4.20.25 The following three planetary ingresses have finally returned to us our ability to ascertain and express a melting pot of over-cooked emotions:

Neptune, an outer giant of visions, ideals and projections, sits currently, firmly on the threshold of Aries, gazed fixed on the fiery terrain since March 30th.
On Tuesday, April 15th, Mercury took their first steps back into Aries, finally unleashing a flood of pent-up feelings about recent happenings.
On Thursday, April 17th, Mars left Cancer, fracturing the spell of unrelenting emotions that have been spilling toward and around us since long before eclipse season.

The departure of these three planets from the water signs and last week’s full moon in Libra marks the end of eclipse season, leaving only Venus and Saturn to plumb the underwater caves in the last decan of Pisces.

To put it frankly, we are finally arriving at the end, and at the beginning.

Saturn is a god of time and space, boundaries and gaps. Saturn is the base and the summit. Saturn is the cage that keeps the creature contained. The walls of the channel that directs the water rushing through. The faraway exile and the safety of the escape. Saturn draws the edge and the limit. Saturn flags the finish line. But Saturn also has things to say when the whistle blows to kick off the marathon.

Even at the start, Saturn has a firm grasp on finality and knows what it takes to make it all the way. Without Saturn, reality has no container. Without Saturn, existence ceases. Without Saturn, hardness recedes, effort dissolves, but its rewards do too, into an abyss of incomplete.

Without Saturn’s lows, the highs become unfathomable.

And with Saturn, we mind the gap. The literal space between where we are and where we are going, even if that time and place is far beyond the here and now.

When Saturn is with Venus, Saturn teaches us about the space between ourselves and others.

About abandonment and commitment. About love and responsibility. About the building blocks of the bridges that connect us and the stark lines that mark where we end and another begins.

Saturn and Venus have a long relationship of mutual care that spans across cultures, myths and millennia.

We know them as Inanna, the Mesopotamian queen of the great above, and Enki, the antelope of the wisdom sea. Father Enki was the sole god who sent help to Inanna as her corpse withered and shriveled in Erishkegal’s underworld throne room. Enki, who sent the kurgarra and galatur with the food and water of life to revive her. Enki understood the ritual of Inanna’s revival, the requisite empathy for Erishkegal, for what to ask, and what to refuse. Enki knew what was necessary and what need not be taken. Enki knew that without Inanna, the Holy Priestess of Heaven, that Heaven would not be well held. It was Enki’s reverence and respect that ensured Inanna’s return. Inanna’s descent is the story of Venus retrograde and it is fitting that she wraps up this one with Enki’s planetary descendant.

Inanna is second figure from the left, with the wings. Enki is second from the right, an irrigation god whose waters pour out from his either side. Akkadian seal circa 2300 B.C.E.

We know them also Aphrodite and Kronos. Kronos who, to save his mother Gaia, castrated his father Ouranos, tossing the clipped life-force into the ocean. And from the abiding sea foam, Aphrodite emerged, birthed from the immense seed of space, a goddess of emancipated beauty and undying love. And a product of the power of time himself. In Greek and Roman myth, it was Saturn’s will, insistence on justice and creative authority that conceived the gift that is Venus.

Sandro Botticelli, *The Birth of Venus* (c. 1484–1486). Tempera on canvas. 172.5 cm × 278.9 cm (67.9 in × 109.6 in). Uffizi, Florence

Thus we can see, Saturn and Venus are ancient partners in crime and punishment.

Venus and Saturn are renowned companions in the labor and rewards of life in love.

When we see Saturn and Venus together by transit or in a natal chart, we see relationships both plagued and blessed with difference and distance. We find grand age gaps, intergenerational affairs. We find the challenges of being born in moments with stark contrast but we also uncover admiration for the years between. We often see one who carries reverence for the wisdom of experience, while another bears appreciation for the energy of a novice. In Venus/Saturn dynamics, there is a waltz of sophistication and innocence exchanged and treasured.

LaToya Ruby Frazier, *Grandma Ruby and me*, 2005. Gelatin silver print mounted on museum board, 20 × 24 inches (50.8 × 61 cm)

With Saturn and Venus together we also find the chasm of physical distance. The pair separated by choice or by fate. Long distance lovers. Exiled family members. Unlikely bonds between folks of drastically divergent ancestries. Culturally at odds; clashes of class and politic, education and ability, access and maturity. And yet, across difference and distance they extend beyond the seemingly impossible reach. They devote themselves to understanding. Commit to carrying through. Entrust their futures to entanglements rife with challenging knots and certain frays.

Venus, as the planet of relations, is often hindered or hurt by Saturns rough hands, stoic demeanor and avoidant way. Sometimes Saturn’s cool distance can bring something to severance too quickly. But admittedly, this is a rarity for Saturn. Because the god of time is anything but quick. True completion only comes after a story has been written, reworked, edited and proofread more times than one might care to count. Saturn will etch a piece in pencil a hundred times and change the main design a thousand before finally going over the final main lines. And only then can we begin to paint in color. But isn't there something beautiful about seeing the picture begin to come to life?

*Femmes et l'enfant au bord de l'eau*, Suzanne Valadon, Gravée en 1904 (datée dans la planchée) et éditée en 1932

More often than not, Saturn’s presence with Venus indicates endurance.

Saturn’s boons, which always come after effort, bring a lasting quality to Venusian affairs. So while the love may feel far away, it is important to remember that distance slows us down. Draws us out. Allows for us to feel our way to blossoming at the harvest, instead of dying off quick in spring’s cover-crop planting. Saturn and Venus together are the ingredients for love that is perennial, slow to grow and steady in change.

Bonds formed under the purview of Venus and Saturn together are thus often strangely beautiful, uncannily eternal, and if we are focusing on Venus, they are bonds that are worth something. They are worth the time and the effort. They are valued precisely because of all that comes with the challenge. They have the environment and components that help people show each other that they matter.

There is something to be said for easy love. For care that comes without effort. For the pleasure of no responsibility. Sometimes, this is so needed. Especially after we have undergone implacable heartache and traumatic eruptions, sometimes simple and straightforward is pure divine medicine. And yet, when love is easy all the time, it is difficult to ascertain who is there because it is easy and who is there because they desire to be.

Saturn’s presence is proof of desire.

When we work on our communication. When we establish a structure for how we relate. When we show up consistently, when it’s easy and when it’s hard - this is when we start to understand the connection between love and worth. Because all love is beautiful but not all love is worth it.

**Because love, in the Venusian sense, is infinite.**

It is ever-expanding, heart-exploding and horizon defying. It will consume us and keep growing.

**But time, in the Saturnian sense, is finite.**

It is limited but can be checked, constrained, channelled, contained and allocated. So the time that we choose to give is an indication of our love and desire for ourselves and for others.

In about a month, Saturn will enter Aries, the sign of its fall. At that point, our sense of time will feel all at once urgent and stalled, both rushed and stagnant, impossibly slow and irrationally warped. It will be a challenge while Saturn moves through this fire, to perceive where the time goes and to make levelheaded choices about how we manage it.

But for now, Saturn is sitting with Venus in Pisces, very close to her degree of exaltation. The question of what we wish for, in the present and the long term, what is realistically possible and what is necessary to achieve it, is top of mind.

This moment when Venus conjoins Saturn comes usually once a year, establishing a new cycle for our deepest bonds. This year, Venus conjoined Saturn thrice during her retrograde journey, furthering the gravity of the desires and decisions therein. This last conjunction, in the 28th degree of Pisces, makes Venus extremely strong, equipped with her most fervent and spiritual orientation to love and connection in all forms. If this were not enough, Venus and Saturn are joined by the North Node, in the still lingering wake of eclipses, further compelling us toward clarity in our personal desires and the shared long-term designs.

Light of the Lit Wick, 2017, by Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Oil on linen, 79 1/8 x 51 3/8 in (201 x 130.5 cm)

By now, the subject of your challenges and your aspirations should have come into crisp focus, free from the debris of retrogrades and eclipses that was sprayed across the windshield of whatever house in your chart contains the sign of Pisces. If you want to talk hindsight and foresight, my books for May will open to my newsletter list on Thursday, April 24th.

The astrology of this week is admittedly also not without mounting tension, as Mars moves to make one last opposition to Pluto, kicking off the new narratives in the fire and air signs with more than a bang.

As much as much as possible, find healthy ways to let off steam. Try not to let frustration get the best of you. Put your oxygen mask on first, so when you are called to support, you can breathe easy through the momentary strains. Remember that the power we bring to our relationships begins with ourselves.

If you do not feel safe, how can you respect another’s sovereignty? If you are anxious, the care you are able to give will be filled with apprehension. But if you are rooted in your own clarity you can be both honest and kind. If you are witness to your own power, you can hold it. You can refuse to give it away. You can resist using it to dominate. You can stay with whatever trouble washes over you. And eventually, you can reach across time and space to fill the gap with your strength, your devotion and your love.

TRAVERSING THE VENUS/SATURN GULF