We have an impressive card line up this week with a fun complimentary energy to the stars. We are meant to handle a deeper level of intimacy in our relationships and the way to get there is to take a closer look at your friendships. Time to notice how you show up, where and how do your friends show up and how do you handle the power in this arena. It’s also interesting that this shows up in the midst of the big pushback against sexual harassment embodied in the Harvey Weinstein scandal.
Who’s got the power, how are they using it? I’ve seen some fascinating debates that cover the whole range of emotions from both men and women. Again, no accident that this comes up just before Venus squares Pluto. Venus is our desire nature and Pluto is what’s been shoved underground and rotting that must be dragged into the light to heal. Squares are a tense aspect, which means it isn’t a smooth transition. Some of those things are being forced to the surface while others simply cower in fear that someone will put a searchlight on the spot they hoped would avoid detection.
Doesn’t matter who you are, everyone has their desires and we live in a world that dictates out loud what’s acceptable then skirts around those rules and does what it really wants in spite of them when they are in a position of power. It’s the shameful part of us that hasn’t had desire stamped as acceptable but can’t surrender it that goes looking to bend the rules. It isn’t just sex that is in transition here. It’s how we achieve and share our desires of any kind with those around us. How do you handle your desires and the distribution of power in achieving them in your world? If you fear authority but can’t surrender them, they go underground. Some people seize enough power so you are the authority and can get them as a hidden tyrant that is beyond the rules.
This week you get training wheels from your friendships to suss out what your operating system is when it comes to sharing what you want and having those desires met. It’s a the least charged place to start for most people. Who picks what you do, who says I’m sorry first or even at all when there are issues? You have strengths and weaknesses when it comes to what you want and satisfying those desires. Take this week and get a better picture of this part of you through those friendships where the stakes aren’t quite as charged as family, business or romantic relationships. Not much is at stake, just what you want and how to get it while you create a world that’s safe for all to do the same.
The Cards and the Stars will help.
Card of the Week: Three of Vessels
Threes are communication numbers and the emotionally driven vessels says you benefit from your conversations with good friends. Heck, you could stand to have a good night out or in with the friends even. Whether you talk about a division of power or not isn’t the issue. Notice. Watch yourself, your friends and see what feels good. Then remember when and where it hasn’t felt so good. What can you take from those dust ups or clashes? Where’s the balance of power? Here’s the interesting part. Where we feel over powered or unheard doesn’t mean we actually ARE those things. It does reveal where the old wounds drop you back in that story. Try to see a progression, because I bet it’s there of how you’ve evolved through the friendship into a stronger you. You’re not done growing there, either. Where have you had the lead, where has a friend taken the lead. See your influence as well as where you’ve been influenced and where has it been just a touch sticky with old fears that have you over or under express your feelings. This review is good training wheels for when you move into the deeper and murkier ground of work, family and lovers. File it in the good to know and don’t worry to much about the actions just yet. Instead, have some fun with friends to remind you that conflict is normal and survivable. Then you can work on making it less uncomfortable with more honesty and less blame.
Monday: Queen of Bows
Fascinates me that this is the sexiest Queen of the bunch, with Fire being the ‘hot’ element. The aspects today have the Sagittarius Moon (Fire Queen) square Neptune (the collective). This and several other aspects ask the question how comfortable are you with persuasive power versus coercive power. People like to be invited but very few people like to be compelled to do something. Where do you invite, where do you compel your friends to do what you want to do? Or vice versa? It’s a good day to notice this and see that it can be a fear of not getting your desires met or even approved that drives some less attractive power struggles. That scarcity mentality or fear of judgement is most often underneath the worst behavior in you or your friends. You can use that to make adjustments. They aren’t going to be easy or comfortable but with Pluto in the picture you reap big rewards when you do.
Take Action: Identify one place where you’ve been coerced by a friend and one place where you muscled them.
Tuesday: Four of Stones
Four put things on firm foundation and this four has the strongest base to operate from or the most greed. Fear of loss is wrapped into the shadow side of this four and can make you grab for more, more, more while you justify why as protection. The harsh reality is that fear of loss can leave you ultimately stockpiled on something tangibly reassuring while giving up so much more as you do. We rationalize some of our worst behaviors and thoughts in the name of protection. Thanks to some help from Mercury trine Neptune and Moon trine Uranus you have an easier time spotting that today. Your actions may tell on where your own fears drive you but it’s in service of you discovering where to make adjustments so you don’t come from a fearful place hidden underneath your rationalized behaviors. The Sun and Moon get a nudge from Jupiter by 9pm so you get there. The stones represent our body and it’s the slowest to recognize change. But once you do you’ve got it as a solid ground to work from moving forward.
Take Action: Let your knee jerk reactions today help you discover where you still don’t feel you have enough proof of something to reassure you.
Wednesday: Four of Vessels
Aha, the second four in a row. Two Fours together are an eight and represent good relationships. So this week’s focus on friendship has some sweet benefits for you to see where you’ve shared yourself and been rewarded in your friends. The Moon is in an easy relationship with both Mercury and Neptune so you can even help each other identify where the walls have been up. After all your friends know your past heartaches. The goal today is to help each other get to a viewpoint that celebrates how brave you were to risk your heart and try for something versus blaming the loss on someone or something else. Good as that may feel in the moment it ultimately says you can’t trust the world or your judgment. Instead see how risk and failure are a natural part of life and give us strength, resilience and stronger sense of what’s important. Your solid relationships are the safety net that allow you to take chances in life. Be careful using those friendships as places to merely console each other on other people’s shortcomings to feel better about yourselves. It breeds defensiveness, the shadow side of this Four. The world has risks, you can tackle them better with your good relationships. Even mistakes have plenty to offer us and the best friend won’t let us hide out from potential failures. Instead they’ll help minimize those risks and do it anyway when we really desire what’s on the other side of the challenge.
Take Action: Raise the bar on any friendship and see where a friend’s failures demonstrated their strength and courage in trying for what they wanted.
Thursday: Seven of Bows
This Seven labeled ‘clearance’ is perfect for the elements today. The Sun holding hands with Jupiter and Moon doing the same with Chiron means that our actions reveal our old traumas so we can clear out or mend the broken thinking. This broken place looks like where you snap at people, expect a fight even when there isn’t any real indication one is forthcoming or think you need to earn your right to speak. These are all behaviors that signal your in a young place that doesn’t see the Truth. You get to want what you want. Other people may not agree but that doesn’t threaten you unless you let it. Their opinions matter to you, but not more than your own does. Where can you see that you always have the right and responsibility to speak up for what you want and need. The challenge with this card is it often comes out fully loaded because you aren’t sure this is true. How you say it and how strongly you feel the truth of that can shift everything for you. It’s training wheels this week so if you see the places you overreacted, okay, good to know. Own your own responsibility for what you desire, call on good friends to help anchor it, and if it’s the friend who challenges you, push back. It’s good practice to do this with love. Speak Truth but let them hear love as my colleague Adam Elenbaas says.
Take Action: Speak your Truth but let them hear the love you have for yourself and then spill it over on to them.
Friday: Six of Arrows
Transition is upon you today with this Six. This carries a healing quality from the Six and Arrows mean your mind finds a calm place. Not because the storm stops but because you know how to navigate out of it. The Aquarius Moon squares the Scorpio Sun at 3:22pm so the tension between the inner and outer worlds you feel is there to build strength to know what you want, how you act on it and where that plugs in to the world around you. Venus Square Pluto at 8:24pm drives the need to break free from any outside authority that dictates what you should or shouldn’t want. Desires denied and disowned show up in some very unattractive ways. You’ve got those desires, everyone does. So time to drag yours out in to the light and own them. Lovingly own them. It doesn’t mean you act on them, especially all at once tonight. Start by giving them a place in your life while you figure out where you want to express them and in what ways. You can take your time with this. It’s enough to bring what’s hidden out in to the light. Let the conflicts of this week help you see where they’ve reared their dark faces and places. You can do this.
Take Action: Look at one heartfelt wish that makes you squirm with discomfort to know anyone would see the naked longing in it. Start with a good look and acceptance of this starting point.
Saturday: Five of Arrows
Fives are the creation impulse and Arrows are the mind. So why do these two together spell frustration? Because our minds work to limit our expansion into the unknown and it does it with doubts, fears, defensiveness, or criticism, to name a few. You owning your desires will expand you. No doubt about it. So this Five shows up as a natural follow up to this week’s energy and yesterday’s Pluto square. The Moon is a big player in today’s astrological line up and will take you on a stormy ride if you don’t use your skills to navigate out of it, the way you did yesterday. You don’t have to suffer unless you choose to do so. Things happened that conditioned you to believe the worst about taking a risk in life. That’s one good way to be sure you don’t expand, to mentally revisit any failure in the past that caused you pain. Highly likely your brain is good at pulling up those statistics whenever you try to step outside the familiar path. Do it anyway. There are just as many historical moments where it worked out but your brain won’t pull those up as fast. That’s where your friends come in to play. Friends are you witnesses to a well lived life and they can help you recall success as well as failure. That’s your sweet spot today.
Take Action: Where you feel stuck, talk to a friend to get the bigger picture on what you’ve done like this in the past succeeded in giving you enough to make the risk worthwhile.
Sunday: Five of Vessels
There it is, the second Five. If this week’s cards were a poker hand, you could win. It isn’t a lock since the two pair aren’t very high numbers but still. Two Fives back to back signal personal uncertainty. This means you have a choice with this Five. In traditional Tarot it’s the heartbreak card. In this deck it’s the ecstasy card. Which way will you take it? There’s a fearfulness about this card based on past history of heartaches. You have to decide if you want to believe that the things that went wrong in the past belong back there to that time and place. Or you can drag the past into the present and keep it alive. It doesn’t have to be. It can turn out differently because YOU are different now. When it comes to your desires being met, you have different experiences, tools and understanding now than you did back then. How long will you let the past dictate your current situation and create more heartache in the future because you won’t let go of the past? Your choice. Mercury, Mars and the Moon all join in to give you a steady hand on a new path. Trust the bumps aren’t evidence of immediate failure and you stand a good chance you create something very different just with that shift in viewpoint. Heartbreak or Ecstasy, you choose.
Take action: Make a mental list of how much support you have in your good friends as you take a bigger risk on what your heart desires moving forward.
