Venus into Aquarius, Scheherazade into Pisces: Ideas, Ideals, Flux and Finite Realities

Ali Baba in the Cave

by Maxfield Parrish (1909)

Planet Venus enters Aquarius at 2:42am (UT/+0) on March 2nd, raising a flag to tell us that for the next three and a half weeks or so, things will be...unpredictable.

On the other side, Venus in Aquarius favors the unusual. It can be a mark of genius. And great humor. Clever inventions, wild-hair solutions...Venus in Aquarius is as often a mark of perfect global timing as a total and complete disregard for anything else on this Earth.

Given that Aquarius is always a sign of social systems, society, economies and economics...and Venus is the premier symbol of "results" (whatever we have earned for what we've done or how we've done it) - there's no question but that Venus in Aquarius puts a hot spotlight on matters of income of every type. That's personal  corporate, municipal, national - what have you.

And yet...Venus in Aquarius is not precisely about solvency. It's the process which supports getting the job or having the income, but it's not the "I can go to the store because there's money in the bank" sort of thing.

Aquarius is an air sign - its the concept. So we're talking about the idea of the thing - not money in your hand.

Think: means to an end. Think: business climate. Think: interviews and (yes) how you interact with other people on the job. Why that? Because Aquarius is the 'group' - the functionality of the flow, whether we're talking about an electrical grid, the Internet or the workplace.

Of course, since astrology is nothing if not a door which swings both ways, we are all likely to give as well as we get...which raises a whole slew of questions about just who has earned what and who is right or wrong.

That leads us to the “hard” part of this transit. We all want good Aquarian results - freedom, equanimity, universality, agreement…we all like all that stuff. What we don’t like so much is what it takes to get there. And that ‘what it takes to get there’ is the earning part – which on the Aquarius level is symbolized by its first ruler Saturn (dedication, responsibility, pragmatism, doing without, self-discipline)….and which really brings out where and how Venus in Aquarius can be all about fly-by-night and ignoring the facts and failing to do what needs doing and all that stuff.

Oh yeah…all that stuff. Hmmmm…..

Is this just a matter of majority rule? Sometimes. But considering that old story about the Emperor's New Clothes its pretty obvious that sometimes humans can just act like lemmings.

So how to know? Oh woe - how to know! 

Answer: facts. What are the facts? In Aquarius, in the end, the facts of the matter determine winners.

Just to make this a little more exotic (exotic being the right word here), asteroid Scheherazade is also making a move on this day. Scheherazade is entering Pisces at 9:04am on March 2nd (UT/+0).

If there ever was an as(s)teroid…(no, I couldn’t resist…thanks for noticing)…which has a thematic similarity with a given sign, it’s Scheherazade and Pisces. The source tale of Scheherazade is one associated with what you probably know as The Arabian Nights, which is probably more properly known as The Arabian Nights’ Entertainments.

You know…Ali Baba and his 40 Thieves, all that.

Scheherazade is the gal who tells all those tales. She’s a slave – a human being reduced to being property. And she’s become the property of a Sultan who evidently has a real super-duper fondness for bedtime stories. The slave who can tell him a really intriguingly good and entertaining bedtime story gets to live. Well…actually they have to tell him a whole bunch of entertaining stories – one every night. If they fail, they die.

So when summoned to the Sultan’s chamber, Scheherazade girds her girdle (never mind her tongue) to do the entertaining deed. And for 1,001 nights (hence the 1,001 tales which make up what was originally called The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night…with introduction explanatory notes on the manners and customs…etc., etc…) (they were not into short titles!)...over each and every night Scheherazade tells the Sultan stories, many of which are apparently crafted to enfold palace scuttlebutt in such a way as to inform the Sultan without telling him anything directly, offering him advice without seeming to and all that winsome, womanly tra-la.

In point of fact, part of Scheherazade’s efforts was to inspire in said Sultan a yearning to hear more and an affection for the woman who would entertain him and beguile him without ruffling even a hair of his beard, head or ego.

(And yes, men have been dreaming of such women before – and ever since.)

Scheherazade, meanwhile, was merely hoping just to survive.

Thus we are given a rather perfect picture of the Pisces dynamic: one vulnerable fish and one which hasn’t got a care. One fish which has all and may give, one fish which has nothing and begs for permission to go on living.

Pisces is often thought of the addict, the prisoner, the guru, the martyr. But it is also where we go through like emotions in ourselves: feeling helpless, hapless, compassionate or willing to give our all. Pisces is our ability to be willing to feel…or the preference to live in our own “fantasy storyland” which is why it’s so often associated with not just sexual fantasies but the insane and the hermit. Whenever we leave (or abandon) reality by any means, that’s Pisces – the ‘here but not here', the ‘surrender to our own longings’ and the peril of disappointment when we expect those longings to be a realistic substitution for life’s realities.

 The Sultan Pardons Scheherazade

by Arthur Boyd Houghton (1836-1875)

As a celestial object, Scheherazade orbits as part of the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. It’s orbit seems relatively round, varying between 3.355 AU from the Sun at it’s farthest and 3.142 at it’s closest. And yet, while all the asteroids which orbit in the Scheherazade vicinity orbit our Sun in four to five years, it takes Scheherazade over SIX years to go once around the Sun.

(6.15 years, if you want to know exactly…)

So this is an asteroid a bit ‘apart’ from the thousands of others in the pack. It moves at what we might refer to as ‘slowly,’ reminding this astrologer of the old saying about ‘marching to a different drummer.’

In the story, Scheherazade is different from the other slave girls. They’ve failed at the task…but in time, she does win the Sultan’s respect and his love – and yes, in time becomes his queen. (Sultana, actually.)

Considering this, Scheherazade is probably like any other asteroid in that it represents something we meet up with in that ‘gap’ between wanting to do something or get something done (Mars) and knowing how to do it or get it done (Jupiter). But whatever that thing is, where Scheherazade is concerned, it probably takes longer to get there than we would expect, considering how much less time it takes to get other things done or develop some other attribute we find so necessary to or in life.

We may also have to give up our ‘rights’ in the process. These may be ‘rights’ as in ‘human rights,’ or ‘rights’ as in ‘right versus wrong.’ (Or both!)

Now…! Many of you may be thinking but hey - can’t I be the Sultan? 

Uh, no. Nice try, but no. If you assume you are the Sultan, you are simply living in your personal fantasy. Which yes, would be apt at the moment but which no, wouldn’t work all that well – theoretically – since Scheherazade in Pisces is all about all of us being or experiencing some form of Scheherazade in Pisces.

So exercise that ‘to Sultan’ verb at your own risk. At least risk to your own feelings – or feelings about how your feelings are being treated by others.

This is a highly circuitous set of indicators. Venus in Aquarius directs us to the greater world around us, and yet the Aquarian society is nothing if not an amalgamation of countless individuals, each of which counts. The ‘earning’ concept here directs us to consider whether we are doing our part in life…or even in our own lives. Are we doing as well as we should. Are we doing what we do as well as we should? Are we standing up for who we are and while doing that, working with others in some greater construct? Are we paying attention not just to our own needs and desires but to those of everyone else?

The combining of these influences really points out the fallacy in what we so often think of Venus as a symbol of leisure and getting what we want out of life….which in Aquarius, it probably should. Venus rules Taurus and Libra and is exalted (strengthened) when transiting Pisces. Aquarius to Taurus is a 4th harmonic which speaks to what can’t be had without effort. Aquarius from Libra is a 5th harmonic which asks us to be creative with how we present ourselves to others, in what we give out (to others and to the world) and in particular, to do our best and hold our standards of quality high.

Between Venus and Scheherazade (Aquarius and Pisces) is semi-sextile – the sign of a bruise to our ego. To get where we want to go, we have to get over ourselves (our egos, as required in Pisces) and to capitalize on our abilities and individuality we need to think in terms of touching/appealing to the common chord (Aquarius to Pisces).

Is this so simple? Probably not. And with the Lunar Nodes coming on this date to 0 degrees 0 minutes of Capricorn and Cancer, we’re as the expression goes ‘coming right down to it.’

There is a big shift a’comin. (Like, tomorrow!) To take advantage of that – at least for the next little while – requires less leading inspiring others by joining with.

After all, nobody really likes being alone...and we all like being successful, no matter how we define success.