Lion’s Gate II: Sun conjunct Venus and Leo New Moon (Tarot)

August 14th and 15th, 2015 – Lion’s Gate New Moon at 21 Leo followed by Sun conjunct Venus, officially ending the Capricorn cycle of Venus as Wise Crone and beginning the new Leo cycle of Venus as Sovereign Queen.  The Leo New Moon gives us a perfect moment for setting our intentions for the next stage of Venus energy we are about to experience.

The Lion’s Gate New Moon takes place at 21 Leo, Sabian Symbol: A Carrier Pigeon Fulfilling Its Mission.  A bird, the ultimate totem of freedom, but a domesticated bird, trained for a purpose, to carry messages.  At 21 Leo, the message has been received.  With Venus in retrograde just over two degrees away, this new moon is a powerful conjunction, handing the baton of the previous cycle’s lessons into the hand of the next runner.

The Sun and Moon are trine Uranus at 20 Aries, and Venus is exact trine Eris at 23 Aries.  Venus, Uranus, and Eris are all retrograde, opening channels to introspection of what the revolution means to us, and how our actions to shake up our lives have and/or are going to, affect the trajectory of our journey.  In the early degrees of the fire signs, Mars in Leo trines Prometheus in Aries (Prometheus also retrograde).  Mars is rarely as bold and focused as he is when he leaves Cancer for Leo, and connecting with Prometheus amplifies our urge to switch from defense to offense.  Channel these urges into the intensity of your intentions, rather than taking direct actions at this time.

There are two other aspects/aspect patterns occurring that are drowning the energies of this moment in the sacred acceptance of chaos and surrender to the mystery.  Pluto square Vesta, and a configuration involving Ceres, Saturn, and Lilith.  By the time Venus passes between the Earth and the Sun, Apophis joins the configuration too.

Lilith and Apophis are electrifying entities, full of danger and adventure, both in signs of order and calm.

Ceres and Saturn are firm and reliable, the mom and dad of the solar system, both in signs heavily influenced by disruptive and shadowy energy.

Apophis and Saturn, the male energies, are trine in water signs.

Ceres and Lilith, the female energies, are trine in earth signs.

The Tarot will provide us with context for these relationships and how they will inform the next Venus cycle, and give us insight into the best possible intentions that we can set for this new beginning.

Ceres- the nurturing mother of Persephone, retrograde for a second pass through Pluto(Hades)’s Capricorn. The Star and King of Swords. The Star is Ceres- knowing who you are, knowing your true path and your true place, where you can give yourself fully, and allow yourself to receive the replenishing energies of home.  The King of Swords tells us about Ceres in Capricorn- I always say of the Kings, “He is over it.” Ceres returned in retrograde to Capricorn, no longer searching for knowledge, no longer searching for her daughter, instead in complete mastery of the knowledge she achieved in the underworld, and is preparing once again to carry it forward into Aquarius, to pour it into the pool of communal knowledge of the collective for the greater good.

Saturn- the steadfast crone, stationed direct and finally leaving the Underworld after three long years. What else, but The Devil. The provocative image of the Devil in the Marseille Tarot speaks of Un-Doing, and in short I see this card as the guide from the stability of this realm into the shadows of the Underworld, the guide from rational thinking down into the limbic, prehistoric animal brain, the fallen angel that brings us away from our illusions of who we think we are, into the shadowy reality of our dark side.  This is Saturn in Scorpio- which began in October of 2012, finally ending.  Take one last look at the lessons learned here and honor them fully.

Black Moon Lilith- the once shattered and split feminine divine, priestess-whore, reunified and rising. Four of Wands.  Wands encompass the realm of dreams, creativity, passion, spirituality and sexuality (Lilith), the Four denotes the establishment of stability (Virgo).

Apophis- the chaos-fucker in the sign of the nurturing mother. Chariot and Eight of Wands. I read the Chariot as a card about overcoming inertia, assessing all our conflicting desires and seeking a way to point our lives in a single direction, the “correct” direction.  Apophis can put the spotlight on the fears that make this task seemingly impossible.  However it is paired with the Eight of Wands, the highest level of achievement and perfection of our passions, our creative purpose fulfilled- which rings with the influence of both Lilith(Wands) and Ceres(Just as Ceres is opposite Apophis, the Star card is the opposite of the Chariot).

The cards I drew for Sun conjunct Venus, and for the new Leo cycle of Venus, are the Ace of Wands and Five of Pentacles.

This tells us that during the new cycle, we have the power, the luck, and the opportunity to manifest our dreams and passions, and that the act of creative manifestation will take us to a new level materially.  The wand is depicted as a natural branch, a wand that literally grows out of the Earth, out of Gaia, and we are thusly reminded that the source of our inspiration and the source of our passion is our bodies, our physical bodies which are literally appendages of our planet.  From this unity with source we can claim our sovereignty, the sovereignty of Leonic Queen Venus. In trine to Eris and Uranus in Aries, powerful revolutionaries in the sign of the fresh start, ready to explode new possibilites into our individual lives, and into life on Earth as we know it.

Which brings us finally to Pluto square Vesta.  Pluto is the Wheel of Fortune and the Five of Cups.  As Pluto progresses through Capricorn, structures are demolished and the possibilities of what to rebuild are still up in the air.  We still have many more years of Pluto in Capricorn, many more foundations will become cracked, many more monoliths will topple. As we live our lives through this wreckage, as the rubble continues to pile up, we may continue to wonder how we will ever recover, who and how and when the new world will come into being- the Wheel of Fortune lets us know that we cannot know those things.  But the Five of Cups lets us know that at this time, we can choose to change the pitch and tone of our emotions, away from the flailing and despair of losing everything, not able to recognise the world we now inhabit.  We can choose to believe in a better future, trust, and choose love.

Pluto challenges Vesta in Aries, stationed retrograde exact square Pluto at 13 degrees.  The card drawn for Vesta is the Lovers, the most ambiguous card of the entire Tarot.  It’s about navigating the ever-changing circumstances, relationships, and situations in our lives that stand in the way of our happiness and/or make us happy.  Vesta is the sacred flame, the hearth-goddess that represents vitality in our homes and in our hearts.  There are things that stoke the flames, and things that suppress it, and it can be shockingly, agonizingly difficult to tell the difference.

Venus will soon emerge as the Morning Star, and next month the Moon will meet her in the morning sky for the first gate of Inanna’s Descent into the underworld, symbolically removing the crown of the Sovereign Queen.  Inanna teaches us that a journey of becoming must necessarily begin by stripping oneself down to the skeleton, so that only the naked truth of who we are is what remains.  We will find our sovereignty, but not in our accomplishments, not in our beauty, not in our goals, and not in anything that we identify with as individuals. Set your intentions to abandon your illusions and find the true source of your sovereignty during this new cycle of Venus.