For several weeks this spring, a shouting Donald Trump made fun of the way Hillary Clinton was shouting. He complained that her voice was shrill and it hurt to hear it. All politicians shout. But women know exactly what it means when they’re accused of being shrill. It’s code for “Your strength is unattractive.”
Recently we lost a beautiful strong woman. Basketball coach Pat Summit won more games than any other coach in college basketball history. I love what her fiercest rival said of her, “She had vision, she had intensity, and she made it okay for a woman to stare you down from the sidelines and show emotion and get upset.”
Summit prowled, pounced and roared. She was shrill. And not only did she have the victories, her players had a 100 per cent graduation rate; among them were 14 Olympians, 21 All-Americans, and 34 WNBA players.
Mars stationed retrograde in late April, just as Venus disappeared into the underworld. Retrogrades and underworld visits are typically “unraveling” times. But what has unraveled during this retrograde is cause for celebration. The appeal of the “unconscious woman” seems to be diminishing. The beauty of the “strong woman” is rising.
This has long been in the works. But often it takes a tragedy for us to see how things are changing. The wide public outcry against the Stanford rapist’s light sentence is one example. It was a retrograde sentence; the tables turned. The victim became the victor. Her letter to the court, addressing her rapist, was so powerful, the vice-president called her a “warrior–with a solid steel spine.” That’s one way to turn the Venus/Mars archetypes inside out & upside down.
Art often helps to pave the way for social changes. What we see in films and videos often helps us enter new worlds. In recent weeks we’ve seen some stunning depictions of “shrill” women on the cultural stage. Beyonce’s Lemonade dropped at the beginning of this period and gave us a jaw-dropping portrait of feminine strength. Never has an angry woman looked so beautiful as Beyonce does, in that canary yellow dress, evoking the goddess Oshun, as she smashes car windows with a baseball bat. But then there’s also Danearys, hopping onto her dragon in the Game of Thrones. Cornered by the Masters and instructed to bow down, she says “Not so fast,” and then crushes her enemies with a rain of dragon-fire and two armies. Game of Thrones has given us many strong women this season. But perhaps most satisfying has been watching the fluffy innocent Sansa evolve into a cunning, powerful force. Much as I love Jon Snow, without Sansa, he’d be gone again by now! Then, of course, there’s the ultimate Kali, Cersei. Who knew that the Iron Throne would be up for grabs by so many queens!
Winter may be coming, but strong women are rising, in Westeros, and in our world too.
Talking about strong feminine energies, how about Jill Stein! I have been following her closely since Bernie gave up on his bid for the nomination.
Being an astrologer, I was naturally interested in her birth chart. No birth time was found for her, so I did an intuitive chart rectification. I felt that she had Virgo rising with Mars near the ascendant. This puts her sun on the 9th house cusp and Uranus in the 10th house.
This unique combination shows that she fights ( Mars on the ascendant ) to promote her visions ( 9th house ) for a better world in the spirit of serving ( Virgo ). Her progressive stance is shown by Uranus in the 10th house. I set the birth time for 2:00 P.M.
I really admire what she is doing. She was born the same year as myself, but 2 months and a week later. We were the Neptune in Libra , Pluto in Leo generation. I remember they thought we were a little hippy – ish, but many of us, myself included, had high ideals for a better world ( I also have the sun in my 9th house.)
It is great to see someone who has the character and fight necessary to get out there and fight for what she believes in!!!
I welcome any comments, as well as any other possible ascendant sign possibilities for her!
Thank you again for being a strong woman and voicing your wisdom, Dana!
Funny coincidence is that I spent hours watching episodes of Game of Thrones in a row yesterday since it was a rainy Sunday, so I’m very much in those energies still today. And before I started reading this article, a strong urge suddenly came to me: I took a guitar in my hands and I sang a song for goddess Oshun. You can imagine my surprise when I finally read what you had written!
So there’s a lot of powerful female energy around these days and it’s up to us to channel it out in to the world, be proud of it. <3
Thank you for this thoughtful post! I want to howl in agreement with the rise of the powerful woman…(I’m channeling my Pinkola-Estes Woman Who Runs with Wolves self now.) I was riveted by the Lemonade videos and loved that celebration of the feminine. I was in awe of how she channeled her emotions into her art. My sister and I aim each year to celebrate New Year’s Eve by standing outside under any available moonshine, saying aloud our affirmations for the year and then cavort and laugh like happy pagans. Though our NYE antics aren’t art, they do feel like a celebration of something powerful and primordial.