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The archetypal expression that most describes Venus
in Aries is the Wild Woman. The definition of Wild in this case means:
a natural, unrestrained life or state; occurring, growing or living
in a natural state; intensely enthusiastic; amazing or extraordinary.
The healthy Wild Woman lives from a place of pure innocence and knowing,
unrestrained by the limiting rules and judgments of the current culture.
She knows when she is connected to her inner sense of self or her true
self, and from this place she spontaneously acts in a natural and supportive
way.
The Wild Woman enthusiastically seeks new adventures, exploring
new territory, pioneering new ideas. When healthy, the Wild Woman knows
what she wants, who she is, how to listen to her own inner sense of
knowing and how to respond to her true wants and needs. She is whole
and complete within herself and does not need anyone to know who she
is. She knows herself through her own accomplishments and achievements,
through her connection with nature, and through trusting what she knows
instinctively. She is loyal to her beliefs, to her relationships and
to her community, ready to fight for and protect the balance of the
cosmic order. She values her independence, her freedom, her ability
to play, and her spontaneity. She is an adventurer, a Warrior Amazon,
a leader, strong, courageous and trusting in her inner knowing and skill.
Fiercely courageous, she protects
the birthing space for babies, new ideas, new concepts, and new visions.
She does not need anyone to define who she is. She approaches life with
wonder, curiosity and the simple trust of a child. She likes to be first,
first in line, first to discover a new idea, first to win a race, first
to try something new, first to boldly pioneer new territory. She is curious, adventuresome, and playful.
She may or may not express in householder ways, but she will
always need to have the freedom to express independence and strength.
Women Who Run With The Wolves
by Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Ph.D., was a huge success in 1993 during
the last Venus in Aries cycle. Clarissa clearly describes the Wild Woman,
explaining how women have lost their connection with the Wild Woman
and now yearn and long to remember their own wild essence while courageously
operating from a true sense of self without fear.
What Does The Wild Aries Amazon Woman Want?
A children�s story by Gwen Gross in a book titled
Knights of the Round Table describes what the Aries Woman
wants most. In this story King Arthur and Sir Gawain encounter �Sir
Malger of the Deadly Axe.� Sir Malger challenges King Arthur with a
riddle. Arthur�s life depends upon him discovering the correct answer
to the riddle, �What is it that women want most?� Arthur has seven days
to find the answer and he and Gawain asks every woman they meet. The
answers are varied including beauty, love, wisdom, children, riches,
adventure, and truth. Somehow Arthur knows none of these are the correct
answer to the riddle. On the seventh day Arthur and Gawain are returning
to Sir Malger�s castle, when an old woman calls to them. She is horrible
to see. Her skin is wrinkled and yellow, her teeth are jagged and she
has a patch over one eye. She tells Arthur and Gawain she is Lady Ragnell
and she knows the answer to the riddle. However, before she will share
the answer Arthur must promise her marriage to one of his knights. Desperate
to save his king, Gawain agrees to marry her and she gives them the
answer. �What women want most is to have their own way!�
Arthur�s life is spared and Gawain
marries Lady Ragnell. On
their wedding night, Lady Ragnell asks Gawain to kiss her. He closes
his eyes and gently kisses her and when he opens his eyes the most beautiful
woman he has ever seen is sitting before him. He asks her who she is
and she tells him she is Lady Ragnell and what he sees now is her true
self. Sir Malger had placed her under an evil spell and Gawain had now
helped to partially free her from the spell. However, she tells Gawain
to choose how he wants her to appear as she must return to her former
horrible look either by day or by night according to his choice. Sir
Gawain informs Lady Ragnell that he cannot make this choice for her
and she must choose for herself. This response released Lady Ragnell
from the rest of the evil spell. Remember the riddle? By letting her
choose he had given her what a woman wants most. Her own way! Lady Ragnell
told Sir Gawain, �Now you have broken the spell forever! I need never
take that monster shape again. I can be my true self. Day, night, and
always!�
Indeed, what the Aries woman most
wants is to have her own way, so she can remember and be her true self.
Our culture has defined certain roles for women and imposed those roles
upon them, so it is difficult for women to remember what their own way
is and how to live from their true authentic self. This Venus cycle
then is an opportunity for the feminine principle to notice the ways
she gives away her sense of self-knowing and self-direction, fully reclaiming
those parts of herself.
This is easier for the young women
growing up now as the old definitions are changing. When my own Venus
in Aries daughter was two years old, she began teaching me about these
mysteries. If I offered to help her get dressed she would take a deep
breath, make herself as tall as possible, and with all the authority
and strength she could muster she would shout �I do it myself� or �I
do it my way.� Now age 16 (at her second synodic Venus return) she is
more than ever doing it herself and doing it her way with courage and
confidence. She is a fierce warrior ready to uphold and defend the cosmic
order of life at any moment. (Of course it is her version of the cosmic
order.) It is wonderful to witness a freer more conscious awareness
of this archetype expressing in our young women, because we truly need
healthy feminine (and masculine) expressions of this energy to restore
and maintain the natural order and balance of life.
Another definition of the Aries
Archetype found in The
Shamanic Astrology Handbook, describes Aries as the Goddess
of Victorious Triumph and defender of the cosmic order. The Egyptian
Goddess Sekhmet provides useful images helping us grasp these mysteries.
For example, Sekhmet is actively committed to upholding and maintaining
the law of Maat (sacred cosmic law). In some versions of Sekhmet�s story she is the daughter of Ra,
the feminine eye of the Sun, sent to Earth by Ra to restore balance
and order among the people, through the principle of destruction and
transformation. Sekhmet is derived from Sekhem, an ancient Egyptian
word meaning �power�. Thus, Sekhmet carries the power to transform through
action.
It is interesting to note that
the 2001 Venus in Aries cycle began
in the window of the Spring Equinox, Passover and Easter. The heliacal
rise of Venus near Spring Equinox was viewed by the ancient Sumerians
as the Venus cycle worthy of celebrating every eight years. (The last
heliacal rise of Venus in Aries happened 8 years ago about April 8,
1993 and the next one happens April 3, 2009.) One way the Sumerians
honored this Venus cycle that occurred every eight years was to re-enact
the Inanna story, symbolizing the mythic representation of Venus and
her journey. This celestial event suggests this is an important timing
for remembering and working with the mysteries of death, resurrection,
rebirth and ascension, all contained within the story of Inanna and
the story of Christ. Data.
Venus, radiant and shining Queen
of Heaven, brightest of the visible planets, made
her heliacal rise (before the Sun in the morning sky) around
April 5, 2001 (5 Aries). On March 7, 2001 Venus stationed retrograde
at 17 Aries. The Venus retrograde phase is a rare occurrence happening
every 584 days (slightly longer than 18 months) lasting about 40 days.
The 2001 Venus retrograde ended
April 19, signaling
the completion of one Venus cycle and the preparation for, and the beginning
of, a new archetypal integration cycle for the world feminine principle
that began Nov 7, 2002 in Scorpio.
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