Sophia's Children

Our Venusian selves have just gone Mercurial.

Are you sensitive and attuned enough to feel it yet? If not, you’ll be able to if you wish.

Read on for tips, so you’ll be able to create more skillfully with this energy in your life in the coming weeks (or work with Venusian Iris beyond that, if you’re called).

As the old and wise saying goes, we either consciously work with the archetypal energies, or they work us.

The Venus and Iris Energies of Now — and You

Venus’s last meander through the electrical Geminian field occurred in the Spring and Summer of 2012 (an unusually long transit then).

This time, she’ll be sprinting through in a few weeks, though like a B12 boost, or a lightning bolt or tornado, the effects, benefits, or consequences can be longer-lasting.

Venus, Iris (more on Iris below), Gemini, or Virgo — Gemini and Virgo both being Mercury-Hermes, and thus Iris ruled archetypes.

If any of these are strong themes in your personal blueprint, if they’re a ‘ruler’ or ‘dispositor’ for you, or if you need an infusion of their qualities, this post will be even more important for you.

Venus is considered a ‘personal’ archetype, symbolizing our traits and experiences with harmony (or not), abundance (or not), beauty (or not), and love (or not).

At the heart and core, Venusian macro-themes are about the quality of relating and even moreso, what we most deeply value and thus yearn for (versus what we’re conditioned to value more superficially and obsessively, but which will never truly satisfy or sate us).

She shifted from grounded, Earthy, sensual Taurus to quick-minded and communicative Gemini. From Earth to Air. Right on time to add to the ongoing Zap Zone Energies of the now-infamous Uranus-Pluto Square (currently being lit up by the flame-thrower of that transiting Angry Bad Boy, Mars).

To navigate through the trickier energetics, you can consider and evoke Iris the Rainbow Goddess, one of the more ‘shamanic’ archetypes that I associate with Venusian Gemini.

Why ‘shamanic’, and why now? Navigating deftly through tricky energies, between different realms, and even difficult personalities, is a specialty of Iris’s.

And somewhere in your own constitution, a.k.a. chart, you’ll find how Iris expresses in and through you and your own life journey.

Meet Iris, the Very Shamanic Rainbow Goddess.

If you haven’t met the rainbow Goddess Iris, allow me to introduce you — you’re in for a lovely treat.

Iris has a very unique place in Greek mythology, in that she’s a Walker Between the Worlds.

Like a shamanka (or whatever word-title we might prefer to use), Iris easily moves between the realms — the Underworld, Middle World, and Olympus, or upper world of the Divine in Greek mythos.

She is said to be the Great Goddess Hera/Juno’s most trusted messenger, and the Great God Zeus/Jupiter sees Iris in the same way.

Even more unique, Iris is able to easily travel between the realms of Heaven and Earth, air and sea, and even to the Underworld and back, bringing vital information and conveying messages between the gods, and between the gods and humans.

You might say, she’s both shamanka and ambassador … a magha diplomat.

So she’s a Shamanka’s Goddess, and the spirit ally for wordsmiths and communicators, who deal in Word Magic whether for good or ill.

Since we all use words — and thus the power or magic of the Word — that applies to each of us, too.

To be aware of it makes it possible for us to be more skillful and deft, like Iris of the myths.

Iris’s name is said to derive from the Greek word eiro, meaning ‘messenger’ and also ‘to join’ — as in a communication bridge that connects. Eiro is also close to the root for light, so the rainbow spectrum begins to make more sense, too.

As I reflect on that, I couldn’t help but think of Eris, one of the smear-campaigned Bad Girl goddesses, in this case associated with disruption and discord. Perhaps she signifies the dark side, or Initiatrix expression of Iris? More on that below (and in another article as well).

Iris is usually seen with a winged staff or caduceus, and a ceramic pitcher from which she pours out Divine guidance.

She has an angel’s wings, and sometimes winged heels — like Hermes-Mercury, the Masculine counterpart — allowing her quick, light flight as she travels between the realms.

And she’s associated with the rainbow, wearing a rainbow-colored robe and leaving behind a rainbow calling-card: Iris was here (or Iris is here). Sometimes she’s thought to actually be the rainbow itself.

So what does this symbolism tell us about Iris?

She is a most trusted messenger and herald, respected in all of the realms — a masterful, trusted, Divinely gifted communicator, ambassador, messenger, envoy, and diplomat.

She is adorned with the winged staff or caduceus, so her communications are healing and high-vibration, perhaps even illiminating and enlightening. Think the healing (or harming) power of the Word.

She wears the rainbow robe and embodies or leaves her rainbow symbol as her calling card, symbolizing ‘the rainbow after the storm’ and also the hope and promise of the same.

Her rainbow robe also symbolizes the ‘rainbow body’ or ‘light body’ — our own energy field when it’s in its natural Divine vibration.

Even more, she is a spirit ally and messenger of (and to) the Divine Feminine, and the Sacred Masculine as well, generously endowed with the magic of the Word.

Perhaps Iris was the Muse for Dr. Emoto in his work with the effect of high or low-vibration, loving or harmful words (and voice tone, music, etc.) on water crystals — and thus on us, too, since we are made mostly of water.

Iris the Rainbow Goddess can be a conscious archetype or spirit ally in our conversations with the Divine, and she can help us to increase the radiance of our own and others’ rainbow-light-bodies through the use of beautiful words and communications.

This relates to our inner-chatter — the Word-habits we’ve internalized — as well as communications with others, and with the Divine.

Of course, her very example hints at the lower-vibration potential of Venus in Gemini — a misuse of our power of the word by way of chronic negative chatter and gossip, for instance.

This is what made me think of Eris, sometimes called ‘the Goddess of Discord’. Might Eris be the effects and energies we see, feel, and experience when we misuse or negatively use the power of the Word?

Or is the message more Uranian — the potential initiating or ‘wake-up’ power of discord and disruption, if we’re alert to it and engaging in that spirit?

I’ve explored this theme deeply, both in my long experience advising on matters of interpersonal and organizational communication, and in my long years of ‘shamanic’ or indigenous-ancestral wisdom traditions.

Iris the Rainbow Goddess — and the energies of Venus in Gemini — remind us that words and images have their unique vibrations, and can either be healing and illuminating or poisonous and harmful.

But if we invoke the wisdom and skillfulness of Iris, with gratitude and respect due to her as the most respected Divine messenger, we can elevate our communication, gain some additional understanding and mastery of our Word-power, and maybe even become rainbow-bringers ourselves.

Where is Iris in your chart?

As always, if you have a more prominent Venus, Gemini, or Iris in your astro-blueprint — like my own Venus-rising, Gemini moon nearly conjunct my ascendant, and Iris in mid-Cancer trine Neptune in Scorpio and Jupiter in Pisces (and currently lit up in the Uranus-Pluto square mix!) — this is an even more important archetype, teacher, and purpose-illuminator for you.

You can see where Iris the asteroid is placed in your own chart, too, for additional insight on where her gifts (or shadow) might show up for you. Iris is Asteroid #7.

How do you see Iris the Rainbow Goddess & Divine Word shamanka-magha working in your life?

Share your thoughts, musings, and questions below (or if you prefer more privacy, send along a direct email — you’ll see the email link in the upper sidebar).

And if you’d like to bring Iris the Rainbow Goddess alive within yourself — and elevate your communication and ‘power of your Word’ — send me an email and schedule an individual session.

In the meanwhile, Big Love and Irisian word-magic!

Jamie

Featured Image Credit: Iris Carrying the Water Across the River Styx to Olympus for the Gods to Swear By, by Guy Head (1793)

Shine Your Soul Force. Be Who You ARE.

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None the less, as the saying goes, We were born for these times — the times need us to summon our gifts and our magic and share it in our unique ways.

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Lots of love,

Jamie