Nov 5, 2023 | by Silvianne Delmars |
On November 9th, Venus will be with the Moon in the morning sky at 1 Libra 7, marking her arrival at the 3rd gate in her descent journey. This gate is associated with the 5th chakra. Here are the Sabian and Chandra symbols for this Libra 2 degree.
Mohamad Nohassi on Unsplash
Sabian Symbol
“The light of the sixth race transmuted to the seventh.”
Or, as rephrased by Dane Rudhyar:
“The transmutation of the fruits of past experiences into the seed-realizations of the forever creative spirit.” “Keynote: A repolarization of inner energies leading to a creative centralization of consciousness.
What seems … to be implied in the revealed image is a reference to the numerological and occult meaning of Number 6 and Number 7, especially geometrically expressed in the diagram in which seven circles, contiguous and of the same size, fill a larger circle whose diameter is three times that of the smaller one … Number 6 (also Solomon’s Seal) represents the synthesis of descending spirit and ascending matter. It represents the fruition of all past efforts; within the six-fold fruition the seed may be found, the seventh …
All that was manifested in the plant is gathered in the hidden seed, which in due time becomes the foundation of a new cycle of existence. The fruit decays. For a brief moment the released seed may be seen; this is the ‘seventh’ period that becomes the creative power fathering a new cycle. This symbol refers to the process of centralization in the Self (the creative Reality) after the experience of fulfillment in the perfect Form of manifestation.
… Formal perfection is now transcended through a process of CREATIVE CENTRALIZATION.”
from Dane Rudhyar, An Astrological Mandala: The Cycle of Transformations and Its 360 Symbolic Phases
Chandra Symbol
“An apprentice medicine man allowing himself to be bitten by a snake.
Entering deep within that which is unrestricted, uninhibited, unbounded in any way. Getting there by the underworld path – a drug, a magical potion, a sudden flash of enlightenment, a sensual high, a quest. A desert quest fuels the longing of the soul for its own death and regeneration …
As in no other frequency, there is free access ultimately here to the most sublime and far-flung of inspirations and infusions. The door swings open and invites those of courage and vision to go where all of us fear to tread. When the freest aspect is tapped, a collective transformation becomes also sparked. For in this place, the self and his world are entirely stunningly one and the same.
When this domain is sensed from the outside with any kind of apprehension or anxiety, it is terrifying. We do cast off everybody we seemed to be. But as it is taken up from the inside, what we are given in place of an external badge of identity is all worlds in one. We are free to move with the regenerative current all the way through, no holds barred.”
from Ellias Lonsdale, Star Sparks: 360 Windows into the Heart of the Zodiac
Opportunity for Deep Initiation
Both symbols speak of the opportunity for a deep initiation into a whole new level of being – if we have the courage to let go of the current foundation, the old familiar roles and habits, in favor of something not yet codified. Not so much an outer change, but rather a profound reorientation from the inside out.
With Venus inhabiting this Libra 2 degree at the 3rd Morning Star Gate of Communication, I sense an invitation to drop into an unfamiliar ‘voicing’ of some new aspect of true soul essence just beginning to be sensed on the edges of perception. First, I must accept the uncomfortable opportunity to acknowledge and grieve the ways in which I have not been true to my most authentic self in this life, the missed opportunities to bring to fruition that which only I could express.
And as I choose to make truer choices going forward, I remind myself that perhaps the new, more authentic expression longing to be birthed will not begin or end with words. When fundamentally new levels of essence are invoked by Great Mystery, other, more ancient soundings long to be pulled from the depths of body and soul: gesture, movement, symbol-making, keening, wild laughter, silent tears, primal forms of ceremony – whatever has the most power to walk my dreams into waking life, for the rebirth at hand is what I vow to support in this current moon/month of the Inanna journey to wholeness.
Mars Deepening His Underworld Journey
Leaving Venus for the moment, as she percolates in the alchemical alembic of this 3rd Gate of Communication, I would like to turn to Mars as he deepens into his Underworld journey, activated by the New Moon on the 13th. A few hours after the exact New Moon, Mars and the Moon will be conjunct at 22 Scorpio 16. The Sabian Symbol for this degree is:
Scorpio 23: A rabbit metamorphoses into a nature spirit.
“Keynote: The raising of animal drives to a higher level.
The rabbit is traditionally a symbol of an overabundance of progeny, thus of a great stress on pocreative and sexual processes. ‘Nature spirits,’ on the other hand, represnet the higher aspect of life energies, as they are said to guide those normally invisible forces controlling the growth of all living organisms, particularly in the vegetable kingdom. Thus the symbol refers to the transmutation of the generative power into a more ethereal and subtle form of potency…. The course can become more subtle through the process of TRANSUBSTANTIATION.”
– Dane Rudhyar, from An Astrological Mandala: The Cycle of Transformations and Its 360 Symbolic Phases
The Chandra Symbol for Scorpio 23 is also a powerful evocation of the need to go deep within to our most essential selves, allowing us to go beyond duality to meet the energy of pure creation.
Scorpio 23: A collection of dolls.
“Primal innocence. An exaggerated and almost hard-to-believe feeling tone of tapping the childlike wonder and dwelling inside the magical worlds. Very intensive protection and guarding. Being permitted to remain alive to the hidden places and even encouraged to stay true to what is felt as unworldly, otherworldy. Given inside of all this as an assignment. When fantasy and imagination, inward feeling and depth attunement prevail, we really are carrying something indispensable and most conspicuously missing in the contemporary world mix. We are asked then to embody this realm in a fashion that captures the imagination of others and holds it there…
We are seeking here a full-dimensional alternative to the rationalistic civilization. For this we need the power of the inner life when stripped of antique overlays. We must be wide open to the future and undiminished by the lessons of the past. This is creativity as a way of life.
The greatest struggle lies in cutting through the illusion of conflict and duality… No villains, no heroes, nothing to preserve or defend, no way to believe in the kind of ghosts we manufacture to spook ourselves out of here.
Once the inward caverns are swept clean of the biases for and against, we meet pure creation at last. All of existence creates through us an empowerment of what we all are made of. There is absolutely everything in it, and we ourselves at the deep center say yes.”
– Ellias Lonsdale, from Star Sparks: 360 Windows into the Heart of the Zodiac
A Voicing of Our Deepest Essence
Photo by Johannes Plenio on Unsplash
Let’s circle back to where we started, with Venus in Libra at the Gate of Communication, calling us to a whole other level of beingness, a voicing of our deepest essence in a new language. As we contemplate this alchemical conundrum and what it might portend, the Sun is illuminating the need to courageously obey our own conscience in the face of an authoritarian society run amok.
Meanwhile, Mars is in deep surrender, pointing the way to richer, juicier, more life-giving foundations as he dives deeply into the Scorpio mysteries, opening himself to a transforming infusion of the fecundating power of the inner Divine Feminine (echoing his journey with the star Spica, in the Priestess constellation, as he sank lower in the evening sky at the end of September, readying himself for his current underworld journey).
Like the rabbit that changes itself into a nature spirit, the Divine Masculine in all of us is learning to transmute, as Dane Rudhyar tells us, “the generative power into a more ethereal and subtle form of potency.” Not diluting the life force essence of Scorpio (never that!), but expanding it to reverberate through all the energy centers.
Heart Chakra Gate December 9th
On November 29, just before Venus enters Scorpio on December 4 and meets with the Moon at the Heart Chakra gate on December 9, she will be with both the South Node of the Moon and the prominent star Arcturus at Libra 25.
The Sabian Symbol for this degree is: The sight of an autumn leaf brings to a pilgrim the sudden revelation of the mystery of life and death. Keynote: “the ability to discover in every experience a transcendent or cosmic meaning.”
Unprecedented change, often in the form of violent upheaval here in the Middle World, is upon us for the foreseeable future. With the South Node, representing humanity’s past, joining Venus at this evocative degree, we are reminded to seek meaning and inspiration in the distilled wisdom of what has come before, as it reveals itself in the signs that lie all around us, often hidden in plain sight, even as we wholeheartedly embrace the accelerating pace of change calling us to create and embody New Earth.
The intent to inhabit the role of a pilgrim – a spiritual seeker – in all we do leaves us open in each moment to the revelation of the inherent meaningfulness of our lives. May we actively seek renewal in the beauty that we find, even as the old is crumbling all around us and we feel the chill of a hard winter approaching. And remember that we signed up to be here at this Great Turning, and that every ending presages a new beginning.
The autumn leaf is not charged with worrying about the winter, or what comes after. It has done its part by following its nature and the signals of the season as fall turns to winter. And yet, without intending, in collaboration with untold numbers of its relations, it creates a blaze of glory to light the world – and inspire the soul of the willing pilgrim.