The Medicine Journey of Venus Has Begun
We have a NEW MOON in LIBRA on October 8 at 8:47pm PDT, at 15 degrees LIBRA, making significant contacts to Neptune and stationing PLUTO.

NEW MOON in LIBRA
October 8, 2018
8:47pm
San Francisco, Ca

VENUS, our lady of love and resources, has just stationed retrograde at 10 degrees SCORPIO on October 5. With VENUS ruling this NEW MOON, all signs point to this newly underway retrograde. It doesn't leave its station degree until October 12 meaning that this archetype is beaming down on us in a very focused way until then. We've already talked some about what VENUS in SCORPIO is about, but let's explore a bit more, adding the retrograde facet.

VENUS represents the needs of our heart as well as our 5 senses, and what satisfies them. She has two expressions; TAURUS is our self-worth, our self-love, and LIBRA is our partnership love. She tells of our sensual and sexual needs, and her primary purpose is to incorporate spirit into flesh. The archetype of VENUS reminds us that sexuality is an expression of the divine.

VENUS in TAURUS (the polarity point of VENUS in SCORPIO) is self-love, and self-pleasure and her default position is, "Why go anywhere else? This is all I need. It's too risky to involve anyone else".
However, VENUS in SCORPIO takes us out of ourselves via our desire. Lust makes us willing to risk an intimate engagement with a relative stranger. Passion and desire sweep us right out of our comfort zones, they catalyze a willingness to take physical and emotional risks. The risk of danger real, but if you succeed the payoff is enormous. VENUS in SCORPIO doesn't need a relationship just for the sake of having someone to be with, for VENUS in SCORPIO a relationship must be compelling, and if it's worth it, they go all in.
VENUS in SCORPIO has no illusions nor pulls no punches. There either is an irresistible magnet pulling you together, or there isn't. If the fuel runs out, and you can't refuel, then the relationship is over.
VENUS in SCORPIO is conditional love.
I love you because you make me feel good, you take me out of myself.
You inspire me to parts of myself as of yet unknown.

If the relationship that you are in is not fulfilling you any longer, this retrograde is going to be a medicine journey to get to the bottom of what's lacking, in order to regenerate, or it will be to let the relationship go in order to find something that is more fulfilling, that moves you. VENUS in SCORPIO needs to continuously go deeper, seeking more intense levels of relating, in the direction of full fusion. If there are blocks to this essential SCORPIONIC flow, then take the time to figure out what they are and clear them, purge them over the next 6 weeks.
The shadow side of VENUS in SCORPIO is fear of abandonment or betrayal, or being the one who abandons or betrays, with tendencies for jealousy and extreme possessiveness. It's all or nothing with VENUS in SCORPIO.
This VENUS retrograde begins at 10 degrees SCORPIO, moves back into LIBRA on Halloween, then wraps up its retrograde on November 16 at 25 degrees LIBRA. If you have any planets between 25 degrees LIBRA/ARIES or 10 degrees TAURUS/SCORPIO, the parts of life that these planets represent are about to have a medicine journey, led by VENUS. If you have something significant there, it's probably a good time to schedule a reading to get clear on the homework and how to best work with it in your life.

This retrograde transit may bring a crisis to relationship, but its function is to stimulate a deep, wide, soul-search to find the problems that are preventing growth and vitality in the partnership, and if possible, to restore it. Healing and regeneration are possible, but only if you lay everything on the altar of love, sex, and deep emotional connection. If this is not possible, then this transit can be used to allow for and honor the death of the relationship, that it may be emotionally processed and digested to allow for rebirth and new growth on the other side. There is always springtime following winter.
What may become clear is each person needs to do some work on themselves. Perhaps part of the problem is a lack of each person's self-esteem. If you are coming to a relationship with an empty cup expecting the other person to fill it, rather than bringing a full cup to share, then it's just a matter of time before the wine runs out.
This MOON makes an inconjunct to NEPTUNE in PISCES meaning that there is a challenge to not be overly naive or idealistic about relationships. There can be a fear of getting trapped, and there may be some disillusionment. Check in with yourself to make sure that you're in love with the person and not just in love with 'love.'
The only remedy for this type of relationship malaise is to make sure that you get enough alone time to feed your own 5 senses. Naps, baths, good food, anything that brings you pleasure and makes you an inviting place for spirit to enter. Increasing your self-esteem is a way to augment your power, and when you are powerful, this means that you have options from which you can choose. In relationships, power signifies that you are attractive and can be with someone you desire, who also desires you. Then the SCORPIO magic of fusion can take place, but if you neglect the TAURUS polarity point of self-love and self-esteem, then things will likely again come to the point of exhaustion.

The typical way that SCORPIO energy moves is that some emotional crisis triggers a trip to the underworld and after a profound encounter with the truth of what isn't working, SCORPIO reemerges to a higher level than it was pre-descent. The pain must be felt to some extent as it is the specific fuel for the legendary growth and transformation for which SCORPIO is known.
Expect some of that in the next 6 weeks of this retrograde transit. There may be fears that come up around a loss of love or abandonment. Look these square in the eye and have the real conversations with self and partner. SCORPIO is a profoundly emotional sign; we are going to take a collective deep dive with this one. Our emotional bodies are where we evolve, and SCORPIO promotes emotional evolution like no other. The Sabian Symbol for the degree that Venus is stationing retrograde at is: A Drowning Person is Being Rescued. That's the mission statement for this Venus retrograde; help is on the way for the things that are not working in relationships. The symbol for the degree the retrograde finishes at is: An Airplane Sails, High in the Clear Sky. That's an auspicious symbol to look towards as we begin our swan dive into the waters of VENUS in SCORPIO retrograde.

This emotionally charged New MOON in LIBRA is square to PLUTO in CAPRICORN. This a double signature of VENUS PLUTO, with the addition of CAPRICORN. This MOON says that you can't avoid your emotions right now, you have to take the time to dig deep. Emotional trauma may be stirred up, but it's in the interest of healing. This is a call to emotional empowerment. It may require some regression to an earlier time when you were hurt when you felt weak. There may be some things that you didn't have the luxury of being able to feel fully felt at the time due to circumstance. Those things still need to be felt and processed, to digest them emotionally and move forward in your life.
This MOON speaks of a change. Somewhere in a relationship, it's time to move onto the next phase. It's part of a maturation process, a growing of tougher skin. It could be time to end a relationship, or it could just be the end of a cycle within the relationship, you need to tune into your inner cycles to know which.
Be present and don't avoid the issues. This is how you can tap into your emotional power on this NEW MOON.
This MOON also speaks of the current playing out of women struggling for respect and authority in a patriarchal world, also connected to the JUPITER in SCORPIO expanded #metoo movement. We are preparing to wrap up this transit as we spend one last month with JUPITER in SCORPIO, before it enters SAGITTARIUS on November 8, a day after our next NEW MOON.

This MOON contacts PLUTO, now direct but in station until late November. PLUTO beaming down has a profound, primal, pulse that brings our deepest needs to the fore and an awareness of where the problems are, where you feel disempowered. It is a call to growth and empowerment, to stimulate you into making changes where you need to and thereby regaining your power.
You can't choose the path of least resistance with PLUTO, and its time in CAPRICORN is about consolidating our vision into a workable foundation of our lives that we can commit to, but that means that we are coming to terms with what doesn't work in our own lives and also the old ways of ruling and governance (CAPRICORN) that no longer serve, and we may be angry about it. The anger is justified and is fueling the transformation. We must test the new ways as we go because we are building an entirely new structure underneath the deepest parts of our lives. If it doesn't work, realign, again and again until it's right. When you find your correct alignemnt, it feels joyous.
Have you ever seen baby goats play?

Happy NEW MOON in LIBRA and blessings on all of your endeavors in this cycle. If you're in need of guidance, book a consultation today.
Paetra Tauchert, Astrologer
Image Credits:
1. John William Waterhouse 1849-1917, La Bella Dame Sans Merci 1893
2. Chart created by Geoff Gronlund, RovingSouls.com 2018
3. AstrologyKing.com 2018
4. John William Waterhouse 1849-1917, The Soul of the Rose 1908
5. Lizzie Siddal on Instagram as somniumdantis, image used with permission 2018
6. Cafeastrology.com 2018
7. Frederic Leighton 1830-1896, Flaming June 1895
8. Ernst Haeckel 1834-1919, From Art Forms of Nature 1904
9. Gustav Klimt 1862-1918, Tannenwald (Pine Forest) 1902
10. Gustav Klimt 1862-1918, The Swamp 1900
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