From Hope to Faith
by
Sarah Varcas
At 5:55 p.m GMT on 7th October Venus enters Sagittarius for a month, as she separates from a square to Mars and approaches one to Neptune. In doing so, she affirms the importance of these coming weeks during which we have two eclipses and the next Uranus/Pluto square. She reminds us of the role of hope and faith in the process of change and awakening, encouraging us to consider what these qualities really are and how best to embrace them.
We often place our hope in a specific outcome which fulfils our personal desires and aspirations. This is the hope which drives ambition, as we envisage possibilities and pursue the path to making them real. It keeps our gaze fixed on the future, in a time and space not yet occupied where we see our desires fulfilled and our efforts rewarded. In the meantime, the very quality of hope keeps us going, knowing that we are not nurturing wild and outlandish dreams but realistic and achievable ones.
And then there is the hope, probably better described as faith, in which we simply know that whatever’s going on, however tough or easy it may be, however much sense we can or can’t make of it, all things conspire for our awakening and it is up to us to fulfil their potential by choosing to use them to that end. This faith is not about the future but the present, the only place where we can be alive at any time. It is about how we live this moment now, the quality of consciousness we bring to it, the wisdom we apply, the depth of our awareness.
In her entry into Sagittarius today Venus asks us to shift from hope to faith for coming the month; to bring our focus into the present in order to know fully what is required of us by life, over and above what we may think is needed to get to where we want to be. The two may be very different at the moment and discerning that difference is our task this week, because in its recognition we will be able to navigate the coming month from a place of wisdom and faith which knows that the pursuit of personal satisfaction can hinder awakening just as awakening can arise in the most unsatisfactory moments of our lives.
The Moon assists us with this task as she joins Venus in Sagittarius at 12:23 p.m. GMT on 8th. The optimism of a Sagittarian Moon can often come as something of a relief after her journey through the deep waters of Scorpio. However, she emerges from them fortified and uses this strength to view challenges in a more positive light, knowing that no matter how deep we have to go we can always surface eventually. This is an encouraging message for us now, and one that we’d be wise to take on board. Whatever our goal in the external world, whatever outcome we seek to bring about, it is the quality of faith that really keeps us going no matter what. It is that deep knowing that no matter what happens, no matter the twists and turns through which life takes us, every single moment is replete with potential and possibility if we can open ourselves enough to recognise it.
Doing so may require a willingness to let go a long held dream or relinquish a particular notion we have about ourselves and our life. But it is only ever necessary to relinquish that which will hold us back in the long run, and these days, when so much change is rife and the heavens are shifting into a whole new age with every breath we take, the sooner we let go the quicker we can course-correct and continue on our way, freer and more whole than ever before.
Have a good week ahead everybody.
Sarah Varcas
