Frank Cadogan Cowper “La Belle Dame Sans Merci”

All aboard the wheel of fortune! Venus has embarked for Sagittarius. Casting aside her underworld chains, she is now a rolling stone, a runaway bride—though whether she is running away with, or away from, her lover depends on the way the wind blows the mutable flame of her soul. She pierces hearts with her arrow, but again, whether she enamors them, entertains them, hurts them or heals them is also a matter of Jupiterian chance and fate.

Her journey takes us first into the Old World. As she crosses the south node of the Moon, and opposes the Black Moon Lilith in Gemini, our philosophy of the Feminine is up for review. We may find ourselves eulogizing, or evangelizing, the stories upon stories of women’s bodies, sacrificed on the altar of dogma, doctrine, and zealotry; and confronting the misogyny that must be exorcised from every one of us, regardless of gender.

And as for our personal altars, whether or not we refer to them as such, they too are calling for our attention. What objects, artwork, photos, mementos, and souvenirs—collected from our travels, or possessing some symbolism or unusual beauty to us—are we giving pride of place? What can be both loved and let go, to make room for the new? How might we draw creative inspiration from the past? A Sagittarian Venus craves something of the foreign, the exotic, the wise, or the mind-altering, to expand our worldview, and to imbue our relationships with meaning. How are you honoring the explorer in yourself? What has your devotion lately? And what is calling to your wild heart?