Mercury and Venus are weaving a strange and unusual pattern, their movements unusually synchronized.Venus stationed retrograde in Scorpio on October 5th. Mercury transited into Scorpio 4 days later on October 9th. Six day later, they met in conjunction at 8 and 3/4 degrees of Scorpio on October 15th. The Sabian symbol for this degree is “A Dentist at Work.” As Mercury deals with our thoughts and concepts, and Venus deals with our feelings, and Scorpio is all about our sexuality, this sets the stage for what’s being worked on here, drilling down into our thoughts, feelings and attitudes about our sexuality.
Then Venus disappeared from the evening sky, with her last appearance as the Evening Star occurring on October 22nd. She descended into the Unconscious where she remained for 10 days, emerging as the Morning Star on November 1st. However, just before this, on October 30-31, both planets left Scorpio, Mercury progressing into Sagittarius first, with Venus backing into Libra about 15 hours later.
It was in this context that Venus rose as the Morning Star. Thought and feeling now separated, with Venus in her own sign of Justice. Venus as the Morning Star was portrayed by the Babylonians as the war-like aspect of Ishtar, and is related to the old sailors’ proverb, “Red sky at night, sailors’ delight; Red sky at morning, sailors take warning.”
This sets the context for the upcoming completion of what these two planets are weaving. On Friday, November 16, both planets reverse direction on the same day. Venus starts direct first between midnight and sunrise. She stations at 25 and 1/4 degrees of Libra. The Sabian symbol for this degree is “An Eagle And A Large White Dove Change Into Each Other.” The Eagle is a symbol of the sign of Scorpio, as well as of the United States. The white dove is a symbol of Peace and of the Holy Spirit. Thus Venus seems to be anticipating an unexpected alchemical transformation, a reversal of roles of some sort.
The nature of this change is indicated by the motion of Mars, the planet of War, which moves into Pisces, the sign most associated with Christianity, the previous afternoon. Mars in Pisces is mild-tempered and gentle, though this placement can also lead people to fight for compassion and love. We can expect masculine energy to become more tempered, anger to give way to understanding.
Mercury stations retrograde in the afternoon/evening of November 16 at 13 and 1/2 degrees of Sagittarius. The Sabian symbol for this degree is “The Great Pyramid And The Sphinx.” Mercury retrograde digs into the past, re-evaluating the meaning of the events of the previous 3 or 4 weeks, in this case the period starting October 18th. I suspect we will hear more information about the second Sphinx which was discovered in Egypt in August, but in any case there may be news from the ancient world which causes us to reevaluate deeply held beliefs which may turn out to be erroneous.
There is more to this story. Mercury backs into Scorpio on December 1 and Venus returns to Scorpio on December 2. They will both be in Scorpio until Mercury moves into Sagittarius on December 12. This first part of December will write the conclusion to the story that Venus and Mercury are weaving…