#221-"You are Not Leaving, You are Arriving"--Week of August 14, 2023

We're in the heart of the Venus retrograde cycle! Venus (Relational One) in Leo is trine Chiron (Wounded Healer) in Aries supporting you to heal individual and ancestral trauma and to recognize the potency of your wounds as a healing presence. The New Moon in Leo unites the Sun (Conscious Self) with the Moon (Instinctive Nurturer) inspiring you to harness your heart power in new ways. The New Moon is conjunct Venus retrograde and Black Moon Lilith (Wild Undomesticated Feminine) and square Uranus (Maverick) in Taurus. Whew! Look for pathways to reclaim your sovereignty, liberate yourself from oppressive cultural norms, and ignite your authentic power. Mars (Advocate-Champion) in Virgo is in a Grand Trines pattern with Uranus in Taurus and Pluto (Transformer) in Capricorn. Harness the power to make effective transformative changes in your everyday life around health, resources and work.

Podcast poem: "The Journey" by David Whyte
Poet's website: https://davidwhyte.com

Chapters

• 0:07 Astrology Alchemy
• 18:48 Astrology Podcast and Workshops Resources

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:07

Hello, welcome to Astrology Alchemy. I'm Sheila Belanger, your host for this podcast. Alchemy is defined as a seemingly magical process of transformation. Spiritual alchemy is the process of pursuing the gold of your true nature by transmuting the unrefined limiting parts of yourself. In this podcast, I'll offer you inspiring insights from current astrology cycles that support your path of turning your personal lead into gold. More resources are available at the website on theedgesofchangecom. Hello and welcome to the podcast for the week of August 14th. I'm your host and guide, sheila Belanger.

Speaker 1: 0:59

While darlings, we're getting right into the heart of the matter this week, and a phrase from the since July 22nd reminder. Retrograde means from our perspective on the earth, the planet looks like it's moving backwards in its orbit. It is not physically doing that, it is energetically and archetypically doing it. Retrograde is a timeout with the archetype Wait, wait, wait, learn, inward review, reassess, redefine. What's so powerful about Venus? Retrograde and remind you is the astronomy of the planet. When Venus goes retrograde, it is what's called an evening star. We see it in the night sky after the sun is set. As it moves retrograde, it gets closer and closer to the sun until it finally disappears. It goes into the underworld and then it reemerges a number of days later and it's a morning star, meaning it rises now, before the sun rises, which is called the heliacal rise of Venus, which is happening this week. Now, what does it mean? Venus is about our relational self. It has a deep affinity with the divine feminine, like the great goddess, however you would express that. And when Venus is retrograde, the deep feminine or the magnetic yin powers in all of us is in a big review. Venus is retrograde in Leo, which is a fire sign of sovereignty and creativity. And like here I am, people. The take on point Venus retrograde in Leo from July 22nd until September 3rd, that 40 day period is an immense challenge to all of us on a personal and collective level, to reclaim our sovereignty, to compost dominator culture, patterns of subservience, people pleasing, deferring, hiding our light. No, it's like the goddess is pissed and she's not having it anymore. And the goddess in quotation marks for all of us. And now this particular cycle on Monday, venus retrograde is trining. It's making a positive 120 degree angle in the sky to Chiron.

Speaker 1: 3:12

Chiron is a very unusual astronomical body. It's kind of an asteroid comet shapeshifter. It's the wounded healer archetype, it's the shamanic one, and Chiron, whenever it's active in a cycle, invites you to deep healing, personally and ancestrary. The medicine and the wound. Chiron has been in Aries for a bit. In Aries is a fire sign, like Leo, where it wants to individually express who it is be true to oneself. Have the courage to be who you are.

Speaker 1: 3:43

Now, when Chiron is in Aries, all of us are bumping up into the old unmetabolized trauma and wounds of I can't be myself or my energy comes out too aggressively, I run over people. And then, with the Chiron themes, it's the ancestors, also the unmetabolized wounds of the ancestors. How many of your ancestors in your lineage were not able to be who they really are? Most of us camp for many different systemic, societal and wound family pattern wound conditions. But Venus retrograde, chiron retrograde, they're both in this deep inner review and essentially at the heart of the matter is reclaim the power of who you are as an individual and recognize that is the source of your sovereignty. And this is a very deep inner sort of falling back in love with yourself that has nothing to do with wounded narcissism and demanding anything of the world it's about. Can I love me as I am, with all of my different expressions, with all my uncooked parts, with all my shadow parts. It's just okay. Can I just love myself as I am? That's a huge medicine and what's so powerful about this venous trine chiron is this is the second of three of these patterns, these cycle patterns, right now. The first time venous was trining chiron was June 29th and June. We have an exact connection beginning of this week and then the last one will be on September 23rd of this year. So essentially we have about a three month period of venous trine chiron, which is this invitation to keep releasing the unconscious ancestral wounds of I can't be me or stifling myself, or don't be selfish and let it go. Give it back to the ancestors with love. Do your part and really be willing to value and honor venous how your own woundedness has shaped you into a greater healing presence in the world. So just be aware of that. And then, on Wednesday, august 16th, we have a new moon at 23 degrees of Leo, and this new moon is exactly connected to venous, retrograde and a really powerful point in astrology called Black Moon Lilith. Plus it also squares Uranus and Taurus. Okay, that was on the edge of Astro Babel, so let me back it up and explain what I mean.

Speaker 1: 6:20

Let's start with the new moon. The new moon, of course, is the sun and moon coming together in the heavens. You don't see this union because the dark face of the moon is what we see. So it's a mysterious union of the solar and lunar energies, of the yin and the yang of the conscious self expressing itself in life. Sun and the deep, instinctive, nurturer yin energy of the moon. New moons always give us the prayer pleasure of starting something new. Here it is, in Leo, this sign of creativity, of sovereignty, of visibility, of love, of loving life, of loving and bringing your heart power out to the world. So we're seeding something here. But as this happens, the sun and moon come together with venous, retrograde and venous as at the very depth of the underworld. The planet has disappeared from our view and she's not yet risen as a morning star. So she's in this deep, powerful death rebirth cycle in the underworld. Her old ways of loving our old ways of loving our old ways of deferring, our old ways of not respecting ourselves and others is dying and composting in this new moon, so that the seed point of Leo carries with it this venusian invitation to be visible. Bring your love forward, enacted in the world, with a little bit of a twist, because the new moon and venous are also what's called conjunct or with something called the black moon Lilith. Now let me I'm actually going to quote from Astro Butterfly about this, just to explain it to you. Black moon Lilith this is what Astro Butterfly says. You can sign up for her blog, astrobutterflycom.

Speaker 1: 8:16

Lilith was Adam's first wife. The legend says that when she refused to be submissive, she was cast out of Eden. Lilith didn't like that. So in a chart natal chart or by transit, by astrological cycle, lilith is the pure expression of the wild, unleashed feminine spirit. Lilith is our raw instincts, the forbidden fruit, the liberator. Lilith is called Black Moon Lilith because she is literally black. She is not a planet or an asteroid, but a mathematical point calculated when the moon is at its farthest distance from Earth. Because Lilith doesn't actually exist in physical form, she rules our deepest, repressed desires that are difficult to be expressed in the material three-dimension reality. Lilith speaks to the darkest part of ourselves that we're often afraid to acknowledge or where we feel criticized or misunderstood. Black Moon Lilith is where we refuse to submit to others and seek equality. Lilith is a symbol for the dark side of the feminine energy Dark, not because it's negative, but because it's not acknowledged. So the power of this new moon with Venus retrograde and Black Moon Lilith in the heart of the underworld change of Venus is so stunning.

Speaker 1: 9:43

So I just call you in and say, have you been tracking some pissed-offness, resentment, refusal to submit and being invited to stop criticizing the parts of you your ego does not like or the world doesn't like, but rather to get deeply intimate, the greatest love affair of all, intimacy with self, to acknowledge those so-called dark parts of yourself. Yeah, this is what hurts me, this is where I hurt others, this is the unmetabolized trauma. And you know, I lean in with compassion, I lean in with tenderness and fierce love to say, yep, I'm human and I ain't going to apologize and I ain't going to compensate and I ain't going to rescue you from me. Okay, that's what we're talking about this week and that new moon is right there with this, in all of our hearts, no matter what gender you identify with, no matter how you express yourself. Plus, bonus prize the new moon with Venus retrograde and Lilith squares Uranus.

Speaker 1: 10:58

The great Maverick, the liberator, the change agent, the chaos bringer, archetype. Uranus shakes everything up. Its whole purpose is to disrupt static ego reality, whether that is expressed in our individual personalities or in our collective institutions and policies and politics and such. It's just like break it up, shake it up, baby, so we get real, we get authentic and everybody gets liberated. Okay, now Uranus remembers in Taurus many of us as astrologers keep reminding you shaking up security, stability, whether it's tangible things like wealth and money and property, or it's our internal sense of safety and security.

Speaker 1: 11:41

Taurus, the earth herself. Taurus, shaking us up with intense climate crisis. What is it going to take for us to keep tuning and say we have to stop this madness? She might just burn us up. Uranus says break it up, wake up, liberate yourself from these old patterns so that you can lean in, you get free and and people get free and the earth gets free.

Speaker 1: 12:06

Okay, all of this is cooking in the underworld journey of Venus. Now, venus just recently came together with the Sun, so there's this changing now To begin to rise up, but we don't actually experience the astronomy of the Heliocorize. The rising up of Venus until later in the week around Saturday August 19th, is that what's called the Heliocorize of Venus at 17 degrees of Leo. This means those of you who have an open sky in the east before sunrise, go out and look. Go out and worship the power of Resurrection and the rising up of the archetypal deep Yin, feminine, goddess, relational, lover. Okay, coming up, beginning a new 18 month journey with how each of us is being called to embrace and express the divine feminine, however you would define that. And the take-home point is reclaim your sovereignty as One of deep respect for yourself and all living beings in the world, and Stop playing small, stop being subvariant, sub-servient. Be visible in whatever way is right for you. Liberate yourself by being visible. Liberate the world by bringing those that have been marginalized, those that have been hidden, the truths that have been hidden, rise it all up. That's the energy we're working with this week and, just for a little extra pizzazz, we have the same day as the new moon, on Wednesday, august 16th.

Speaker 1: 13:56

Mars is trying Uranus at 23 degrees of Virgo and Taurus. Mars is the active, young principle. It's the warrior, warrior as advocate. You don't have to genderize it, but it's just like let's go do it. It's in the earth. Sign of Virgo right now. Virgo wants healing, virgo wants precision, virgo wants methodologies that take something that is broken and brings it into wholeness. Uranus is that Maverick liberator, change agent in Taurus that is so active. With a new moon. Mars trying Uranus says we got the juice and energy to make big, radical changes in a grounded way. Plus the Mars trying, uranus actually is what we call a grand trying because there's a third character involved here, which is Pluto in Capricorn. So Mars, uranus and Pluto make this triangle shape in the sky. It's called a grand trying.

Speaker 1: 14:58

Pluto is the great transformer, the deity of the underworld, the god goddess, deity of hell and transformation. Pluto wants taking things down to the bones to clean up and transmute the poisons. Pluto has re-entered Capricorn for its last stint To help us look at the Capricornian structures of our life, the power dynamics. Who makes the rules? Who's in charge? How do we make things happen? So Pluto in Capricorn is this deep systemic change of Let go of the power over. Transmute the poisons of dominator culture, transmute the poisons of Trying to be right and have fear-based control. So they work together, the transformer archetype, the Maverick change agent and the act advocate, warrior, warriors, boom, all right, good week to make some big systemic changes.

Speaker 1: 15:57

And, by the way, notice that Mars and Pluto and Uranus have a certain kind of young energy to them. They also have yin, but they have a young energy. And we talked about the new moon, with Venus and black moon Lilith, which has this deep yin, sacred feminine, sacred masculine. You don't have to genderize it, you can see sacred, active one, sacred, magnetic, one powerful week to realign and to recognize Some things are dead. They need to die so many things, personally and collectively, and you to need to recognize yeah, there's this death in the underworld with Venus and there is this rebirthing, there is this arriving into a new Way of being in the world and in yourself. Powerful, powerful week. Lean in, submit yourself in a sacred way to these archetypal changes.

Speaker 1: 17:02

So I bring you a poem from David White called the Journey, which honors this deep transformation that happens, that also in the context of something much bigger big, big messages in the sky that help you recognize the death rebirth that you and the world is in right now. The Journey. Above the mountains, the geese turn into the light again, painting their black silhouettes on an open sky. Sometimes everything has to be inscribed across the heavens so you can find the one line already written inside you. Sometimes it takes a great sky to find that small, bright and indescribable wedge of freedom in your own heart, sometimes with the bones of the black sticks left when the fire has gone out. Someone has written something new in the ashes of your life. You are not leaving, you are arriving. So notice this week that magical, powerful place with Venus rising up from the underworld to begin a new cycle. Recognize what you have left and recognize that you are arriving and this is also the world in her immense systemic death rebirth process right now.

Speaker 1: 18:48

Thank you for your continued support as my beloved audience. I appreciate you so much. Keep offering this weekly podcast in service to your own transformation journey. Remember, too, that I have many resources for you. Go check out my website on theedgesofchangecom and particularly, you can go to both the astrology pages and the workshops pages. There's lots of resources for you there. Thank you. You have been listening to the Astrology Alchemy Podcast with your host, sheila Belanger. More research on theedgesofchangecom. Thank you for listening. Bless your alchemical journey to embrace the gold of your true nature.