You walk into sharp turns ahead that require you to choose, destructive arguments or rocket-fueled creative impacts as Venus goes Retrograde and squares off with Mars. Shadow and the light quite literally at a 90 degree angle. Where we manipulate rather than collaborate steps center stage. It also shows where we’re stuck in a tug of war rather than productive activity. Who among us witnessed wise and successful people to demonstrate how to team up with others harmoniously to bring about mutual success when you were young? After 27 years in the business world in several industries, I know it was the rare exception rather than the rule. Since Mercury also squares off with Pluto, it’s time to ditch the old conditioning wherever it keeps score of who wins and who loses.
The theme of jealousy and envy that haunts most partnerships costs each of us. Whether it’s the hangover of sibling rivalry or not, there’s a deep-seated fear of loss that goes into both jealousy and envy. A battle for supremacy exists so you don’t feel too vulnerable to hurt or loss. Pluto in Capricorn used to believe ‘he who has the gold makes the rules’. Venus goes Retrograde for the next six weeks to highlight this conflict in order to bring more harmony and less commercial or tangible measure to the forefront. In order to do that you’ve got to confront the dark spaces where greed, jealousy, envy and competition hide. Competition for survival is wired in at birth, so everyone has their version. The challenge of that requires a fresh approach and is keyed to how well you know your own nature.
Once you drag the rotting bits of ancient ‘scarcity mentality’ into the light, those putrid bits can’t help but dry up. The by product of you not dragging around so many past power struggles offers you more fuel for passionate creation. How much more appealing is that trade off, right? Passionate collaboration that takes your creativity to new heights or fierce while brutal power struggles cost you even if you win. Those victories are pyrrhic and look like defeat, no matter the end score and they don’t leave much spark for originality. While the victories from a healthier connection not driven by win/win mentality is the gift that keeps giving.
But hey, you can do what you want this week. It’s all too easy to have dust ups, fiery verbal exchanges, entitled arguments and more rope tugging. The real win is to catch yourself, then turn left or right, and walk a different path. It may feel odd and with Saturn in the mix it won’t give you a lot of immediate or big results. But the progress you make is solid, sustainable and serves you well in the long run. The Cards and the Stars will help.
Thank you,
Lisa Greenfield
Card of the Week: King of Arrows
Intelligence, Watchfulness, Strength are three of the attributes Wildwood Tarot ascribes to this King. They are good ones to apply this week as transformational tension dials up the heat between old and new, past and present, and inner versus outer authority. This high flying King has the broadest field of vision. That gives you the biggest possible interpretation rather than a limited or self serving one. You don’t want to abandon self but you also must keep others in mind. Harmony blends all the different parts together for a symphony of creation that pleases.
Venus Retrograde shows you what is out of tune so you can adjust as needed. Mercury square Pluto says the adjustment is your perspective. The King of Arrows says open your mind and take in more information, not just the facts that validate your drive for results. The plus side is mental discipline rather than being at the mercy of unrestrained thoughts that compel you to act out old patterns. The downside is harsh or unrelenting thoughts that punish you or others because your mind lacks compassion. You have to watch, reason, and use strength to manage impulsive thoughts and actions. You give your emotions a much better, useful container when you do.
Monday: Page of Arrows
This busy bird was never seen resting on its laurels. It has a busy nature and the Pages are the inner state of being that precedes action. So this card represents mental chatter. It’s the perfect card for the aspects today. The Moon touches both Uranus and Saturn in uneasy ways along with the wounded place Chiron. What they say is find the path to independent yet responsible way of being. Find the healthy blend of spontaneity and inner discipline over those thoughts. The time to harness their power is before they impel you to act. Emotional strains and conflicting impulses are going to swirl, happy Monday. The awakenings may be a bit rude but highly beneficial.
You don’t have to be the one who experiences the shock, it may be their spill over that provokes your own fearful mind to flight. Breathe, check the knee jerk reaction and take in the broadest possible field of useful information. The upside of these aspects is a quick shift and you feel free of something that constrained you. When Arrows and Uranus are involved it’s likely to be a belief or interpretation that flashes light on a whole new set of information. Use the illumination to apply the Card of the Week’s formula – Intelligence, Watchfulness, Strength – to win the battle. After all, the war is in our mind first and foremost. Win there and the rest falls into a much more manageable set of risks you willing take.
Tuesday: Seven of Vessels, Mourning
Today we travel from what we love and our fear of losing into a greater state of detachment. Not detached from what you love, but from the fears that keep you defended and fearful because of it. All things end. The human condition knows and fears this when it comes to what we love. We think about the threats to our cherished loves, then get busy stacking up measurable buffers against loss. Money, achievements, property, status often serve to insulate us against the unpredictable life. You are not served by loving life less, instead learn to hold both the love of it and the potential loss of it together. This tension deepens our appreciation of what is valued in our life without having to hold it too tight.
Today’s quote is finding your own version of ’tis better to have loved and lost, than never loved at all’. It is the nature of abundance to have to choose where you give time and attention. The more time and attention you give it, the bigger the space it holds in your life. We get attached to those spaces and what fills them, then get twisted up to protect us from it. Notice where your twists are. Do they prevent you getting attached or do they try to lock down what you are attached to already? Probably a mix of both. Uranus says to hold it with an open hand. Pluto says love deeply. Mercury says nothing is ever lost forever. It will show up again in another form when you let it. Grieve your losses so you can love again.
Wednesday: Two of Bows, Decision
This two highlights choices. The Moon is in hard aspect to Uranus, which means choose what stays and what gets left behind. The keyword is Decision. There’s a great quote from the Book of Runes that says, “More than doers we are deciders. Once you decide the doing gets done”. Where have you been on autopilot with your decisions? The status quo is going to be more obvious today. But your comfort with it will not be the same. This is more of last summer’s energy where you pay a higher and higher discomfort price to keep doing the same things the same way. Like shoes you outgrew, old habits rub or pinch when you put them on and try to walk through the day. Let discomfort be your signpost to go shoe shopping. You need to walk through your days with a better fit for less pain.
Thursday: Six of Vessels, Reunion
Emotional grace and harmony are possible. It happens when you move away from indulgent emotional temptations and into a more balanced expression of joy in what you love. The Wildwood Tarot speaks of the symbolic ‘reunion of an individual with their own true nature’. This is not to imply that your nature can’t have storms and tempests to it. The difference is an honest recognition of your emotional truth that you then work consciously with rather than being at the mercy of it. If a hurricane approaches you do what needs to be done to take care of yourself. That goes for an internal storm surge or an external one. You get to safe ground and that may be a trusted confidant who can help you weather the storm. Or your safe place can be mediation, the gym, a great hike. What do you need to do to take care of yourself (and consider others) no matter what emotional elements are raging? Threats are less frightening because you are prepared and face them squarely. This alone brings a measure of harmony, that you are ready no matter what happens. Therefore you enjoy your life without fear dominating the landscape.
Friday: Three of Arrows, Jealousy (Venus Retrograde)
We have some celestial help today with a sweet team up between the Moon, Uranus and Saturn. What that means to you is emotional maturity, especially where scarcity mentality is concerned. This Venus Retrograde lasts from October 5th through November 15th. We don’t really finish the reset until mid December when Venus heads into fresh territory. Venus retrogrades form a beautiful sacred geometric symbol every twenty years. So take a good look at where jealousy, competition and other forms of survival thinking impacted your life the last two decades. Whatever those themes are, let them inform you of where it’s time to grow up in your own way. Take back any power you gave away and the icky sticky coping skills that went with the younger, less powerful you. Venus is harmonic. So you don’t have to scramble, bully, manipulate, deny or starve yourself for love. It is richly available right now in all your relationships. You simply need to put yourself in a place to receive it and call on your unique gift for connection. (Check out more about your special love style here)
Promised land waits ahead as you walk through the next forty days. While you mentally wander your own desert of loveless places from this last full cycle of Venus, know your particular fulfillment of love is ahead of you. You can’t miss it unless you stay stuck with your eyes closed unwilling to see the Truth. Love may not look like you expected, but it is love nonetheless. Let it reveal itself to you while you focus on staying open to what it feels like, not how it dresses up.
Saturday: Mirror
Time to be honest with yourself, first and foremost. We don’t take it well when we don’t get the outcome we want. Especially if someone else appears to have that result. Where there is jealousy there is fear and lack. Those emotions squeeze out good insight if you let them hold center stage. The Mirror signifies the ‘inner journey’ in Wildwood Tarot, where Trust is a key component. When you feel lack, you don’t trust there is enough to go around. Your will is denied in the moment, you don’t get the results your want and we are presented with a choice. Tell a story of limited resources and you missed out on yours, so you resent the person who has it, or you can trust that what is truly yours cannot be missed and believe you don’t yet to know how your desires will be fulfilled.
We starve ourselves with stories of scarcity when there is a banquet all around us. We simply don’t want to release attachment to it looking the way we want it to look. Or in some case we have a timeline that wants it now. The Moon gets an assist from Venus and Pluto today. This way you can trust that what’s yours will come your way. First you have to Trust yourself and the Universe that it is all unfolding as it should. Whether you see progress in this moment or not. Can you Trust that…? If the answer is no, be honest. Signs reassure you what’s meant for you is on its way, why not ask the Universe to send you some tailored just for you.
Sunday: The Great Bear
Release and renewal are ushered in today when you feed yourself a NEW story about what things mean. Things will feel good, you’ll have them handled then the old fears pop up, just to check and see if you really meant it for them to stay in the back seat instead of the driver’s seat. Firmly and kindly insist they not drive to wherever you go. You get a chance to apply Intelligence, Watchfulness, Strength again today and set a firm foundation for the future. The Great Bear carries the ‘reap what you sow’ energy. The better you are at driving your choices the more you get the abundant choices easily available to you. Or you can stay stuck rationalizing your defenses that leave you lonely and isolated, even if you are in relationships. Saturn says take it a step at a time. Big changes begin with one choice, one thought at a time. If you mess up, own it, correct it and do it better the next time. You will feel the difference and the progress becomes visible with each successive empowered choice.
