The solar eclipse of last week and the two additional eclipses yet to come, along with their attendant aspects, are generating significant alchemic heat for transformational movement. This week offers a brief lull in planetary activity but attention is still required to hold space for whatever happens. On July 22, Venus in Virgo forms a waning sextile to Jupiter in Scorpio, the closing phase of the cycle between the planet of relating and the planet of expansion in the signs that represent purification and total passionate integration with life. This phase focuses on the integration of new information gleaned during the cycle and also the elimination of old data that does not fit in the new paradigm. The activation of Jupiter in the sign that Pluto rules acts as a coda in the wake of the extremely rare and intense July 12 solar eclipse that was in exact opposition to Pluto and on Pluto’s nodes at 20°Cancer/Capricorn. The dark side of this eclipse can be seen by reviewing Pluto’s last conjunction to its nodal point in 1931, a period that coincided with the depth of the Great Depression and the rise of Hitler. Right now, the right wing is extremely angry, fearful and seizing power around the world. Archetypally, these types of external events act as a cosmic mirror to show us the urgency in needing to address the dark side of our nature.
As Venus aligns with Jupiter, the eclipse’s message amplifies the need to acknowledge our dark side but also points to how this can actually improve our relationships, including our most intimate sexual encounters. Scorpio rules sex and with Jupiter under the domain of the King of the Underworld, these issues are significantly magnified. The current Venus/Jupiter cycle began on November 13, 2017 with the conjunction at 7°Scorpio, the “new moon” phase that coincided with the “Weinstein Effect” that has dramatically transformed our awareness of and attitudes towards sexual misconduct in the work place. By the Venus/Jupiter opposition (the full moon phase) at 21°Taurus/Scorpio on April 16, 2018, the “MeToo” movement was fully ensconced and HR departments everywhere had rewritten their codes of conduct rules (ethics and laws fall under Jupiter’s domain). Being in denial about the dark side of sex in the workplace was no longer an option, yet Jupiter in Scorpio brought a great opportunity for those willing to be honest and forthcoming about it and in the process we are collectively becoming wiser about how to respond.
Dane Rudhyar’s book An Astrological Study of Psychological Complexesexplores the meaning of sex for modern man and how our attitudes about it have evolved from the instinctual reproductive compulsion to the fundamental being need to experience true love. Rudhyar writes that something dark happened along the way and sex became violent, tortured even and it is this dark side of sexual passion that is associated with the negative aspects of Scorpio. As insecure and lonely individuals, we release our dark insecurities into personalized sex as a form of escape. However, says Rudhyar, the more we experience the descent of spirit into the total personality, the more we will “be able to experience one of its basic powers in and through sex, consciously and creatively used. Scorpio could become the field for the creative expression of an integrated personality transfigured by the spirit, and no longer a whirlpool destroying whatever energy of an insecure, defeatist and tragic ego is caught by its vortex – as is so often the case in our day and age.” With this last major aspect between Venus and Jupiter before the next cycle begins in Sagittarius, we may get a report card on our efforts to reorient toward total relatedness and a balanced conscious attitude toward sex. “Only through such a reorientation can modern man’s basic emotional problems be solved, at least insofar as these are rooted in sex,” says Rudhyar.
According to Rudhyar, the goal of the creative release of the spirit-illumined personality in Scorpio can be understood by looking at the sign of Leo, which is ruled by the Sun. “What does Leo symbolize if not ‘solar’ man that is, an individual from whom the spirit radiates forth in conscious splendor! Leo is the child of spirit, and this spiritual progeny is a conscious progeny.” Less than 12 hours after the Venus/Jupiter waning sextile, the Sun comes home to Leo on July 22 to inspire us to be this conscious progeny of spirit. The gift of Leo is “Simplicity” according to Rudhyar, meaning it is when we reorient away from prideful arrogance and move towards simply radiating spirit, that we experience the fullness of what it means to express the creative powers of the cosmos. The Sun in Leo thus oriented represents the noble heart (the part of the body ruled by Leo), pulsing with creative self-expression. “Art is born” at this stage of zodiacal development as “a means of extending one’s personal selfhood inward and beyond the limitations of time,” says Rudhyar. “It is also a method for expanding one’s own consciousness; for teaching oneself. The artist at his best performs a kind of yoga while creating. He is not only intensely concentrated, but the symbols he paints or the energies he rouses through tones are often real messages from his deeper Identity.”
Here’s the data (Pacific Time, rounded to the nearest whole degree unless otherwise noted):
July 22 – Venus sextile Jupiter at 2:21 a.m.
July 22 – Sun at 0°Leo at 2:01 p.m.
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