Thoughts of Freya's day
The Empress and a Waning Half Moon in Aries
Friday is named after Freya, the Norse goddess of Beauty, Wealth, Love and Fertility, and is ruled by the planet Venus, the planetary and astrological ruler of Taurus. Venus rules Taurus where Mercury rules Virgo, but they are equally faces of The Earth Goddess. Venus/Aphrodite/Freya/Ishtar/Hathor/Demeter…they are all embodiments of one and the same Feminine principle, deities across different cultures embodying fruitfulness, fertility, beauty, principle, luxury …and therefore power, money and finance.
The Tarot card representing Friday is The Empress, the third card of the Major Arcana. Where Monday’s High Priestess is associated with The Moon, which, though Venus rules Taurus, is exalted in Taurus, The Empress is especially associated with Virgo and harvest time in the northern hemisphere. When in Italy they saw Spica in the dawn sky, then it was time to start the grape harvest.
Spica aka The Wheatsheaf is a bright star in the constellation of Virgo.
The Empress is the Earth itself beneath its crown of stars. The Mother, Gaia, Demeter, Woman, fecundity. When the world gets ugly, still, there is always beauty, and where the ugliness is at its most terrible, the enduring beauty is in the daisies in the grass, and in the simplest acts of kindness, without which there is no fuel for the upkeep of courage…
en -courage-ment.
Beauty is for free when it is Nature’s own beauty, the sunrise, and the faces of those we love best in the world. But loved ones must be fed, sheltered, protected and cared for. Love is given for free but still, it costs. When beauty is for sale, because someone has put in time, vision, work and materials, then Luxury costs.
Freya was said to ride in a chariot drawn by two giant rescue cats, gifted to her by Thor when he found them abandoned by their mother. Maybe they were Norwegian Forest cats, but they were more often depicted as Russian Blues, and it was in Russia that this story originated. One theory says they were Bears. More powerful. But Meh. The cats drew her chariot when Freya rode into battle. That’s right. Freya, goddess of love and beauty was also the Norse goddess of battle. And DEATH.
Maiden. Mother. Crone.
The colour of The Empress is silver. The Old Norse rune for Freya is Beorc or Berkana, the silver Birch Tree. This may be invoked to protect the family home, to ask for a safe trip home again, or to ask for help in conceiving. I once drew this rune in a reading for a lady who ran her own farm, and asked if she had a birch tree anywhere near the house. She said there was a silver birch in the yard and she would go and stand under it when she needed peace and calm.
Now that my darling (and formidable) mother is gone back home to The Everything, and I “saw” her go through The Valley before she returned, just once, fourteen months after her death, and showed me she is still very much still here, in The Somewhere, I claim the Crone, and would be ready to go to hell in a handcart, to hunt anyone who harmed my daughters.
Yes. Venus will go to war, just as Mars will. For land, for resources, for her people. She will do it for all the children. Freya did some pretty naughty stuff herself, to get her hands on the Brisingamen, the world's most beautiful necklace. Such is the human desire for beauty, for which we are hardwired to respond with some of our most powerful emotions, for good, but also for ill, wherever we find it...
“She’s looking good, for beauty we will pay…”- Kraftwerk
Freya’s Day July 18
Mercury is stationing retrograde in Leo today, Friday July 18 until August 12, but the effect continue until August 26 when it finally leaves its shadow period.
-Mercury deals with all comms, trade, short form writing, journalism, short journeys, siblings, cousins and neighbours.
-Leo is the fifth house of our pride and joy, our hearts’ desires, our projects, ventures, creations, inspirations. Our lion heart, our courage, our coeur-de-lion. It is the house of children. Leo is the astrological ruler literally, of the heart itself.
This is a time then, symbolically speaking, we may have to make a conscious decision to sheathe our paws, just a little, when we would rather take something or someone by the neck, lion style and shake it to pieces. Smoothly does it. No rushing, when signing up to major home improvements, or dealing with family feuds or tantrums, or in deciding how to respond to any rude and gobby know-alls in our vicinity, trying to get in our faces. Keeping our cool and our civility when the other party loses theirs is often, though not always the best way to go, (sometimes we have to do what we have to do) Mercury deploys language coolly, cleverly, keeping the focus on the facts, staying unruffled. If someone is throwing their weight around, or trying to, you are not rising to provocation, but you’re not budging. And, the unspoken subtext, while you stay calm, measured and collected, they appear to be be confusing you with someone who cares, or even gives a sh*t.
On whatever matters to us, and when it comes to family members, we do of course very much care. But not everyone else needs to know, or gets to know what are the treasures of our inner sanctum, and why would we tell everyone where we keep the keys. We likely learned a long time ago, that not everyone who says they are a friend, is a friend. There is what is worthy of our time, effort and energy, and then there is the mat we wipe our feet on, on the way OUT. And afterwards we wash our hands. Friday’s Empress as ruled by Virgo, the Sixth house of Health, Hygiene, service and Community, is very big on handwashing. With a really lovely smelling soap.
This day of Venus is dancing with a waning half moon at 25 degrees of Aries, a moon phase ruled by Mars, the lover, partner or adversary of Venus. Venus and Mars are heading for a feisty few days July 21-24. Someone may get threatened with a saucepan.
The Tarot card for this moon phase is the Four of Wands, signifying family celebrations, professional achievements, workplace get-togethers, and again…property matters and house improvements.
This card has also in past readings, flagged up an enquirer’s questions to do with central heating and underfloor heating. How exciting is that? The Tarot will go as high as our minds can take us, but it walks alongside, and does not disdain to discuss the most mundane of matters. It will readily engage with discussions about plumbing or toilets, or anything. From the divine to the drains, anything that is worrying us, preoccupying us, any squeaky wheel, is not beneath the Tarot to investigate, in my experience as a reader.
There is some potentially fractious fire energy therefore, on this Friday, attaching to property, and family matters, with maybe a hitch to do with dearly beloved personal projects as we head into this retrograde. But it’s likely just that, a few snappish words, or only a hitch, a delay or a rethink and a revamp. Meanwhile something is brewing.
We know it is, on the world stage. But what about you and me? What is the thing we want to make? How shall we gladden our day, and harness the cats to the chariot?
From the Divine to the drains and back up again.
More on the Astrology here from lovely Penny Dix :
Thank you for reading.
Till next time :)