10.04.26 Ask the SGs Weekly Reading: Cornell University Makes Us Look Again

Trigger warning ‼️ 

This week’s reading includes discussion of sexual assault, sexual abuse, institutional failure, and the emotional impact of not being believed. Please take care of yourself as you read.

Before I say anything about this week’s astrology, I need to talk about Cornell University.

A young woman identified as Jane Doe has accused seven former fraternity members of sexually assaulting her after she says she was drugged at a fraternity house in 2024. Her civil lawsuit, Cornell’s internal investigation, and Snapchat messages connected with that night have brought the case back to center stage.

And women are responding.

I am Jane Doe has become a statement of solidarity as people push back against attempts to expose Jane Doe’s identity.

This is very personal for me.

I have experienced sexual harassment and sexual abuse in my own life. I know what it feels like when someone else has more power than you do. I know what it feels like when women are expected to stay quiet while someone else gets to decide what happened, how serious it was, and whether it deserves to matter.

President Trump was asked about the appointment of Letitia James as special prosecutor. He did not express concern for Jane Doe. Instead, he said he felt “badly for whoever she’s looking at because they won’t get a fair shake.”

That landed hard for me, especially because a civil jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing and defaming E. Jean Carroll.

And this is where I come back to the astrology.

Venus stationed retrograde in Scorpio on October 3.

Scorpio takes us into sex, trust, power, secrecy, vulnerability, control, betrayal, and what has been kept in the dark.

Suddenly, Look Again has taken on an entirely different meaning.

Last week we talked about Buttons and Breathing Room.

This week, some of those buttons are connected to injustice, power, sexual violence, silence, and the places where people have been expected to sit down, be quiet, and accept what happened.

Venus entered her pre-retrograde shadow on August 31 and has already traveled through this territory once.

The first pass gave us the experience.

Her retrograde moonwalk takes us back through it and asks:

“What (the hell) was really going on underneath?”

Venus begins her retrograde journey in the first decan — or first third — of Scorpio, where we connect with Scorpio in its rawest form.

A Teaching Moment

Think of the Maiden, Mother, and Crone. Using this Triple Goddess image as a metaphor, here’s how the three decans of a sign develop.

• The first decan of a sign is the Maiden. It represents youth and can be very reactionary as it explores new territory.

• The second decan of a sign is the Mother. This is where we learn maturity and stewardship. It’s where we learn to respond rather than react.

• The third decan of a sign is the Crone. In modern Wiccan tradition, practitioners consciously reclaim this word from old historical distortions, aligning it with its true energetic essence: the “crown of life.” Symbolizing a crowning achievement, this decan is where the wisdom we have gained through lived experience peaks, allowing us to step into spiritual sovereignty and benefit the world around us.

Venus begins this retrograde in the decan of the Maiden.

The Maiden reacts. She gets angry. She screams when something is wrong.

And I do not want to pat her on the head and tell her to calm down.

In this moment, anger is the sane response. This is what happens when something that has been hidden finally comes into the light.

Later, Venus will retrograde back into the third decan of Libra — the Crone.

And the Crone does not silence the Maiden. She listens to her.

She takes what the Maiden knows firsthand and adds experience, judgment, and wisdom.

The Maiden says, “This cannot continue.”

And the Crone says, “Then let’s figure out what we’re going to do about it.”

Mercury is also in Scorpio, and the SGs Community Mercury Return arrives on October 14.

A Mercury Return begins a new cycle in how we think and communicate, which takes on a whole new meaning through this Cornell lens.

With Mercury in Scorpio, we look more closely at what we know. We ask harder questions about what has been hidden, what was dismissed, who benefited from silence, and what changes once people know more.

The old explanation may no longer be enough.

We know more now.

So we ask better questions.

Both Mercury and Venus in Scorpio answer to Mars in Leo.

Mars is action, anger, drive, assertion, and the instinct to fight for something.

Leo can describe concentrated power — the person or group accustomed to being at the center, having status and influence, or getting their way.

Mars in Leo is opposing Pluto in Aquarius, and Aquarius belongs to the collective.

Pluto looks at power.

Who has it?

Who has abused it?

Who has been protected by it?

And what happens when the people who were expected to remain quiet stop cooperating with the old arrangement?

I Am Jane Doe is one answer.

One woman speaks.

Other women stand beside her.

The story becomes very hard to bury.

Then we arrive at the Libra New Moon on October 10.

Libra brings fairness and justice into the center of the conversation.

So, what does fairness look like when someone’s body, trust, and safety have been violated?

What does justice look like when institutions fail the person who was harmed?

What happens when the people who were expected to accept that failure finally say:

No. This is not good enough.

Venus rules this New Moon, and she is retrograde in Scorpio.

So Libra’s scales are being handed evidence from Scorpio’s basement.

Secrets.

Abuse.

Power.

Betrayal.

Things people hoped would stay buried.

And now Libra has to look at all of it.

Saturn retrograde in Aries opposes this New Moon.

Libra asks, “What is fair?”

Aries asks, “What am I willing to stand up for?”

And together they take us back to this question, “How do I remain in relationship with others without abandoning myself?”

That question belongs in our personal relationships, in families, workplaces, universities, governments, and every system where someone has been expected to become smaller so somebody else can remain comfortable.

Uranus retrograde in Gemini changes how we understand the story.

Sometimes new information changes everything. Sometimes the information has been there all along, but something changes in us and we finally respond differently to it.

Either way, the old way of thinking stops working.

Now we ask ourselves, “What does my new response show me about how my perspective has changed?”

And all of this is happening inside a much larger season of review.

Saturn, Neptune, Uranus, and Venus are retrograde. Mercury joins them later this month. Pluto turns direct on October 15 but stays in his post-retrograde shadow into 2027.

We are reviewing responsibility, power, relationship, communication, and the stories we’ve been told about who gets to decide whose voice matters.

Neptune adds another important layer because Venus and Neptune speak a similar language at different levels.

Venus shows us how love, value, relationship, and desire are expressed in our everyday 3D lives.

Neptune takes those same ideas into the spiritual realm — compassion, unconditional love, ideals, faith, and what we believe love is supposed to mean.

So, we are also reviewing what we have been taught about sacrifice, forgiveness, compassion, and love.

How much has been excused in the name of keeping the peace?

How much suffering has been spiritualized instead of confronted?

Some things are still being revealed.

And when we see the story differently, we can respond differently.

For those of us who keep up with what is happening in our country and around the world, waiting for accountability can be excruciating.

We want justice NOW.

But we keep watching information emerge that sends us back through stories we thought we already understood.

That is Venus retrograde in Scorpio.

Look again. There’s more underneath this.

And what we discover may change what happens next.

This Week’s Tarot Card: The World

At first glance, The World may seem like an odd card for a week that keeps taking us backward.

But this is a card of completion.

Something has been lived through. Something has come full circle. And maybe that’s part of what we are witnessing now.

A cycle begins to lose its power when enough people can see it clearly.

When secrecy stops protecting it.

When silence stops feeding it.

When the people who were supposed to disappear say:

I am Jane Doe and I am still here.

I remember what happened.

And I am speaking.

The Maiden raises her voice.

The Crone knows what experience has taught her.

And wisdom shows the Maiden what to do with the fire.

That doesn’t mean everything is suddenly fixed. It doesn’t mean one case brings an end to sexual abuse and injustice.

But something changes when silence is broken.

The World reminds us that we are not being taken back because we are stuck.

We are being taken back because we are finally ready to finish something.

And perhaps finishing something begins with refusing to participate in it the same way again.

A Note from Faye

I have been living my own version of Look Again for weeks.

The text I received on August 14 and the phone call from a close family member on September 4 brought old relationship material back into my life and gave me new information.

Those experiences are very different from what Jane Doe is facing. But the astrology underneath them has taught me something important.

Knowing more changes everything and seeing something differently changes the choices available to us.

And once we stop agreeing to the old terms and conditions, something begins to shift.

This week, my heart is with Jane Doe and with every woman who has ever spoken up and not been believed. I’m feeling the pain of women who stayed silent because they knew that telling the truth didn’t automatically mean justice would follow.

I am Jane Doe and I am still here.

Maybe that is part of what Pluto in Aquarius is teaching us.

One voice matters.

And when enough voices join it, the people who were expected to remain powerless become much harder to ignore.

I hope this reading gives you a common place to stand with others who are tired of waiting and reviewing, but still willing to trust that what we are learning now is leading us somewhere better.

💞 Faye