Venus in Scorpio & A retrograde dance of Magnetic Balance ~ Sept 2010 --> Jan 2011

Early

On September the 9th, the Queen of the heavens, Venus, moved into Scorpio, a domain of intensity and passion, which sounds terribly sexy and full of French ooh-la-la, beauty and balance.  Using formidable feminine wiles in this fixed water sign Scorpio, Venus can also be a tour de force. Be prepared: Her tarry in Scorpio will be a seductively s-l-o-w and subtle alchemical performance, as she changes from evening star to morning star.  Although the planet of love and adoration normally moves through a sign in a matter of weeks during her 224.7 day orbit around the Sun, Venus will now stay in Scorpio for almost four months (with a short sojourn back into Libra in November), indicating how our celestial Love Goddess will turn retrograde to make her famous twenty-month circumvolution, and dance into focus her magical five-pointed Heart Star, which takes eight years to trace into completion (so the last time she make her point in Scorpio was in 2002).  

During this intricate dance, Venus, as Goddess of the Night, (variously called Venus of Vespers, Hesperus, Lucifer, Ishtar or Innana) will also make three direct associations to Pluto in Capricorn, the outer-planet that rules Scorpio, concentrating inter-personal chemistry and magnetism; the first of these contacts is on Sunday the 12^th of September, less than 24 hours after Venus has been occulted by the Moon. The combination of Moon, Venus and Pluto, lord of the underworld, encourages us to maintain a sympathetic heart while we delve into the deepest parts of our soul to discover an acute kind of intuitive acumen that heightens psychic ability and activates the power of transformation.  The theme of this part of her dance is to avoid drama and conflict by keeping a low emotional profile (smouldering is optional) and, if we dare to shine a light upon our shadow, duck under the radar while the magical transformation of turning lead into gold takes place. 

Until she goes retrograde at 13Scorpio on October 8^th, Venus also continues a closely-entwined, forward-moving pas-de-deux with her celestial lover, Mars (also in Scorpio), as she has done for the past months in her Libran home sign, where together the celestial lovers emphasised peace, love and balance in relationship. On October 3rd, they will be in their tightest embrace since August 20th, at 12 Scorpio. In Scorpio, both Venus and Mars are more edgy and extreme. 

Note that Venus goes into retrograde motion only one day after the new Moon in Libra on the 7th Oct (which Venus rules as a day-sign (Taurus being Venus’ night-sign)); and this Libra-Scorpio connection remains throughout, to become a serpentine dance of magentic synchronisation. This combination of the lights, Sun and Moon in Libra, with Venus at station in Scorpio, suggests harmonious new (aspects of) alliances are subject to intense review; Pluto ruling Scorpio dares to look intently beyond the Bardo’s shadow lands, directly at the bare bones of any situation. It is worth baring in mind that while Venusian love is the key to understanding the mysteries of life, death and, ultimately, for the rebirth which perceptive Scorpio represents, trust, self-love and self-confidence must also be developed so that at the point of regeneration one is able to pass through the symbolic reincarnation unscathed. 

In order for Venus to do this, she retreats for 40 days and 40 nights, allowing us to review and reconsider our own understanding of self-appreciation, especially in relation to others with whom we share our personal life. On a relative level, all kinds of joint concerns, which are often taboo, are examined from every possible angle; and because Scorpio and Libra are the signs in which she dances this includes legacies and investments, relationships in business or marriage. 

Scorpio rarely does half measures: during this period a sexual or psychic, political or monetary venture is either totally renewed or disguarded altogether. The idea is that by the time the Venus turns direct one has learnt the necessity of unconditional self-love, able to harness the power to convert and tame even the mind's darkest most dangerous and poisonous demon (one's desirous ego): By showering the negative with beauty and love it is transformed into light to become a helpful protector, an alley as opposed to enemy. 

In Tibet the Goddess Tara is associated with Venus. And from the secret Tantric point of view this retrograde is also about using special insight – vipassana - to enhance and understand the transformational healing power of kundalini, and the legacy of being able to work with the chakras, winds and drops, so that one can further familiarise the death process, with which Scorpio is also associated.

Scorpio is the opposite sign of where Venus is at home, in Taurus; in astrology this placement is consequently known as being in ‘detriment’ – not her favourite position, as Scorpio can be as obsessive as it is alluring, as jealous as it is Tantric, a tower of strength as it is destructive. Scorpio smoulders with sexual and compelling power that is coupled with deep psychological insight; planets in this sign indicate the ability to transmute everything and anything, with a flick of a deadly tail or a crush of a passionate claw, Scorpio can destroy even the things they love.  Having Venus here accents potential relationship power play, as well as the renewal of power, be that love or money, or the exquisiteness of intimate relationship. Where the degrees 27 Libra --> &13 Scorpio lie in your own chart, which house placement, and the planets activated there will show how you personally are to be re-learning and re-discovering undying love. 

As with any retrograde, there are dates when these issues have a greater propensity to arise and come alive with passion. Venus will be at her greatest brilliancy at the autumn Equinox, September 23rd, but only visible in the southern hemisphere in the western sky. Previously noted is when Venus retrogrades on October 8^th (and when Mars wends his way forward without her charms to soothe his ardent action - its as though by warrior Mars pressing forward, Venus changes her allegiance, having already begin to favour powerful Pluto).  On the 24th of October, Venus conjoins the asteroid Vesta, Goddess of the hearth: Together they renew a sacred vow, made around August 6th, at the time of the Cardinal Cross activation, to keep the flame of love pure. Then on the 25th of October, Venus connects to Mercury, the celestial messenger: Receiving news of an agreement, or making some kind of impassioned commitment to self and others would not go amiss.

Passing between the Earth and the Sun, Venus is at inferior conjunction with the Scorpio Sun on the 29th October; and as she basks in the radiance of the Sun we cannot see her; although hidden, we can feel her loving vibration and her need for balance. Then Venus makes her second stratigic sextile maneuver to Pluto on All Souls’ Day, November the 1st, which says it all, really, divining through sacred ancestors so that we can produce basic changes in our ordinary consciousness. And on November 7^th , the real Halloween - when the veils between the upper and underworld’s are the thinnest, retrograde Venus re-enters Libra – when we have even more Scorpionic esoteric interplay - only a day after the new Moon in Scorpio, suggesting secrets and negativities are pacified with a new kind of insight, care and love: metta, karuna, maitri  = loving kindness and compassion activating the central chakra: that of the heart.  Shortly after, in the second week of November Venus emerges as Aphrodite, the rosy coloured morning star (a role she plays until July 2011). Finally, with a heart chakra in balance, Venus comes to station to turn direct on the 19 November as a day-ruled star at 27 Libra, aware of how powerful forces, both seen and unseen, can assist positive relationship and spiritual development. 

Venus eventually re-enters Scorpio on the 29^th/30^th of November, when she will revisit the first half of Scorpio for the second time. On December the 1st Venus and Mercury connect to confirm any agreement made late October.  Then she forms her third and last harmonious sextile aspect to Pluto, to make sure the transformation of the Divine Feminine is complete, on the 8^th December.  Only in the New Year does she change signs into the more optimistic and hopeful Sagittarius on the 8^th of January and settle into her regular pattern before another retrograde in May 2012.  This dramatic dance of ‘magnetic passion in balance’, during this time of the Cardinal Cross of the Spiritual Sun, points to a critical time of (earth’s form and) soul in crisis, having to evolve intelligently; Venus in Scorpio’s subjectivity can promote deep, all-consuming love to be the motivating factor. 

& if you, like me find crop circles fascinating (even though I am aware of a couple of early hoaxers - they certainly weren't been able to do every circle), here is another take on The Dance of Venus which I find interesting as an artist, for patterns, dates, and fractal math!

Further insightful Venus studies with excellent illustration are found here at Nick Anthony Fiorenza's Lunar Planner

Thanks & credit to ashram.au for the five pointed star Venus chakra woman, & to Mclaran for the classic pas de deux, Jack Niland for the marvellous Tara, and other unknown much appreciated artists.