Venus and Aries Full Moon Reflections
So before we get into the Full Moon that’s coming up this weekend, I want to bring us to the Venus story.
We’re now in what’s called the Venus shadow period, which means that although Venus doesn’t actually turn retrograde until the 3rd of October, the story has already begun.
Venus is moving through Scorpio, and we had that first Venus-Pluto square on the 15th of September, which is important because we’re going to come back to that conversation again around the 20th of October and then once more in December.
So think back over the last week or so and notice what has been coming up around relationships, money, business, what you charge, what you tolerate, what you believe you’re worth, or even what you want now that perhaps you didn’t want six months ago. I would actually write some of it down because we may not fully understand the significance of it yet, and we could find ourselves looking at the same issue very differently when Venus brings us back around to it in October and then again in December.
So start journaling, even if it’s only a few lines about what you’re noticing.
And then this week we have another really interesting piece of the story because we have the equinox and the Sun moving into Libra, which brings us into this whole conversation around balance, relationships, reciprocity and how we meet one another.
I always like the symbolism of the equinox because it gives us this image of a balancing point, and that’s particularly interesting this year because we’re already exploring Venus, and of course Venus rules Libra.
So perhaps one of the questions we can start asking ourselves this week is simply, where has the balance become a little bit off?
That could be in a personal relationship, but it could just as easily be in business. Maybe you’re giving far more than you’re receiving, perhaps you’re undercharging or over-delivering, or maybe you’re keeping a client or an arrangement going because you don’t want to upset anybody. Maybe you’re compromising because compromise is genuinely appropriate, or maybe somewhere along the way keeping the peace became more important than honouring what you actually need.
And then only a few days after the equinox we have this Full Moon in Aries, directly opposite that Libra Sun, so suddenly this question of balance becomes even more interesting because we’re looking at that Aries-Libra axis of me and we.
Libra says, how do we make this work together, how do we compromise and how do we maintain the relationship, while Aries comes along and says, yes, but where am I in all of this, what do I need and have I actually left myself enough room to be me?
There’s another really important layer to this Full Moon because the Moon is sitting very close to Neptune in the early degrees of Aries, and I think of these early Aries degrees as something of a reset point because Aries begins the whole zodiacal cycle.
So there can be this feeling of something new wanting to emerge around who I am, what I want and how I want to move forward, but Neptune complicates that slightly because Neptune doesn’t necessarily give us immediate clarity.
Neptune can bring intuition, imagination and that feeling that we know something before we can necessarily explain how we know it, but it can also bring projection, confusion and blurred boundaries.
So if something really triggers you this week, particularly in a relationship, I wouldn’t immediately assume that the first story you’re telling yourself about it is the whole story. I’d give it a little space and ask, what actually happened here, what am I assuming happened, and what might this situation be touching in me?
And to look further into the story, we can go another layer deeper. Each sign has a ruling planet, so as well as looking at the sign the Full Moon is in, we can look at what’s called its dispositor, which in simple terms means we follow the Full Moon back to the planet that rules Aries because that can give us another layer of information about how this Full Moon may be expressing itself.
Aries is ruled by Mars, so we go looking for Mars and ask where Mars is at the time of the Full Moon.
And this is where it gets really interesting because Mars is sitting at 29 degrees of Cancer, right at the very end of the sign, and is moving into an exact square with Chiron at 29 degrees of Aries the following day.
That 29th degree is traditionally called the anaretic degree, and symbolically I think of it as something reaching the end of a lesson, where there can be a sense of urgency because we’re right at the threshold of change.
Mars is in Cancer, and Cancer brings us into our emotional needs, safety, family, belonging and protection, so suddenly this Full Moon that started with “I need more room to be myself” takes us somewhere much deeper.
Maybe the anger isn’t simply about what’s happening this week. Maybe somebody has touched something around not feeling heard, not feeling safe enough to say what you need, not feeling that you’re allowed to put yourself first, or having learned that keeping everybody else happy is safer than drawing a line.
As human beings, we all have fundamental needs, and when those needs aren’t met they don’t necessarily disappear simply because we’ve learned to live without them. Sometimes we adapt, we accommodate and we get on with life, while the need itself can remain underneath the surface until something eventually brings it back up again.
And then we have Chiron in Aries involved in the story.
In astrology, Chiron is often described as the wounded healer, and in Aries we can think about wounds around our right to exist as ourselves, to act, initiate, assert ourselves, take up space or simply be able to say, this is what I want and this is what I need.
So now the anger becomes really interesting because perhaps somebody crosses a boundary and we get angry, but perhaps the deeper question is why was that boundary so difficult to draw in the first place?
Maybe I knew something wasn’t right six months ago, but I kept accommodating it. Maybe I didn’t want the conflict, maybe I didn’t want to lose the client or the relationship, or maybe saying what I needed felt much more uncomfortable than simply putting up with it.
That’s why I wouldn’t be afraid of anger this week, but I wouldn’t automatically act from it either. I’d become curious about it because with Neptune involved we have to ask whether we’re seeing the situation clearly, while Mars and Chiron encourage us to ask where does this feeling come from and what is underneath it?
And perhaps the most useful question of all is, is the person standing in front of me actually the address for all of this anger?
Because somebody can press a button today that has been wired up for years, and while the present situation might genuinely need to be addressed, the intensity of our reaction can sometimes tell us that there is something older being touched as well.
And then we come all the way back to Venus because this is where I think all of these different pieces of astrology actually start talking to one another.
Venus is asking, what do I value now, what do I believe I’m worth and what kind of exchanges do I want in my relationships, my money and my business?
The equinox and Libra ask, where has the balance become uneven?
The Aries Full Moon asks, am I giving myself enough room to honour what I need?
Neptune asks, am I seeing what’s happening clearly, or am I looking at some of it through an old story?
Mars in Cancer asks, what do I actually need underneath all of this?
And Chiron asks, why might standing up for that need still hurt or feel difficult?
So perhaps the invitation this week isn’t simply to draw more boundaries or express more anger. Maybe it’s to understand what the anger is protecting, to get clearer about what you actually need and then, from that clearer place, decide what line really does need to be drawn.
You can bring this back to your business if you like. Where are you over-giving because you’re afraid to disappoint somebody? Where are you undercharging because asking for more feels uncomfortable? Where are you saying yes when you really mean no, or continuing with something because changing it might upset somebody else?
And perhaps most importantly, where has the value you place on yourself not yet caught up with the value you actually bring?
That brings us beautifully back into the Venus journey we’re going to be following all the way through to December, because as we move through this retrograde we’re not just looking at what we value, we’re watching how those values show up in the choices we actually make.
If these questions are already stirring something for you, you can go deeper with my Venus Deep Dive, where we explore Venus through your values, self-worth, relationships, money and what you truly desire. It’s a beautiful companion to this Venus retrograde journey and an opportunity to reflect on what you want to realign before we reach December.
Dolores Andrew