Astrological Reflections
This Venus retrograde in Capricorn invites turning our attention to the inner hearth, to assess how well our value-fires are burning and what fuel they need to be kindled anew. It suggests being at the altar of the goddess Hestia, whom the Greeks and Romans worshipped as the living flame upon the hearth that burned day and night.
When Penelope tells her story to the stranger, who is Odysseus in disguise, she reveals how the loom strategy she used to keep the suitors at bay came from a divine source: “A god from the blue it was inspired me….” So Penelope set up a great loom and for four years wove daily a shroud for Laertes, and each night unraveled what she had woven.
Change is afoot wherever the outer planets appear in our charts. The Saturn-Pluto conjunction in Capricorn has been a key transit these past months and now they are being joined by Jupiter. This cluster will dominate throughout the year, drawing our attention to those areas, personal and collective, where change is underway. How are we cultivating awareness of what needs change in our life and attitudes, how do we participate in facilitating those changes, and how do we practice inner flexibility so that we are limber enough to do so?
“Do you have the discipline to be a free spirit?” Gabrielle Roth
Great questions lead into unknown idea chambers—and this particular one posed by Roth with its paradoxical synthesis of discipline and freedom offers a key to the Saturn-Neptune sextile that is quietly humming throughout the year. What does the conversation between these two archetypal forces look like in life? While there are many forms that can convey this dynamic, what captures my imagination is dance.
