Venus, Ceres & Persephone: Re-Balancing Relationships

As I was meditating on the chart for the Libra New Moon last night, I kept being drawn to the fact that – right after the Kavanaugh fiasco – we have a New Moon in the sign of relationship and justice that is conjunct Ceres. And that Ceres is square Pluto.

Suddenly I experienced a little mental nudge: “I wonder where Persephone is?” (More on that in a sec…)

Ceres’ tight conjunction to the New Moon indicates that Ceres themes (the pain of women and children in societies based on patriarchal privilege; abortion, abduction, sexual assault, pedophilia) are going to predominate. As I noted in my piece last week on the mythology of Ceres and how she shows up in astrological charts, Ceres has a strong warrior nature. But there seems to be a need for ritual grieving of the wounded feminine (in women and men) before that warrior side can be truly empowered.

Check. There’s definitely plenty of grief and shock to go around since the Senate voted Saturday to confirm Brett Kavanaugh as our newest Supreme Court justice. Kavanaugh’s judicial record and public comments certainly seem to legitimize the widespread fear that a high court now tilted heavily in favor of right wing ideologues will act as soon as possible to reverse Roe v Wade, the landmark ruling that made abortion legal 45 years ago.

New Moons always herald the end of an old cycle and the beginning of a new one. We are definitely still deep in the mourning / letting go of the past energy of the  ‘old cycle ending’ phase.

In my post on the astrology of the September 27 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, I hypothesized that the reaction of Republican Senators, the President, and the right wing media was actually more important than whether or not Kavanaugh was confirmed.

I know it doesn’t feel that way for many of us. And it’s important that we feel our feelings now.

But Ceres has been super active in this year’s key astrology charts. And when we place this New Moon chart in the context of some bigger astrological cycles, we start to see the power of divine evolutionary intent at work.

I believe Ceres’ presence at this lunation indicates an evolutionary imperative to fundamentally rebalance our society’s attitudes toward not only women but toward the divine feminine and the divine masculine within each of us.

Even more than oppositions, squares in astrology indicate two archetypes butting heads with one another. Squares are challenging aspects, true; but they always produce change or movement in the material world. The potential of this square between the Sun/Moon/Ceres in Libra and Pluto in Capricorn is for an evolution in consciousness that challenges the status quo and contributes to the destruction or transformation of the patriarchal power structure.

Strange Echoes & A Light in the Darkness

So, I mentioned that I started wondering where Persephone was. I knew there was an asteroid named Persephone. But there are hundreds of named asteroids, most of which I’ve never used when casting charts.

Still, given the circumstances, it seemed wrong not to at least look up where she happens to be at the moment. And would you believe it?

At tonight’s New Moon, Persephone is conjunct Venus in Scorpio (< 0° 10′). Not only that, she’s in the exact degree where Venus stationed retrograde last Friday (10 Scorpio 50′). Continue reading →