By Eric Francis, co-written with Amanda Painter
We’re heading into another unusual week; no shortage of those lately, though the next few days have some special distinctions. These are the last days before the Scorpio New Moon, exact at 6:42 am EST on Saturday, Nov. 18. But that’s not what has our attention: an alignment on Monday morning does.
“Mystery Woman” by Charlie Lemay.
As you know, Jupiter is newly in Scorpio, having arrived in early October. It’ll be there into November 2018. Jupiter takes about one year to cover a sign. Jupiter in Scorpio is the first of many upcoming sign changes of slower-moving planets, which we introduced in the article that accompanied the monthly horoscope.
Monday brings one of the first major events of the Jupiter in Scorpio era: Venus and Jupiter will make a conjunction: they will be in the same little slice of the sky.
Though both are visible planets, they’re too close to the Sun to see; though it would be a beautiful sight, if you could. When you witness a nearby planet align with a more distant planet, you get a sense of perspective and scale of our solar system that’s visual (therefore physical) rather than conceptual. For now, we’ll need to use our imaginations.
Jupiter entering Scorpio has put a magnifying glass to the issue of sexuality; so far, mostly in the form of misconduct. Jupiter magnifies whatever it touches. Scorpio is the core sign of sex; from ancient astrology it represents the genitals; it describes the sex-mortality-DNA nexus; it represents the ultimate depth of emotional desire. It’s also potentially sex as a manifestation of power — and of commerce.
Nine months ago, on Jan. 21, we had a whole lot of women show up to protests around the country, speaking out against our nascent, pussy-grabbing president. Millions wore pink kitty-cat-ear hats, chanting slogans. Happening one day after the inauguration, this was a powerful statement.
Today we are having a bloodbath, and it ain’t menstrual blood. The list of male celebrities whose heads have rolled this year is impressive, ranging from those at the very top of Fox News to many previously well-respected entertainers. Yet it wasn’t until Jupiter entered Scorpio one month ago that the story picked up momentum, with Harvey Weinstein moving from his role of executive producer to top star. Now it’s a full-on social movement.
When Venus makes a conjunction to Jupiter Monday, we have a symbol for something female emerging or transforming in a new way. Venus ingressed Scorpio only last week, so this is a developing story. The two classical benefic planets forming a conjunction is good news, particularly in a sign associated with that intriguing thing known as sex. Keep that in mind through all of these discussions: in the United States, we currently define sex as a perpetrator-victim encounter. This can percolate to the most intimate nuances of our lives. And it’s well-described in Venus conjunct Jupiter in Scorpio: the mythological Jupiter’s sexual conduct spanned the range from womanizer to rapist.
“Beyond” by Charlie Lemay.
However, that’s not the only interpretation of this aspect. Maybe we can come up with a definition of sex where everyone shows up willingly, and has a good time.
What’s so interesting about this alignment is that Venus and Jupiter form a conjunction opposite a point called Lempo. Discovered in 1999, Lempo was named only last month (these things can take a while). Its namesake is a Finnish goddess whose province (so far as we can tell at this time) was fire, fertility and erotic love, who was recast as a demon by the Christians.
We here in the mythology department of Planet Waves have heard this kind of thing a few times before: for one, those pesky Christians are always trying to get between people when they are in bed. One need look no further than our current Vice President and “Mother” for an extreme example.
Lempo is in Taurus now, and both oversexed Jupiter and sex goddess Venus (the Roman equivalent of Aphrodite) will be conjunct in the sign of sex, opposite a fertility goddess who was deemed devilish by some misogynist, devilish priests. This could be an interesting party, or a moment of awakening.
Add to that a square from Okyrhoe, the daughter of Chiron and Chariklo, herself a kind of prophetess and seer, and another centaur (a Saturn-crosser), Thereus, which has a lot to do with bears. They are making a grand-cross, made mostly of very slow movers. It’s taken a while to form; and now, with the addition of Venus and Jupiter, it’s all there.
But bears? Chiron pioneer Zane Stein writes of Thereus, “Bears are seen as symbols of the warrior. Many tribal hunters cloaked themselves in bearskins in hopes that it would give them the ability and courage of the great hunter who once lived within the skin. Later on, you can find tales of quite a few Catholic saints who tamed wild bears and got them to do their bidding.”
OK, so what if we let the fertility goddess be who she is, and stop making the bears dance around for us, or conceal our intentions? What if we take this opportunity to claim some positive notion of sexuality? Currently I am hosting a discussion on Facebook on the theme of what do you consider appropriate sexual conduct? Most people have strong opinions about what is wrong, and less strong opinions about what might be right.
We’re trying to have this conversation in a time when the sexual dialog, outside of a scandal, is next to nonexistent. Most people are absolutely not conversant in even the most basic rudiments of sex — such as negotiating pregnancy prevention or safer sex choices. We’re trying to have this discussion when exceedingly few people have a clear yes and a clear no, and where consent to engage in sex is rarely ever given even under seemingly ideal circumstances. Most sex happens drunk, even among the supposedly “mature” and well-heeled.
“Shangri-La” by Charlie Lemay.
We need some new possibilities. For example, the potential for hearing someone’s expression of desire simply as a reflection of their own self, without you feeling any sense of obligation to meet it or take it on. We need affirmation of a person’s value beyond their perceived “sexual worth.” We need to understand that a person seeing someone else as sexually attractive does not mean that’s all they see. It’s not necessarily an insult.
In the midst of this all, Juno — the asteroid of jilted marriage partners (Juno is the wife of Jupiter), and of jealousy, scorekeeping and what Martha Lang-Wescott describes as “the bone of contention” in relationships — is conjunct Pluto. Whatever touches Pluto is transformed.
That sounds like an evolutionary step for marriage itself, or at least it points to something about relationships operating in the background. The “institution of marriage” is certainly no longer much of an institute, but it has a lot of problems, most of them the gift of (again) the Christian movement. We forget that marriage is mainly a property right where women are claimed as chattel by men.
How about this in interpretation of Juno conjunct Pluto: evolve your relationship parameters. Update your relationship agendas. Double-check that your relationship ‘needs’ are not really ‘wants’, and vice versa — and see how shifting your wording shifts your perceptions and expectations in a relationship.
For sure, it looks like this astrology is saying we can go a lot deeper than we have in unearthing what’s gotten stuck in our relationship paradigms.
A lot has gotten toxic in that realm. We need to let it die out, flush it out (per Scorpio and Pluto), and hold space for something better to evolve.
Today out of the blue, I (Eric) received this message from an old lover: “I’m ruining all the relationships I get in because of jealousy and control issues I have. I know the source (I’m pretty sure) is because I have a tendency to ‘cheat’, so I think everyone else does too; and because my child’s dad was lying about a woman my whole pregnancy until he was 18 months, I was constantly in detective mode/fear/anxiety that I can’t stop the pattern or move past the thinking. Ideas? Also been depressed and angry and slightly violent. This is all uncharacteristic of who I know I truly am — and I feel stuck in it and don’t know how to move past it and back to good.”
This is what taking an evolutionary step looks like.
“Anticipation” by Charlie Lemay.
Some people are still in the space of needing to claim their victimhood and understand that the trauma they experienced is not “their fault.” That’s OK. Other people are in or moving into the place where they can own their healing and invest in it and hold space for others to heal from the same kind of pain. And that’s great.
Yet still others are moving into a place where they’ve gone through those processes and can now hold space for perpetrators and their pain. And that’s also necessary — but it does not make those people superior to the ones who are only now claiming their voices as victims; and it does not make them superior to the ones who have worked on healing and are focused on naming names and supporting other victims.
And the victims and the advocates are not “superior” to, or more aware than, the people who can say, “That perpetrator is also suffering pain and everyone needs healing.”
It’s an uncomfortable continuum to stretch out across, for anyone who’s at one of the extremes. We have to go beyond empathy for a perpetrator being seen as an endorsement; it’s not.
As for that positive model of sexual expression, do you know what works for you? What makes sex worthwhile for you? Can you articulate it? Can you ask for what you want, and can you even describe it? And while society is busy casting stones, have you assessed your own conduct? Do you feel that you’ve always been perfectly appropriate at all times?
Being able to say these things to yourself, or out loud, is one of the first necessary steps to get out of the victim-perpetrator framework. We have a chance now to shift the conversation. We are in a rare teaching and learning moment. We may yet do it. The odds are stacked against that possibility. People tend to revert to familiar patterns, even when they hate them. But really, the silence around desire, sex and sexual misconduct has gone too far; it’s created a sexual famine for many people.
It’s about time that ended and something new began.
Thank You both Eric and Amanda, for sharing the fruits of your insight.
“In the midst of this all, Juno — the asteroid of jilted marriage partners (Juno is the wife of Jupiter), and of jealousy, ”
It might help if we identified feelings of “jealousy” as being by-products of our own issues and insecurities and having nothing to do with the behavior of another person.
There is another layer to the perpetrator/victim patterns that isn’t often mentioned. It’s the emotional perpetrator/victim – the telltale symptoms are issues of jealousy, possessiveness and and the ideas of monogamy and fidelity.
Possessiveness and jealousy are expressions lacking in Respect for another. Rather than perceiving an individual, these ideas rely upon perceiving a person as an object, to be possessed. Jealousy implies ownership of attention and/or affection. Most often, we use both as control mechanisms.
Monogamy is a personal choice. If I choose to be monogamous, then I need to find a partner that also freely chooses to be that way, too. If and when monogamy becomes a condition, required of one person in order to please another, then that relationship is one of barter. The presence of the conditions makes it so. In this particular case, it is the bartering of affection, which effectively means one or both in the relationship has been delegated to the role of an emotional whore.
I would say that Fidelity means to be faithful to our own selves. Being genuine and being true to our own Hearts. That’s the only way we can ever be true to another.
I see our best bet at doing something about the issues that are just now beginning to rise for this cycle, is to endeavor to lift the energy of Creative Willpower out of our lower triad, where the old God of Jupiter, symbolizing our solar plexus and survival issues, reigns supreme.
Alice Bailey shared the symbol of the Minotaur, half man, half animal, with the bull symbolizing the energy of Desire. So long as we identify with the animal, then our desires are carnal in nature. Which isn’t ‘bad’. No judgement implied. It simply has to do with an animal is ruled by Instinct and has no other option. Like all human beings do.
Using the example of the story of a human being taking a journey seeking a spiritual experience and ending up discovering that they are a spiritual being in the midst of having a human one. Along the way we shift our identity and perspective. What counted the most, for me at least in my experience of it, was that our Desires change. As we become more aligned in our Desires, so does our Power of Creativity and Manifestation increase.
The carrot is the raw Desire for Power. The stick is how it is required to use it.
Sue Edwards — so much of what you say about jealousy, fidelity, etc makes so much sense to me. But I do have a question about your last statement: “The carrot is the raw Desire for Power. The stick is how it is required to use it.”
I’m not sure what you mean about the stick in this case, especially in the context of Power of Creativity increasing as we align better with our desires. Could you elaborate on that image? Thanks!
Hi Amanda!
I see Desire as a Divine Gift of Sensitivity. To Love is to Value is to Desire. It is inherent in our nature and the basis of what we sometimes call the Law of Attraction, (or the Law of Correspondences or the Law of Resonance, etc.)
The more clear we are in our Desires, the more we understand why we desire what we do, the more Power over our Reality we will have. I’d liken it to the difference between buckshot and a high powered rifle. Focus implies concentration.
Our Power increases as we become aware of how Universal laws and Principles operate. Why use force when you can use consciousness to attract whatever desired? This is Power on the level I spoke of when I said about the carrot.
What we’re facing today has to do with the Desire for Power and the use or misuse of it. Rather than try to obliterate the Desire for Power, re-direct it up a notch, “the carrot”. Ride the Bull, don’t slaughter it.
The catch has to do with a “ring past not”. Our awareness cannot expand past a barrier until we have shown ourselves to be Self governed and that requires the personal use of Willpower to mount the Bull and ride it. Nothing beats the sexual interplay between a human Personality and their Soul merging. The “two become one”, desires merge.
We can ask ourselves how many of the desires that we have obtained have resulted in an enduring sense of fulfillment or anything else? Or like the hydra, is one head slain only for more to rise to take its place? This is what I mean by chasing the bull all around the pasture. What do we keep seeking and never finding?
The type of Power that expresses itself in Power over others is an illusion. That kind of power is exhorted from those who surrender it. Responsibility and accountability for our choices and decisions are deterrents in many cases, to claiming our own Sovereignty as a human being.
Domination is what I’d call a Need, not a Power. I’m also more attuned to Lilith than I am to Eve. Being Adam’s first wife, she left him when he forgot himself and became a dummy in need of domination. A Divine and Spiritual Being is One With All That Is, Was and Ever Will Be. What ELSE is there TO dominate?
Thank you, Sue. A lot of what you say in your response rings very true. I have another question, though, about this sentence:
“Responsibility and accountability for our choices and decisions are deterrents in many cases, to claiming our own Sovereignty as a human being.”
I would think that the more responsible for and accountable for our choices we are, the more we claim our own sovereignty as a human being — because we’re not blaming others, we’re not in denial about our desires, we’re not disowning our power to choose and projecting it onto someone else, etc. What am I missing in what you’re saying?
Thank you! I always appreciate these conversations.
You’re not missing anything Amanda. What you say about empowerment is true…for us who yearn and desire empowerment. Not everyone does though.
It’s easier for some to rely on an outer authority to tell them what to do and what to think. “So and so told me.” “The Bible says.” That way, accountability and responsibility is seemingly avoided. I say seem, simply because making a choice to allow others to think for us has its own consequences.
My older brother used to tell me, “I want to make you happy. Just tell me what to do and I’ll do it.”
Nice sounding words but it was a trap. By doing what others told him to do he always had someone else to blame for whatever happened.
I sure do enjoy our conversations too! Thank You
Ohhh, I see — I was reading your phrasing differently from how you’d intended it. Got it! Thank you.
And interestingly, your brother’s nice-sounding “trap” sounds very familiar. I recently encountered someone who tends to do something similar. Interestingly, he acknowledges that in his efforts to do-do-do to please others, he sets himself up to get resentful if those others do not respond in kind or acknowledge what he’s done. As he described this, I smiled and said, “You realize, that’s actually kind of manipulative, right?” He seemed to get it.
But, he’s young — so I have some hope that the awareness he has now will grow and help him to adjust his approach as he matures.
And of course, it was an interesting mirror for me — partly in the sense of, “Do I do that, too?” But even more in the sense of, “Oh, how often to I just take for granted the ways that others might go out of their way to assist me or support me, without noticing when I can respond in kind or acknowledge it, or even say, ‘thank you, but that’s not your responsibility'”?
Amanda- so much of what you say in the linked Facebook discussion makes sense to me and has been part of my own experience. Appreciated Eric’s reply to your comment. As he says, he knows you.
Seems worth repeating here, as his response possibly resonates with others, when it comes to the female perception of ‘beaming out sexual energy’.
Efc: “Beaming out sexual energy? To me, you just seem ALIVE. You seem curious and engaged with life, feisty and living on your own terms. This is to say, I adore you.”
Thank you, Ramona (and Eric). Though I guess when I wrote that comment about “beaming out sexual energy” in ways I have not always been aware of, or that might not have been appropriate, I was thinking of specific contexts. For example, I am sure most people have had a crush on or attraction to a married person before. But I suspect there’s been at least one situation in the past (and maybe others, hence my comment on FB) where I’ve been in conversation with a married person who I found attractive, and I may not have been fully aware of how much of that energy I was letting through — in a way that might have been confusing for that person.
In other words, if I had no intention of crossing that boundary, should I have been more careful to keep that energy in check? So that it would stay at the “appreciation” level and not bleed into something that might be read as an invitation?
Or in a situation like I just described, how much are “appreciation” versus “invitation” in the metaphorical eyes of the beholder (recipient)? My sense is that this question is very confusing for a lot of people a lot of the time — both when men are the “appreciator” and when women are. Even when one cannot fully articulate what sort of boundary is being crossed (such as energetic), a person can still feel that sense of invasion or boundary-crossing — even if nothing overtly physical or verbal “crossed the line.” I have definitely been on the receiving line of that kind of energetic invasiveness, and it can be very confusing and upsetting, especially if you’re young and/or don’t have the vocabulary to identify and describe it.
In any case, I’ve been in a years-long process of working with my energetic/spiritual/emotional boundaries. They were pretty spongy for a very long time (sometimes still are). So I’m aware that my inner perception of this dynamic for myself might not match up with someone’s outside assessment of it/me. In any case, it’s not about judging myself to have been “wrong” — it’s just about my ongoing path for self-awareness and accountability to myself / responsibility for my actions.
And in light of Eric reply to my comment on FB, it also begs the question: how afraid are people in general of those who are ALIVE and let that energy shine through all the time?
Amanda- me too … an ongoing path for self-awareness.
Suppose it was your last question I was/am pondering … what is unsettling for people about those who are alive and let that energy shine through all the time?
Seems more of something to celebrate than to be afraid of…
Wow, Sue Edwards thanks. What gotten my attention is how ones’ inner child can emerge through the layering’s of consciousness when we talk or write about sex. Its a gift that some people have in their creative process, in which they’re able to share it with others. I’m thinking this inner child is around/ between 7-11 years old, when ideally our sexual nature is ebbing; think Pluto more so then Mars. This is an enlighten stage, a detachment from our bodies sexual desire, and core values are established (love/fear), from our surrounding environment issues. As we all have Chiron and Nessus in our charts, the adult version of ourselves, always in touch with itself; this inner child now with Mars back in charge (12-25). Our brains don’t even become fully attached until we’ve 25. What is being revealed about how integrated or wounded are we now. In becoming sexually active, our inner child loses its innocence, and what was once wants, now becomes our needs. Unable to detach from our (bodily) sexual desires we are now either the predators of it or the victims by it.
It’s a pleasure Glen.
Maybe our frustrations and difficulties are due to trying to resolve inner issues by pursuing outer desires? Rather than looking to the world to satisfy our needs, maybe finding out why we feel so needy in the first place would be more effective?
Every single one of us started out as a baby. Our understanding of the world then was that all we had to do is make a noise out of either end and all big people would run to see what we wanted or needed. Then around the age of 2 we began to hear the word “no” and our world view was turned upside down. What happened to satisfying our every want and need?
Next, to our horror, we discovered we were suppose to learn how to wipe our own bottoms and feed ourselves. It’s one revolting revelation after another and sets us up to begin to doubt in whether we are loved, which are the causes of our wounded inner child’s woes.
I discovered it truly didn’t matter who did what to me that resulted in my wounded inner child. Because I had an inner adult within me, too. As an adult I could love my own child. I could give to myself what I had searched for from others. Once I give to myself, then I am not found wanting. I can extend what I have rather than seek to get.