Astronews for August 16-23
August 16th-23rd, 2018
by Arianna Nadine
This week has a lot of awesome feminine energy flowing through. First, on Saturday, Mercury goes direct in Leo, and makes a sextile to Venus who’s sitting comfortably in Libra. Trines are formed when planets are aspected 120º to one another, and it’s considered a favorable planetary arrangement. If you’ve felt like a lot of clearing out has been done over the past month or so, or if you’ve felt super defeated, or slowed down in anyway, those things should be lifted over the weekend, and we’ll all move forward again. When it comes to self-centeredness, Leo is the master. And don’t take that for the negative connotations that society has placed on that word. For to be self-centered is to be centered in oneself. Mercury in Leo brings us to our center, and only allows in what serves us; when it makes this trine to Venus in Libra, any doubt we had about the value of this will be removed, and we will begin to attract relationships, partnerships, and teams of all kinds that see us and want to be with us for exactly who we are and value the equality and balance we will bring the partnership. Any friendships or relationships that have dissolved during these retrograde-eclipse periods will be replaced with partnerships that are way freaking better. Negotiating for a lower price on that vintage teapot will probably also go really well, too.
On the 19th, Jupiter in Scorpio is trine Neptune in Pisces. The outer planets have slower and more subtle effects on us than the inner, personal planets, so this aspect will be felt on a more subconscious level. Pay attention to your dreams, and even your day dreams. Idealism and expansion of your fantasy worlds may go buck-wild during this time. Remember to keep grounded and centered, so you can harness those idealistic visions and make them a reality.
On the 22nd, the Sun enters into Virgo, heralding Virgo season, and themes of harvest, motherhood, protection, and service come into the spotlight. Before the Indo-Aryan Europeans invaded the southern lands, the Goddess ruled, and masculine energy was Her consort, or non-existent. To the Greeks, Virgo is associated with the goddess Astraea, who was a companion or epithets of the goddess Dike. Both were associated with Justice, and eventually left Earth as humans began to decline into greed, fear, and immorality. Astraea is the daughter of Dusk and Dawn, and she ruled the stars. She is also associated with two or three other female deities of justice and law: Dike, Themis, and sometimes Prudencia. Here we can see another type of Triple Goddess—this group ruling law and order, morals and justice, and wise decision-making. How many people today—or in the last few hundred years for that matter—associate logical thinking, morality, and sound council with women? Not too fucking many. While we move into the Age of Aquarius, this mode of thinking is being released, we can look to these goddesses to remind us that feminine energy need not be associated with only submission, weakness, nurturing, and motherhood.
Because Virgo falls during the harvest season, many cultures associated her with wheat, which is why she is also often associated with Demeter, a major mother goddess, as well as a goddess of grain. Demeter is associated with many, many other goddesses and Great Goddesses throughout time and place. She was one of the poppy goddesses, which is used to make opium. Before she was reduced in Greek mythology, Demeter and her daughter Persephone were worshiped prior to the Olympic pantheon. They ruled civilization (the ability to farm allowed humans to settle, organize, and plan—core tenants of Virgos!), as well as sacred order and law, and time and death—realms now associated with Saturn/Chronos.
Goddesses like Hecate, Inanna, Astarte, Kali-ma, Isis, Demeter, and Persephone are associated with life-death-rebirth cycles. This is pertinent, for in a legend of Astraea, Virgil writes “lam redit et virgo, redeunt Saturnia Regna" (Astraea returns, returns old Saturn's reign). There were frequent prophesies about Astraea’s return. Astraea-Inanna-Demeter-Persephone-Isis-Kali-Hecate are all names for the Great Alchemical Goddess of Motherhood, Life/Death/Rebirth, Time, Harvest, Righteous Anger, the Heavens, the Earth, Childbirth, Night, the Moon, Wilderness, Domestic Pursuits, Civilization, Chaos, Sex, Love, Purity, and Virginity. All of these embody Divine Feminine energy. Where Virgil saw “Old Saturn” returning to rule, we can see the return of the Righteous Anger of the Mother. The setting of boundaries, and the resetting of civilization and order in favor of the feminine archetypes. Of Justice. Of the balance of the Holy Virgin and the Sacred Whore. The return of Saturn is no more than the return of Demeter, of Astraea, of the Divine Feminine—and with that, we can begin to heal, and bring back into balance the energy of the Sacred Masculine.
*By the way, if you’re wondering if this has any astrological alignment, the theory is that this started in about 2011, when the “king star” Regulus moved out of masculine Leo into feminine Virgo.