by Silvianne K. Delmars | Aug 1, 2024 |
Newly risen in the evening sky after her long sojourn through the Underworld, Venus meets with the Moon in the evening sky on August 5 at 01 Virgo 04, marking the first gate in her evening star journey. Still tender from her rebirth experience, over the next month she will be defining and shaping into form the insights she gained during her initiatory journey, as she traverses this foundational portal of Life Force energy.
Let’s take a look at the Sabian and Chandra symbols for this Virgo 2 degree.
Sabian Symbol
Sabian Symbol Virgo 2 by Ruby Fumizki, rubyfmzk.com
“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, 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…
His character is impeccable. For he knows how to focus on what is given to him by his destiny strictly. This has consequences. All of them are favorable.
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, Star Sparks: 360 Windows into the Heart of the Zodiac
A Sovereign Cosmic Being
On her journey of descent last fall, Venus found herself at this same degree when she reached the 2nd Gate of Perception (Third Eye Chakra). In that portal she was identifying and releasing any blocks to accessing her deepest intuitive knowing. Her task now is very different, as this Leo Overstory Venus seeks to build a container for a renewed version of this exuberant, creative archetype, seasoned by the ‘liberating ordeal’ of her death and rebirth experience.
Once again, she is accompanied by the Royal Star Regulus, pulsing at the heart of the Lion constellation, reminding her of her innate power as a sovereign cosmic being. As we traverse this Life Force portal, we are encouraged to anchor new habits and structures into our lives, born from the depths of our expanded awareness of compassion and wisdom, to support a deeper self love and belief in our own creative vision over the months to come. The beautiful confluence of Leo sovereignty and right use of will flowing through this contemplative, deeply spiritual Virgo degree provides tremendous support for the task.
Like the Hanged Man suspended from the World Tree, there is an experience of renewed congruence with our essential nature when we allow the busyness and drama of consensus reality that runs the show in the “right side up” world to fall away. From this deep peace, our connection with our own inner authority can take root, assuring an abundant flowering in the months to come as we continue the ascent journey into a fuller expression of the irrepressible, unique individual we came here to be.
Venus Meeting Mercury
Mercury is stationing retrograde just before the Venus Moon meet up (either Sunday or Monday, depending on time zone), at 04 Virgo 06. Represented by Ninshubar in the ancient version of the Inanna story, messenger Mercury is acting as guide and support to Venus in her journey, preceding her into the evening sky, They will meet exactly on Aug 7 in the preceding degree.
The Sabian Symbol for this rendezvous is Virgo 5, “A man becoming aware of nature spirits and normally unseen spiritual agencies.” Dane Rudhyar’s keynote is “the opening of new levels of consciousness – IMAGINATION.”
I love the nurturing magic of this image, and its resonance with Virgo’s innate ability to align with sacred patterning. A reminder to spend as much time as we can with the natural world, tuning to messages from all its denizens, including the stars in the night sky.
Mars with Jupiter and Aldebaran
Meanwhile, Mars has been hanging out in the morning sky, along with Jupiter and Aldebaran, another Royal Star, this one marking the eye of the Bull constellation. On July 20, Mars entered back into Gemini, the sign that began and defined this current 26-months synodic cycle. Phase five of this archetypal journey has begun, as Mars integrates the knowledge and maturity he has gained in his initiatory journey around the zodiac. On August 14 he will rendezvous with Jupiter at 16 Gemini 40, and then with the Moon on August 27 at 25 Gemini 11, before entering Cancer, and the next phase of his journey, on September 4.
In a beautiful synchronicity, Mars meets Jupiter this month at the exact same degree where he began his current synodic cycle on December 7, 2022.
The Sabian Symbol is Gemini 17, “The head of a robust youth changes into that of a mature thinker.” Rudhyar’s theme of mental metamorphosis couldn’t be more perfect, as accelerator Jupiter in the magically mental, beyond rationality sign of Gemini activates Mars in his deep assimilation of what is most needed to more fully inhabit the magical potential of this shape-shifting archetype.
“All work and no play”?
As Venus gains strength, passing her first important initiation in her journey of ascent and full manifestation of a new Sacred Feminine Leo expression, Mars is here to remind her to not take the task too seriously, as he deepens his own embrace of Gemini’s crazy trickster wisdom. As they come closer and closer to forming their exact square in a couple of weeks, in later degrees of these same two signs, we are encouraged to contemplate how their challenging dynamic might be playing out in our own lives.
On the one hand, we may be feeling a very real need to hold tight to any tender new insights or ideas, enforcing healthy boundaries so they are properly protected and nurtured through the necessary process of growth and ripening. A serious commitment to stay the course, as well as a fierce and uncompromising loyalty to our own vision, are essential. At the same time, inner and outer voices seem to be shouting at us to lighten up and not take ourselves and the world so seriously, allowing room for synchronicity and creative play to work their magic. “All work and no play” is a sure fire recipe for physical and creative melt down.
How do we create a much needed creative synthesis between earthy Virgo’s deep sense of responsibility to what is right and airy Gemini’s devil-may-care attitude, without getting caught in the shadow of either? How do we defend our nascent insights without becoming too brittle? And how do we let go so that fortuitous serendipity may find us, without succumbing to irresponsibility or playing the ineffective dilettante?
The key lies somewhere deep in the numinous territory that these two signs hold in common – an abiding soul intention to be of service to Great Mystery above all else. Invoking the wisdom of the Chandra symbol’s contemplative man hanging from the tree of life, this crisis-in-action square of archetypal Sacred Feminine and Masculine is the perfect set-up to arm twist us into going deeper within, where our own soul’s life-altering wisdom resides, waiting to whisper its alchemical secrets, if only we will finally become still enough to listen.