Venus Through Scorpio’s Realm

The collective mainstream will be initiated into another imprint of Venus in Scorpio with the launching of  the movie Black Swan on December 1st, right after Venus re-enters Scorpio following her ‘journey into the underworld’ during her retrograde phase.  The world of film and the media have a great impact on the psyche of humans and often mirror what we astrologers see in advance in the heavenly patterns and cycles of our planets.  American movies, in particular, have a global influence and this movie is already being hailed as Oscar material.

The film will unfold the tale of the two sides of Venus, one white and the other black.  The ballet arena is the perfect classical Venusian world where dance and glamour set the stage for the chilling drama of innocence lost. A young, beautiful, and ambitious ballerina will unravel into her dark and destructive side through the grip of obsession.

This is not a new tale, but an old one in new garb.

But let us first look at the logistics of what we are all experiencing during this four month span of Venus through Scorpio.  She entered this realm on September 9th and she will turn Retrograde on October 8th at 13 degrees of Scorpio.

While Retrograde she will conjoin the Sun on October 28th in what is called an Inferior Conjunction, meaning that she has now moved between our planet and the Sun in an exact alignment.  From that day forth she will rise ahead of the Sun.  Like a New Moon phase it will take about three days before she once again shines forth in her bright radiance having emerged from the underworld as Venus Lucifer; she who bears her own light.

On November 18th she will finally turn Direct at 27 degrees of Libra and re-enter Scorpio at 0 degrees (back to where she started on September 9th) by November 29th, but now she is obviously rising ahead of the Sun.  She will then move swiftly through the entire sign, finally leave, and enter Sagittarius on January 7th.

We are in this four month journey now.

To the most ancient Sumerians, dating back more than 5,000 years ago, Venus was equated with their Goddess of Heaven and Earth, Inanna.  She was the quintessential Taurean fertility queen whose consort was Dumuzi, the Vegetable God.  Their mating rituals reflected a society based on agriculture in the fertile valley between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers that we now know as Iraq.  As all things existing in the natural world, she bore a cyclical nature of youth and innocence before emerging into full-blown sexuality as Queen, and then descending through the seven gates of hell into the land of her sister Ereshkigal who, in her grief and rage at the loss of her mate, took Inanna’s life.

Ereshkigal portrayed the other face of Inanna and Venus has both sides to her nature which now we can examine as she journeys through the opposite sign of Taurus, Scorpio.  Yes, Ereshkigal did ultimately give Inanna back her life, and the freedom to ascend back to the heavens symbolizing the cyclical nature of all life patterns.

Venus in Scorpio to classical astrologers was said to be in her ‘Fall’ in that she is placed in the opposite sign of her natural rulership, Taurus.  The symbolism implies for me, however, the paradox of all planets and signs.  Each contains a whole which includes opposites.  I simply don’t adhere to the idea that one is good and one is bad.  They are simply different.

Venus to me is about values.  What do you value?  What do you have an affinity for?  Therefore, Venus is about both love and hate.  A strong value attached to anything can move from one end of the spectrum to the other. For example, the ancient Sumerians saw Venus rising as a harbinger of war, while Venus setting symbolized love making and peace.

Scorpio, from my point of view, is about intensity and depth of feeling.  Again, this can run the gamut of all feelings from the most exquisite, refined and gentle to the most gross, depraved, and harsh.  Scorpio is also the sign of mastership over many of the earthly temptations on the road to enlightenment:  money, sex, and power.

With Venus now in Scorpio might we not ask ourselves, “What are my deepest values?”  This is certainly a time of both intensity and depth of feelings is it not?  The speed at which many situations are unfolding is rather dazzling since the first hit of Jupiter and Uranus in Aries.  The extra mix of strong Scorpio themes are further enhancing or exacerbating those full throttle blasts of change.  Extremism is likely as the great heaving masses move back and forth along the spectrum of feelings and desires.

Starting October 8th we’ll have 6 weeks or 42 days to dive deep into looking at the truth of what we value.    Like Inanna descending we need to strip away all the layers of superficiality and get to the bone truth of the matter during this time.  What values bring us to the core of who we are?  What will endure after we are gone from these flesh and bone bodies of ours?  Look deep because we are at a pivotal time.

I’ll leave you with an image of the great plain of Ur that I found searching the web. This is considered to be the seat of civilization from ancient times by Western scholars.  Now called Iraq it is a land ravished and plundered by strange brews of greed and violence.  Can places such as this return to their once glorious beauty and innocence?  That remains a perplexing question for us humans as we grapple with our paradoxes and insecurities.