The Divine Marriage

Every two years Venus and Mars come together to complete one cycle of relationship and begin another. On Tuesday July 13th they met up at 21+ Leo. The last time they came together in Leo was at the end of August 2015. Leo is the sign associated with the heart, spiritually as well as physically. In Leo we find the courage to express our passion, our creativity and our love.

Venus traditionally represents the feminine energy, while Mars is the masculine. But what does that mean? We throw those words around and associate them with gender, but in essence these two planets represent the original duality into which Divine Oneness split in order to become manifest. The feminine energy embodies the function of Being. The Masculine is the Doing.

The Feminine is receptive, intuitive, inclusive, cooperative, sensual and emotional. The Masculine is dynamic, rational, competitive, aggressive. The Feminine is the context of our values, our feelings, sensations, instincts, desires and relationships within which the Masculine operates. When they work well together, the masculine principle functions to carry out the wishes, desires and dreams of the feminine.

Venus is the principle of divine inspiration – our impulse to love, to rejoice, to create, to enjoy the sensuality of our bodies and the beauty of nature, and to share life’s bounty with others. Without the joys of the Feminine, without the pleasures of being, our lives become work, drudgery, routine, filled with anxiety to perform and compete in the rat-race of economics. One of the greatest gifts of our pandemic was to open up space and give us time to experience pure being.   

We have been way out of balance ever since the patriarchy was born along with its masculine deity enthroned on a seat of judgment. This phase of our evolution was necessary, but it has turned destructive and will lead to our extinction if we don’t bring it back into balance. That’s what this conjunction is about – renewing our vows to the Divine Marriage of opposites. The next two years will determine the future of this planet and the human race. This is an opportunity to come back into harmony with nature, to integrate the feminine qualities, ground them in our bodies and our lives and express them in our relationships.

So let’s look a little deeper at the messages of this conjunction. First of all, Venus is gaining in brightness as she rises in the evening sky. Mars is dimming as he prepares for his next meeting with the Sun. When we look at this conjunction – and it is still within a degree or two – we only see Venus. Her light outshines that of Mars. Mars has been subsumed into the Light of Venus. I think that metaphor speaks for itself.

What is also significant is the phase of each planet’s synodic cycle – their relationship to the Sun. Venus is past the midpoint of her cycle which began with her retrograde conjunction when the Sun was at 13 degrees of Gemini on June 3, 2020. She became a morning star – renewed, energized and ready for a new cycle of evolution. She rose in the morning sky, then slowed down and let the Sun catch up at her superior conjunction, marking the midpoint of her cycle on March 25th.

Now she is rising in the evening sky and during this phase, called Remembering and Embodiment, she is helping us to remember who we really are and to embody our divine essence. She has made a passage for thirteen months, gathering experience, wisdom, inspiration and love which she now disseminates to all the world. Evening Star Venus is the mature expression of love called Agape – the steady intention to embody and express divine love for the highest good for all. It is unconditional, compassionate, universal. She is a beacon of Divine Love bathing our planet until the end of October. Go out after sunset, and look to the darkening western sky. Venus sparkles like a diamond. Make an intention to receive and integrate her energy throughout the summer evenings.

Mars on the other hand is in his Elder phase. Adam Gainsburg, an astrologer who charts the cycles of Venus and Mars, says that Mars is near the tail end of his cycle. He has reached the point at which he must learn to accept and surrender, as well as develop the capacity to absorb deeper wisdom. It’s a period of transformation in which Mars releases control and the need to be right in order to receive the rewards of his cycle – wisdom that catalyzes growth.

So we have a rising Venus in growing brightness and a waning Mars so dim he cannot be seen in the blazing glory of Venus. And the lessons are clear. We can learn them within ourselves by examining the relationship between our being and doing states. Are we so busy that our inner feminine is restless, discontent, starved for expression? This is the danger of an overemphasis on the masculine dynamic and leads to manic behavior. Or are we so laid back that we can’t motivate ourselves off the couch? If so, we have been lured too far into the feminine mode. We need to restore balance and a healthy, respectful, supportive relationship within our psyches.

Summer is a great time to slow down and enjoy the outdoors. Earlier this week we took our daughter and grandson for an afternoon in Stout Grove in Jedediah Smith State Park. We walked among the giants who have stood for centuries, observing the play of light on foliage, feeling the stillness and reveling in the sense of the sacred. There was a hush in this “forest primeval” that nurtured our souls.

For the next two years Venus is urging us to reflect upon our values and make more space in our lives to slow down and enjoy the pleasures of being. She asks us to focus on our relationships because, ultimately, that is the essence of our spirituality – our interdependent relationship with All That Is. And that is the field of greatest spiritual evolution right now.

Sun in Cancer

Mars and Venus are center stage, but there is a significant supporting cast. The Sun has been transiting Cancer, the sign of our natiion’s Sun. Cancer is about home, our childhood, our need to be nurtured, and to give nurturance. It’s also about our insecurities, our need to belong, our childhood wounds that damaged our sense of identity, our home life where we were indoctrinated into the beliefs and attitudes of our parents and siblings. This is a fertile field of growth. Remembering who we really are – our very essential selves – involves releasing all the things we are not. We are not helpless, dependent victims of life, we are not handicapped humans, we are not insignificant or worthless. We are Angels exploring what it means to be human and finding a way to embody our god/dess essence in this material world.

Juno and the South Node

Transiting Juno, asteroid goddess of commitment in partnerships, is retrograde, conjunct the transiting South Node of the Moon just above the Ascendant and therefore in the tail end of the 12th house. The South Node offers up unfinished business from the past. The 12th House is about letting go, surrendering to the evolutionary flow. Juno is seeking to heal and repair relationships and renew her commitments for another cycle around the USA chart which begins auspiciously on September 11th this year.

It’s a good time to look at our primary relationships. Let’s start with #1. Are we loving to ourselves? Nurturing? Accepting? Supportive? Do we take care of our inner child with her fears and needs? Do we have a balanced relationship between our masculine and feminine energies? What is the state of our inner marriage?

And what about our spouses, our partnerships, our closest friends, our children? Are we honoring them? Are we committed to giving the best of ourselves to them? Are we respectful, accepting, compassionate, loyal?

Chiron Turns Retrograde

No healing scenario would be complete without the wisdom of Chiron who makes his station as I write on July 14th. Chiron is in the USA 4th House – our very homeland. There is much to be healed as Chiron closes in on its natal position. The health of our Union depends upon our inner work, the relationship between our dual natures, our commitment to awakening and evolving. Chiron, with the help of Pluto, has brought our national wounds to the forefront and we are locked in a battle for our Democracy. It’s a complex situation, but we have to remember to look beyond the problem. I won’t repeat my story about looking at the fence, but the conclusion of it is that if we keep focusing on the problem that’s where we will land. If we look beyond to where we want to land, commit to a brighter future and begin to live as if we were already there, our intent will carry over the obstacle. We have to hold a bigger vision and trust others to work out the details.

When a planet turns retrograde, or direct, it stands still momentarily – at least from our perspective. Its energy is most intense. We can harness this healing energy, connect with our inner Chiron and seek his wisdom. He knows what needs to be resolved and will bring it to our attention. Maybe all that is necessary is to forgive ourselves and move on. Our inner peace is the context of the future we seek.

Next week is the Full Moon in Aquarius. As we watch the waxing Moon, along with waxing Venus, we can open our hearts and minds to remember who we really are and tend to the divine marriage within.