While Venus is in Taurus she broadcasts through her rays her dominion over the senses. Associated with life’s pleasures, in Taurus it’s the ornamented surroundings and the soft fabrics on the skin and earthy sensuality where Venus finds her expression. In fixed sign Taurus this placement indicates preservation in the mode of Venus, and it is here we find a Venus that takes care of its possessions, is possessive about the things it loves, and demonstrates continuity in creative expression.
Love for this Venus comes through in material things, luscious surroundings, flesh and bones, attuning to the plants and birds and the running brooks and rivers. In Taurus Venus expresses affection through touch, which is a fine end in itself for this placement. This affection can also extend to a material generosity with those for whom this Venus feels love. Venus in Taurus expresses affection with the pads of the fingers and dinner on the table rather than the grand display of a fire sign Venus, the verbal overtures of an air sign Venus, or emotional sharing of a water sign Venus.
Venus is now separating from a trine to Jupiter in Virgo, a sign that challenges typical notions of Jupiterian expansion and growth. Jupiter in Virgo can manifest as great devotion. The recently deceased radical activist, moral giant Catholic Priest Father Daniel Berrigan has this placement opposite Uranus in Pisces (Wiki data). I think the following quotation is a good illustration of it:
“The good is to be done because it is good, not because it goes somewhere,” he says. “I believe if it is done in that spirit it will go somewhere, but I don’t know where. I don’t think the Bible grants us to know where goodness goes, what direction, what force. I have never been seriously interested in the outcome. I was interested in trying to do it humanly and carefully and nonviolently and let it go.”
A more testing expression of the recent trine between Venus and Jupiter in these two earth signs shows up as an unbounded love of pleasure without regard for the principles and conservatism that put a check on hedonism. It can be the love of more and a lot, without tapping the deeper desire that more and a lot are looking to fill. Jupiter in Virgo’s (colored by Saturn in Sagittarius) response to that unchecked sensuousness might be, stick to a mundane routine for a good while and let the truth reveal itself within you. This placement of Jupiter speaks to the benefits of culling, the kind of growth that is associated with continuous refinement, and the grace that comes from genuine service. It is also about the sacrifices made in the interest of improvement.
Through May 14, Mercury retrograde and Venus in Taurus journey toward each other in the sky before parting again – although they are never too far from the Sun and never too far from each other. Their meeting is colored by a trine to Pluto retrograde in Capricorn
This aspect may present itself in the following ways:
*a message from the past about property, money, art, or matters of security
*a union that forms in disparate parts of the mind
*a union that forms in disparate parts of people, or among people, or institutions
*considering materialism and the soul
*considering mercantilism and art
*sustained pleasant, harmonious communication
*deep thinking about a fixture in life heretofore unquestioned
*a challenging event or realization is presented in a way that makes it manageable and open to constructive deconstruction
*a subtle opening into a deeper part of the self
*serious thinking about romantic partners that serves to deepen the self
*finding escape from reality in sensuality
*using sensuality to deepen into an experience of reality
*the ability to concentrate and communicate to ourselves and others in an unusual way
These day to day aspects are all happening within the broader context of the Jupiter Saturn square, which is one of the more pivotal aspects of the month, pointing to a re-alignment, a simultaneous growth and restriction. I discuss this aspect and several others at length in the beautifully illustrated Year Ahead Guidebook.
With love,
Ichrak
Astrological Consultations
image: Paul Gaugin. By the Sea. PD
