Venus in Scorpio & the Power of Womxn’s Anger :: Cosmic Weather Forecast for October 1st – 7th

Good evening! I’ve been busy behind the scenes of Lilith Rebellion, working on upgrading the structural foundations of my website.

I recently realized that I launched Lilith Rebellion (unintentionally) at the time of the inferior conjunction of Venus and the Sun, during Venus’ last retrograde period in the spring of 2017. The inferior conjunction is considered to be the birth place of each 584-day Venus Synodic cycle.

Lilith Rebellion began as a personal blog; an outlet for my love of astrology and the angst of my Saturn Return. However, it has gradually become… something else. I’m not entirely sure where it is headed, but as our current Venus cycle begins to wrap up, it has become clear to me that my online platforms and branding needed an upgrade.

We are just about to birth another Venus Synodic Cycle – beginning on October 26th when Venus passes through a conjunction with the Sun during Venus’ retrograde, which starts this FRIDAY. How exciting! Truly, I think it is, even though I don’t expect this Scorpionic Venusian deep dive to be easy.

Aside from Venus stationing retrograde on FRIDAY, we have Mercury squaring Pluto today along with the third quarter moon in Cancer (TUESDAY), Jupiter clearing its post-retrograde shadow in Scorpio on SATURDAY, and the Sun conjunct Ceres in Libra on SUNDAY.

TUESDAY’s Mercury square to Pluto punctuates Pluto’s direct station this past weekend. Our perception of reality, our thought processes, and our conversations with others, may be intense, triggering, defensive, suspicious, paranoid, investigative, wrestling with heavy topics, or dwelling obsessively on a particular fear or concern. We may also be braving fears and inhibitions to bring something hidden into the light, or we could be accessing deeper strengths and energetic resources to apply our selves to a busy Mercurial task. Whatever it may be, words received, exchanged, or processed, have an extra layer of gravity and meaning today.

The third quarter moon in Cancer squaring the Sun in Libra, taps into our emotional need for safety as it prompts us to prioritize relationships that support us, as well as acts of self-care that renew us, as we head into the dark moon time.

Aside from today’s aspects, Venus stationing retrograde really steals the show this week. And yet, you’ve probably already begun to receive clues as to the retrograde’s key themes throughout the preceding month of September as Venus traversed her pre-retrograde territory.

I live in Canada and I tend to be at arm’s distance from US news, especially since closing a few of my personal social media accounts a while ago. When I wrote my Monday forecast last week, highlighting anger and frustration (for the Aries Full Moon square to Saturn), I wasn’t really aware of the Kavanaugh hearing and I wasn’t anticipating the surge of womxn’s frustration and anger which rushed to the surface, as captured in many news headlines. Womxn’s anger was certainly palpable last week, and understandably so.

And yet this public conversation or focus on womxn’s anger began earlier in the month, on September 8th, when tennis star Serena Williams visibly and verbally expressed her frustration on court in response to a dispute with the chair umpire over whether or not she had been receiving coaching from the sidelines.

Williams was then further ‘punished’ for her expression of anger and calling the umpire out for sexism, with additional penalties that lost her the game. Many were quick to point out the gendered double standard and that a male tennis player would not have been penalized in the same way.

Tennis champion Billie Jean King tweeted the following in support of Serena Williams:

“When a woman is emotional, she’s “hysterical” and she’s penalized for it. When a man does the same, he’s “outspoken” & and there are no repercussions. Thank you, @serenawilliams, for calling out this double standard. More voices are needed to do the same.”

The day of Williams’ game on September 8th, Venus (feminine, yin, harmony, peace) was squaring Mars (masculine, yang, anger, confrontation) at the 29th crisis degree of Libra and Capricorn, respectively. Venus was exactly conjunct Williams’ natal Mercury (communication) as it perfected its square to Mars!

This Venus-Mars dynamic is one that will repeat several more times in the coming months. It is one of the major aspects of this Venus retrograde.

Serena Williams is strongly venusian with a 7th house Venus as both her chart ruler (i.e., the ruler of her Taurus ascendant) and the dispositor of her many Libra planets including her Sun (Venus rules both Taurus and Libra).

Mars energy is also really strong in her chart, with her natal Mars tightly squaring her natal Venus (the same aspect that was occurring globally on the day of the match) and Venus placed in Scorpio – a Mars-ruled sign (the same sign where the retrograde will begin). It’s common to see a strong Mars signature among athletes and competitors.

Williams boldly confronted the umpire (Mars), but she also comforted and supported her opponent Naomi Osaka (Venus) as the crowd booed Osaka in protest of Williams losing due to the penalties. In true Libra form, Williams told the crowd: “Let’s give everyone the credit where credit’s due and let’s not boo anymore,” as she hugged Osaka.

This Venus retrograde will likely be a very important one for Serena Williams. I think this is quite evident already.

Three days ago Williams said she stepped out of her comfort zone to sing “I Touch Myself” topless, with her hands covering her breasts for Breast Cancer Awareness Month (this is very Venus in Scorpio on multiple levels).

Furthermore, it was also recently announced that Williams has designed another handbag (Venus) to support a fundraiser for Purple Purse (a non-profit that helps survivors through financial empowerment), in honour of October also being domestic violence awareness month (Scorpio – awareness of humanities’ shadow side).

She says, “I will continue to talk about uncomfortable topics [Scorpio] in order to make change.”

Venus is still in her anticipatory shadow and hasn’t even stationed retrograde yet! I wonder what else this season holds for Serena Williams.

 

A few days after the match between Williams and Osaka, I read an article titled: “Of course Serena Williams was angry’: writer Soraya Chemaly on why women should unleash their rage”. It turns out that Soraya Chemaly had just published a book called Rage Becomes Her: The Power of Women’s Anger, only three days following Williams’ public expression of anger (within Venus’ pre-retrograde shadow period).

And then I realized that there were two other books about womxn’s anger that would soon be released on October 2nd and November 13th. Because of their similar topic and publication timing, many book review articles even feature two or three of them together. I think it is somewhat rare to have three books about womxn’s anger being published within about two months of each other?? And all within range of Venus’ pre-rx shadow and retrograde?

The second book is being released today beneath the Mercury-Pluto square – Good and Mad, the Revolutionary Power of Women’s Anger, by Rebecca Traister. The third book, Fed Up: Emotional Labour, Women and the Way Forward, will come out on November 13th.

I suspect that womxn’s anger and the related dynamics of the repeated Venus-Mars aspects, will continue to be a major theme of Venus’ retrograde in the Mars-ruled sign of Scorpio. These books would probably make for good Venus Rx reading material 🙂

When Jupiter entered Scorpio on October 10th, 2017, Harvey Weinstein’s history of assaulting women had just publicly surfaced. The widespread use of the #MeToo hashtag quickly followed on October 15th, accompanying a deluge of (mostly) womxn sharing their stories of sexual assault and harassment – which then became the truth-telling “#MeToo movement“.

Now Venus has joined Jupiter in Scorpio, preparing to station retrograde just as Jupiter clears its retrograde shadow. Venus’ retrograde period will encompass Jupiter’s departure from Scorpio into Sagittarius on November 8th, 2018. The Jupiter in Scorpio correlations may be getting re-activated by Venus’ transit through Scorpio as a similar hashtag leapt into widespread use on September 21st in response to the Kavanaugh hearing and Trump’s tweet challenging the truth of Dr. Ford’s testimony – #WhyIDidn’tReport.

As a woman with my own #MeToo and #WhyIDidn’tReport stories, I’ve had my own journey with owning my anger (a journey I’m still on). I think giving yourself permission to experience anger and allowing it to move through you, is really vital for healing and well-being (especially for those who are prone to repressing it).

Venus in Scorpio reminds me of Lilith who was kicked out of the Garden of Eden after refusing to be subordinate to Adam. Lilith is present when our freedom-seeking instincts come back to life and rage against oppression. Lilith’s Rebellion is about throwing off chains, regardless of how “not nice”, “unlikeable” and “disruptive” it may be.

And yet I’ve also had moments where I’ve been triggered and verbally lashed out in anger, really hurting those who didn’t deserve to experience my rage. I’m sure most people can think of times when anger was expressed with destructive outcomes.

Anger, as a form of Mars energy, is a complex emotion with many dimensions of causation and expression. It may be worth reflecting on these different dimensions of anger as Venus undertakes her journey, pivoting while holding strong the tension with Mars.

Use anger as a catalyst for change. Venus in Scorpio loves alchemy. Metabolize your beautiful fierce anger through grounded action (+ healing, laughter & self-care).

 

 

The weekend closes with a conjunction between the Sun and nurturing Ceres in the relational sign of Libra – take care of each other and honour your death & rebirth cycles together ❤

 

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