Venus on the Frontier

2.6.12


When Venus crosses the threshold between Pisces and Aries, which she does on Wednesday (Feb 8), she enters the rough-and-tumble frontier of radical, though transformational, unrest.

In the earliest degrees of Aries, Venus will form a conjunction to Uranus on Thursday (Feb 9) and then a square to Pluto next week (Wed Feb 15)… setting off our latest reminder that the continuing friction between these two evolutionary planet-agents remains a defining astrological keystone of our times.

As I explained last month, whenever another planet transits into the Uranus-Pluto square's sphere of influence, we confront a sharper and more visible manifestation of this pressure to revolutionize our lives. While this Uranus-Pluto pressure persists as an ongoing theme, it becomes periodically intensified when quicker-moving planets (such as Venus) form additional aspects to this square, triggering its energy into more evident action.

Such is the situation over these coming couple weeks, with Venus in Aries allying herself, by conjunction, with the Uranus side of this tangle. Even without Uranus in the picture, Venus is no demure, accommodating maiden in Aries, a sign in which she's in her detriment (or discomfort). She is far more wild, brash, direct and self-serving than is typically considered favorable for her role as diplomat, conciliator and love-doctor. Yet, Venus in Aries will let others know—through deeds, perhaps, more than words—exactly what she desires to keep herself happy in relationship. What she may surrender in politeness or grace, she more than makes up for in instinct-driven moxie and general heat.

A conjunction with Uranus only heightens Venus-in-Aries's willingness to shirk convention, in order to fuel a liberating freshness in all her interpersonal antics. I use the term 'antics' to highlight her overall impatience for any relational dynamics that lack constant activity, motion and novel interest. Under such a Venus-Uranus effect, we instinctively understand our most fortunate forward steps may likely involve some shocking risk or chaotic discontinuity… to bust through a blanket of inertia, to ignite a much-needed conversation, to chase a more compelling bliss, and/or to free ourselves from constraints on our independence.

This could bring about a sudden relationship breakup or breakthrough, an unexpected union, and/or a fairly fast decision to leave behind (temporarily or forever) some 'togetherness' mindset on behalf of a more self-focused streak. The mix of (1) a Uranus conjunction and (2) the Aries flavor is exceptionally unpredictable, quick and action-oriented.

Yet, Pluto's presence as a squaring factor to both Venus and Uranus insinuates itself through the pushback. Thanks to the Pluto square, our daring embrace of something new, risky or individualistic will more than likely deliver some confrontation with consequences which remind us that this moving-forward won't be as simple as we'd hoped. Those people or circumstances that have long benefitted from our same-old behaviors won't take kindly to an instantaneous changing of the rules. They might cling to our ankles as we attempt to walk ahead, pulling us back into reiterations of the familiar rhythms. They might surgically aim their defensive tactics at our weakest spots, hitting us where it most hurts, as they try to stun us back into retreat.

Or we may realize our own agency in a complex ambivalence about leaping onward versus staying put. Though we may yearn for the freedom of life on the frontier, we simultaneously struggle to let go of the ego-comforts that necessarily accompany the passive choice to continuing doing what we've been doing.

Due to this conflict between Uranus and Pluto, which Venus finds herself sucked into during these couple weeks ahead, we both crave an injection of energizing release and cannot avoid navigating the psychologically demanding fallout of seeking such release, if we hope to proceed cleanly. (And if we don't do the work to 'proceed cleanly'? That which we're dashing away from will follow us to the next destination, in one form or another.)

For those who observe Valentine's Day, this Venus-Uranus-Pluto brouhaha issues a pretty powerful effect over the love-and-romance holiday, as our relationships are under considerable pressure from this astrology. Obviously, this could bring some nasty interpersonal tensions to the surface… or even a surprise parting-of-ways, if one party or another can no longer tolerate staying silent on the unspoken 'problem'. On the other hand, for those willing to pause and get their hands a bit dirty on their journey to uncharted territory, this overt confrontation with what's previously been simmering underneath could stir all parties to reengage in fuller fashion, no longer pretending the extenuating circumstances don't exist.

Bringing the unresolved cross-currents, the compulsive fears or scary confessions to the table and staring them down possesses a cathartic potency all its own. Those who must continue moving apart from one another will do so with total unadorned awareness of whatever complex sits at the core of the incompatibility—and though perhaps painful to look at, its uncovering should at least bring some relief through realization. However, once the devil's details are exposed to the light, some previously-at-odds folks will feel reconnected, the release having cathartically cleansed the relationship. The reinvigorating reintroduction of passion is its own most reassuring sign of new life.

Just to clarify, all I've written about this impact on our interpersonal relations is not limited merely to romantic contexts. Wherever we're feeling driven to lurch for freedom from any relational situation with underlying complications—in the family, among friends, on the job—the same descriptions apply. There's great opportunity to advance to a new frontier together or separately, but not without acknowledging the inescapable roots of the complicatedness.

On the collective level, Venus's foxtrot with Uranus and Pluto promises one more batch of headlines in the ever-unfolding story of society at a climactic intensification of transition. It takes neither scholar nor prophet to notice the developments in this revolutionary peak of history. It has now been three years since the first widespread appearance of the Tea Party movement in the U.S. during a lengthy Venus transit (and retrograde) in Aries… and by the time I reflected back on it a year later, in 2010, it had already become clear to me how this Aries archetype would indeed be playing out through populist outrage. Then, last year at this time, the 'Arab Spring' protests broke out right as Jupiter traveled through Aries, setting off the square to Pluto from the same spot Venus now finds herself approaching. And the Occupy Wall Street movement first asserted itself in September, when Venus was exactly opposed to her current location, in early Libra, setting off the Uranus-Pluto square just as she's about to do again.

It wouldn't surprise me, therefore, to witness another piece of decisive news, of this same archetypal family of people-power confrontations with despotic governing structures, hitting our consciousness over these next two weeks or so. This big generation-defining story is, after all, still in its nascent stages.