Libertas - Venus enters Sagittarius

About 15 years ago, a reporter from the Amsterdam News entered our shop in New York City.  He said he had something important to talk about.  That he was telling everyone who would listen.  And he was doing this even though his life was being threatened, and he was being denounced as a liar.  The story he told was about slavery.  And the fact that in some part of the world it still existed.  He spoke specifically of the country of Sudan, where people from the southern part of the Sudan were being taken from their communities, terrorized, raped, tortured and forced into slavery.  Over the years, more and more people were speaking out on the atrocities in the Sudan.  Our friend was no longer the voice crying out in the wilderness.

On the 7th of January, Venus enters Sagittarius, symbolizing Lady Liberty, Libertas, the Roman goddess of freedom.  Libertas was revered by the ancient Romans, as the goddess associated with the emancipation of slavery.  And she has continued to be revered throughout history in poetry, art and literature.  The early colonial Americans strongly identified with her theme of freedom, eventually giving rise to Lady Liberty who sits atop the dome of the US Capitol building... as well as the Statue of Liberty on Liberty Island in New York City. 

At the dedication ceremony of the Statue of Liberty no women were allowed at the ceremonies except for a few relatives of the creator of the statue.  However, a group of Suffragettes commandeered a boat, and through the use of a bullhorn, appraised the choice of the figure of a woman for the statue, but also strongly advocated a woman’s right to vote.  The Cleveland Gazette, and African American newspaper also protested, saying that the torch should not be lit until the US became a free nation in reality. 

This weekend, the Southern Sudan will be holding a vote deciding whether or not to secede and form their own separate country, apart from Northern Sudan.  Almost four million people have registered to take part in Sunday's referendum on whether Africa's biggest country - Sudan - should split in two. The vote was a condition of a 2005 deal to end almost two decades of conflict between the north and south, which was responsible for the escalation of the abuse as well as the slavery of the people in the South. 

The ruler of Sagittarius, Jupiter, is currently in Pisces, the sign of oil.  Much controversy revolves around the fact that the Southern Sudan is oil rich, but also much subjugated by the Northern Muslim nation.  As a result, the Southern region, despite its wealth of resources is extremely poverty stricken lacking roads, access or any sort of infrastructure.  Therefore if this referendum is passed, as it is believed it will, and they become an independent country in the Summer of 2011, they will have a rough road to travel, with many obstacles to overcome.

Venus in Sagittarius brings a sense of idealism, optimism, hope, where ethics and morality play a huge part in the equation.  We wish the people of the Sudan well in this time of Libertas, with Venus moving into Sagittarius.

Thomas Paine, the much maligned freedom lover who inspired the American Revolution with his pamphlet, “Common Sense” (he was also credited with writing the first article proposing the abolition of slavery in the US), wrote:

Freedom had been hunted round the globe; reason was considered as rebellion; and the slavery of fear had made men afraid to think. But such is the irresistible nature of truth, that all it asks, and all it wants, is the liberty of appearing.

the above picture is entitled "Statue of Liberty Unveiled" by Edward Moran, from the Museum of the City of New York