Venus in Leo

Venus in Leo - Dramatic Flair

"When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us."

— Alexander Graham Bell

We follow quite an intense, emotionally challenging, 'bumpy road' this week on our way to the activating 1st quarter Lunar Phase at the end of the week. Last Friday's Cancer New Moon (3:57 PM PDT 14° Cancer), in a trine to Saturn, pointed us towards responsibility and compassionate connections with others. But we aren't quite able to get a handle on which direction to take or what strategy to employ. Early in the week, we find ourselves struggling to balance responsibility with compassion. Ego vulnerability and emotional 'road blocks' make objectivity quite hard to find. With Saturn retrograde in Pisces, we may be tempted to focus more intently on the past, rather than staying in the moment and preparing for the future. The responsibility, encouraged by the Cancer New Moon, involves letting go' of the past and creatively engaging with others in order to lay the foundations for a 'better' future. We may very well have an intellectual understanding of why 'letting go' is important but there are emotional hurdles to overcome. Tuesday's Leo Moon squares the forming Mars-Uranus conjunction, producing some significant 'ego-based' tensions and power struggles that will continue to build into next week. On Thursday, Venus makes an inspiring and idealistic end-of-sign trine to Neptune before arriving in Leo. Venus assumes considerable power in Leo, ruling the forming Mars-Uranus conjunction. We are encouraged to take some kind of dramatic, bold action. However, by Friday, Venus in Leo opposes Pluto and sets up the power struggles that are likely to feed directly into the Mars-Uranus conjunction when it completes next week. Strong wills show up with a great deal of 'bluff and bluster' — but likely covering up some significant insecurity. Nonetheless, there are breakthroughs at the end of the week that suggest the potential for some to take on quite productive leadership roles. The emotional pain we struggle with by the end of the week is actually quite motivational. Activity begins to heat up as we head into next week's Mars-Uranus conjunction and the highly significant Capricorn Full Moon (3:16 AM PDT 29° Capricorn/Cancer) coming up on July 21st, which will conjunct Pluto, suggesting some extremely important transformational opportunities.

There is an underlying intensity on Sunday that is easy to misunderstand. We understand intellectually why it is responsible to let go of the past but there are still emotional blind spots. Early idealism on Monday tumbles into ego-based road blocks. Aggressive impatience requires a great deal of honesty and responsibility to diffuse. The atmosphere is surprisingly dreamy on Tuesday. The sense of purpose or mission is rather vague. We are challenged to acknowledge where are our responsibilities are on Wednesday. The breakthroughs are subtle but lay an important foundation for future progress. We feel the urge to take bold action on Thursday. We may not initially see how our 'bold actions' are in conflict that those of others. Strong wills show up on Friday, offering a great deal of 'bluff and bluster' that is covering up significant insecurity. However, we seem to be poised to turn a corner, suggesting some important developments in leadership. Pain is motivational on Saturday. We need to acknowledge both our own emotional sensitivity and that of others.