By Amanda Painter
Do you feel ready for something new? Investing personal energy in world news — especially news events that strain credulity — can be exhausting. Beating one’s head against the same interpersonal dynamics at work or in your intimate relationships can be tiring. Yet the urge for something new can also emerge from a palpable sense of growing creative energy that needs an outlet.
Apple blossom about to bloom. Photo by Amanda Painter.
In astrology, the tail end of a season — or even just the last few days of the Sun in a particular sign — can invoke that sense of being ready for a shift. We’ll get one on Saturday, when the Sun leaves Taurus and enters Gemini at 4:31 pm EDT (20:31 UTC).
Where Taurus is focused on the body, Gemini is all about the mind; Taurus takes its time, Gemini moves on to the next thing quickly. Taurus is represented by earth, Gemini by air. I’ll admit that I have a strong personal bias toward Taurus, since it’s my Sun sign, but all signs of the zodiac have their value and their purpose. Where Taurus helped us to get grounded, Gemini offers us greater (and quicker) flexibility.
Yet this is not the only astrological energy drawing us toward something new. Tomorrow (Friday) Venus in Aries opposes Jupiter in Libra, exact at 10:11 am EDT (14:11 UTC).
On one level, Venus opposite Jupiter can be a warning about spending too much money, eating and drinking too much, and getting caught up in vanity (Venus being in Aries could emphasize this last bit). If you’re trying to save money, this might not be the best weekend for a shopping spree.
That said, indulging in what you love most — in moderation — could bring tremendous joy, pleasure and satisfaction. The key is to remember that a little will be just as satisfying — and probably more so in the long run — as a lot of it would seem to be, in the moment.
On a second level, however, the energy of Venus opposite Jupiter speaks of a meeting. Particularly, meeting some opportunity in a relational situation of some kind. That could mean an intimate/sexual relationship, a work relationship, a creative relationship, a healing/therapeutic relationship, a parent/child relationship, a student/teacher relationship, or some other situation, and will depend on the specifics of your life and how this astrology interacts with your own chart.
Wherever you feel it, the idea is to pay attention to where in your life the opportunities are appearing. Notice the areas of your day-to-day experience where you feel especially ready for something new; or ready to expand into something that already exists, but with a new level of energy.
Jupiter is often associated with luck. Yet any astrologer will tell you that you have to work at it. In other words: be prepared for what you want by doing what you can to invite it into your life. Usually this means things like practicing, or creating the space for it: physically, in your environment; mentally, in your attitudes and perspective; temporally, by making time for it; and so on. Or something really mundane, like updating your resume so it’s ready to go the moment you see the job posting you’ve been searching for.
Working at luck could also mean giving yourself permission to want what you want, and to say yes to it — and to receive it fully (‘receptivity’ relating to Venus). All the preparation in the world can fall flat if you back away from an opportunity when it arrives on your doorstep. If you feel like this describes your usual pattern, it’s worth finding a good therapist or spiritual counselor or similar to help you work through that pattern of self-sabotage. It speaks to deep and often barely conscious material — the kind most of us need a little help uncovering, processing and releasing.
With Venus in the sign of Self and Jupiter in the sign of Relationships, the meeting or peak described by their opposition could also relate to how your relationships function as a mirror. In this interpretation, you might again ask yourself if you’re ready for something new; not necessarily a new partner but perhaps a new way of interacting and responding, or a new way of feeling about yourself within your relationships. What would you need to acknowledge, and what would need to shift in response, for that to happen?
While the Sun is still in Taurus during the next three days, your body and physical senses could help you focus on the answers. After the Sun moves into Gemini on Saturday, see if you’re better able to verbally articulate what you’ve discovered. Along the way, good luck in working your luck. To paraphrase Howard Thurman, the world needs more people who have come alive.
