this morning we have the venus/mars conjunction. the Union of the Divine Lovers occurs in the sign of the virgin, the servant and the Embodied Goddess (virgo)
venus is the Divine Feminine, mars is the Divine Masculine. their Union is one of eros and logos, body and mind, Soul and Spirit, passive and active.
in the last 2 days as we have been moving to this conjunction i have pulled the lovers card. my favorite tarot book is by rachel pollack- and it is called seventy-eight degrees of wisdom. rachel says that a deeper layer of meaning for this card is Union with the Divine. our purpose as spiritual beings having a human experience is “to fully bring out the Divine Spark in us and unite it with our conscious selves. to end the duality of God and human (sacred and profane) and make them One.”
what is interesting is that in the rider waite lovers card the man looks at the woman but the woman looks at the angel above. he looks to her but she looks to the Divine itself. in the judgement card you see a similar motif. the angel’s radiant rays fall on her and she is larger and in side profile- while the man faces her. this is not about men and women- this is about masculine and feminine energy. we all start out with X chromosomes as fetuses in the womb- and then some develop a Y chromosome to become a boy. it all starts with the feminine- she is the womb of creation. we each have feminine within us- this is not about gender and this is not about power over or power under. what this is about is a reminder that She goes before- and She must be honored for balance to be restored on earth (marya- mary magdalene’s aramic first name literally means ‘she who comes before’ which has hidden occult meaning written into it)
yes venus conjunct mars can be about relationship, romance and outer Unions with others. but a deeper layer of this conjunction is about the Inner Union we are journeying towards. the Union of heaven and earth, within and without, the Universe and the Soul- can be seen in the ancient rite of hierosgamos (Sacred Marriage)
jung talked about the anima and the animus- the inner feminine in a man (or masculine essenced being) and the inner masculine in a woman (or a feminine essenced being). in my astrology & your shadow class we did deep work around how these show up in the chart- and venus and mars were planets we looked at for this archetype.
we tend to identify with one polarity and project/disown the other. romance literally is an archetypal projection. we see in the other what we cannot see in ourselves. they become the projection for our inner Other and for the Divine!
but esoterically the deep work is to find this Union within. and relationships can help us do this work- but they are the finger pointing at the moon. we often mistake them for the moon itself.
the Hierosgamos is a journey of Union of…
body and mind
soul and spirit
eros and logos
passion and reason
intuition and intellect
feeling and thinking
feminine and masculine
flow and stillness
Unconscious and conscious
earth and heaven
underworld and upperworld
serpent and eagle
dark and light
below and above
passive and active
fire and water
hidden and visible
inner and outer
embodiment and enlightenment
understanding and action
the chalice and the blade
terrestrial and celestial
descension and ascension
immanence and transcendence
and the list goes on….
on this day of Sacred Union of venus and mars- who both quincunx chiron the Wounded Healer tomorrow and early next week they both trine uranus the Great Awakener- may we use the energy of the astrology right now to illuminate what blocks us from Union with the Divine. where are our wounds running us. where do we default to old patterns and paradigms that no longer serve. where is it time to feel so we can heal and to breakdown so we can breakthrough to another paradigm?
with both venus and mars in virgo- where are we being asked to commit to deeper work on ourselves? to do the work of discernment, self-adjustment, seeing what needs to be healed and doing so with the humility of the servant?
both venus and mars will form trines to all the earth planets- uranus, saturn, pluto and the karmic south node. they will help us see more clearly where our work lies. it is up to us to commit to that work and take the necessary action to take the work deeper and further.
we all have the Divine within us. some of us know this intellectually. even fewer of us have found the path to fully embody it. this is the work!
use the astrology today to gestate and conceive something meaningful in your life. be it a romantic relationship, a baby, a creative project, a new aspect of yourself you are birthing and more. new beginnings are ripe with potential right now! use the astrology wisely!
~dh
amazing image of the Sacred Marriage by artist unknown <3
a great tarot spread to do today:
shuffle and choose 3 cards- one for your inner feminine, one for your inner masculine and one for Divine Union
from the gospel of thomas:
Jesus said to them, “When you make the two into one, and when you make the inner like the outer and the outer like the inner, and the upper like the lower, and when you make male and female into a single one, so that the male will not be male nor the female be female, when you make eyes in place of an eye, a hand in place of a hand, a foot in place of a foot, an image in place of an image, then you will enter [the kingdom].”
STAR SPARKS
meditation on 5 virgo- where the venus/mars conjunction is
Virgo 5 A skull on a pole at the entrance to a dark wood
The crystallized image of death stands before us to mark our passage from one world into another. Ordinarily, this death mask gathers to itself our superstitions, our folk memories, our previous deaths, everything that limits and binds. When this happens, we hold ourselves tightly to the grind of proving somehow that we can and will carry onward while everything is stacked against us.
The sad part is that when we assume that the obstacles are mountains and the odds forbidding, we will most of the time stay in our heads, filling with worry and anxiety, and not set out at all. We psyche ourselves out. We become convinced that it is better to be cautious, to be forewarned, and to steer clear of terrible things awaiting us if we risk, if we go out on a limb.
There is, however, another kind of death sign and symbology. This starts with the vision of what death can be and must be within a shamanic or sacred initiatory path. And it can become as real and experiential as we are able to flesh out by following what we know and discovering the path beyond collective taboos and spooks.
If we ever grasp this side of death, we are given a skeleton key that will open into any and every door throughout the inner worlds. All we have to do is follow our impulse for the initiated and not let ourselves be talked out of it by the hordes inside the head or the hordes outside.
Our path in this degree is a double-edged sword between immense constriction and vast freedom. Most of us will live shuttling between the two deaths. When we constrict, the old death shows up, consuming our substance. When we let ourselves go beyond those rotting pictures, the freer death portal opens and we know we can become absolutely anybody.
By holding the tensions between these two deaths, we develop quite an edge. We can take that edge to freedom whenever we are ready.