Venus in the Heart of the Sun ~ In Leo

Venus is such a beautiful planet as viewed from Earth. Next to the Moon, she is the brightest light in the early evening and early morning skies. Because her orbit is between us here on Earth and the Sun, she is never very far from our Sun--this is why she’s called both the morning star & the evening star, depending on where she is in her journey around the Sun.

From our perspective here on Earth, she has this 8-year long journey during which she creates a five-pointed star. Each time that she joins with the Sun, she creates a “star point.” She is currently forming her star points in the signs of Gemini, Aries, Capricorn, Scorpio & Leo.

Photo by Arielle Guttman

This Tuesday, on August 13th, at 11:07 pm PDT, Venus will join with the Sun at 21°11’ Leo. We astrologers call this exact connection with the Sun a cazimi, which means “in the heart” of the Sun. There is no other cazimi more potent than Venus & the Sun in Leo, for Leo rules the heart, and Venus is our goddess of love!

As Venus travels around the Sun, she either joins with the Sun while she is direct (on the other side of the Sun, and furthest from Earth), or when she is retrograde (between us and the Sun, and therefore closest to the Earth).

During this particular cazimi, she is direct, so she is hidden from view behind the Sun.

When Venus & Sol conjoin at 21°11’ Leo, they will also be exactly inconjunct (150°) to Pluto, who will be 21°11’ Capricorn. This is an extremely potent configuration, which is prompting all of us to transform what love truly means for each of us and what our relationship is with love & power!

There is the Power of Love & the Love of Power!

Love is a “loaded” word, and it means different things to different people. Without getting into an essay here, these are the many different forms of love according to the Greeks:

Eros: romantic, sexual, passionate
Philia: friendship, borne of goodwill, platonic
Storge: familial love, that of parents with their children, among siblings
Agape: unconditional, selfless, universal
Ludus: casual, uncommitted, playful
Mania: obsessive
Pragma: mature, practical, a reasonable form of love that develops over time
Philautia: self-love, a healthy form of self-esteem, self-compassion

Most of us think of Eros when we think of love…that wonderful heart-expanding experience that is ever-evolving in a very up-spiral kind of way…

We feel wonderful in this delicious champagne-bubbly energy! The world’s colors seem brighter and anything is possible in love’s realm. We are safe to merge with our beloved, to discover all of the wonders of intimacy. We are beheld and appreciated for who we are, not what we do…simply because our beloved sees and recognizes our innate divinity. We have found someone to champion and who will be our champion…we stand for each other to be the best that we can be and know that at the end of the day, we are better people for the challenge that we bring to each other. Life becomes a fantastic adventure when we have found this kind of love!

Sadly, there are people who have been severely damaged by the concept of love. Some people have never truly experienced the ecstasy of love, for to truly surrender to love means to be completely naked and vulnerable before our beloved. This can seem to be a very terrifying thing for someone who might have been raised by parents who didn’t know how to love. The concept of love might have become entangled with manipulation—a perverted and twisted version of conditional love.

What if we open up and show ourselves fully and we’re rejected? It is better to be rejected for being who we truly are, than to sell our souls and settle!

There is nothing worth doing our inner work for more than true love! This inner work may involve pain as we release ourselves from the shackles of erroneous misconceptions. We may find ourselves needing to forgive our parents or some relative who, for lack of knowing any other way of being, may have inflicted harm in the name of love. This journey of forgiveness is not without its moments of resentment, fear, and doubt, and as we delve deeper, we find that self-forgiveness is a necessary component to healing.

The most important journey we can take is with ourselves through philautia. Once we have developed a healthy appreciation and compassion for ourselves, then we discover that there is no journey more worthy of taking than this quest for love. When we can truly love ourselves, when we realize that we are safe with and can trust ourselves, then no fear of rejection can hold our attention, for we are our own best company.

Once we have attained this level of self-love then we are empowered to truly love others, and perhaps we will have made a giant step forward towards world peace!