Venus, Christmas, and the Astrology of the Holiday

Art by J Kirk Richards

Venus, Christmas, and the Cancer Full Moon. Musings on Astrology

The Day after Christmas is my Venus Return at 26 degrees Scorpio.

Venus is in the late degrees of Scorpio, opposing the Fixed Star Algol, The Demon Head of Medusa. Now, the Jury is still out on whether or not aspects to or from a Fixed Star have any effect on the native, because they are so darn far away, however, I certainly identify with the Symbolism of Medusa.

What may be more fair to say, and make a whole lot more sense, is that my Venus makes it home in Scorpio, which can have Medusa-like themes. The snakes, the betrayal, the medicine/poison. These all relate to my Venus Sign. With Venus in Scorpio, we can collectively expect to be swimming in these depths together. Not just me.

However, given it is my also my Venus return, I was recently pondering the primal dark nature of my placements; Sun in Scorpio, Rising in Capricorn, Moon in Aries (my inner primal screed), and my South Node is in Pisces.

That's a whole MOOD. I’ve been swimming in these dense, fallow, dark, waters my whole life. You’d think as an Astrologer I would have caught onto the “mood” in my chart, and how it matches the outpicturing of my life, and I have. What I hadn’t really considered as a possibility is that there are other places in my chart I can lean into for lightness. So this year, I am going to put some focus on those placements. And after the past few years we’ve all had, I invite others into looking at their lighter placements as well. As a potential area of self development in the coming year.

Anyhow, I wanted to discuss Venus today.

She is making a trine to Neptune in Pisces. Going into the Holiday this can be really beautiful and romantic. It can heighten our sense of Magic, and Time out of Time, along with saturating our Memories with love and lightness. On the other hand, if Venus has a pebble in her shoe, (like her Square to Saturn is acting up) being in Scorpio can mean that the veils drop around some subject that we had previously been viewing through rose colored glasses. Instead Venus ends up on a Truth Seeking mission, rather than sinking cozily into the Holiday with an open heart.

There is also an active Square between Venus and Saturn. Saturn can bring a cold, remoteness to Venus. In such a way that others experience us as distant, and closed off. I often recommend that clients work with this transit a bit like “Parts Work”. If we are conscious, instead of falling into Saturn’s gravity, and taking on His melancholy, we can put Saturn behind us, and use His sense of duty, and structure as a holding platform for a wide open Venus.

Given that Venus is in the Heart Chakra, these transits give us plenty to work with around our themes of Openness, Connection, & Love.

On December 26th, while these matters are still active, we have Full Moon In Cancer at five degrees. That we have a Cancer Full Moon, so close to Mary Giving Birth To Jesus, or the Cosmic Mother giving birth to the Sun feels fortuitous.

With the Sun Sextile and Venus’s square to Saturn at the time of the Full Moon, we are being us to consider the energy of “Contraction” just before birth. What is being brought through from one side of the threshold to another.

Allf of this makes this a crucial transit to bring into your Holiday Awareness.

Cancer is the Archetype of the Great Mother, and deals with issues of Nourishment, and Hunger. Along with Caretaking, and all encompassing Love and Acceptance. The “love of the Mother”.

Cancer is ruled by the Moon and in my cosmology rules the Third Eye Chakra. When we move through this part of the Venus Journey on the Descent side, we look at the different Mother Archetypes that are constellated in our psyche. The good mother, the devouring mother, the cold and distant mother, etc.

The relationship to the Mother archetype influences our ability to engage and disengage. The Mother Shadow can be an unconsciousness consisting of what you don’t want to see or engage with.

While the good mother archetype helps us learn how to nourish ourselves. The hungry and devouring Mother is an all-consuming figure. Experiences of insatiable thirst or hunger can carry components of fear, loneliness, and dependency. How do the forces of this Shadow rule and create boundaries that seem to address safety, yet merely conspire to control and keep you down?

Because Cancer, ruled by the Moon, governs the emotional pain body, when the Devouring Mother Archetype is active within us, our own emotions can be all consuming. We can be hijacked and taken out by our old pains and stories.

Conversely, the cold and distant mother doesn’t make room for our emotions. The expectation is to push them as far down as possible. Lock them away. When this archetype is active, we are alienated from our emotional body.

In either case, our hunger, for life, love, nourishment, both literal and erotic, can become affected.

Our job is to be the “Good Mother” to ourselves. So part of our Post Christmas work, is not to get caught in the Holiday Drama if it unfolded, but rather to To activate our inner Good Mother. It’s so easy, in families, to be caught in a web of resentments. To be reminded of the love we didn’t have. Or to feel the ick of an over-bearing relative bearing down on us.

Just yesterday, fellow Depth Sister; Astrologer, Sabrina Monarch published a fabulous transmission on Hunger, Desire, and the Cancer Full Moon. When it’s done this well, there’s no need to re-create it.

I will link her video at the button below. It’s not to be missed, as it covers the themes of “Hunger” as a gauge for our “engagement” with life so exquisitely.