by Andrea Michelle Kennedy
There’s a sky story unfolding now, another echo, another level of the spiral in the quest to reclaim our authentic Femininity.
Mercury and Venus passed each other Friday, December 15th in the sign of Sagittarius, under the influence of the constellation Ophiucus, the Serpent Bearer.
We know serpents represent Earth wisdom, kundalini. Ophiucus (or Asclepius in Greek) was a student and surrogate son of Chiron, the Wounded Healer. There are several tales around how Asclepius received the power to raise the dead; one of them is that Athena gifted him the blood of Medusa (the Gorgon with snakes for hair), “The blood that flowed from the veins on her left side was a poison, but the blood from the right side could raise the dead”1.
Pallas Athene was prominent in the birth of Venus into the current Aries cycle, as was Lilith. (An earlier essay on this Venus cycle can be found here.) Both of these astrological bodies are closely associated with serpent energy and are currently in strong relationship with Venus (Pallas is trine Venus-Mercury and Lilith is in wide conjunction). With Jupiter in Scorpio consistently burping up more and more #metoo accounts we are witnessing the shadow Feminine, which uses manipulation and control in lieu of real relating — the poisoned blood of Medusa. We are implored to check-in with our own level of honesty around our complacency and complicity with false power dynamics and subjugation of authentic power.
“True Feminine Power” by Sarah Emily-Anne https://truthandheartart.com
As Venus descends into the Underworld she is moving fast and direct toward her meeting with the Sun. She is heading straight for the source of her power — our power. Her/our false boundaries are dissolving. Having been invited to recognize and hold lightly our temporal identities through the Surrendering & Discovery Phase, in the current Immersion Phase we are in the anti-chamber of the Transmutation Phase (which begins January 9, 2018 with Venus’ superior conjunction to the Sun in Capricorn). Immersion can be likened to how scuba divers must acclimate to their masks and oxygen before plunging to the depths. The Immersion Phase separates us from what is false so we may recognize what is true.
If we’ve been doing the work of opening to ourselves as the vibrant container for raw life expressing through us that this Aries Venus cycle demands rather than identifying as the sum of our personality traits, we’re going to fare much better than others through this Immersion Phase. The intensity of these times is trying to tell us something, and we’re often too busy pointing fingers and blaming the outside world rather than dropping in to have our experience of the intensity in our bodies. Just as they helped birth her into a new cycle when she was closest to Earth earlier in the Spring, Pallas and Lilith are now supporting Venus to maintain connection to her direct experience as she is retreating further and further from Earth.
Adam writes in The Light of Venus about the Immersion Phase:
With Venus invisible, [this] phase speaks about keeping nothing hidden from yourself. This may take a while to learn if you’ve not made peace with your past or have not accepted some aspects of your personality. In fact, it’s named “Immersion” because diving in and doing so willingly (Venus fast and direct) is its path and its destination…
Let your feeling body immerse you in this realm of yourself which you may have previously suppressed. This is the way of reclaiming authentic feminine power: by opening closed circuits.
The alchemist, Mercury, meeting up with Venus within the domain of the serpent bearer and still carrying the vitality of the Sun is assisting the re-wiring of our circuitry, particularly as s/he is retrograde and therefore closest to Earth that s/he get in the cycle, and also moving very fast. In the sky Venus is below Mercury, implying that our re-wiring is only possible if we are first willing to surrender ourselves without anticipating or holding out for a specific outcome. Adam speaks of authentic surrender as a feeling of melting into ourselves; we could call it an “inward giving” rather than a giving in. Mercury began its retrograde journey close to Saturn, the societal rule maker, also the giver of form. Saturn on the threshold of entering Capricorn will support the manifestation of the deeper vision of the Feminine which we are responsible for co-creating from our re-wiring.
On December 17 at 20 Sagittarius, the Moon passes above Venus just after midday eastern time in the beams of the Sun as it descends to the west; Mercury is still close by. Venus right on the ecliptic — the pulse of the collective — is heavy with the weight of tired ideologies as she draws closer to her imminent renewal. Luna, herself headed to a solar re-boot only 12 hours after her Venus encounter, is releasing the collective beliefs of an inferior Feminine as she prepares to receive her cleansing Sun bath. The image of this connection occurring in full daylight is powerful: Venus and the Moon are invisible in the beams of the Sun but are nonetheless still there — hidden in plain sight. We get so caught up in outward displays of power we’ve lost connection with true power. The Feminine (and women) may still be invisible in the eyes of many in the world, but She’s always thrumming and weaving through the heart of authentic experience.
The work of coming online and opening to more of who we are is not reserved for “special occassions” or weekend retreats; it need not be dramatic or flashy or immediately visible to others. It is the work of re-connection, which begins with intention and daily commitment to building a life from what motivates and inspires us. Our primal wisdom is invisible and yet intimately accessible. It can never be compromised by outer circumstance even when we’ve forgotten, and default to what’s outside of ourselves to tell us what is “real.”
1 http://www.ianridpath.com/startales/ophiuchus.htm
