Astrology and Horoscopes
AstrologyClub
contact[at]astrologyclub.org

Given Judge Starr and the media’s hysteria concerning the Clinton/Lewinsky affair and their desire for Clinton’s head, despite the President’s high job approval rating by the public, I began to wonder where I have seen this hysterical and self righteous energy before.

Interestingly, the recent Solar eclipse (8/21/98) T-square involving Venus, Saturn and Uranus bears remarkable resemblance to tension found in both the charts for Europe and the Witch hangings in Salem, Massachusetts. In all three cases, serious tensions are found involving Venus. This is clearly representative of the historic pathological patriarchal repression of the feminine.

Astrologically the degrees to keep in mind are two and five degrees of Sagittarius, originally the position of Venus in Europe’s chart and now the position of Pluto in our recent Solar Eclipse.

On December 25, 800 AD when Charlemagne was crowned emperor of Europe at Rome, Venus at two degrees of Sagittarius was squaring Jupiter in Pisces and Saturn in Virgo. This set the theme for Europe’s religious suppression of the feminine. Prior to Charlemagne the popular practice of Christianity in Europe drew much of its vitality from the old pagan religions. Charlemagne’s hegemony over Europe gave Rome an opportunity to more uniformly impose its structured patriarchal values. This Roman imposition systematically demonized feminine spirituality, resulting in enormous psychic distress throughout European history. This distress became politically charged in 1215 when the fourth Lateran Council changed the heresy laws making heretics punishable by secular authorities and thus gave their approval to the burning and hanging of women and heretics.

This hysterical repression took spectacular form in Salem, Massachusetts on July 19, 1692, nearly 600 years later. During the first Salem Witch hangings, Saturn at five degrees of Sagittarius (within three degrees of Europe’s Venus) was opposing a Uranus/Jupiter conjunction in Gemini all T-squaring a Mars/Venus conjunction in Virgo.

In Europe’s chart, Venus is sextile Pluto. So although it is point focus in the T-square, Europe’s Venus is in a position to evolve despite that repression. The courtly love movement of the troubadours was perhaps the richest historic example – although this too was repressed by the Catholic church. During the Salem witch hangings, however, the Venus/Mars conjunction had no relieving points. This contributed to the severity of the suffering at that time.

With our current Solar eclipse, although Venus and Mars are still being targeted by the restrictive aspects of Saturn, Mars trines both Pluto and Jupiter, plus Venus (widely conjunct Mars) trines Pluto. It is interesting that this time it is Pluto at that same five degrees of Sagittarius that is resolving rather than causing the difficult aspects. Fortunately, Jupiter is not now opposing Saturn as it was in both Europe’s and Salem’s charts. In addition, Pluto makes the opposition between Venus and Uranus a relatively easy one by sextiling Uranus and Neptune as well as trining Venus. (It is also noteworthy that transiting Pluto will conjunct America’s ascendant in November at eight degrees of Sagittarius–within six degrees of Europe’s Venus.)

Given all this I believe the hysterical reaction to the President’s affair by the media and Judge Starr is both karmic and potentially positive since now the stance of the patriarchy polarized against the feminine is becoming more visibly indefensible. Saturn in our current solar eclipse chart is representative of the dying patriarchy that is trying to convince us that it is right and the public is guilty of being too lazy and lenient for not being more judgmental against the President. However, despite all its established authority and power, the more the patriarchy tries to push its position, the more the public seems to resist. This resistance represents a significant change in and of itself. Nevertheless, we cannot assume that the patriarchal forces will easily give up their position. All of us will no doubt be drawn into this battle in one way or another; Venus finally has some muscle and will no longer let herself be passively demonized. This is no doubt simply round one in the Plutonically inspired resurgence of the Western Venus.

About the author:

Bea Garth is a poet and ceramic sculptor with a degree in political philosophy and mythology. She is currently co-editor for Astro News, the monthlay newsletter of the South Bay Astrological Society.

Last updated on May 15, 2014 at 10:59 am. Word Count: 707