Tag: Venus/Neptune

The Libra Lunar Eclipse

~ EmpwrdDstny ~ 2 Comments

Today’s lunar eclipse in Libra definitely has our feelings about relationships taking center stage! Libra is the sign of partnership after all, and when I take into account Venus – the ruler of this eclipse – being rather prone to mooning over lost unions during its current tour of Pisces, I’ve been getting a wicked “White Flag” vibe off this lunation.

“But I will go down with this ship;
And I won’t put my hands up and surrender
There will be no white flag above my door
I’m in love
And always will be.

And when we meet
Which I’m sure we will
All that was there
Will be there still
I’ll let it pass
And hold my tongue
And you will think
That I’ve moved on….”

As of this post’s publication, Venus has been conjunct Neptune for several days now, which has definitely heightened the inclination to pine for Love; possibly to even become a martyr to it.  These two planets are parting – perhaps with a bit of sweet sorrow – as we speak, but the vibe of this eclipse will be a slow one to dissipate while Venus moves toward the South Node and then Chiron over the next week or so.  What we don’t want to do, then, is take a cue from Dido and go down with the ship!

I think whenever we have truly loved someone, it can be hard to release the ideal of “Happily Ever After”. But Love is not a fairy tale, and so the dream can fade as partners go their separate ways. I believe it is important – when this happens – to honor the love that was there, yet to also recognize when a connection no longer has relevance in our lives.  It is sad, yes, but to sentimentally insist we will always be *in love* with someone discounts the possibility they served a spiritual purpose in our lives for the time they were in it and the connection was meant to be ephemeral.  If we cling to the past like this instead of blessing and releasing, how will we ever move forward and come to fall in love with Another in the future?

I propose that if we find ourselves reflecting upon a past partner at this time and wanting to reach out to them, we also need to be careful of our motivation for doing so.  It’s one thing if we feel as if we need to apologize for causing someone pain, but we should be aware this often isn’t experienced as helpful or healing to the other party involved and that what we may really looking for is absolution for ourselves.

Reflecting upon my own past loves, I can say that when I’ve been able to look at my past Self via the mirror of relationship and felt I’ve had something to apologize for,  I’ve never been shy about doing so.  But I’ve also never sought out an ex expressly for this purpose, either – fate simply intervened and brought us back into contact again, though only for the sake of expressing our mutual regrets and then releasing the attachment for good….a true case of “touch and go”.  I do think I will probably always love anyone that I’ve ever genuinely been in love with to a degree, but it is a very different feeling to me than actually still being *in love* with them.  I harbor the kind of vague, dormant affection one might for an old friend that hasn’t been seen in many years.  You acknowledge the history and love what they represented to you at one point in your life, but you also don’t linger in the past.  And with this Libra Eclipse infused with energy from the Aries Sun & Mercury plus its contact to Mars, it is all about living in The Now and being ready to embrace The New.  So if you catch yourself humming “White Flag” whilst pondering an ex, surrender the attachment as best you can.  Give it up to God/Goddess/The Universe.  And trust that if there were loose ends meant to be tied up, that you won’t have to go seeking him or her – Divinity will intervene to ensure that your paths cross again one day…


03/23/2016

Venus In Pisces: A Sweet Surrender

~ EmpwrdDstny ~ Leave a comment

Venus recently dipped into the sign of its exaltation – Pisces – this past weekend, infusing the current astro with some rather dulcet tones. Her siren song calls out, begging us for escape and for sweet surrender to the principle of Love. Love becomes a transcendental force when Venus resides here; representing a soul-union on the spiritual plane that transcends all reason, bounds, rules, classes, colors, and backgrounds. Venus in Pisces is the quintessential fairytale romance; the kind of idealized union we find in dreams or fantasize about. And it IS rather intoxicating, as it certainly does feel wonderful to simply let go & release into the heart swells as we float in an infinite ocean of Love. If nothing else, its warm embrace can certainly provide a beautiful – if temporary – respite.

SirenSong
“The Siren” by John William Waterhouse

As pleasant as all of this is, however, it can absolutely wind up being a siren song in so many ways if we weigh anchor and allow ourselves to get entirely swept away. Love may also make us blind under this influence…we tend to ignore red flags, gloss over faults, and put partners upon precariously high pedestals under this vibe. We can also pine for a union that’s not to be, or find ourselves so disillusioned with a present relationship situation that we check out and fantasize or try to drown our sorrows in a bottle rather than deal with problems head-on. This energy can involve themes of suffering and sacrifice as well…it may simply mean we have to give up a lot on the material plane for the love we so yearn for; the princess or prince becoming a pauper in order to be with their Beloved. Or we may become so trusting that we give our compassion, love, and/or money away to someone who isn’t worth it….a liar, a bum, an addict, a cheat, or a deadbeat, for example.

These cautions are mentioned because the more problematic expressions of Venus in Pisces may surface shortly as this planet finds itself approaching Neptune while engaged in a contentious T-square with Jupiter in Virgo & Saturn in Sagittarius between March 20-25. There are so many potential ways this can manifest, but one core takeaway involves this magical, courtly sort of love beset by Reality (Saturn) and Truth (Jupiter). It becomes essential to understand there can be a wide variance regarding our philosophical stance about Love at this time, and that it can run the gamut from idealism, to healthy optimism, to beneficial pragmatism, to excessive criticism, to pessimism….sometimes all happening at the same time. Jupiter in Virgo + Saturn in Sagittarius may threaten to poke holes in these romantic dreams; to deflate the insular little bubble we may have otherwise surrounded ourselves with via tuning out and failing to take an honest and perhaps hard look at the very real imperfections contained therein. We can swing from hopeless romanticism to overblown criticism easily in the blink of an eye in cases where the reality check that is delivered happens to be excessively harsh; potentially causing that dream love to come undone and dissolve entirely.

But does it have to come to this? With Venus so well-placed in Pisces, I am hard-pressed to say “yes”…I propose instead that what we really need is a good anchor, and we do get that with Saturn’s involvement. We need to slow it down for our own benefit; to bring ourselves back to Earth gradually where we look honestly at the flaws and faults regarding a romantic ideal to hopefully arrive at what I will call an optimistic state of realism. Can we take what we may now understand to be a castle in the air and work with it, without throwing the proverbial baby out with the bath water? Make it more substantial by shoring up any weakness in that vision, even if it takes an abundance of time & effort?

Personally, I do think it can be done, but then I am somewhat of a romantic at heart….  😉   ❤


03/17/2016

Venus In Virgo Opposite Neptune In Pisces

~ EmpwrdDstny ~ Leave a comment

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.

The Six of Pentacles as depicted in the Robin Wood Tarot; A wealthy patrician judiciously distributing alms to the needy.
The Six of Pentacles as depicted in the Robin Wood Tarot; A wealthy patrician judiciously distributing alms to the needy.

“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