Venus spends the next almost two weeks shining as the Morning Star on the last of her retrograde journey. She dips back into Aries and opposes the Great Awakener Uranus by month’s end. The Dark Side of this Venus is where we confront the ‘ends justifies the means’ theme.
Time to dig deep and real about the pretty lies we tell ourselves when we want something and it has potential to cause havoc. Actions have consequences. The biggest lies show up around minimizing the consequences of your actions to get what you want. Some people are brilliant at it, just look at politics the world over. To stay in power they will use any tactic to do so. Even if it has disastrous consequences for whole populations. Genocide occurs under the blanket of ‘what I want benefits me, which means by default it will benefit you’. It’s the worst of the Patriarchy – ‘I know best so do what I say to be safe’.
Except it doesn’t always. Right now the question you need to answer is how well you balance the needs of others against your wants. This can be as simple as a restaurant choice. Recently a friend wanted to eat out and I was touched when she suggested a restaurant I could enjoy because of my limited diet. I know it isn’t her favorite place but she can get something she wants and my need to eat particular food outweighed her wish for a heavier menu. This is a healthy balance between wants and needs in relationship and why I am friends with her.
The shadow side of Venus, front and center through the 16th of the month, brings up the places where you are blind or careless about others needs in the face of your wants. We all have them. I just had to weigh the cost of timing on something I’m working on with the health of the woman helping me achieve it. Surprise, surprise, the pesky little voices in my mind tried to find ways to urge her forward in spite of her illness. I thought, ‘she’s not that sick, it may help take her mind off it’. Not a proud moment, as I’ve struggle with my own health issues, but an honest one. I had to hip-check the impulse to get what I want at her expense. Wants versus needs, consideration is require.
That is the work we begin under the New Moon this week. Eleanor Roosevelt sums up our journey through Dark Venus and it’s meaning. “With Freedom comes Responsibility. For the person who is unwilling to grow up, the person who does not want to carry his own weight, this is a frightening prospect.” What we want has the potential to bring real joy into our lives. We are free to want what we want, do what we can in pursuit of it. But are you willing to let the means by which you achieve it justify the cost to others? Growing up means taking a hard look at that question and being honest. This new moon cycle that begins Wednesday underscores it’s importance in life.
Out of darkness comes the light, your desires can help you bring yours. The cards and Stars will help…
Thank you,
Lisa Greenfield
Card of the Week: The Woodward
The Woodward in the Wildwood deck corresponds with the Strength card in traditional Tarot. It signifies ‘the calm beauty of patience and love countering the unbridled emotions of hate and anger.” We must call on our inner strength to get through the dark journey of our selfish shadow. Everyone has those impulses. So it isn’t a matter of if, it’s a matter of how well you work with yours. Hate and anger at those who would deny us what we want is a young response. Time to help it mature. This week will give you plenty of opportunity. Here in the United States it’s election day and the chance for dark responses has already been on display. Hate won’t quell hate. It pours gas on the fire. When the problem is global, and it has reached worldwide proportion, the answer is to go within.
Start with your own wants and needs. Get clear about which is which. Consider that another’s wants and needs have equal importance to them. When scarcity mentality rules people will gladly sacrifice another to survive. The problem is that we aren’t in scarcity. We simply have uneven distribution of resources. This has been a challenge down through history. Find your own ways to address it in your life. More equitable exchange is as simple as consideration for another’s needs. Little changes can have big impact over time. Explore those corners this week and find a healthier way to get what you desire. Your example is a light for others.
Monday: Page of Bows
Our inner state of being is reflected when the Pages show up. It’s the feeling, thought or inspiration that precedes action. Today’s intuition driven Page of Bows carries an important message. Believing is seeing. Trust what want is possible. However with the Moon square Pluto you have to bring the adult you to the party. The infantile rage in each of us that demands satisfaction now cannot get you where you want to go. Instead you must steadily build your belief that your desires are meant to be answered. But that also requires you relax trying to control how it happens.
Instead you are learning to create in partnerships. The most important partnership is your dance with the Universe itself. There is more than enough to go around, what’s yours cannot be lost or given to another. Whatever you lose today, will be returned to you in a better form down the path, when you let it. This fast moving Page helps you engage with life and carries the counsel to do it without excess speed. Rushing is a sign you don’t trust it is yours, or that it will last. Engage moment by moment with no sense of urgency. Rather let excitement build and glow like a flame.
Tuesday: Eight of Bows, Hearthfire
Sweet connections are there for you today, with appreciation for the unique YOU. Our competing needs to first belong to our tribe of choice and then to stand out from the crowd show up today. This underlines the death of scarcity mentality if you wish to celebrate. Bring you to the crowd and there will be appreciation and acceptance if they are your people. If there isn’t that for you, it may be because you are new to the connection. So don’t rush to judge your welcome.
If you’ve been there a while and you don’t feel the appreciation and glow of bonding, time for a check. Are these your people, are you being authentically you, are you balanced in your needs versus others needs? If the answer to all those check out, then they may not be your people. In that case, your path is clear. Ask the Universe to help you plug in to your tribe, your people. You are lovable, you have a role to play and you matter. Today is a good to acknowledge and give credit to those who do see and celebrate you.
Wednesday: The Stag, New Moon in Scorpio
The key word for The Stag in Wildwood Tarot is ‘responsibility’. This New Moon packs an intricate message about how your desires nurture you and how you show up to fulfill them. Back to the ‘means’ of goal accomplishment. When you honestly show up for what you want and work with the world around you for satisfaction, there is no need to manipulate or bully. Instead it is a dance of enchantment and satisfaction. The challenge is to manage expectations and allow for fulfillment in a more creative way. One that is open to unexpected surprises from unusual sources. There really can be magic in how things happen when we let go of rigid, time-bound thinking.
Responsibility means we reap what we sow. The next moon cycle will reveal more of your methods of ‘sowing’ the seeds of desire. Pay attention to what blooms that you love and where weeds or nothing sprouts. That place is the shadow that you must embrace as part of you. Don’t give it too much attention. Rather use the places where you feel light and joyful to expand and pull up the shadows as you bloom. Where your attention goes, love grows with a little support. Map it out, accept yourself, adjust as needed. This next cycle has a great deal to offer you when you find your personal rhythm and live more from there.
Thursday: The Guardian
Jupiter moves into Sagittarius today and leaves the underworld of Scorpio behind. Jupiter spent a little over a year excavating the realms of deep devotion, power struggles and balance of power. What better card to signal this movement than the Guardian. Death is merely a passage from one state into another. Transformation is the realm of Scorpio, symbolized by the Phoenix who rises out of the ashes. Time to let what you’ve discovered this last year help set you free from the now defunct fears and doubts that haunt the underworld.
Sagittarius is the home sign of Jupiter, so it can bring a feeling of Christmas or joyful abundance with it. Jupiter is the great expander so it waives the wand of plenty and the higher mind takes flight. The downside is there can be a whole lot of imagination and a lack of action. But that’s for a later post. For now, celebrate moving through Hades and out the other side into a New World. Imperfect as it may be, it is rich with potential for your contribution to bring about the greater good. Follow the desires of your heart, face your fears, take responsibility for your part as you move from the darkness towards the light.
Friday: Seven of Arrows, Insecurity
The Wildwood Tarot’s Seven of Arrows description is perfect for today’s aspects. “Some of our greatest fears and self destructive drives are born of emotional insecurity or lack of self-discipline, crippling an individual’s ability to make timely decisions or responsible action.” Hear the echo that calls out for responsible choices? One of the most common themes I have for analysis paralysis or rush to action is the right/wrong fear. The drive to get it right, or to not get it wrong, is crippling. Separate out getting the results you want from the actions you take and you will go a long way towards solving this dilemma.
Of course you want your actions to bring you closer to your goals. However the results may look confusing or even opposite to what you wished for. Your task is to work with the results to refine how clear you are on your desires and then how clean you are in your actions. When your desires and actions are in integrity, the world delivers some amazing progress along not so linear pathways. It becomes and adventure. Fear would have you doubt yourself and your progress. I say, doubt your doubts. You will be much better served this way…
Saturday: Six of Bows, Abundance
Congratulations! This six heralds progress away from the insecurity of yesterday and into more useful adjustments where expectations are concerned. It’s easier to see where you are off and how to get back in alignment today, thanks to a little help from the Moon, Venus and Mars. Your personal planets are working liking a clean up team to help get those messy doubts in line. Doesn’t mean you won’t have them. Just means they won’t stick. It’s way to tempting to see it with fresh eyes, feel with a lighter heart.
Moon and Chiron dance so you see where the old view of you serves up the unappealing story of whatever happens. But now you know you can see it with a bigger frame on it and allow the additional information to give you a much better interpretation. You are the authority on your life. Power can’t be lost, you can only give it away. And, you can also take power back, whenever and wherever you wish. After all, how you interpret anything is your power. See where you can trust there is more than enough to go around and what you want, you can have. Then stay open to it looking differently than you ‘thought’.
Sunday: Queen of Vessels
Ah, sweet reward for work well done. The heavy hitting outside planets play nicely with your personal planets today to deliver and early holiday bonanza. You may find a real sense of authority on what you want and where you can stare down your fears and doubts to move in that direction. You may find you have unexpected help from those around you. Good fortune and happiness are the realm of this emotional Queen. So today you turn the sea of emotions into your own personal ocean spa.
Ceres is in the picture opposite Uranus, so you now see how to nurture your own dreams into being. Uranus helps separate you from fears of your own power or a dependence on outside power. Celebrate your progress with loved ones or give yourself a little celebration of your own today. This was a big week and you made progress. See it, own it and use it to connect with what you love more deeply and satisfyingly going forward.
