Coming up on Thursday is a square aspect from Venus in Sagittarius to Neptune in Pisces. It is not a rare event. Even so, in context with the rest of the sky, Venus square Neptune this time around is an opportune time to check your assumptions just as you would check to make sure you have your key before closing a door behind you.
A quick check can save a lot of grief, like getting locked out. Because Venus is moving pretty quickly right now (faster than any other sign rulers, save Mercury and the Moon), a quick check should be all you need.
As with anything to be checked quickly, you need to know where to look. Fortunately, the relationship between Venus and Neptune will help you you know. What Sagittarius and Pisces have in common will also help indicate how square aspects between those two signs are best resolved.
Interestingly, a lot of astrologers subscribe to the notion that Venus and Neptune represent different octaves of the same theme. In other words, the same same note or chord, at a different pitch.
Venus and Neptune as the same note or chord at different octaves is something to keep in mind when you check your assumptions over the next few days. Know where to look by asking where the assumptions come from. Do they come from personal experience? From your generation? Or from your gender orientation, ethnicity, nationality or beliefs?
Venus has a lot to do with your personal experience. More than that, the values and ideals derived from and/or supported by your personal experience correlate most closely with Venus. All of which are valid. All of which play a role in the small (and sometimes large) assumptions you make as you go about your day. Not all of which are shared by others.
For example, you may very well have the assumption that, when you leave home and go out in the world, you will not be abused by authority figures. That assumption may be true for you. Unfortunately it is not true for everybody, and that’s just one assumption based on personal experience to check at the door lest you lock yourself out from other people’s realities.
Neptune, on the other hand has more to do with experiences of entire eras and broader means of connection. Neptune correlates most closely with what you might refer to as ‘their’ values, or ‘our’ ideals. All of which play a role in the assumptions made (sometimes in error) for you, rather than by you.
For example, others may be led to assume things about you because of your apparent gender, age, name, accent, the color of your skin, how you dress or where you live. Or you may make assumptions yourself based on the same factors.
Fortunately, such assumptions are not true for everybody, and it’s good to quickly check in with yourself as to where such assumptions are for you.
Once you have located the origin of your assumptions, you can test them against other assumptions of different origin and resolve any harmonic tension you encounter by taking actions to change. You can start by including experience you had not previously identified with. That’s where Sagittarius and Pisces come in.
Sagittarius and Pisces have a quality in common — the quality of mutability (along with Gemini and Virgo). Mutable signs follow fixed signs and precede cardinal signs. These are the slices of the zodiac where the Sun is moving immediately preceding a change of season.
Aspects between mutable signs (or any two signs which share the share the same quality) are separations of 90 degrees on the zodiac and are called square.
Square aspects feel tense — that’s how you recognize them. Nearly all of the time the tension originates and/or resides within you, such as with your assumptions. Unfortunately, some of the time you are tempted to blame those tensions on others.
Mutable signs have the quality of facilitating change (or at least being present to it) as an important component of reality. One way to resolve mutable squares is therefore to hold space for change or to support change in yourself as an alternative to demanding change of others.
Sagittarius and Pisces are also originally ruled by Jupiter (although newcomer Neptune is a very appropriate co-ruler for Pisces).
In the words of Robert Hand: “At the most fundamental level Jupiter signifies the individual reaching out to include more and more of the universe and its experience within himself or herself.”
Hence, one way to resolve square aspects specific to Sagittarius and Pisces is to make like Jupiter, and not make assumptions based solely on either personal experience or collective components of your own personal identity. Whether fortunately or unfortunately, the holistic picture for the next several days looks like it will be essential to make like Jupiter.
That’s because looking at the solar system and zodiac as a whole over the next several days indicates a potential for unnecessarily locking yourself out from access to either information or other people you would be better off connecting with.
To guard against such a possibility, check for your key by quickly checking your assumptions. As tensions come up, at least consider changing yourself by taking into consideration the assumptions of others in order to promote a greater harmony, both within yourself and in the world.
Offered In Service
Len is available for astrology readings. You can contact him at lenwallick [at] gmail [dot] com.
Yeah, I’m one of those that DO ascribe to the theory that Neptune is the higher octave of Venus, mostly as cover for the folly of my youth. See, I have a natal Venus square Neptune and in my youth, say up to about 31, I fell for every mushy promise of love eternal that was thrown at me. All those cry-me-a-river songs? I knew all the words to them. It wasn’t until I was seriously 40 that I could see my delusions (and the BS I was fed) and society’s (meaning mostly ad writers) illusions were youthful folly.
Maybe it was just me (my astrology suggests that) but once I became frightened enough to trust my, ahem, higher self, and checked out many of the spiritual rewards for abandoning the world of folly (according to be), I learned to trust. Again. Decades later I’m wise to the ways (many of them anyway) of Neptune and have a better grasp at what he’s aiming for. Can’t say that everyone my age has learned that, not after this past election!
The world of more and more stuff (as well as the world of romance) is addictive to the human heart, but disappointing compared to the world of we-are-all-one and divine (com)passion. Corporateers and politicians are in the process of learning that (if they are capable of it, and they should be) but we mustn’t forget that it is Neptune who calls the shots, and nothing breaks the heart like loss. We can fight and curse and kill with Uranus and Pluto, but Neptune will always bring us to our knees.
I still sometimes forget where I put my keys Len, but I never lock myself out.
be
Haha! Well, the square of Neptune to Venus is old hat to me seeing as that’s their choice of position in my natal. There, however they are Fixed, Scorpio to Aquarius. I am very practiced in knowing where my keys are but I fear, flip-flopped to Be, that I often lock myself out despite the keys being right where I left them*. Or as Pooh says, “I’m not lost, I’m right here.” (*Maybe that’s a n.Neptune trine n.Sun trait.)
With t.Neptune tracing his path over n. Sun now squared by Venus and soon the t.Sun, I’ll take your advice (along with Pooh) and check my assumptions prior to stepping out the door (wherever, and with whomever, metaphorical door may be).
Thanks, Len.
And Thanks, Be. I too, knew all the words but I think I always had a bit of an edge to my renditions…! God/dess bless the “child”!
Barbara: Thank you for being so generous and instructive as to share of your own natal square from Venus to Neptune, and how you have acted to resolve that aspect in the course of your life. As always, you have given us a valuable key for understanding the astrology.
aword: Thank you as well for your own native insights (and the custom of your brilliant but well-grounded correlations with cultural touchstones).
Barbara, aWord, I’m laughing here because I have Venus conjunct Saturn and I have the opposite problem. I’m nearing 40, and I’m just starting to let go to fantasy in any concrete sense. I remember the parents of a childhood friend of mine had a framed poster on the wall in their basement that said, “Life Begins at 40.” I told my friend’s mother that was so old. She said it wasn’t and that it was really true, that I should remember that. My parent’s generation it seems were obsessed with over-the-hill jokes. I haven’t thought about that in a while because none of my peers find them funny.
With Saturn, too, I can definitely benefit from checking my assumptions. Saturnian delusions can run out of control.
And to the key conversation, I usually have the key, but I can’t get it to open the door! (I also have Neptune on my IC.)
Shelley: Thank you for your cogent observations. With a natal Neptune opposing your mid-heaven (as you appear to say) cultivate both creativity and confidence from the inside out and watch how you consistently impress others to their astonishment and admiration.
Yes, it’s opposite the mid-heaven. Thanks for the words of inspiration.
Thank you. I felt that weird & strange energy yesterday. Your interpretation is soothing. It brings peace
Catherine: You are very welcome. May peace be yours to long enjoy.
Thanks for sharing, Shelley! My natal Neptune is square Venus (SC to AQ) just like Be’s and Neptune is also on the IC (just like yours) where he conjoins Jupiter and the NN. (Very deep water for this little Pisces). Seems Len’s reminder to check for the keys is apropos for many different twists of the same fate!
As always Len, your gift of showing us the door of accountability and focus is valued and treasured. Meegwetch.
You are most welcome, Mandy.
Len, in 2000, Phil Sedgwick wrote about heliocentric (view from the Sun) positions of Neptune and Venus regarding the north and south nodes of Neptune and the perihelion (closest) and aphelion (most distant) points of Venus and their meaning. The perihelion of Venus and the north node of Neptune were both at 11+ Leo, while the aphelion of Venus and the south node of Neptune were both at 11+ Aquarius. He writes that Uranus, Chiron and Neptune would “engage the conjunction occurring between the perihelion of Venus and the North Node of Neptune by their opposing transits in Aquarius” . Precisely, that would be 11+ Aquarius, and these (outer planet) contacts would come “prior to the powerful planetary alignments yet to come” and “set the stage”. I’m thinking that would include the cardinal cross this year.
Since the outer planets Uranus, Neptune and Pluto were not in their present signs yet (that happened between 2008 and 2011) the charts for their ingresses into Aries, Pisces and Capricorn came after this article was written, and each of these outer planets’ second ingress chart had an important symbol at the 11+ Aquarius degree. For Pluto it was the north node + Nessus, for Uranus it was Venus, and for Neptune it was Mercury.
Sedgwick also discussed the upcoming two Venus-occult-Sun events, the 1st in 2004 and the 2nd in 2012, and as you might guess from the title of his article in Dell magazine “Return of the Matriarchy: The Rebirth of Venus” he suggests this combination of Venus and Neptune points, from the Sun’s perspective, suggested that these outer bodies conjoining “the south node of Neptune and the aphelion of Venus “force a look at collective history, sociological archives, and the substrate patterns of human behavior (south node effect)” and “induces the need for retreat, pause, reflection and understanding” (aphelion effect).
I was excited because of the inference that the 11+ Aquarius degree (showing up in interesting charts besides the 3 ingresses, such as the Ferguson, MO chart) had Venus-Neptune vibes. I thought you would be interested because of this article about the transiting Venus square Neptune this past Thursday and because you dig all this perihelion-aphelion data. If you want to check it out, his article appeared in Dell Horoscope magazine, May 2000.
be
Thanks for the update on AQ11, Be!
aword, pretty cool, huh? I mean, how do you explain “stumbling” on to info over 14 years old?