When the Sun enters Sagittarius, we all rise. They lift us up, these centaur souls, and inspire us with their mutable fire, like candles, passing their flame from wick to wick, until the altars of our hearts are caught ablaze. They come bearing the gifts of indomitable optimism and the belief in something more than Here and Now; imbued with the spirit of Sol Invictus and Saint Nicholas, hailing from the Galactic Center, and born amidst the Festival of Lights.
As the Sun moves through the doorway of Sagittarius, it passes over the South Node of past lives and former selves, and gives an offering or a remembrance of some kind. Vesta (goddess and asteroid), wearing Saint Lucia’s robe and crown, and Mercury, joining in a few days’ time, play acolytes to our star, and carry the sacred flame to the areas of our lives that crave enlightening and enlivening.
Where Sagittarius falls in your chart is where you can find your pulpit, your parables and your axioms; where you search, seek and want to believe; where you carry the torch for someone or something; and where, this past year and a half, you have been losing your religion, and piecing it back together again.
And so, what is your reason for the season? With Jupiter at the helm, this time of year is as much about gluttony, consumerism and pomposity as it is about hope, faith and charity. Our conversations take a turn toward freedom and philosophy, toward justice and injustice, toward big questions, big ideas and the big picture. For now, save your solemnity and Scrooge-iness for Saturn’s season; all are welcome at Jove’s table, and God bless us every one.
November 19, 2021 // 27 Taurus
Through Taurus’s garden of earthy delights the Moon has been wandering for the past two days, grazing leisurely and fattening up. Closer and closer to its own node it comes, until, in the Friday early morning hours, it finds itself suddenly caught in the snare, suspended in the net under the winking, withering eye of the Medusa star, and in the crosshairs of the Scorpio Sun, while a hungry dragon tries to take a bite. Our lunation has taken a turn: we have entered the eclipse portal, and our garden has become a deep dark wood, where lives a cannibal witch in a house made of gingerbread and sweets, and the erstwhile-exalted Moon, our only light, is temporarily on the fritz.
With the Gemini north node leading us, like Hansel and Gretel, into the fairytale forest, we stumble toward our destiny, uncertain where we are going but staying together, and working together, at all costs. Venus in Capricorn judges from her lofty bench, ruling the transit and lending us backbone. The Feminine—whether exiled or empowered, celestial or chthonic—is omnipresent and on high alert. Under these auspices, some heads will roll, and others will prevail through steadiness and circumspection. Like our young heroes, let us keep our eyes open and our wits about us. Save your receipts, preserve your paper trail, and keep enough money in the bank, and pebbles in your pocket, to find your way back, should you find yourself waylaid.
We are not out of the woods until after the solar eclipse on December 4, giving us some time to observe the stories that come up for us in the Taurus-Scorpio axis of our lives, and giving us a preview of next year’s eclipse menu, when the lunar nodes move into that pair of signs. Likely we are looking at the ways in which painful experiences inform the type of comfort and security we seek; how betrayal of trust can warp our sense of safety; how poverty takes a toll on the psyche and on the ancestry; and how we may have once lost ourselves, and found ourselves again. And, we might also include internalized patriarchy, atrocity in the face of famine, rites of passage, loss of innocence, the Unmothered Mother, and the resiliency of children, if we take this fairy tale Full Moon eclipse as a taste of themes to come. Hand-in-hand, sisters and brothers, we will go through it all together.
Today, Venus leaves Sagittarius for the Old World of Capricorn. In the cardinal earth sign of the paterfamilias, the capitalist and the architect, she is resourceful. She has gravitas and grace. She is the apple of Saturn’s austere eye, with swag, stoicism, and plenty of backbone. She is living in a material world, and she is a material girl.
She gets almost through the sign, as far as Pluto, and then, right around the solstice, and just in time for Christmas, pulls the Devil card—the emblem of 2020. And caught between the Sun and a hard place, our evening star must undergo another underworld initiation. Her retrograde will carry us well into the new year, during which we will be confronting themes of wealth (or the lack thereof), power, tradition, and institutions, both personally and collectively. But more on that later.
In her highest expression, Venus in Capricorn thinks in monumental terms. She believes in benevolence: peace on earth and goodwill towards men. But she is also a pragmatist. She desires a lap of love, and luxury, and to build something that will stand the test of time. And there is a fortress around her heart that only a few have access to.
For the next six months, Venus will be traveling through the Saturn-ruled houses of our charts, inspiring us to either save or spend, to bind ourselves in some way, and to prove our worth and commitment in tangible ways. What is your relationship to reciprocity, to hierarchy, to legacy, to your elders, and to your community? And what are you ready to invest in?
