An anecdote that perfectly illustrates the current Venus in Virgo opposition to Neptune in Pisces, which will be exact tonight at 10:53PM EDT –

I was out running some (Virgo) errands this morning and one of the things on my to-do list was to stop at the grocery store to pick up a few stray ingredients I needed for the pozolé I intended to make later. I needed *something* to counteract the dreadfully damp and windy autumn chill in the air, so a hearty pot of soup seemed like a suitable antidote! I rolled up to the grocery store – noting that for some ungodly reason the parking lot seemed to be an absolute mass of confusion – and once I managed to make it past the guy who was traveling out-of-his-lane and threatening for a moment to hit me head-on, avoided 2 clueless pedestrians darting in front of my vehicle on their way into the store, and skillfully maneuvered my way around an 18-wheeler that had been left idling unattended (presumably offloading a delivery) in a very bad spot, I breathed a sigh of relief and miraculously parked without further incident.

Approaching the front of the store, I saw some kind of stand had been erected near the front entrance – it was a table with three men seated behind it, and two women standing a bit off to the side. As I drew closer, one of the men smiled kindly at me in greeting and then said something I didn’t quite hear over the din of the 18-wheeler’s rumbling idle, so I closed the gap between us and asked if he could repeat himself since I didn’t catch what he had said.

“Would you like to make a donation?” he inquired. I was close enough now to see the stand was for a local halfway house for the developmentally disabled. There were decorations, pamphlets, etc. and even a large platter of home-baked cookies laid across the table. With barely a nanosecond of time elapsing between his query and my response, I smiled back and said “Sure!” as I reached into my purse for my wallet. I am very much a softie when it comes to charitable causes, so I pulled out the $20 I had earmarked for the groceries and instead put it into their collection tin. It was then that I realized the three sweet, cheery-looking men who sat before me were all presumably residents of this halfway home; my heartstrings twinged sympathetically while bidding them adieu and wishing them a great day. Screw it, I thought – I can always use my debit card for the ingredients.

So how is this story astrologically relevant, you ask? Venus is money; Virgo represents the everyday chores and errands we perform, such as buying groceries with that Venusian money. Neptune in Pisces is the very essence of charity; the outflow of concern and compassion for our fellow Man and the resultant willingness to sacrifice the personal for The Greater Good. Is it any wonder that someone might elect to give their pocket money for groceries away under such astro? Their timing and location seriously couldn’t have been better for this fund drive!

If we take this a step further, Venus is not traditionally considered well-placed in Virgo, which is the sign of her fall. She makes a great budget, sure, but her preference for having each cent allocated and accounted for may mean that under ordinary circumstances she might be less inclined to give away any funds she had earmarked for other purposes. There can be another angle of Venus in Virgo in play, too – the influence of Virgo (being a Mercury-ruled sign) tends to shrink things….if this is Venusian dollars we’re talking about, sometimes it may just mean that she has a smaller budget to work with and simply doesn’t have it to give away. But put a powerful, astrologically dignified Neptune in Pisces into this mix opposing her and suddenly it’s very hard to resist the surging feelings of altruism that would have us part with our cash.  Even a modest donation would surely allow our money to do some good in the world and help others in need, yes?

In this specific planetary face-off, Neptune in Pisces always wins. As such, if we’re going to give our money away to a cause, it’s good to do our Venus-in-Virgo due diligence about a charity when possible to make sure the funds are going to the right place and being utilized appropriately. Websites like CharityNavigator.org can help us make prudent choices about where to donate. In my specific case, I was peripherally familiar with this small, local, community-based nonprofit, so felt reasonably confident the money would be going to a good place and directly helping those in need. Moreover, the *feeling* I got from the representative faces that had been soliciting this donation left me with the distinct impression these men were happy and well-cared for – the two women caretakers who had been standing off to the side seemed warm and appeared happy to unobtrusively help encourage their independence by letting them run the show.

Perhaps in the opposition between Venus in Virgo and Neptune in Pisces, it isn’t Neptune that wins the day so much as love; the infinitely tender heart beating somewhere inside each of us that is able to find the worth and value inherent in every single Being without regard to circumstance  ❤

10/16/2015