Ingress occurs when a point moves out of one sign and into another sign. This transition results in a change in tone and meaning for the point, which is an energy shift designed to promote and continue growing on a regular and ongoing basis. Each point moves at a different speed, so the ingress for Mercury, which is faster than Mars, happens more frequently (mostly every 3 to 4 weeks) while the ingress for Pluto happens much more slowly (after a decade has passed).
This article will look at the ingress of Venus as it leaves Scorpio and enters Sagittarius. The change in tone involves leaving the fixed water sign to enter the mutable fire sign of the Zodiac. Energetically, it will be like leaving the brothel for the monkhood/nunnery.
Changing the Tone, Changing the Meaning
On November 1st Venus will leave Scorpio and enter Sagittarius at 4:25 pm eastern standard time. In Scorpio the “tone” was tied to how we transform, share/keep secrets, what we want sexually, and how we manage power with regard to other people. Venus, an air/earth sign (Libra and Taurus rulership), works well in all signs because it will either share the same element or compliment the element. In Sagittarius, it will be more philosophical, religious, and high-minded about relating.
Venus in Sagittarius
In Sagittarius, Venus finds itself in the philosophical and “belief” energy of Sagittarius. Perhaps the best examples of Venus in Sagittarius are the nun/monk or devotee to the ideals, divine nature, and philosophies of love (passionate, unrequited, ethereal, conditional, and unconditional). The relating energy taps into what we believe and know about love through experiences across cultures, continents, and time. Venus in Sagittarius wants to explore the eternal nature and common truths of love and relating. What do the scholarship and persistent study of love reveal to us about our own particular ways of relating and loving?
As Venus moves through Sagittarius our choices in a relationship will tend to want to understand why we love the way we do, how our particular love fits into the larger scheme of love at large, and how we love and connect to spirit through our higher minds and practiced rituals. The energy of Venus in Scorpio moves away from our sacral chakra to climb all the way to the space between our throat and third-eye chakras!
The ingress moment of entry in a Whole Sign astrology chart is always the 1st Sabian Symbol of the sign. In this case, our point of relating will enter Sagittarius 1, which is “a Grand Army of the Republic campfire”. In the Sabian Symbols book, by Mark Edmund Jones, he writes, “This is a symbol of man’s continuing appreciation of every phase of experience that ever has opened up for him, and his desire to live worthily as a basis for every present or future well-being. The keyword is: REMINISCENCE.”
“When positive, the degree is accomplishment through the cultivation and preservation of enduring ties with others, and when negative, superficial idleness and unhealthy veneration for the past” (211). This energy is stirring up our sense of divine love. We want to look forward with our relationships, not backward.
At the Personal Level
Understanding the movement of points at the most personal level does require knowledge of your natal astrology chart. With your chart in hand and a solid, basic understanding of astrology, such as knowing the symbols for the signs of the Zodiac and the astronomical and calculated points that make up the layout of the solar system when you were born, you can learn your own flow with points as they leave one sign and enter another.
Based on the date, time, and location of my birth, my chart wheel begins with Scorpio and ends with Libra. The wheel is made up of 12 segments (pie pieces) called Houses. Sagittarius rules my 2nd House of Resources and Security and Scorpio rules my 1st House of Identity. On November 1st transiting Venus will enter my 2nd House of Resources and Security, so I can expect the time between November 1st and November 25th to be a period of connecting with the relationships tied to my security and the development of my resources.
Interestingly, I have no points in Sagittarius, so this transit will not directly cross over any points in that sign for me. However, I have 6 points in Aries and 1 point in Leo (the other two fire signs), which will all get trine (supportive) energy when Venus hits the degrees between 0 and 25 (Chiron at 0 degrees of Aries and Jupiter at 25 degrees of Leo). This should be a good period of support and reinforcement for me.
When points move through our houses, they bring their unique energy to bear on that area of our lives, both as an emphasis on our own inner development and with external triggers. This particular transit of Venus will be less personal for me, in general, in the area of my chart that it passes through, but it will act as a trigger for my 6th and 10th Houses where I do have points. For you, it might be doing its work in the area of your career (10th House), or family (4th House), or community (11th House). Wherever it is entering that sign in your chart, you can expect some more philosophical thoughts about your relationships and how they fit in your life.
Divine Love
In their book Astrology, the Divine Science, Marcia Moore, and Mark Douglas give Venus in Sagittarius the following keynote: “affections are motivated by visionary considerations” and the symbol is: “a boy and girl wish upon a star”. During this time everyone will be “idealizing” love, “making it more of the mind than of the senses” (147).
Expect yourself to be more interested in your belief about love and how your particular ways of relating – friendship love, familial love, and romantic love – all bear out and shape your love philosophy or love “religion”. Are you a “true believer” in love? Are you a love agnostic? Or maybe you have become a love atheist? Whatever the case may be, Venus in Sagittarius wants to understand love in a higher sense of thought.
