from other people. It wants to do a continual backstroke in the auric field of the one it desires. Blissful communion and spiritual ecstasy with nothing reality-based that might burst its bubble.

But we're moving on from that as the dominant ideal for love. Those things exist in love, certainly, but they are no longer the singular ideal for which we are holding out.

Stationing Venus and Saturn in Extended Square Aspect: Money, Relationships, and Changing Values As We Get Older

Wild Tiger Lilies by the garden spot

Photos: Willow

Renegade Heifer Photography

Love, relationship, money, and values planet Venus is currently slowed in the zodiac, preparing for its retrograde station July 25 on the zero degree of Virgo. Venus is in an extended square (tense, frictional, dynamic) aspect with Saturn, which is also slowed in the zodiac, preparing to move direct August 2.

This indicates a concentration of themes related to both Venus and Saturn, and these themes are inter-related.

Money and relationships, relationships and money. These are the areas of primary interest these days. (When aren't they the primary areas interest, really?)

The challenges here may seem intense, even impossible, but rest assured that there are some major and beneficial developments unfolding this summer and fall. These are the types of developments that cannot be rushed, however. They are foundational, structural, setting us up for either long-term success or eventual failure. In other words, they're nothing to take lightly.



This is an excerpt from the article, "Stationing Venus and Saturn in Extended Square Aspect: Money, Relationships, and Changing Values As We Get Older." It is available in its entirety to Willow's Web Astrology patrons.

Mercury and Venus in Mutual Reception Bring the "Partnership Tune-up" Zone

Don't kiss any frogs during Venus in Virgo! (Unless it's a cute one like this.)

Photos: Willow

OK, busy beavers! Virgo season is in full swing, the time of year when we work to put everything in order, preparing - in the northern hemisphere at least - for the fall and winter ahead.

Virgo is associated with maintenance, work, projects, jobs, planning, and taking care of practical details that have fallen by the wayside. When the Sun moves into Virgo each year, we technically have another month of summer to enjoy, but with school starting, vacations ending, and the hot weather starting to cool, Virgo season brings a new seriousness and a practical, no-nonsense focus along with the chill in the air.

There's a lot to do, a lot to tune up, a lot to make orderly and functional - and we know it. If we let things slide now, we could be caught unprepared for the long, cold winter ahead - literal or figurative.

Virgo's ruling planet, messenger Mercury, has just entered Libra, the sign of relationship, beauty, and balance, for a transit that will last until September 27. Relationships and social themes are on people's minds, and thinking is geared more strongly to "we" than to "me." 

On September 5 (11:07 a.m. CST), Venus, the planet associated with love, beauty, money, and relationships, moves into crisp, clean Virgo for a transit that will last until September 29.

This means Mercury and Venus are in mutual reception from September 5 until September 27 with each planet transiting the sign ruled by the other.

So what does that mean?

It means that September 5 through 27 is a great time for relationship tune-ups of all kinds! We're applying the analytical and critiquing skills of Virgo to our relationships, determining areas that could use a little work, and we're also going over our own qualifications as "relationship partner" with a Virgoan fine-toothed comb.

September is a great month to hone in on the specific qualities we require in potential partners, friends, and business associates. It's also a good time to determine the qualities, habits, and lifestyles we simply cannot accept in the people around us.

With a strong Virgo influence, especially Venus in Virgo, we can be negatively affected by the habits and character weakness of the people we bring into our lives. Only the tightest of standards apply for potential candidates when Venus is transiting Virgo.

This month is a good time to "clean up" our relationships, setting things straight and setting things right, while actively addressing any problem areas.

But it's also a good time to determine how we stack up on the partnership front.

There is a lot of focus these days on "getting the type of partner and relationship you want," but there must be an equal amount of focus on being the type of partner we truly wish to be, and this is especially the case when Venus is transiting Virgo. 

Virgo is a sign associated with the quest for perfection, particularly the perfection of self through plain, old hard work and service. 

Relationship planet Venus transiting Virgo, as it will be September 5 to 29, has an associated theme of hard work and personal development in order to be the best possible partner we can be within the best possible relationships.

So already-existing relationships get a tune-up September 5 - 29, but we are also looking at areas that we could strengthen and improve personally in order to be better partners or to attract better partnerships.

Virgo is quite a no-nonsense sign, and it is generally very active and hard-working. It wants to identify a problem and then work to fix that problem as soon as possible.

So you could spend this transit of Venus in Virgo whinging and moaning about your faulty relationship or your chronic lonely-hearted single status. (This will be a particular temptation as Venus opposes wounded healer Chiron Rx in Pisces September 16 - 18.) But a far better use of this time is to actively work toward any improvements that are within your power, as well as fuller health and function, in general, whether in a relationship or out.

Are you moping around, letting your interests and life languish, as you wait for someone to notice you? Are you slacking off on hygiene, nutrition, or exercise because you think there's no one around to impress? Are you indulging in bad habits (including self-pity parties) because you figure, what's the point anymore?

That ain't the move.

There are some simple and specific things we can do to improve our partnership potential this September. These involve cleanliness, organization, and improved maintenance of body, home, and vehicle, trimming all fat. They involve improvements to mental health and overall perspective and outlook (again, Virgo is ruled by Mercury, the planet associated with the mind). This also involves getting away from a detrimental focus on our own personal problems (including relationship problems or being single), and one of the best ways to do that is by helping others.

What could be more attractive than someone who is helpful to others? Not much when Venus is transiting Virgo.

Now is the time to spruce things up and to make sure you are proud of yourself in every way as a potential partner. Pick up some new skills or hone existing skills that would make you even better.

The search for love and the search for improved relationships of all kinds is active this September. Limit your moping, and hold off on the self-pity parties, especially under the Chiron in Pisces influence.

Work hard and kick butt under this Mercury-Venus mutual reception, and all you practical, no-nonsense lovers out there will find yourselves in better position as the month comes to a close.

Do The Dishes, Baby. That Really Turns Me On.

Relationship planet and cosmic lover Venus is currently coming together with asteroids Vesta (tending the sacred flames we're personally invested in) and Eros (sexual love and beauty) in a late Virgo conjunction, and cleaning out the fridge has never been hotter.

Dusting the blinds or cleaning the shower grout (and doing a realllly good job) is a major turn-on. Little details like adding sprouts to a salad or using an exceptionally well-placed semi-obscure word can really get the motor running. Applying some elbow grease and showing that you're not afraid of a little hard work? Highly attractive.

And someone who flosses regularly? Forget about it. Total babe/dude magnet.

Daily work, words, personal investment, love and sexual undertone are all intermeshed with this conjunction at tail-end Virgo.

Venus and Eros are in almost exact conjunction all this month and up until this fall's Venus retrograde (October 8 - November 18), adding a spicy undertone to the proceedings. Venus has just entered a 27-month period of prominence as the dispositor of Saturn in Libra. This means whatever is going on in Venus' world becomes a major factor in our Saturn in Libra relationship structuring and restructuring work. Paying attention and integrating what we need to from Venus' movement is a major key to Saturnine success.

So at the moment, that means working those Virgoan details and showing off what we've mastered from the Saturn in Virgo transit.

Venus and Eros join Mars in Libra August 6/7 and immediately oppose Uranus-Jupiter in Aries, conjunct Saturn in Libra and square Pluto in Capricorn within the big cardinal t-square. At that point and into early September, being fair and mannered with a refined aesthetic sense really starts to do it for people. A keen awareness of social justice issues? Very sexy. And if you're easy on the eyes, all the better.

With Saturn in Libra's influence, a certain level of restraint and a cultured sense of formality in our relations are suddenly very appealing. Displaying fine breeding and then making potential suitors work for it a bit becomes an integral part of the mating ritual dance. Think Pride and Prejudice's Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy. All that simmering love and sexual attraction smoking up their stuffy meetings in formal sitting rooms surrounded by sisters and cousins and old aunts and such. Hot.

The conjunctions with Saturn on the early degrees of Libra are an initial maturing checkpoint setting the tone for our relationship work over the next 27 months. With Eros in the mix, the sexual form of our relating and expression of love is right at the forefront. Saturn will give us an initial status report on how we need to become more mature, more respectful or more balanced here. Any ways that loving human relating, especially sexually, has gotten undignified, unequal, unrefined or just plain unlovely will be areas we need to work diligently on while Saturn transits Libra. The current mainstream media-enforced version of human sexuality is pretty much the definition of undignified, unequal, unrefined and unlovely, so we've got a lot of work to do here.

These themes deepen this fall with Venus' retrograde in Scorpio, the sign of, among other things, sex, death, core-level soul connection, spirituality, and deep energy exchange and merger. We've got some brass tacks to get to as far as the interactions between men and women (and men and men, and women and women) and the fair and equitable energy exchange and merger of the feminine and masculine.

This will involve many hidden dynamics generally kept firmly under the collective rug being brought to the surface, often in confronting ways, so expect some volcanic activity - personally, if not on the world stage.

Until then, eat your leafy greens and hang some art to woo the apple of your eye - or to become someone's apple.