Notes from the July 15th Star Talk by Arielle Guttman

(c) July 16, 2011

Long after the 75 chairs were put away and the lights dimmed, Star Talk was still going strong, streaming in my head into the following day. So I’ve attempted to gather up some resonant fragments of stated and yet unstated topics that were circulating around my cosmos, for consideration here.

August 15: The Venus Star is changing phases, signs and positions

We’ve been in the Scorpio Morning Star Phase of Venus since last October 28 and as of August 15, 2011 we will move into the Leo Evening Star Phase. Venus is currently invisible to us as she is at that crossroads between shining upon us in our morning skies and eventually gracing us in our evening skies. Now she resides within the beams of the sun — or combust. When she moves into the heart of the Sun and they kiss one another in what is known as cazimi on August 15, they will be joined by Mercury in a 3-planet love fest. During this period of invisibility, as Venus moves closer to the Sun, we are entering a Venus period, a time to celebrate Venus coming out of her warrior phase and into her lover phase — and a time to engage in Venus practices.  In Leo we can anticipate the celebration of the feminine,  of nature’s beauty, of artistic creations, love, of marriage, of childbirth, of our existing children, our creations, our playfulness and the sensuality with which Venus engages in any practice.

August 2011 marks the seventh passage of the Venus Star through the sign of Leo since it began transiting that sign 24 years ago in August 1987. The birth of the Leo Star at that time brought us the Harmonic Convergence, the period that was identified by the Mayan Factor as the doorway to a twenty-five year passage concluding in 2012 – of earth’s transition to a new dimensional portal – one that would allow the needed shift from a populace governed by a sacral center to a community of humanity becoming centered in the heart.  It is not an easy shift, but this forthcoming Leo Star period (August 2011 – June 2012) reminds us of the necessity of following a mind whose control center is housed in the heart rather than giving into the mind’s reflexes located in the cerebral cortex of the brain. The cerebral cortex of the brain is a more easily manipulated and seduced mechanism that allows us to think that lies are truth and thus begin to believe them. Contrarily, the heart was given one essential full-proof component that cannot be altered or tampered with: it doesn’t know how to lie. The mind may have taught it how to trick itself into covering up the lie, but the consequent suffering of that is certainly not worth the effort of attempting it. Want to pay your fair share of taxes? Offer them up to the heart.

What can we anticipate from the coming Leo Star? The 2011 Leo Star Evening Star constitutes the FULL phase of the 8 year Leo star that began four years ago  in August 2007 as the NEW phase and which will culminate in August 2015. We are now at the important midpoint, the turning the wheel of the full period into a new direction. The inception of the current eight year Leo Star period in August 2007 identified the actual implications of the dire economic conditions that would beleaguer the U.S. housing market, rippling around the world and spreading like an infectious disease to every other sector of the economy to the point of now, a near bankruptcy for the U.S. as the full phase of Venus rapidly approaches.  This full phase of the Venus Star Point, as in any full phase, depicts the most inflated build-up to the crisis, followed by a  subsequent release and reorientation. The good news? Something’s got to break – it must release and change direction on its way to the completion of its journey four years from now.

Mercury Retrograde –  August 2 to 26

Coincidentally in what is sure to be no coincidence is that Mercury turns retrograde in the earliest degrees of Virgo opposite to Neptune in Pisces on the day the government is asked to resolve the debt crisis.  A stationary Mercury about to move retrograde is in itself a time when misunderstanding, misdirection and confusion can abound. But add that to Neptune and Pisces and what emerges is a tangled cobweb of truth based on belief, unsupported facts and rhetoric which makes me believe that not one single person in Washington actually knows the bigger picture of this economic maze we’re attempting to navigate through – something like a DaVinci style puzzle box that once open, one finds many other layers to unlock with very little clues as to who holds the key. That, punctuated by Neptune itself all over the U.S. chart right now (natal Moon, progressed ASC, progressed Sun) will produce political proclamations, statements, resolutions and writs that may not make sense to anyone.

August is the month to welcome the triple Sun, Venus and Mercury alignment to Earth as a personal celebration and relief to an otherwise very tense drama that is still operating in the planetary sphere. Mars in Cancer, Pluto in Capricorn, Uranus in Aries  and Saturn in Libra are involved in a giant cardinal cross that will be triggered by the Moon once a week during the month and will no doubt provide lots of drama, tension, explosion and release. Look to Mercury retrograde, along with Sun and Venus in Leo, as comic relief and be creative about solutions to problems. Elect to move out of a box of conditioned actions that finds the same old repetitive responses totally not doing the trick. And, seriously, look to theater, entertainment, the arts and the playfulness of children to remind us of the elegance of this Leo Star when the will is aligned to creatively, spontaneously (from the heart) and intentionally reflect and act out the beauty of life and nature with the flair and beauty that Leo possesses.

The U.S. is having a Saturn Return — through November 2011

Every 29 years it happens: a Saturn Return that some of us experience as a wise and stern, sometimes cynical old professor forcing us to finish an assignment that we dread having to undertake. Ultimately we’re supposed to learn some sort of responsibility from that test or assignment, and here it is, aspecting the U.S. 8th House Sun which points directly to fiscal responsibility and the use of other people’s resources. For the U.S. right now, the transit of Saturn to the U.S. 8th House Sun and the concurrent transit of Pluto to its 8th House Jupiter is a cruel blow to a greatly inflated wallet that has now been shriveled to small coins and stale crumbs.  You, the holder of that sad and shrunken wallet, says: “Please give me one more loan. I promise I’ll pay you back.” But there’s no one left to borrow from who doesn’t hold a price on your head if you don’t pay up and pay up soon. Time, the nemesis of a Saturn period, is running out.

Saturn, in a double whammy of a transit to both the U.S. Sun (squaring it) and the U.S. Saturn (returning to it) makes this period doubly fierce and seem doubly doomed. But wait, isn’t Saturn in Libra, the sign of compromise, of mediation and of giving equal time to both sides of the issue? If Saturn truly lives up to the wise teacher that the sages of old have claimed it to be, the really right solution in keeping with Saturn’s reputation as an exalted aspect of stern but conciliatory wisdom in Libra is its ability to negotiate fairly with both sides. In other words, this present government has got to find a way to cooperate or we shall all perish. The consequences of both sides not giving equally to this battle is that the victor who uses coercion and bullying tactics to win only finds his own head on the chopping block the next time it comes around.  Without getting Biblical, you could say that Old Man Saturn’s song is something akin to “as ye sow, so shall ye reap”. So, the Republican Congress, the Democratic Administration and everyone in between, needs to swallow their pride, yield even if ever so slightly to the cause and condition at hand and take care of business.

For more about Venus Star Rising and the Star Point activations, visit: