Hey, Reader!

On Monday, May 18th, Venus entered Cancer. Venus in Cancer is near and dear to my heart, so this Venus Day I am pleased to bring you whore-o-scopes for how you can make the most of Venus in Cancer to be your most embodied and heart-led self in all of your relationships!

I'll be honest. Venus in Cancer is not the sluttiest sign out there, at least not in the ways we tend to think of sluttiness. Venus in Cancer isn't out there trying to have the most sex or the hottest orgasms. Venus in Cancer's sluttiness is subtler. Instead of the liberating pleasure of ditching purity culture and having copious orgasms, Venus in Cancer breaks down barriers of who we consider worthy of care. Venus in Cancer liberates relating from the limitations of conventional romance. This isn't particularly sexy, per se, but it can be deeply sensuous and erotic. And it's also vitally slutty. It's a season of romantic rebellion. Or rebellion against romance, depending on your perspective!

It's a good time to learn more about the often unspoken myths and norms of relationships. This is a topic near and dear to my heart. Which naturally means it's one I've done a lot of reading about. If you want to explore perspectives on relating more authentically, exploring polyamory, the radical nature of love, or how to de-center romance in your life, here are a few books I'd recommend checking out while Venus is in Cancer:

Venus in Cancer Recommended Reading

• Love in a Fucked Up World by Dean Spade
• Relationship Anarchy: Occupy Intimacy! by Juan-Carlos Perez-Cortes
• Platonic by Maria G. Franco
• The Faggots and Their Friends Between Revolutions by Larry Mitchell
• Communism of Love by Richard Gilman
• Joyful Militancy by carla bergman and Nick Montgomery

Venus in Cancer invites you to consider how you want to be in relationship, not how you've been taught to be in relationship. This can include romantic and sexual relationships, of course. But it might also meaning choosing to center friendship, or considering your relationship to a concept or to the home, city, or land that you live on. Venus in Cancer invites us to consider the idea that the world is build on relationships and that we thrive when our relationships thrive. Venus in Cancer wants to you believe that we are all interconnected, all interrelated, and that one person's thriving is truly the thriving of the collective.

And so, without further ado, here are your whore-o-scopes for Venus in Cancer:

Aries

There's no place like home.

Consider your relationship to home, Aries, both the concept and the physical place. Where do you feel home? Is it a place? Or is it a person, people, an emotional state, a location? Maybe it's all of these. Venus in Cancer is a good time to nurture your relationship to your physical space, but it's also a good time to consider non-physical manifestations of home. Nurture your spiritual or energetic sense of home. Nurture the relationships and connections that feel like home. There's a reason we have the term "home making". Home is a concept and a space we are in relationship with and now is an excellent time for you to tend to and nurture that relationship.

Taurus

Connection is right outside your door.

We live in an era where most of us are feeling deeply disconnected. If you're feeling this, too, Venus in Cancer is a good time for you to look around you find ways to do your part in healing that disconnect and building community. You don't even need to look far afield. On the contrary, the connection and community you're seeking is right outside your door. Now is an excellent time to connect with neighbors, local friends, and existing community organizations. It's quite possible that the connection you're seeking already exists in your life, you just might need a perspective shift or an honest conversation with an old friend. Be open to all the ways that you are already woven into the mycelial relations of community.

Gemini

Break up with Amazon.

Take this time to look at your relationship to your resources and relationship of your resources to your community. Does how you make, budget, and spend money match your values? There's a certain sacred suffering of the martyr to forswearing money, refusing to look at it, or treating it as morally compromising. But there's a possibility of another perspective, one that is more supportive of your thriving and your community's thriving. It's a good time to break up with Amazon, look for local alternatives to big-box stores, or make a commitment to setting a certain amount aside each month for mutual aid or to get involved with a local mutual aid org.

Cancer

Full of yourself /= selfish.

Cancer, it's time to tend to your relationship to yourself. It might feel selfish, but when you're depleted you can't show up for others. Rather than selfish, consider that this is an invitation to become more self-fully. Practice having fun all on your own. Journal about what you like about yourself. Enjoy your own company. Schedule time to take care of yourself. Ask yourself what feels truly fun and nourishing and then do that. Take yourself out on a date, or plan a fun night in. When you are nurtured, your community is nurtured.

Leo

You're in relationship with what you hate, too.

This is a good time to shine your light into the hidden places. Have things been getting a little too binary, too black-and-white, too light-or-dark, too good-versus-evil? Venus in Cancer invites you to unpack that perspective and view your world through the complete spectrum. Nothing is wholly either-or, not the world, not others, not ourselves. This is a good time to examine your relationship with what you think you absolutely are not in relationship with. What do you forswear, abhor, or fear any connection with? Consider exploring that while Venus in Cancer. Venus invites you to consider the possibility that everything is truly interconnected, interrelated, and interdependent.

Virgo

Community means trying and failing and trying again.

Virgo, it's time to unpack your bags and come home to community. It might be true that you do just fine on your own, but true thriving requires true community. And that's vanishingly rare in this day and age. It's quite likely that you - like most of us - don't have much lived experience of being in a healthy and thriving community. But its rarity - and your lack of facility with it - are no reason to avoid it. While Venus is in Cancer, get vulnerable and open up to those around you, make plans, get involved. Consider communities you've been in, looking for ways to build more of what was good and ways to avoid what was less than stellar. Building community is a practice and a process and you have an opportunity to roll up your sleeves and learn by doing!

Libra

Purpose is present.

Lofty career goals are nice, but while Venus is in Cancer, consider that you might not have to journey far to find true purpose. Success, like pleasure, does not need to be delayed until one has reached some threshold of "successful enough". There are ways you are shining in your life right now. Take a look at your projects and what you've been accomplishing lately. How have you helped friends or family lately? It's possible that these might point to a more true-to-you path to purpose than any that capitalism might have to offer.

Scorpio

What you believe is possible is what is possible.

While Venus is in Cancer, consider the possibility that belief shapes reality. How is your relationship with belief? How about your relationship with possibility? If you're ready to imagine more and then get to work creating it, you have to believe something else is possible. That skeptical voice in your head that judges every heartfelt, but credulous attempt at creating something new? That fear of cringe that arises when you dare to imagine a better world? It's time to sit down and have a chat with the part of you that avoids cultivating a relationship with belief in better, in possibility, in creation. Consider the possibility that the beliefs you choose to be in relationship structure the reality you inhabit.

Sagittarius

Your truth is your wealth.

Sagittarius, fiery and extra, Venus in Cancer invites you to consider that your truth is your wealth. When the people around you ask you to tone it down, or question your hopeful explorations as naive do you shrink from the flame of your vision, or do you continue to stoke that flame? Venus in Cancer invites you to consider the ways you hold yourself in relationship to the collective. You don't have to reject tear others down just because they can't see the same vision of possibility, but explore the possibility that your bold authentic vision is something vital that you are here to express and hold true to it, even if the world around you doesn't quite get it.

Capricorn

Individual vulnerability builds invulnerable community.

Invulnerability is a brittle foundation for relationships. You don't have to be perfect to be worthy of love and connection. While Venus is in Cancer, practice letting others help you or lend a sympathetic ear. Those small offers of help that you'd normally brush off? That's the reciprocal of exchange strong relationships and resilient communities are built on. Let a friend buy you coffee or help you carry that heavy box up to your apartment. Yeah, you could probably handle it just fine yourself, but sharing the small burdens is good practice for building the kinds of connections that can share big burdens. Strong communities are built on shared, individual vulnerability.

Aquarius

Relating is a ritual.

Take a look at the structures of your life while Venus is in Cancer. Do the structures, rituals, and routines of your life support the kinds of relationships you want in your life? You might want to find a partner, but if you don't make time to go on dates, your desire won't do you much good. If you want stronger friendships, but you don't reply to texts, how exactly are you meant to nurture those friendships? Consider how you can create structures that work for you that also support your desire for connection, community, and love. Schedule a regular phone call with an old friend, make plans to go on a friend date once a month, or maybe reply more promptly the next time someone messages you on Hinge.

Pisces

Explore the potential of pleasure.

Venus in Cancer invites you to consider your relationship to pleasure, joy, and desire. What sorts of pleasures and joys do you allow yourself? Do you allow yourself to experience your pleasures and your joys deeply, fully, wholly, and totally? Or do you heed the societal fear of pleasure as a distracting or even dangerous diversion? While Venus is in Cancer, consider that joy, desire, and pleasure are experiences that can pay dividends, enriching and enchanting your life, when chosen wisely. Take time to notice the pleasures that bring magic to your daily life and those that function as an anesthetic. What would happen if you allowed yourself to invest more in the former and allowed yourself to experience it fully?

I hope these whore-o-scopes inspire you to embody your truest desires and explore new levels of erotic embodiment during this Venus transit! If you want to go deeper and explore what this transit means for you personally, book a Slut-strology Natal Chart Reading!

In Love and Liberation,
Lex

P.S. Know someone who would find magic in this newsletter? Please forward it on! Word of mouth is one way we weave connection & magic!