Before dawn tomorrow, we enter the Gibbous phase, which often appears as a challenge that jumps out just as we think we’re home. Something we thought would be easy suddenly feels difficult.
With a Moon–Saturn conjunction, “difficult” could be easy to find. When these two aspect each other, we feel held down, held back, delayed, depressed.
The Gibbous aspect is a sesquiquadrate, a square and a half. So the Sun in late Virgo forms this angle with both Moon and Saturn. The Sun also feels Saturn’s weight.
Mars in early Libra conjunct the Sun adds a feeling of frustration. Instead of accepting delays, we chafe against them.
Now we include Venus in Scorpio, who squares Saturn and the Moon. She has things to say about the relentless light of Aquarian visions. She is at home in the dark and values what we find there.
Venus in Scorpio becomes Inanna in the underworld. She voluntarily descended into her sister’s realm, surrendering seven symbols of her sovereignty, one each at seven gates.
Instead of being welcomed, her sister kills her and hangs her from a hook.
Inanna is rescued and finds her way back to the upper world of light. This part of the story is generally treated as the good part: The queen returns from her death and all is well.
But when we have been in the dark, it’s not always easy to find our way back up. Perhaps we cannot lift the weights holding us down. Perhaps we find the dark comfortable, easier, welcoming.
Yet all of life’s processes involve shifts from darkness to light. Day cycles. Yearly cycles. Birth into life and into death. The journeys from one to another are vital.
So we make the effort. We are heading into a Full Moon.
What unexpected challenges find you as you move from the darkness we’ve explored back toward light?
Image adapted from Jez Timms
https://unsplash.com/photos/r4lM2v9M84Q