Venus at 26° Virgo is still in her zodiacal fall. The goddess of pleasure, desire, and aesthetic relationality is currently forced to descend into a terrain of analysis, modesty, and correction. As if Aphrodite had to wash her feet before being adored or serve tea with hands wounded by labour. There is a vestal sort of eroticism in Virgo, but without the luxury of Libra or the possession of Taurus.
I. Venus of the Alchemists
In the mutable earth of Virgo, ruled by Mercury – now already plunged into the dark salt of Scorpio – Venus finds herself filtered through an underground intellect. The decan is Mercurial and the bound is Martial, a delicate flower blooming in a battlefield.
Venus is hence currently operating within a circular chain of rulership, almost closed in upon itself, between the two planets associated with occult intellect (Mercury) and warlike desire (Mars) both in Scorpio. This is a time when sweetness can only express itself through alchemy; when love and desire speaks only in riddles.
II. Opposition to Saturn: The Wound of Form
The exact opposition to retrograde Saturn in Pisces is a clash of sects: Venus, the nocturnal benefic, moving with lunar lightness, confronts the cold and dry greater malefic, of the diurnal sect, standing in a Martial decan and bound. Everything resonates with Martial weight in this aspect, as if the same aformentioned flower were being crushed beneath a cuirass.
This opposition activates the mutable axis of Pisces–Virgo, the so-called 6th–12th house axis in the natural order: the house of service and the house of seclusion, visible work and invisible suffering.
On a Saturday, Saturn’s day, this aspect takes on almost liturgical tones: the Archangel Zaphkiel hovers over the scene, as the veil descends, and what Venus longs to soften is corroded by the test of time.
III. On the Way to Libra, with Neptune in the Mirror
Most fascinating is what follows. In three days, Venus enters Libra, her diurnal domicile, only to be immediately opposed by retrograde Neptune in Aries. In other words: after the purification endured in Virgo, Aphrodite returns to her throne, only to find a distorted mirror before her. The face of the Other dissolved.
The opposition to Neptune may be reflected in several ways: relational confusion, seductive illusions. Yet it may also herald a higher symbolic vision, if experienced mystically, as what Neptune dissolves is sometimes the ego of beauty.
IV. The Children of Venus
Natives of Libra and Taurus (ASC, Sun, Moon) are now feeling the convulsions of their planetary ruler. Venus is being tested by Mars, Saturn, and Neptune, a triad difficult to endure without loss, without painful clarity, without the need to reshape the soul’s contours. But in this there is also a gem being polished. Venus is being moulded to return to her full glory and so too are those governed by her. This is a time of refinement of taste, of relationships, of the body, of desire, of surrender.
Synthesis – Venus at 26° Virgo opposing Saturn Retrograde in Pisces
Fall by sign with dignity by triplicity:
Beauty requires adjustment. In Virgo, the sign of her fall, Venus operates through correction and detail. The diurnal triplicity dignity in Earth preserves a degree of elegance. What does not fit may still be loved.
Bound of Mars and decan of Mercury:
Affection is now filtered through analysis (Mercurial decan) and cut by demand (Martial bound). The ruler Mercury is in Scorpio, about to be conjoined with Mars, imposing a raw logic upon bonds: purification or fracture.
Opposition to retrograde Saturn in Martial bound:
The exact aspect activates the weight of time, limitation, and relational fatigue. Both planets lie in Martial bounds and decans, bringing rigidity, austerity, and cold trials upon warm desire.
Natural rulership of the 6th house:
Virgo, linked to the 6th, calls Venus to the labour of the body. Beauty is made manifest through repetition, cleansing, and routine. Flesh becomes altar.
Upcoming opposition to Neptune at 0° Libra:
Her domicile approaches, but shrouded in mist. Venus enters Libra with retrograde Neptune in Aries waiting at the mirror: idealisations, illusions, and projected loves require discernment.
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