A few hours ahead of today’s Virgo New Moon, Venus entered Scorpio. Venus is moving slowly these days, working up to its retrograde on Oct. 5.

Scorpio is one of the signs associated with earthly power. Venus is the planet associated with Taurus, Libra and Pisces, the more pleasure-seeking energy fields of the zodiac. In classical astrology, Venus is said to be in detriment in Scorpio. Before we get into explaining ‘detriment’, let’s consider this mix of energies from a worldly standpoint.

The association between Scorpio and sex is an ancient one. All of the signs are associated with body parts, and in classical astrology, Scorpio rules the genitals.

Even people who are not into astrology know there’s a little something extra about Scorpio, in terms of its emotional depth, intensity, and something about sex and sexuality. In our times, this whole range of feelings is in the verboten category. While at the moment anyone who admits to desire can come under siege, from time immemorial it has been women who have borne the brunt of sexuality and its consequences.

Women have, as well, been bound to chastity in ways that men have not, largely due to the fact that patriarchy and tracking lineage through the father’s line require a female body to create the next generation. Under this organization of society, this is why women and their sexuality have faced extreme control measures.

Our contemporary situation is a hangover of that, though if we want to challenge the patriarchy in a meaningful way, the place to start might be to question the “use” of women as birthing pods for men and their families. This is why Simone de Beauvoir said that feminism begins and ends with women controlling reproduction.

And that, in turn, is why “reproductive rights” are such an issue today — up to the minute, with Brett Kavanaugh up for a Senate vote to sit on the Supreme Court for the rest of his life. Last week we learned that he considers birth control to be an abortion-inducing drug, a “conservative” trope that is being used to wholly undermine the ability of women to have any control over their bodies.

Now let’s consider the concept of detriment. Venus is the ruling planet of Taurus, and Scorpio is its opposite sign. Venus in Scorpio creates a special condition. As an astrological term of art, detriment is different from the contemporary dictionary usage of in “harm’s way,” though it can have that feeling. Detriment is a debility, though one that can work in the style of Chiron, where an injury or struggle tend to make a person stronger.

In practical terms, when a planet is in detriment, there is a seeming mismatch or irritant in the environment, and whatever the planet represents must grow strong. That is the condition of Venus in Scorpio. Yet the true strength of Venus in this scenario does not come from power over or the ability to fight. It is biological power.

Again referencing de Beauvoir, she is the only author to commence her whole discussion of feminism with the question, “What is female?” This is not a matter of gender, which is conceptual and social. This is about sex, meaning biological.

One question of Venus in Scorpio for women is, how comfortable are you in your body? How harmonized are you with your feelings, with the things your body does, with taking care of your body, and with the unspoken burden of being biologically female? How comfortable are you with your sexual desire?

One of the things I’ve observed about the phenomenon of female, from wherever it may emanate, is that it comes with a kind of ambivalence. It is typically men who are expected to make the snap decisions, and spring into service to defend the borders and extinguish infernos. Men are also expected to be money pumps and mine the resources out of the ground. And men are expected to be the ones who take the step of expressing sexual desire, and take the risk of rejection.

The, “I want you and I’m getting you” style of desire is characteristic of Mars but not of Venus — that urgent, biological need to get off that many if not all men experience at some time.

Female desire is typically seen and experienced differently, as more internalized, contemplative and psychological. It also seems subject to wide fluctuations in the menstruation-ovulation cycle.

Yet Venus in Scorpio, in the energy field of Mars, is going to be soaking in a kind of astral testosterone that is less about “come hither,” “maybe, maybe not” or “I want it but I’m not sure” — and is a lot more about direct, unequivocal sex drive.

One writer who is covering gender issues said to me this week that she would still be a virgin if men had to depend on her to directly invite them to have sex with her. Yet when you do experience this kind of desire, how honest can you be about it? Are you inclined to be with that feeling, admit it, and even affirm it fully, or deny your experience and rationalize it away? If you are a man, how do you respond when a woman is in the full ON position?

Venus will soon be retrograde in Scorpio, taking this discussion to an internal level. It is indeed a deeply personal and biological issue, about what one does with one’s life force.

In the end, the question is: how comfortable are you with — and I do mean adapted and aligned with — everything your body does, experiences and offers you?

Throughout our lifetimes and since the Suffrage era, “women’s empowerment” has been focused on things like pay parity, political power, and the gaining of rights and standing in society. Yet it’s rare to hear that the real power of being a woman comes from being in harmony with existing within your female body, and understanding the extraordinary influence and impact of your sexuality on a biological level. That is not the totality of “power” but it is a vital level of connection to it.

Meanwhile, if you think political strength is still critical, then please get busy calling Republican senators this week and do your part to block the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.

Regarding biological power, one last thought. We face special challenges with this particular theme, here in the digital age, as we are all pushed into cerebral-manager mode, and then up and out of our bodies to the point where physicality can feel annoying, alien and even wrong. But in terms of life on Earth, being in-body — with all its contradictions, passion, pathos and the inevitability of death, another element of Scorpio — is the whole point.