Oct 7, 2023 | by Silvianne Delmars |
On October 10 Venus will be with the Moon in the morning sky at 1 Virgo 21, marking her arrival at the 6th Chakra gate in her descent journey. Here are the Sabian and Chandra symbols for this Virgo 2 degree.
Sabian Symbol
“A large white cross dominates the landscape.
Keynote: The wisdom and compassion which only the experience of suffering and isolation can bring.
The individual must have gone beyond the state of ego-subjectivity in order truly and objectively to ‘see’ and to discriminate. He must have learned detachment; and it is a lesson that no one can learn without the ‘crucifixion’ of the ego-centered emotional life. In the occult tradition, the eye that ‘sees’ must be washed by the blood of the heart. The experience of the Cross dominates the mystic Path that leads to Initiation, i.e. to the entrance into a greater realm of activity and participation with an exalted Company of perfected beings.
… the mind itself has to be left behind and perhaps even seemingly destroyed in order than compassion and understanding may rise from the depth of the innermost being: a LIBERATING ORDEAL.”
– Dane Rudhyar, from An Astrological Mandala: The Cycle of Transformations and Its 360 Symbolic Phases
Chandra Symbol
“A man hanging upside down from a tree.
His place in the world is assured. He is coming from right motivation. Nobody can influence him unduly. He will stand his ground, bring his truth, and stay out of the way so that spirit speaks through him. He is just there to be used as the given, as the one who does it this way…
Most particularly he is given the rare opportunity to demonstrate simplicity, how we all would operate if we were in touch and in tune with totality. This expression comes through brilliantly because the ego mind can’t grab hold of this frequency. It is quite pure and persistent in its way of being…
Yet inside this modest demeanor lies an interior presence and authority far beyond what can be shown. He is the selfless servant of the high gods, without personal hang-ups.”
– Ellias Lonsdale, from Star Sparks: 360 Windows into the Heart of the Zodiac
Releasing Habitual Ways of Seeing The World
These two different but obviously kindred images for this potent early Virgo degree reminded me of the story of the Norse god Odin, who willingly sacrificed his eye to gain cosmic wisdom, and then hung upside down from the World Tree for 9 days and nights to see into worlds beyond.
For years, this haunting archetypal image of Odin plucking out his own eye has exhorted me to release my habitual way of seeing the world, release the blocks and distortions of “3-D reality,” and my attempts to control reality, in order to gain access to a whole other way of perceiving. As if we must become partially blind to the world as we know it, to gain access to a more subtle world. A perfect fit with this Brow Chakra gate.
But Rudhyar’s moving phrase, “the eye that ‘sees’ must be washed by the blood of the heart” forged a bridge between the idea of the rational, “consensus reality” mind as a block to inner vision and a separate journey of self-awareness I have been exploring for many months now. I share some of the questions that have come up for me, in the hope they might offer insight, sparking your own individual journey of inner contemplation.
- What aspects of the essential truths of life as a spiritual being incarnated in a body at this intense time on the planet have I chosen not to ‘see’ because it was just too painful to bear?
- What distortions in my fundamental world view has this refusal to ‘see’ the truth caused? How has this affected the roots of my unfolding in this life?
- Is this story I have held even true? If I truly am a divine being, is there anything that can’t be born? Might I be willing now to change the story of what I can bear? What guides and helpers might be here to assist me in this process?
- What new gifts of aliveness, of compassion or wisdom might be available to me if I make the sacrifice (a ‘making sacred’) of facing the fear of pain, to willingly ‘see’ the visceral reality of this incarnate world?
Venus With Regulus
As we stand with Venus at the entrance to this Gate of Perception, she is accompanied by the royal star Regulus, the heart of the Lion constellation, at 29 Leo 50. The Sabian Symbol for Leo 30 is “An unsealed letter.” Dane Rudhyar gives as its keynote “The realization by the individual that all thoughts and all messages are inevitably to be shared with [everyone].” James Burgess offers the essence of this degree as “Awakening to sacredness.”
The Chandra symbol for Leo 30 is “A woman sprinkling rosewater in the four corners of a room.” Synchronistically, in his commentary, Ellias Lonsdale writes, “She is a carrier. From the very heart of Creation, she spreads wherever she goes a manna, an elixir, a prana of renewal. She is a disseminator of the best things going around. Her vibration is high and free, clear and all encompassing. She brings messages and meanings, realizations and experiences, paths and journeys. She opens doors that would otherwise remain shut tight. For she has the magical touch to fan the flames of a new world coming true…”
Leo Overstory Inanna, on her epic journey to uncover new realms of creativity sourced in radical self-love, stands poised at this next initiatory gate, asked to surrender deeply to Virgo’s renunciate call. Not an easy passage.
But Regulus has our back, shining with courage and sovereign power, to bring messages of hope as we surrender to the “liberating ordeal” that allows us to shed distorted perceptions. May the wisdom and compassion we gain allow us to stand, if only for a moment, on that higher ground from which we can know that there are no secrets, that knowledge is to be shared, that we are all one – for in that moment we will indeed have awakened to the sacredness of ourselves, of each other, of all that is.
Mars In The Underworld
It is worth noting that Mars, in his exploration and integration of the Gemini Overstory, just entered into the Underworld phase of his own archetypal journey. Having disappeared from the evening sky into the glare of the Sun on September 30th, he will now spend 100 days on the other side of the Sun from Earth, invisible to us. The Sabian Symbol for this degree is Libra 23 “Chanticleer’s Voice Heralds Sunrise.” A contrasting message of hope and promise of the renewal to come, as he plunges into the depths of letting go and surrendering attachments.
And just as Venus is accompanied by the royal star Regulus at this moment of her Journey, when she is bright and high in the morning sky, Mars is being escorted to the depths by Spica, the prominent light in the constellation of the Virgin Priestess, long associated with the Sacred Feminine.
Just one degree away as they entered the Underworld together, the Sabian Symbol for Spica’s Libra 24 degree is “A butterfly with a third wing on its left side.” Hinting at the possibility of original mutation, an unfolding of new faculties to serve spiritual development. A gleam of light offered to the Sacred Masculine by the Sacred Feminine as he courageously offers himself to the transformational ceremony of surrender.