Juno, Venus, and Abortion Access
Asteroid goddess Juno has been major player in the experience of Venus transits from the end of 2021 until now.
Venus has been retrograde, Saturn-ruled, conjoined Mars, and besieged. And all along, Juno has been following her path and providing help when possible. But Juno has also had these various afflictions alongside Venus.
You may know the story of Venus’s retrograde and besiegement this year, but here we will delve into a narrative timeline of Juno’s involvement in this section of the Venus cycle. We will also track Juno back in time to significant court cases and laws in abortion access in the United States.
Juno’s Significations
Juno (or Hera in Greek) is best known as the wife of Jupiter (Zeus). Before the Greeks defined Hera as the jealous wife of Zeus, she was considered a primary ruling goddess. “Originally, Hera reigned alone and had no consort, but when the invading Achaean tribes descended upon Greece from the north, Hera’s cult became and obstacle that had to be reckoned with. Hence, the Achaeans made Hera the divine partner of their own chief god Zeus” (George 156). Hera was considered a moon goddess who represented all aspects of reproduction and feminine presence. She was considered too powerful of a figure for the conquering forces, and so the mythology is adjusted to show her submission to Zeus. When Hera strikes back against Zeus for his infidelity, she is written as shrill and vindictive.
In many ways, Hera and Juno represent the need for equality and equity in partnerships. A mutual understanding and agreement that is based on respect. Hera was undercut as her mythology evolved throughout the Greek and Roman empires, but she was a powerful deity in her own right who understood her need for mutual respect.
The later Romans emphasized Juno’s reproductive significations. Juno had major connotations to the state and her power was channeled to support and justify empire and imperialism. Juno was also considered a great support to people in childbirth. She was a signification for the strength of the community and she represents our ability to care for each other within community. Roman worship of Juno connected reproduction and birth with furthering the aims of the empire for the “greater good” and to “protect the nation.” In her talk, Re-Envisioning Juno, Diana Rose Harper connects this fundamentalist system of reproduction with the Quiverfull Movement who do not use birth control in order to reproduce in large quantities and keep “Christian power” in the country. A woman interviewed in the NPR article says "The womb is such a powerful weapon; it's a weapon against the enemy.”
Although Juno is and has been historically related to reproduction of power and power imbalances, we can associate her aims with some of the themes that break through the mythology. These include community accountability, respect and honor, and support of people in childbirth. Demetra George writes, “As the ruler of those who lack power in relationships, Juno acts as a universal symbol for the classes of powerless individuals —abused women and children, victims of seduction, rape and incest, minorities, and the disabled. And because she never ceased to fight against injustice, Juno rules those who fight for the rights of the underdog (particularly women) in the political, economic, educational and judicial arenas” (George 163).
Juno and Venus Besieged
I first noticed that Juno was involved in Venus’s besiegement as Venus was entering her conjunction with Saturn. I hadn’t really paid much attention to Juno’s involvement before that, but I began animating the charts to see how long she’d been involved. It turns out Juno was not only a major part of Venus’s besiegement in Aquarius, but she was also going to get the worst of it once Venus left, and she’d been deeply involved in Venus’s retrograde with Pluto.
Narrative Timeline of Juno and Venus Besieged
10/31/2021 - Venus conjoins Juno in Sagittarius.
We start here because this is where Venus and Juno are able to talk openly before they enter Saturn’s house. I think they both know that when they enter Capricorn, they are in for some difficulties, so they take meet up in Sagittarius to make an action plan to support each other through the difficult times ahead.
12/10/21 - Venus conjoins Pluto in Capricorn for the 1st time (Juno is co-present at 9°)
Venus learns her mission here during her retrograde. Pluto is asking Venus to get dirty and clean out the depths of the underworld. She begins her work at this time, and Juno can see the mission Venus is given but she does not know exactly what it will entail.
12/19/21 - Venus stations retrograde at 26° Capricorn (Juno is at 12°)
Venus’s retrograde marks a turning point in her relationship to Juno. Now they are applying toward each other, and Venus will be able to enlist Juno’s help in her task of razing and leveling the depths.
12/24/21 - Venus conjoins Pluto in Capricorn for the 2nd time at 25° (Juno is at 14°)
Here Venus has a second instruction for the mission, but she gains the help of Juno soon.
1/06/22 - Venus conjoins Juno while retrograde at 19°
This moment feels like when you are at work and you see a coworker who can help you coming towards you but they have to go do something else and they are following the boss. Juno is moving direct while Venus is retrograde. They’ll meet again but Juno doesn’t have as much time to talk as they thought.
1/23/22 - Juno conjoins Pluto at 26°
Juno receives the message from Pluto about what needs cleaning out and demolishing. Juno is happy to help with this because she knows that what she is removing will support Venus and her community.
1/13/22-1/28/22 - Mercury stations retrograde and conjoins Pluto and Juno
1/29/22 - Venus stations direct at 11°
Venus feels like she’s done a good job of following Pluto’s instructions for waste removal from the underworld and she’s ready to go forward again, but she looks for Juno and Juno is already ahead in Aquarius. Venus still has to meet up with Pluto a last time to assess her work.
2/1/22 - Juno enters Aquarius ahead of Venus
2/1/22-3/6/22 - Simultaneously, Juno is applying to conjoin Saturn and Mars is applying to conjoin Venus
At this point, both malefics are applying to both Venus and Juno. This moment feels like running away from something that could do you harm, or running away from an obligation you thought you’d gotten out of. Venus has Mars on her tail wondering if they can get together, and Juno is moving toward Saturn and feeling that she won’t enjoy the tasks he has to hand to her. Juno applying to Saturn feels like a child walking toward the principals office, maybe she didn’t do anything wrong and maybe she’s not in trouble but she feels like this won’t be an easy exchange with authority.
3/2/22 - Venus and Mars both conjoin Pluto
Venus has done her tasks and Mars is there to back her up. If Pluto is not happy with the job Venus has done, Mars will fight on her behalf so that they can move on to Aquarius. Mars is in its exaltation and feels comfortable standing up to Pluto in support of Venus after all she’s gone through during her retrograde, but she doesn’t necessarily want his belligerence at her back while she confronts Pluto before heading into Aquarius to confront Saturn too.
3/6/22 - Mars conjoins Venus at 0° Aquarius (Juno is at 12°)
This begins the besiegement because Mars is behind Venus and Saturn is in front of her and ruling Venus: she is enclosed by malefic planets. BUT, it is at this point that Juno is caught in the enclosure with Venus. Mars is behind Venus, Juno is after Venus, and Saturn is after Juno. They are both trapped between a rock and a hard place, but together.
3/26/22 - Venus conjoins Juno at 20°
Ah, these two friends are so happy to see each other again. Its been so long, and so much difficulty since they last met. Venus is nearing the end of her enclosure, but Juno still has some difficulties to surpass when Venus leaves. This moment feels like when you’re leaving your friend in a place they’re not very excited to be in but you’re ready to go home and you have to give them a pep talk before you leave them behind.
3/27/22 - Venus conjoins both Juno and Saturn at 21°
At this point, Venus and Juno both pass Saturn and escape his clutches. Its like a sigh of relief. When I imagine this moment, Venus starts running toward Pisces. She’s so eager to get away but when she looks back as she crosses the threshold into her exaltation, Juno is looking back at her forlorn, because at that moment Juno realizes she’ll be enclosed again, without Venus. This is because Mars speeds up and passes Juno.
4/4/22 - Mars conjoins Saturn at 22° (Juno is at 24°, and Venus is at 29°)
Mars and Saturn conjoin in a way that feels very deflating. Mars has gone through this whole process with Venus, they’ve gotten to Saturn’s house and now they are at the moment where Mars needs to have a stern conversation with Saturn. Mars is tired and angry and being suppressed. Juno is looking on knowing that whatever these two are unable to work out amongst themselves, she will have to figure out once Mars comes to her. She may need to calm Mars down after he’s experienced setbacks imposed by Saturn.
4/5/22 - Venus enters Pisces
Venus is totally free of that commotion and she’s ready to jump in the pool with Jupiter…
4/8/22 - Mars conjoins Juno at 25°
At this point, Juno has to talk with Mars about his behavior so far. Maybe he has been acting immature and Saturn yelled at him, now Juno needs to give a more fair reminder that Mars needs to put on a brave face for the rest of Aquarius. He will be in Pisces soon with Venus again.
4/15/22 - Mars enters Pisces, and Juno’s second besiegement is over (she is still at 28° Aquarius)
Juno rides out the rest of the time with the tensity from Mars and Saturn’s argument still in the air. She feels uncomfortable because there’s been a massive stopper put into a frustration. Its like someone has been yelling at another person and then left the room and Juno is just trying not to look at Saturn and be on her way.
4/20/22 - Juno enters Pisces
Juno is co-present with Mars, Venus and Jupiter in Pisces for some time during her stay. But before she can catch up to them to confer again and debrief from their trouble with Saturn, they’ve all entered Aries without her. This leaves her with less resources because Jupiter, the ruler of Pisces has left and is not accessible to her in Pisces. Juno has an extended stay in Pisces because she enters retrograde motion with Neptune. Later in the year, Jupiter will re-enter Pisces during his retrograde, and Juno might receive some guidance.
Juno’s role in this difficult time for Venus has been to look ahead and develop a plan for dealing with the difficulties they both must face. Juno, as usual, has a major role to play and a lot on her shoulders. She has to confront Pluto before Mars and Venus’s last conjunction, she has to hold Venus’s hand while she is admonished by Saturn, and she needs to console and angry Mars after Venus has left. Juno has the burden of keeping the community structures in tact during a great deal of turbulence.
Juno and Abortion Rights
Over this time of Venus and Juno’s besiegement in Aquarius, it feels like every day we are hearing of another state passing even more outrageous anti-abortion laws. Here, we’ll look at how the recent anti-abortion laws correlate to Juno, and then we’ll look at some historical charts including Roe v Wade, and how Juno has shown us about this theme throughout history. Juno is relevant to abortion rights because she speaks to our reproductive rights. Juno knows the gravity of reproduction for the state, and reproduction at all costs. Juno represents healthy and choice-based conception and birth. She is a goddess who knows the pain of the labor of reproduction and she wants to support those who reproduce. Juno reminds us that we can protect our community through reproductive labor. Although reproduction can mean childbirth, reproductive labor encapsulates care work in community. Abortion rights advocates and sexual health providers are Juno’s children; they are harbingers of community care and advocacy.
Juno and Abortion Rights Timeline (2021-22)
Texas “Heartbeat Act” 3/11/21-9/1/21
The Heartbeat Act was one of the first major laws introduced specifically with civil enforcement. This is significant because it opened the option for other states to follow. This is also significant in terms of Juno because Juno represents the state. At this point, anti-abortion lawmakers found a way to avoid legal issues with criminal enforcement. Juno’s significations of community care are deeply inverted here because this law emboldens citizens to act against each other. It empowers individual citizens to act like the state in enforcing a law that favors reproduction over the health and well being of the person giving birth.
At the time this law was introduced to the Texas state senate, Juno was in Sagittarius preparing to move retrograde. On this day (March 11th) Juno was conjunct the South Node and in an exact square with Venus. The South Node creates this distortion of Juno’s stewardship. Juno in a square to Venus and conjunct the South Node brings out the Roman attributions of Juno—private citizens are being enacted to police each others’ reproduction.
From March 11th when the bill was put forth, Juno went retrograde later that week. What is also interesting about this retrograde is that she is traversing the terrain that she and Venus will later traverse together before Venus enters Capricorn for her retrograde. Thus, Juno is getting a preview of the difficulties Venus will begin to face. On May 19th, the law was enacted. Juno was still retrograde at this point and moving toward an opposition with Venus. On September 1st, 2021, the law took effect. By this point, Juno had stationed direct again and was reviewing what she’d learned during her retrograde before she and Venus meet in Sagittarius.
Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization 12/1/21
This case originated in 2018 when Mississippi passed the Gestational Age Act which attempted to put a ban on abortions after 15 weeks. The Jackson Women’s Health Organization sued the state health office, declaring that the act was unconstitutional. The case’s arguments to the Supreme Court were heard December 1st, 2021 during Venus’s pre-retrograde shadow period. At this time, Juno was in Capricorn co-present with Venus as she applied to Pluto. This case will likely be decided in June, and it will have a major impact on abortion rights because it is the first case that will be heard with a majority conservative court. “At bottom, the states argument boils down to the notion that the government should get to control people’s decisions about whether to continue a pregnancy or to end a pregnancy” (Hillary Schneller)
When the arguments were heard for this case, we had not quite entered the waterfall of other states coming up with their own anti-abortion laws. This case marks the beginning of this Venus retrograde with Pluto and it gave us a preview into what Venus would deal with as she traveled through Saturn’s domains. Juno at this point is observing the difficulty Venus is about to face and realizing that she is also going to encounter these difficulties alongside Venus. Juno needs to be there to strategize how we put systems of care in place when the rights of Venus, reproductive rights, are challenged. Do we have those systems of care in place? Are they strong enough to withstand the upheaval of Pluto?
Idaho House Bill 3/14/22
This bill was based heavily off of the Texas “Heartbeat Act” that emboldens private citizens to sue fellow community members who seek an abortion. To reiterate, this is a way to get around the issue of constitutionality. The bill is enforced in civil courts and members of the community are empowered to interfere with reproductive rights with the power of the state behind them. This breaks apart communities by sowing suspicion, distrust, and it incentivizes and institutionalizes treachery among neighbors.
We saw the connections between Juno’s South node transit and these issues of community mistrust, but while this bill was being passed and signed by the governor, we were in the middle of the simultaneous beseigement of Juno and Venus. Whereas in December, Juno was able to see ahead to Venus’s affliction, in March, Juno was entangled and enclosed with Venus. Both planets representing reproductive care were flanked on either side by malefics. Saturn on one hand as the laws and political structures in place attempting to rule over the bodies of Venus and Juno, and Mars behind them threatening an erosion of bodily safety and autonomy.
On April 8th, the Idaho Supreme court temporarily blocked this new abortion law. This was due to lawsuit brought forward by Planned Parenthood. On this day, Mars and Juno conjoined. The beseigement of Venus ended, and Venus had moved into Pisces, but Juno was still left behind to deal with Mars. This bill is not struck down; it will still be argued further. Juno must continue to deal with the blockage set forth by Mars until he enters Pisces.
Oklahoma, Kentucky, and Florida 4/12-4/14
Oklahoma, Kentucky and Florida all passed laws that deeply restrict abortion access. Oklahoma is attempting to make it a felony to get an abortion, Kentucky’s law requires providers to cease abortions immediately with no exception for rape or incest, and Florida bans abortions after 15 weeks. Each of these laws broke news during Juno’s second besiegement in Aquarius as Mars overtook Juno. When Mars enters Pisces, Juno receives some relief.
Juno and Roe v Wade
Roe v Wade was argued first on December 13th, 1971. At this time, Juno was conjunct Uranus in Libra. This conjunction represents a forward motion towards a larger societal conception of reproductive justice. The case was then re-argued in October of 1972. Later that year as the decisions were presumably being written, Juno, Mars, and Venus all conjoined in Scorpio. This conjunction featured a dignified Mars and an undignified Venus. This is a circumstance where a dignified malefic is providing support in taking decisive action. Venus’ presence with Mars and Juno is the state providing protection and taking action on behalf of reproductive health and safety.
This conjunction between Mars, Juno, and Venus has been challenged deeply over the time of Venus’s beseigement. The Juno/Mars conjunction, the Mars/Saturn conjunction, the Venus/Saturn conjunction all took place within 20-25° of Aquarius which is exactly squared their conjunction in 1972. The deployment of both malefics in this besiegement has created a challenge to the original conjunction bolstered by Mars.
Not only this, but the final Supreme Court decision of Roe v Wade took place about a month after the Venus/Mars/Juno conjunction in Scorpio. The final decision was put forth on January 22nd, 1973 under a Mars/Juno conjunction in Sagittarius. This conjunction was also close to the area Juno was transiting in 2021 during her retrograde when the “Heartbeat Bill” was passed.
Mars, Juno and Venus in an aspect relationship have a connection to abortion rights advocacy. The Juno/Mars conjunction in particular is one that is present both in the recent transits with restrictive laws, but also in major court cases that uphold abortion rights. I think the reason for this is that even when abortion rights are being challenged, we have the power and drive to follow in Juno’s path to uplift community care structures to fight for healthy reproduction.
Great thanks to my foremothers who helped me write and research this whether they knew it or not: Demetra George, especially her Asteroid Goddesses book. And Diana Rose Harper, who’s Re-Envisioning Juno NORWAC 2021 talk reinvigorated my love for the asteroid goddesses and their complexity.
