She comes within orb, and he has an effect, like it or not. Frederic William Burton 1863 {{PD}}

Let’s look at the opposition of Venus to Pluto: falling across the Cancer/ Capricorn axis of the individual natal chart, we may see within a matter we care about represented by one or both of those Houses a threat to what we value, to a relationship, or to a financial source; these will be challenged by circumstances of change, transformed before our eyes or without our consent, or promised obliteration or re-birth, all to force us to re-define some Venusian facet as experienced through the House where Venus currently transits. We should expect change in terms of the rules in force with, the structure that supports, or the material manifestation of, the Venus matter. We may see this as a measure of how much we care, as a kind of test administered by an authoritarian, cranky Universe, but that would be a misperception; what we’re really experiencing will be the stripping away of sentimentality surrounding these Venus issues, which comes about through those unavoidable challenges.

That means that what occurs offers us a chance to see the Venus matter fresh, and to then take a new, more realistic approach as this expression of Venus is reconstituted or resurrected in a more practical or disciplined (Capricorn) form. It’s a given that this event (whether it is a long, subtle unwinding or an abrupt and permanent rending) requires the probing of areas and relationships we’d like to ignore or that make us very angry. We will specifically explore those areas we have deemed sacred, to which we’ve dedicated our life energies, turning over every stone as we look for the slimy thing or the spidery impulse beneath–and what we find plays in to our response to the Plutonian effect on the Venusian subject. Yes, we will uncover some ‘bad’ as we go, some less-than-flattering notions about Venus, what we care about, and how we show that caring–but it’s all in service of seeing our Love, our Money, or our Values in a more appropriate, and much more honest, light (Vesta sesq Black Moon Lilith, Venus opp Pluto)

White Tipped Black moth (Melanchroia chephise) http://www.flickr.com/photos/20087733@N00/306331255/ Clinton & Charles Robertson from Del Rio, Texas & College Station, TX, USA Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic

Today’s word image is a black moth. A moth can be a little freaky, so overtly hairy, with wing patterns that often look like eyes–but when we think about how we glorify the butterfly and disdain the moth, we have to admit they are much more similar than not. The difference is a moth is seen as destructive, eating our woolens and infesting, stripping, and killing our trees, and so we allow ourselves to focus on their ugly features, rather than emphasizing the attractive qualities as we do with the butterfly, which doesn’t threaten anything at all.

So is this symbol one that asks us to recognize the beauty in what’s destructive (how very Venus-Pluto!) or does it point out that the differences between what we judge to be negative and what we judge to be positive are not as great as we think? Or does it simply show us that our assessment of anything is entirely based on how it affects us, and our senses simply follow that assessment, seeing the harmless as beautiful, and the destructive as evil, when an objective view might be that both fit in to the larger whole in a complementary fashion that we may or may not understand.

Donate–read–enjoy your Thursday!