The Alchemy of Venus and Mercury
The present sky shows a rare alignment of word and desire. Descending into the mutable earth of Virgo, Venus is embraced by Mercury, who also has just stepped into Libra. What seems a simple exchange of regencies reveals itself as a deeper alchemy. It is the figure of the Rebis, the androgynous child of Hermes and Aphrodite, where speech coils around longing and beauty wears the wings of reason.
Venus is currently in her fall, but this is a ritual descent, the kathodos of the goddess who strips herself before the temple of service. Virgo is a feminine and nocturnal sign and Venus herself is the benefic of the nocturnal sect, so there is sympathy between planet and sign despite the fall. By triplicity, Venus holds diurnal rulership over the earth signs, a paradox that adds tension, since her nocturnal essence moves through a domain that grants her dignity in the day. This refines her power rather than denying it.
Mercury has entered Libra, where he is peregrine, neiter its house nor his exaltation. And Mercury rules the triplicity of air at night. Although the planet has no fixed sect, being by nature ambivalent and psychopompic, he still takes the nocturnal share of air, which allows him to act with familiarity in Libra. It is the place of the scales, of judgement and proportion, and Mercury there becomes the tongue that weighs and measures with balance.
More at The Mirror of Sienna.
Κύριε ελέησον