It's Astro-Logical -- practical advice for conscious living -- Issue #3

Ramping up the "attitude" in everyone

Well, Venus followed Mercury into Aries yesterday. You can see the two of them virtually hand-in-hand in the chart below. This, of course, adds to the ratio of Aries energy at work in the world.

Uranus has been there for about 7 years already -- bringing all this emphasis on rugged individuality and independence we've seen recently. People are tired of dancing to someone else's tune and are ready to take their lives -- and destinies -- into their own hands!!

But now, 30% of the astrological sky is in this pushy, proactive sign. And with the Sun's arrival there in about two more weeks, life's cantankerous attitudes will become a lot more prevalent.

Mercury and Venus in Aries
March 2018

About Venus

As I wrote yesterday, in Astrology each planet in your Natal Chart represents a particular kind of energy -- and the parts of your character that commonly use that energy. Each is like an Inner Self ... a member of your Inner Family.

Together they comprise the complex and multi-dimensional being that is you! To look at yourself and your Natal Chart information from this perspective gives a fascinating view of who you are ... and why you are the way you are.

In Astrology, Venus -- and the energy it represents -- gives information about life areas connected to "things of value" -- like resources, possessions and relationships. Most of these are associated with your Social Self and your Financial Manager ... the parts of your character concerned with helping you survive -- and when you've got that safely settled ... helping you live comfortably.

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In a garden of earthly delights

This gives Venus its mainstream reputation as the ruler of "love and money" -- and its undeserved status of "everyone's favorite planet." When you understand Astrology better, you realize some of those honors belong to Jupiter -- the symbol of higher knowledge and abundance ... and some belong to The Moon, where your deepest sense of family and security reside.

Venus itself is about pleasure ... and working with things that are important to your security, comfort and well-being. And while that's not trivial, the very idea of pleasure -- and "what's important to you" -- means different things to different people. The amount of $$$ you need to be happy (and yes, that really is one of life's necessities) is a very individual thing. And what means "love" to you is likewise something only you can define.

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Defining what's important

As a take-away point and sound bite simply remember this: Venus in Astrology represents your sense of values, the things that are important to you and your survival. This of course does include the way you acquire and handle money, the kinds of possessions that appeal to you, your spending habits and financial management skills. It also covers the way you form alliances and manage relationships -- what you offer to partners and what you want from them in return.

But more to the point, it deals with the ideas you value, the character qualities you want to develop ... and that you look for in others, the virtues and treasures you want to support ... and will help to thrive. This says a lot about who you are as a person. If you really want to judge the measure of someone, look at how he or she spends money!

Red is an Aries color!
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About Aries

Aries is the first sign of the Zodiac -- the sign of initiation, new beginnings and raw physical energy. It is the first of twelve distinct steps in the creative process of life -- each step represented by one of the Zodiac signs, in a predictable sequence from commencement and new growth cycles that begin in Aries through the dissolution, solitude and search for meaning that are so fundamental to Pisces.

Aries is brash and energetic, passionate and self-confident. It is pioneering energy at its finest ... and knows that just showing up and making those all important first moves will carry you a long way toward your eventual goal.

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Venus in Aries

When these two energies combine, you get an atmosphere of passion and aggression in dealing with relationships and money. People abandon the gentle, self-sacrificing attitudes they held during spiritual Pisces ... and become a lot more self-interested. Watch this happen over the next four weeks. The difference will surprise you.

When Venus is in Aries, people are forward, assertive and uninhibited in their relationships. They use candor and initiative to attract love -- and show romantic feelings in bold, passionate gestures. They want to win their lover's attentions -- and eagerly pursue their beloved.

This is a competitive, rambunctious energy focused explicitly on love and money. With Venus in Aries, people are openly "looking for love" -- anywhere they can find it! And, frankly, they want it now.

They are into self-promotion and sexual conquest, vying to be "the best" for the ego food and reassurance that when it comes to love and sex they've "got what it takes" to get what they want. They're after money, too ... to massage their egos and attract a lover. (Elizabeth Taylor in her heyday was a clear and ridiculous example of how this placement acts when it has the freedom to do whatever it wants!!)

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The Darker Side of Venus in Aries

When Venus in Aries is stressed, the drive to be Number One and captivate a lover is almost obsessive, with an "anything goes" frame of mind, willing to take risks, cause trouble, and literally "fight for what it wants."

Personal needs are aggressively pushed. People will do almost anything to be noticed!! But relationships suffer from arrogant, bossy attitudes -- a striking change, as I said, from the reticent, retiring "love from afar" that marked Venus' recent passage through Pisces. It is, indeed, hard to ignore!

Thank you for stopping by!

If you've always known there was more to Astrology than Sun Sign material and the three line daily horoscope in the newspaper, climb aboard and follow this blog. You'll find a world of wisdom detailing how you were designed to work with life ... and why you are the way you are -- all in quick-to-read, easy-to-digest-and-remember, written-in-plain-English essays that offer plenty of food for thought.

Little by little, I'm doing a set of articles that talks about all the elements in your horoscope and what they have to say about you. If you "know something" about Astrology -- or know something about your chart placements, that will help you get more from this material.

If you don't ... well, this is one place you can learn. We all have to start somewhere ... because we aren't born knowing this stuff. Meanwhile, if you've never seen your horoscope ... and don't have a clue how to work with it, maybe it's time to find out. There are lots of "chart services" on the internet -- some of whom produce decent, readable charts "for free" and some are so awful and confusing that even I can't read them easily -- and I've worked with charts for decades.

One extremely user-friendly chart site is here: AstroLabe. I recommend them if you want a simple, easy-to-read chart. I think they even give a reasonable little interpretive reading of your horoscope as part of the package. You'll need to know your birth information -- day, month, year, time and geographical place. Without all that your chart will have limited accuracy.

Or, if you want to get serious and really talk about this, upvote this post and start a conversation in the comments section sometime in the next six days from the time of publication. We'll go from there depending on what you want to know.

Questions about any of this? -- Upvote this post and talk to me in comments. It's a terrific way to build value for yourself and the community ... and it will give me ideas of what to write about in future posts. Believe me there is lots to say about the way The Sun, The Moon -- and all the other elements in a horoscope, all the other components of Astrology -- work together to interpret you and your story -- and what it all means to the person you've become.

This is who I am.

About the art in our visual essays ...

Although sometimes the background pictures in our visual essays support the topic and text, they don't always. Sometimes the connection is clear. Sometimes it's symbolic and subtle. Sometimes, there's no connection at all.

The scenes depict landscapes and natural features, buildings and wildlife. They were chosen because they show something lovely or interesting ... or simply because the photo appealed to me.

Our spectacular and remarkable planet is changing at astonishing speed. Rarely are these changes for the better. Few people seem to know ... or care ... or have the will and power to do anything about this. It may not be long before the world humans have known and lived in for centuries is forever lost. We certainly won't be able to make repairs as fast as we destroyed it.

So a few years ago I began collecting pictures of the way things were ... and still are for now, a record of the beauty we have while it is still ours to love and honor.

The photos here are part of that collection, with sincere thanks to the artists who saw these moments ... and with their cameras ... preserved them. All of us at Enchanted Spirit are profoundly grateful to them for their generosity and skill ... and for the added grace, depth and dimension their art brings to ours.

Original images used under this Creative Commons license or this Creative Commons license and modified by added text.