Calling for Life - Venus, Saturn and the Ocean

 

Recently, I´ve been to a Nick Cave concert - the Wild God tour. There was everything – grief, pain, darkness, intensity but above it all, so much JOY and ecstasy! It was an impressive light show with breathtaking live images projected on giant screens. It was so colorful and juicy, almost edible-looking, and soft, in contrast to monochromatic shots of Nick and his band Bad Seeds. At one point, he started shouting „You are beautiful“ followed by „STOP“. I realized how this is all so „Venus-Saturn“. I imagined Medusa pulsating in the vast ocean, flowing freely, opening her body, and then contracting it back. Isn´t it how we all move through life, through relationships that are at the core of human existence?  
 
Despite the common conviction that Venus/Saturn contacts are kind of a bummer, I will argue that Saturn and Venus are a life-giving pairing. Grief and heartache open us up to life more than any other experience.
Nick´s show felt very much like the planetary signature of the moment - Venus in Sagittarius squaring and overcoming Saturn in Pisces. Dark, uncomfortable, painful feelings that relationships often stir inside of us but at the same time, the healing power of deep intimate connections and ecstatic release of joy when we rise above our mundane troubles.
 
This pairing in the sky is a Calling for LIFE even though death is always in near proximity. This momentary contact of Venus and Saturn is part of a larger story that has been unfolding since Saturn entered the sign of Pisces in March 2023. Deeply experiential and introspective journey that is about changing of our inner landscapes rather than building visible and solid structures in our lives.

Everything is temporary in this time capsule, there is nothing to hold on to. We are forced to let go of our sand castles when a high tide comes over and over again. We have to keep moving. Stability is an illusory thing. Nothing has a concrete shape. You can see just fuzzy contours of what´s out there like when you walk along the coast on a misty morning and you spot some far-away structures emerging from a mist.
Saturn, despite not being utterly comfortable with these mutual grounds, is well accustomed to these transitional spaces, always in and out of this world. 

We all have internal landscapes that are stagnant. They´ve been contracted for so long that the idea of opening and releasing is too terrifying to even consider. Where there is no movement, things decline and die. Flow is the way of life. Saturn in Pisces time is not about building, it is about dissolving hardened structures so that there is even a chance for a change, so there is more room for things to come.
 
Saturn in Pisces is providing us with a strong salt bath cleansing. When you dump salt into the water, it dissolves. You might not even realize it´s there. You might think it disappeared but it has been working on you all this time. Visibility doesn´t make things powerful, it just makes your power visible.

We often underestimate the power of the ocean. It is a far greater force even when calm. It is constantly transforming anything it touches. Salty, oceanic water has its way to transform our inner landscapes, it doesn´t let us stay stagnant. The only stability is that little moment before the next wave comes.

Saturn got us serious about this watery territory of Pisces and even though it doesn´t provide us with stability, it is nice to have a solid piece of driftwood to hold on to and float for a while when you´re exhausted swimming in the vastness of the ocean.
 
As a perimenopausal mom to two 14-year-olds, I would compare this process of mutable Piscean transformation to hormonal messiness tied to a significant transition in our lives. We are moving away from what we´ve known for a long time - familiar, fixed features of our life toward unknown, initiatory stage of new phase of our life. This process is both heartbreaking and thrilling and there is a whole lot of uncertainty that fills up the space. We are somewhere in-between and all we can do in these uncertain times is to hold on to hope.
 
This is the message Venus and Saturn, now both in the domicile of Jupiter, are drawing in the sky right now. Remember that no matter how much sorrow you´re experiencing, joy is always nearby. Venus pressing now on Saturn wants us to fall back in love with life again.
The point is not to always know where we´re going, to get ahead, to get things right, it is about never giving up and holding on to those threads of hope. It is about trying and living and always waiting for that next wave we can ride.
 
Keep hope alive, keep dreaming.
Petra

PS: I can only attest to this. I remember my most ecstatic musical experiences have always been during the times when I felt low, heartbroken, and anxious. Every morning before work, I dance outside to my favorite music. I don´t always feel ecstatic (though it´s often the case!) but I never feel worse than when I started. It always lifts my spirits up.