venus retrograde: the underworld, the phoenix, & love

October 5 @3:05pm est: venus retrograde at 10 degrees of scorpio
October 31: venus retrogrades back into libra
November 16: venus direct at 25 degrees of libra
December 2: venus back in scorpio until January 7, 2019

venus is taking us into the underworld, territory of scorpio ruled by pluto aka hades. more specifically, venus is taking our relationships, resources, & values to the underworld. it’s time to purge, transform, & heal our attachments. it’s time to slow allllllll the way down & get really vulnerable with ourselves about the unresolved shit getting in the way of what we claim to desire. like it or not. probably not.

venus in scorpio will reveal things about our relationship to pain, rage, & power. scorpio is the process of transforming our wounds through healing. effective action & strategy is birthed from this process. agency is birthed from this process. but the thing is, we can’t skip steps. with scorpio, it is a death-rebirth cycle. we must go from wound to rage to healing to action.

true rage can’t be pretended or performed. true rage shakes us to our core. true rage in itself is not the destroyer- the hurt that roots it is. true rage can be a change agent, a medicine, a catapult towards power if we are responsible with it. don’t conflate lies about powerlessness with rage. don’t conflate refusal to take responsibility for subscribing to those lies with rage.

when we attempt to heal without honoring rage, we spiritually bypass. when we attempt to act without tending to the wound, our energy is misdirected & we do more harm. when we attempt to rage without being accountable for our healing, our wound becomes toxic. when we are wounded but will not sit with rage so we can heal, we never act. so, it is our responsibility to transform.

transformation is when the phoenix bursts into flames, in the wisdom of knowing that it has become all it can be in this phase. everything must burn if it is to begin again, if it is to continue living. when the phoenix rebirths, it is not an entirely new entity. it still holds the life-force & experience of what it was before. to burn is compassion for the phoenix; a love it has for itself that makes it unwilling to tolerate being miserable or getting stuck in what can no longer feels like vitality.

venus retrograde is an invitation to be intentional with the space that your pain, your rage, and even your healing takes up. none of these are entities outside of yourself that you are powerless to; they directly impact your relationships & resources. you are capable of transformation & deep, deep love. this is where your resonance comes from, this is where your desires are met, this is where you begin to live again. this is love.


you can find venus retro horoscopes for each sign & ritual recommendations in the Commune.
you can work with me if you would like to get in-depth details of what this venus retro cycle might hold for you,

oxo
saltwater & stars

Pluto Direct: despair & urgency to rage & agency

pluto in capricorn is direct! it’s been retro since April. outer planets like pluto, neptune, uranus, & saturn actually spend a lot of time retrograde. retrogrades are not all the same; we’re not thinking in terms of the mayhem that often accompanies mercury retrograde or the relationship adjustments of venus retrograde. pluto retrograde has hopefully pulled us deeper into the process of purging our psyches of the internalized oppressions we suffer from under toxic power structures & socio-political paradigms. internalized patriarchy, capitalism, racism, classism, ableism, etc. pluto direct brings our focus to the external & collective processes of transforming oppression into healing & power. it becomes easier to make structural adjustments in the area of our charts that pluto is visiting. pluto will also be directly square (tension) the new moon in libra next week.

pluto is death work, pluto is rage, pluto is transformation. in capricorn since 2008 until 2024, societal structures (jurisdiction of saturn, ruler of capricorn) have been undergoing what may sometimes feel like more & more rapid change. collective consciousness is slowly shifting, accountability feels more relevant than ever for many, & tolerance for “the way things have been” is low. this is the birthing of rage that rebirth us. because rage can eliminate toxicity & keep us from neglecting our healing in ways that are detrimental to the collective. pluto does not perform, pluto cannot pretend. we are committed to destroying abusive systems & building restorative ones or we are not.

pluto direct is a reminder of choice. do we despair at the overwhelm of our collective needs for healing? do we rage recklessly as the only retribution we feel we may ever get? do we start outside in or inside out? how do we reject what is everywhere? how do we generate what feels impossible? CAN WE DO IT ALL?

there are no binary answers because context is everything. what I do know is: we can no longer stay comfortable in these systems. neither can we stay comfortable in despair because while it is an acknowledgment of the immensity we are holding, it is not a response-able approach. because our individual & collective transformation are matters of life & death. to despair is to diminish our capacity to generate what we want to be possible, what we believe we can grow. despair can look like rage because we’re displaying our anger, even as we retreat deeper into ourselves, forget that some version of what we rage against also lives in us, or neglect to offer our most resonant, necessary contribution.

we cannot rely on urgency to give us a sense of agency. because a pattern of only showing up when it feels urgent gives power to something else- the system, the to do list, the speed of performance- rather than to YOU. we need humans who are able to respond & stay present in the long term. we need humans who are living a personal rejection of the oppression we’re claiming to reject as a collective. we need humans who rage to transform, rage to heal, rage to change. rage generates rebirth & that is where our hope, power, and agency lives.

people often prefer despair to rage because despair is easier & you get to stay comfortable. rage is uncomfortable & unpopular and means you have to be accountable for directing it into generative work. people prefer urgency to agency for the same reasons. urgency is easier & more comfortable than the accountability of agency. the redirection from despair & urgency to rage & agency is the work of living in dying systems. it is long, slow, uncomfortable work. it is the work of pluto in capricorn.

oxo
saltwater & stars

feel free to share & quote public content with credit to Saltwater Stars. if you want to find out more about how pluto in capricorn is showing up in your life, you can work with me anytime.
image from @elijahsad on Unsplash.

mars square uranus

we have a full moon in aries coming up (September 24). when we had the new moon in aries (April 15) it was ON uranus. now, uranus has moved on to taurus where mars in aquarius is squaring it (exact today) for the third & last time this year. this tension between mars, ruler of aries & uranus, ruler of aquarius has been an ongoing story. mars was retrograde for most of the summer & won’t leave aquarius until November 15. the aquarius/taurus part of your chart is experiencing a final push towards the future. the repetition may feel frustrating but the integration is here if you are willing to make the changes that have surfaced as necessary for you to thrive as an individual & in community.

your own chart defines what these lessons have been but themes may be: calibration around your collective contributions (what you give to the world), reinvention of how you use your energy, & updating the systems that help those activities function smoothly. mars in aquarius brings evolution through awareness, action, & instinct. mars wants things to happen right now while uranus operates on erratic, nonlinear timing. we may be full of epiphanies but frustrated with figuring out how to implement them. attachments have been cut, anger has been a catalyst, nerves have been on edge.

ultimately, this is about freedom. this is about freeing your time, space, & energy up so you can direct it towards the future you want to create. the changes you’ve been making & the evolution you’ve been undergoing might be uncomfortable, not happening fast enough, or happening far too fast for your liking. gratefully, a square means that we are learning how to work with both these energies by observing which approach is needed when. we are learning the skills we need to continue to move forward without neglecting sustainability, the collective, or getting stuck in our fears. be brave enough to trust yourself & humble enough to evolve.

“All that you touch you change. all that you change changes you. the only lasting truth is change. god is change.”-Octavia Butler

dark moon recommendation

sunday, september 9 @2:02PM EST | 17 degrees
 

saturn went direct thursday in time to help us get ready for a beautiful new moon supported by erotic pluto & ethereal neptune. on or just after the moon is new is the time to begin fresh practices, projects, or experiments. with netpune in pisces will be opposite the new moon, you'll get better results if you infuse all your operations with a trust that the multiverse wants to work with you. you don't have to be or do all the things. if saturn retrograde since april taught us anything, it's that we literally, actually can't without a cost. 

with saturn direct, there is sometimes this feeling of...what's next? what is the next project? what's the next plan? what's the next move? what do we need to optimize, capitalize, or execute on right now?  these are powerful, ambitious questions. they are important for us to be able to make the most of the time, energy, & resources we have. each moment is a reason to be grateful & that deserves to be honored.

this moment before the new moon is an invitation to be with those questions without urgency. trust the answers that time brings, trust what you have already accomplished. take inventory- not just of what you've done but of what principles are supporting your work ethic. virgo, as an observer of intricate process & interconnectivity, wants us to seed intentions that honor sustainability. because capitalism, urgency, & individualism are killing us. every day.

saturn helps us create structures of support so we can not just perform accountability, integrity, or responsibility but actually embody it. saturn retrograde was a reminder that sometimes we have to do things we don't want to do. not because of some kind of self-hatred, scarcity, or punishment model. but because our relationships, our bodies, our communities need us to be response-able. our relationships, our bodies, our communities need us to be committed to something other than personal ambitions or feel-goodness. our relationships, our bodies, our communities need us. 

sometimes we have to rest when we don't want to. sometimes we have to slow down when we don't want to. sometimes we have to say no when we don't want to. sometimes we have to take our time when we don't want to. sometimes we have to examine whether something is really working & eliminate it when we don't want to. sometimes we have to be accountable when we don't want to. sometimes we have to look at the long-game rather than what we want right now. sometimes enough is enough, even if we don't believe it. never because we've failed, but because something else is possible.

thanks to pluto in capricorn amplifying the new moon, we can plan to transform structures/commitments that are draining our power into ones that will bring us more than immediate gratification, recognition, or quick results. what we need is intuitive (pisces) strategy (virgo) to make our visions real without sacrificing resonance. remember that new moons are just beginnings- the magic happens in the process of growth. the magic takes time, practice, & surrender.

dark moon recommendation
choose a timeframe (saturn retro: april-now, mars retro: june-august, last week, today) & make a list of everything you've already done. from the tiniest things you can think of to the most obvious. list until you can't think of anything else- or ask someone to help you remember. when you create your intentions for the new moon, include a list or acknowledgement of all the things you already are doing. pro-tip: feeding yourself, breathing, & generally staying alive count as more than enough. 

you may find that this pressure to be productive, keep momentum, or be ahead of the game is an unnecessary distraction from where you really want your irreplaceable time, energy, & attention to be going. you may find that this new moon, you don't want to do more but to go deeper than that. maybe you want to do less of what doesn't serve you or those you love, & more of what does. whatever you decide, it is enough. it is enough because if you are willing to change & to be wrong, you can transform all discomfort into opportunity to learn, grow, & choose love.

oxo
happy new moon