Venus in Sagittarius : The Art of Freedom II

Claude Monet

Rene Magritte

Sun Scorpio, Venus Sagittarius

Two artists, on the surface very different, but scratch just a little and we find they were both, in many ways, after the same thing.

Scorpio Sun lives for depth, for intensity. There is nothing superficial about Scorpio, which pierces the veil of mundanity looking for what lies beneath -  jewels or trash,  it's all the same to Scorpio. He just wants to know what's there. Scorpio loves mystery.

Marry this with with the Sagittarian love of exploration and truth and you've got one hell of a detective. And two artists, both obsessed with investigation and the revelation of the truth behind the facade.

Impression-Sunrise
The painting which gave rise to the name Impressionism

Monet sought the light. We tend to associate Scorpio with darkness and shadow, but Scorpio goes into the darkness to find enlightenment. The natural habitat of the symbols associated with Scorpio is light. Scorpion, the sunlit desert, Eagle the sunlit sky, and Phoenix the blazing firelight of its own immolation. And this immolation brings us to Sagittarius, the fire sign which follows Scorpio on the zodiac wheel.

 Rouen Cathedral Sunset

To reach the starlit fields of Sagittarius, Scorpio focuses its intensity through the lens that eventually sets fire to the object of its gaze, burning both down to the same ash, the pure essence, which then becomes the medium for rebirth.  Monet turned his gaze to the world around him, focused on its essence, the living fire beneath the form. He softened his lens from 20/20 and coloured what he saw outside the lines, coloured its living frequencies with a vibrant, fluid intensity, over and over, until he rebirthed art itself into Impressionism.

 Rouen Cathedral Morning Light

His Sagittarian Venus loved nature and the outdoors, and he broke with prevailing traditions by taking his paints and easel into the open air, painting freely the play of light and colour he found there. 

Rouen Cathedral Grey and Rose

As time went on he focused more and more on individual subjects, his gardens at Giverny, the cathedral at Rouen, painting them over and over through the changing light and seasons, trying somehow to capture the flux and flow of nature itself.  The subject remains the same, but our perception changes according to the light and the atmospheric conditions. (Perception is a major preoccupation of Sagittarius and also of Magritte as we'll see later). His fascination with flux is interesting, given that Scorpio is a water sign, and Sagittarius fire. 

One of the things I find most intriguing about Monet is the poetic nature of  his paintings, yet he himself described them as the product of scientific enquiry. A complex sign, Scorpio.

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Magritte, interestingly, began his painting career as an impressionist, but quickly tired of it and became involved with Futurism and Cubism, eventually falling in with the Surrealists. In a way, his paintings speak for themselves, despite their apparent incomprehensibility. They deliberately provoke, inviting enquiry. I've found them a great way of getting children interested in fine art - their jaws drop, eyes widen and they almost squeal, 'What does it MEAN?' Which is exactly what Magritte claimed he was trying to do. 

The Treachery of Images

'My painting is visible images which conceal nothing.....they evoke mystery and indeed when one sees one of my pictures one asks oneself a simple question "What does that mean?" It does not mean anything, because mystery means nothing either, it is unknowable'.

Yes well. Isn't the whole point of mystery that something is hidden? Hmmm. Let's break this down.

 'My painting is visible images which conceal nothing' - open handed Sagittarius.

 'They evoke mystery' - Scorpio.

 '...one asks oneself a simple question, what does that mean?' - Sagittarius.

 'It does not mean anything, because mystery means nothing either, it is unknowable'. - close fisted Scorpio.

 He might as well say ' I'm not telling you anything, I'm going to make you work for this'. Hilarious.

His paintings question perception, forcing us to think differently about the familiar. Probably his best known 'The Treachery of Images' was making the point that this isn't actually a pipe, it's just a painting of a pipe. Try stuffing tobacco in it and smoking it if you think it's a pipe, was his retort. Just how serious he was with it all remains a bit of a mystery (sorry, couldn't resist). 

The Human Condition

Sagittarius is the sign of the joker (most comedians have Sagittarius somewhere in their chart) and Scorpio, well, Scorpio is not just the sign of detection, it's the sign of the criminal too, being associated with the underworld.  After WWII, Magritte was involved in counterfeiting money and forging well known paintings to make a bit of cash. But then, given the times, so might we all have done.(That's my open-handed Venus in Sagittarius talking). 

Whatever the case, Magritte's paintings have that Scorpionic magnetic fascination that pulls the viewer in and then demands in Sagittarian fashion that we stretch our perception to find new meaning in what lies before us. Look at this, they seem to say, think you understand the world around you? Look again.

So two artists, same Sun sign, same Venus sign. Similar themes in both bodies of work, albeit with an individual approach and expression.

This video is a terrific gallery of Magritte's work. It even has a suitably scorpy saggie soundtrack courtesy of Nina Simone. Enjoy.

Van the Free Man : Jupiter in Cancer

Van Morrison

So it seems The Oul' Grump is to be given the Freedom of Belfast, his hometown (and mine). Hooray!

Although I have no idea what it actually means to be given the Freedom of a city (something to do with grazing rights and defending the gates?) it does sound pretty impressive.  And he's performing a free concert in Belfast in November on the night of the conferment, a shrewd move on the part of the City Council, some of whom were a bit worried he wouldn't turn up to the ceremony. Given his reputation. Grumpy.

Anyway, Freedom of Belfast, free concert, has to be Jupiter, right? Yep. Check out his chart. The timing is sublime. I've set the transits for the night of the concert, November 15th.

Van has the Moon, North Node, Ascendant and Saturn all in Cancer, the sign ruling home and motherland, and his Sun and Jupiter in the 4th house of roots,  aspecting that Moon and North Node.

The announcement of the Honour came as Jupiter, the planet of, well, honour, crossed his Ascendant, so presumably discussions and decisions had been ongoing in private as it hit his 12th house Moon and NN.  On the night of the concert Jupiter will be conjunct his Saturn, and Pluto and Venus will be conjunct right on his Descendant, trining his Sun. There's going to be some powerful love coming at him from his people that night.

Transiting Neptune is conjunct his Midheaven and trining his Moon - as the Mayor of Belfast said recently:

'It will be a very special occasion and will live long in the memory of those in attendance. The term living legend is too loosely thrown around these days but there is no doubting Van Morrison's eligibility for such status due to his incredible talent as a songwriter, musician and vocalist.'

Legend. Absolutely. To say nothing of the amount he's given back to his City over the years.

Tickets for the event are by lottery for the people of Belfast. How much more Jupiter in Cancer could it be? Freebies and Freedom for the people, by the people. Times like this I wish I still lived there. Ah well. Have a listen to this instead:)

Note to self: Must do a piece on his chart sometime. 'I know why the grumpy man sings'.

Venus in Sagittarius : The Art of Freedom

I got to thinking about artists with Venus in Sagittarius and how their Sun sign would influence its expression. Since Venus can only ever be two signs away from the Sun, we'd be looking at  Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn and Aquarius. They're an interesting bunch......first off, since this is where the Sun is right now, Libra.

Robert Rauschenberg

Sun Libra,  Venus Sagittarius

Rodeo Olympic Glut

That Libra Sun made Rauschenberg a great collaborator  - throughout his career he did projects with Cy Twombly, Merce Cunningham and others. His process was about bringing things together, collaging and incorporating found objects into his paintings with the intention of marrying art and sculpture. He is quoted as saying he wanted to work in the gap between life and art, and created a whole body of work known as 'Combines'.

A Sagittarian Venus gave him a love of exploration and travel, of going beyond the boundaries of what was deemed acceptable. He roamed the streets of different countries looking for trash and everyday objects to use in his work and on being invited to create a portrait of the gallery owner Iris Clert sent a telegram instead saying 'This is a portrait of Iris Clert if I say so.'  His White Paintings invited the viewer into pure experience.

Those collaborations were with a wide variety of people outside the fine art world - he designed costumes and sets for radical dance theatre,  worked with engineers, with NASA, BMW and designed an album cover for Talking Heads. His whole life seemed to be about the joining of forms in order explore the boundaries of the known,  to create anew a third entity which expands our perception of reality.

Merce Cunningham Dance Company

As he aged, the onset of the higher aspects of both Libra (justice, equality) and Sagittarius (humanitarianism, generosity) became more apparent. In 1984 He established the Rauschenberg Overseas Cultural Interchange at the UN, and went on a seven year tour around the world to encourage world peace and understanding, using art as a medium.

Six years later he he created the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, the aims of which were the promotion of world peace, environmental and humanitarian concerns. He established Change Inc. which gave grants to artists in financial need and when  he died he bequeathed millions of dollars to charitable foundations.

Quite the legacy.

Venus in Sagittarius : Defying Definition

 Rene Magritte, Venus in Sagittarius

Q: How do you piss off Venus in Sagittarius?

A: Ask them what they do.

And if you really want rid of them, next time they are expounding their latest theory stare at them and say ' Is that a Buddhist thing or what?'  Just see how fast they hightail out of there.

 Venus in Sagittarius defies categorisation and will not be pinned down. Life for them is about ever expanding knowledge and the understanding of absolutely everything, in which the journey itself is more important than the arrival. Once they get to a place, they stop to have a look around, see what there is to learn, then head off towards the horizon to see what's over there. It could be the holy grail and if they stay where they are they'll miss the opportunity.

This of course gets them a bad reputation in matters of love, where culturally we are expected to find one person and settle down. To commit. Well yes. The word commit also applies to sin and to crime. And to loony bins.  Venus in Sagittarius however, recognises that there are more things on heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy, and this applies to all matters Venusian.

See, Venus isn't really about love.  Venus also rules values, money, women, possessions and more than anything else, Venus describes what we are attracted to. A limited view (says Sagittarius) defines attraction as person to person.  But we are every one of us attracted to all sorts of things - reading, gardening, travelling, working, movies, sports, astrology, psychology, freedom, frogs. Whatever takes your fancy is Venus in action.

The word 'commit' is itself interesting. It's from the Latin meaning 'to put together'. And this is actually what Sagittarius is forever doing - putting the pieces together to see what it all means. Taking them apart to see what they're really made of. Searching for undiscovered pieces. Trying new configurations to see what happens. Life for them is an ever moving diagram. So Sagittarius is actually very committed, committed to expanding perception. It's commitment to a process rather a state.

When Venus is in Sagittarius we are in a period of looking at what we've got and finding the pieces that fit with what we want, where we are headed. While Venus was in Scorpio we dug deep and threw out what we didn't want. When Venus moves into Capricorn we start building for the future.

 So now is the time to consider all your pieces and where they fit in your scheme. Play with ideas, push the boundaries, have some fun and let yourself expand into potentials you hadn't noticed before. Or were too scared to consider before. Think about designing a new improved scheme. Or a completely different one altogether. Why stick to one idea? The keyword here is POSSIBILITY. Look at what exists, then look at what you can do with it. And when Venus moves into Capricorn (6th November) you can start making it real.

Oh yes. So what kind of question should you ask Venus in Sagittarius?

What do you think?

Let me know in the comments:)