by Robert Wilkinson
Venus goes direct at 3:17 am PDT. 11:17 am BST pm on April 15. This is a threshold from which we move forward in many Venus-ruled areas of our lives. Much that we’ve been reviewing between early March and now will be set into motion by late May.
This indicates we’ve begun a period where Venus will move through late Pisces and the first half of Aries for the third time, giving us a chance to apply what we have learned during its retrograde period. This offers us the ability to cultivate skill in using our Venusian planetary functions within the lessons indicated by the degree spans it’s transited.
As I've pointed out in previous articles outlining how the retrograde influence works, we first experience the sign lessons when planets cross those spans. Then we get a new look or new experience of those sign lessons when planets retrograde across those spans. Then we get to weave these two approaches or understandings together and apply them when the planets again go direct and cross the span a third time.
In this case, Venus, the planet of love, relationships, values and resources, having begun its retrograde at 14 Aries, has now moved back to 27 Pisces, where it is going direct. Its time in Aries and Pisces gave us new insights into leaving old ways behind and appreciating the new lives we’re already living, or gave us insights into past Pisces and Aries relationship issues so we could remember where we were or were not being authentic or true to ourselves. This could also apply to any Venus-ruled area, such as values and/or resources.
If there were reconnections with people and values from the past, we can now can move forward in more thoughtful and natural ways. The reviews, rewinds, and remembrances we’ve experienced the past month and a half have shown us how relationships in the past helped us get beyond fear or “hiding,” and helped us to a greater compassion. We now can move forward in the life areas indicated by the houses where we have 27 Pisces through 14 Aries. Obviously it also impacts the houses where we have Taurus and Libra in our chart.
By way of illustration, in my chart the Venus retrograde fell primarily in my 9th and 8th houses. Among other things, I got a Venusian "review" of how old losses affected my future at the time, as well as remembrances of old relationships where I was denied something worthwhile, forcing me to let go of them with compassion and forgiveness so I could move forward more genuinely myself. I also got verification that someone in my recent past ripped me off, even though I didn’t want to believe they would.
As Venus rules my 3rd and 4th houses, I’ve had delays and postponements in factors involving those houses, and have been reviewing some deep feelings from my early life. It has brought forth a need for me to forgive in a radical way, but also the relative peace of knowing that in some way, those personal experiences were actually universal experiences. I got to review the worth of some things, and remember that sometimes we are benefited by what we don’t get as well as what we do.
Venus goes direct at 27 Pisces. We are told the symbol is “The harvest Moon.” In the original notes from the Marc Jones class on the symbols, Rudhyar ways this is a degree of “The power of creative visualization by which great Dreamers transcend outer reality” and “Complete dominance of circumstances.”
In The Astrological Mandala he states this degree refers to “the light of fulfillment that blesses work well done.” He offers that this is a symbol is one of “reaping the good harvest, if all has gone well,” and “the time has come to reap what we have not only sown, but also cultivated – or failed to cultivate.” He goes on to tell us that this is “the fullest of all full moons,” and the keyword is “consummation” where “the seed of the new cyclic manifestation is already latent” in this “karmic moment.”
At this station we launch a new Venus awareness through the light of fulfillment, where our dream that we have “creatively visualized” is harvested. This degree falls in the Span of Protection, and is the counterpoint degree in the Scene of Perpetuation on the individual-mental level of the Act of Capitalization.
Dr. Marc E Jones, creator of the Sabian Symbols, says this is a degree of “life’s moments of culmination as the threshold of new achievement,” emphasizing “the fact that nature in her immeasurable prodigality is forever showering (us) with the products of her untiring creativeness.” He states that Nature always communicates that our “productivity is as rich as Hers,” and that “the highly concentrated resources of the world are at the immediate service of anyone who will put them to use and so facilitate their replacement.”
He offers us the keyword BENEDICTION. He states that when operating in a positive manner, this degree is “self-consummation which is successful beyond any possibility of measure.
So this is a degree of learning to honor this “threshold moment” where we hit a culmination and can open the door to a greater reward for our creativity. Use your power of creative visualization to achieve dominion over your circumstances, and reap the harvest for what you’ve strived for up to now, as well as the Divine Grace you’ve allowed into your life.
This sets a platform for Venusian realizations along these lines and the ability to move forward with a sense of what’s permanent and what’s transitory through 2017-2018. Obviously, if Venus makes aspects to your natal planets from 26 Pisces, then by those aspects your planetary functions will be challenged or understood, used productively or become specialized according to the specific aspect Venus makes to your planets. This will impact both the life areas of the houses these occupy, as well as the houses they rule.
So now that Venus is direct in motion, it means the life areas ruled by Taurus and Libra (the houses with those signs on the cusp, or edge of the house) should now show some movement forward after many weeks of being slowed, stopped, or even seeming to go backwards. Venus retrograde has given us all a chance to slow down in our interactions, take a new look at old relations to see what was of value, what was blocked, and if they created insecurity or suspicion in our relationships since then. We’re now done with a period when some Venusian things were on hold and can proceed from here, since we know what to expect now that Venus moves forward in Pisces and Aries.
This also has a background effect for those areas ruled by planets we have in Taurus and Libra. For example, I have Neptune in Libra in the 3rd, ruler of my 8th. Venus going direct will affect my Neptune function, and so indirectly my 3rd and 8th house. That's definitely looming large in my life!
With my natal Jupiter in Pisces in close conjunction with Venus’ direct station, I should see something beautiful or valuable manifest through my Jupiter function. This can bring the concretization of a promise, or a blessing, or a legacy, though I do not know the exact form it will take, and it may not even manifest until March 2018 when Venus again visits this point, or even December 2018 during the next transit of Mars across this degree.
So from here we move forward in the Taurus and Libra sectors, and with Venus square Saturn, we’ll a) end relationships that are more trouble than they’re worth, and/or b) see the emergence of newer, more mature and important relationships that will be important in fulfilling destiny in the future. This will give us the ability to bless a lot to flow down the time stream, and be liberated from burdens we no longer need to bear. It’s less about holding on and more about letting go of old frustrations, old hurt feelings, and old suppressed psychic material we shouldn’t hold on to for one more minute. While it may take some will power, it will also show the strengths in our personalities.
Venus has had two dispositors during its retrograde phase. When it was in Aries, it was disposited by Mars, first in Aries, then in Taurus. Mars in Taurus made a mutual reception with Venus in Aries, forming a powerful closed loop of self-reinforcing energies. Then when Venus slipped back into Pisces, it was disposited by Jupiter in Libra, creating another mutual reception. That means almost all of this retrograde featured Venus in mutual reception to the social planets of Mars and Jupiter.
Planets going from retrograde to direct challenge us to move forward with a view to what we’ve just been through. At least Venus has shown us what is true, good, and valuable in the life we began in February, with rewards to come in May and June. Those who know how to be flexible and use their imagination wisely can set up patterns that will make their future clean and easy despite the heaviness in human relationships. Be flexible, understand what has greater or lesser value, and tune in on the Life that’s all around you. You just may hear some things from the Garden of your Life!
And of course, Mercury retrograde continues! The beat goes on and on and on...
© Copyright 2017 Robert Wilkinson
Thanks Robert, as usual helpful and it broadens the view one may have upon the landscape of life.
Blessings be to all.
Posted by: Nic | April 15, 2017 at 03:09 AM