A Powerful Woman
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Don’t diss the diva
It’s easy to dismiss Venus as a planetary lightweight, an inconsequential party girl eating bon-bons and wearing a fluffy boa. But consider this: the goddess of desire stands alone as the only one of the conventional planetary archetypes that’s feminine (the Moon is technically a luminary). If you doubt her power, consider how many of the decisions in our lives originate from her domain: desire – whether for love, for pleasure, for money, or for social acceptance.
So while we’ve been giving a certain amount of virtual ink to Saturn and Pluto in recent weeks, as well we should, this week it’s Venus who commands our respect and dispels stagnant energy. She begins the week with a motivating square to the Lunar Nodes (May 6, 2019, 11:10 am PDT), on the Sabian Symbol Feeding birds in winter. The Capricorn South Node certainly could represent Winter, and the North Node in Cancer symbolizes feeding the helpless. But what is the catalyst for seeing to it that the helpless are rescued? Enter the amazon goddess, Venus, in Aries, the sign of action and of valor. While we might otherwise stand around in paralysis in an emergency, overcome by all that needs to be done, Venus simply commands, “See that they are fed!” We ignore her at our peril.
Venus will square Saturn (May 7, 6:26 am PDT) and Pluto (May 9, 10:20 am PDT) this week, too. Fittingly, the street outside our house has been torn apart by the water department to replace old pipes. It’s been noisy, dirty, and disruptive, but it’s necessary in order to get rid of that crummy, obsolete old infrastructure. This is happening on a psychological level too, of course. And Venus in Aries doesn’t mind cracking a few eggs to make an omelet. She’s impatient with gridlock and refuses to play manipulative games. “What is it you want?” she demands, and when we venture a hesitant answer, she snaps, “Well then, go to it!” And when we complain that it’s impossible, she rolls her eyes and snaps her fingers. “It’s only impossible if you don’t try.”
And that brings us to the week’s loveliest aspect, Venus’ trine to Jupiter (May 9, 9:55 am PDT). Venus makes the aspect at 24 Aries, one of my favorite Sabian Symbol degrees: An open window and a net curtain blowing into cornucopia, with Jupiter on 24 Sagittarius, A bluebird standing at the door of the house. Even in the midst of major disruption, we should be able to make something lovely from a passionate warrior goddess embracing the king of the gods, alongside an open window, a bluebird, and a cornucopia.
Slow down, you move too fast
Mercury enters Taurus this week (May 6, 11:25 am PDT), and immediately begins its conjunction with Uranus (May 8, 7:22 am PDT). Mercury in Taurus favors a certain laconic style of communicating, absorbs knowledge kinesthetically, and prefers to ruminate on ideas before making a decision. But Uranus is fond of pulling the rug out from under us and throwing surprises our way, surprises that Mercury in Taurus may find unsettling. So this may feel a bit like a Mercury retrograde week—especially the early part—with unexpected technological snafus and delays. This will feel particularly vexing if you’re in a hurry, tightly scheduled…or working too hard to bring the wrong ideas to fruition.
The decisive passage
Compared to Mercury and Venus, the Sun in Taurus is relaxed this week, in easy aspect to Neptune (a sextile on May 8, 7:52 pm PDT), the North Node (sextile on May 9, 11:41 pm PDT), and Saturn (a trine on May 11, 2:19 am PDT). That last aspect is perhaps most significant. It’s at 20.30 Taurus, on the Sabian Symbol A finger pointing in an open book. At last, vitality and charisma align with purpose and discipline; the finger points to a decisive passage – “here is the answer, the way forward.” So perhaps while Taurus remains easygoing, its ruler Venus in fiery and insistent Aries—with all its motivating aspects—is keeping him from getting too stuck. Taurus takes its time with things, sometimes so much time that it stalls out and loses momentum; but not when its ruling planet is in Aries. Where we’re been stuck, we break the impasse this week. Resolutions are made. And behind the scenes, the amazon goddess takes a moment to smile before she dashes off to her next battle.
©2019 April Elliott Kent
