Entering the Grotto of Venus 2:Tips for the Venus Retrograde
Venus retrograde presents an invitation to reclaim a part of ourselves.
I love this image and quote for Venus, particularly the concept that everything breathes together. It is all connected.
Our natal chart is a guide, an alchemical compass, to our journey here in this lifetime. That’s why it can be so eerily accurate when working predictively. It’s a map, but more holographic than a map. It has tales to tell and can act as a wise guide. When we consciously align with it in an embodied empowered way we experience being on purpose. Our chart can act as such a magical device, it’s designed to, but we have to bring our own awareness to it.
This Sunday December 19, 2021, Venus retrogrades in Capricorn. For 40 days and nights she is heading to the underworld, in this case aligned with Pluto the God of the underworld himself, before she is reborn as a morning star. As many of you know, the number 40 is considered sacred in numerous traditions and there are many indications that historically this comes from the Venus retrograde cycle.
Venus retrogrades rarely. Where the other planets retrograde at least once a year, Venus and Mars only retrograde about every two years. And it is important to remember Venus and Mars are personal planets, meaning their movements and where they lie in the chart affects us personally. (Mercury is the other personal planet and most likely most of you have felt personally impacted by its retrograde cycle.)
In all of mythology, journeys to the underworld always symbolize periods of transformation, of death and rebirth. In order to leave the underworld, something must be left behind in order to arise again into the conscious world.
Symbolically Venus represents what we value, how we connect, She is the Goddess of Love. Intertwined with the arts and our creativity, Venus shows where and how we take pleasure in life. She is an intrinsic part a road map to what gives us the experience of being fulfilled. Where she is in your chart shows how you approach relationships of the heart (not just romantically, any relationship within your life including your relationship with money for example) and how you can develop a health sense of self esteem and self love.
Venus retrograde in Capricorn is asking us to consider what we would like to build lasting value that will withstand the test of time. It is about quality, not quantity. And as she is aligned with Pluto we are also being asked to put the ghosts of the past to rest. To release them Whatever they may be; a relationship, an unfulfilled dream and habits of treating ourselves and our lives as less than a sacred aka being of profound value.
As Joseph Campbell said "Your sacred space is where you can find yourself over, adn over again."
So ask yourself over the next 40 days what is truly worthy of your time and attention in 2022?
As I said in my earlier blog, with Venus in Retrograde at the beginning of the year, I urge you to hold off on making any New Year’s resolutions until after the 29th of January when she goes direct if you want them to take hold.
Actively use this opportunity to turn your gaze inward making the time to get to the heart of your desires. Specifically your soul’s desires(after all your soul selected your chart). To listen their call and consciously attune yourself. What is always extraordinary to me is that when I do this, or guide clients and students in how to do this, the response in the outer world is profound and feels nothing short of miraculous.
Where she lies within our chart points to where we are learning to be receptive, to be open to be vulnerable, even to ourselves. All of her lessons guide us toward honoring ourselves and our desires. She shows us where and how we are learning to receive. Venus is the Goddess of self love. In myth she never questioned her self worth or the value her desires. She was worshiped from the moment she was born and instantly adorned with jewels by the people around her. She had no self doubt. She was powerfully shameless, as in she felt no shame consciously or unconsciously that prevented her from living the life she sought.
When we consciously align with our Venus, in essence apprenticing ourselves to our desires that are worthy simply because we desire them, the world opens. After all she symbolizes the principle of desire, magnetic desire specifically. She governs how we draw things to ourselves. Aphrodite’s (Greek Version of Venus) girdle was said to make her irresistible. But truly when we align and work with the archetypal energy of Venus we don’t need a magic girdle to draw things toward us, because in essence she is the power of love that births all things and holds the world together.
So how in practice to we enter into an apprenticeship Venus?
To do this is to cultivate the spiritual practice of holding our desires and dreams as sacred and worthy. And it is a practice, we consciously align ourselves over and over again effectively establishing the habit of understanding the essence of love as a power to transform ourselves and the world around us. Knowing, as they do in science now even though they speak about it differently, that everything is connected. Venus is about the power of connection.
To make the most of this Venus retrograde we must woo ourselves and the universe around us.
This is a period for revisiting old creative projects, taking long baths and walks in nature. Morning pages or journaling which are essentially an inner walk with or to your wild nature are called for. Take a class that you’ve been longing to take. Curating self care will bring deep rewards.
From the point of view of a psychological journey to the underworld the Venus retrograde offers an opportunity to leave behind something that is no longer serving us so that we can rise again with our inner values realigned to powerfully create our world. Or perhaps for others it is a time to reclaim a part of ourselves we had set aside simply because we were busy elsewhere. Most importantly it s a time to deeply listen to your heart’s song. What is it longing for? What is your heart secretly whispering to you?
I invite you to join my Venus Retrograde workshop, Entering the Sacred Grotto of Venus, which has a few spots left and access the power being in a conscious Venus community though this period.
Designed to teach you how to harness the energy of your personal Venus, we will practice attuning ourselves, through guided meditations, imagery, self care practices, visualizations, myth-making and creative projects. Essentially, is it a 40 day apprenticeship to self love and self care as we kick off the New Year. We will get to the core of your true desires supporting your in actively setting your 2022 intentions, aligning with them and being magnetic. I know, it sounds completely woo-woo but I swear it works! And it’s fun! This is a Zoom Workshop so you can participate from anywhere. Every class is recorded so you are required to attend live but can participate at your own convenience. And frankly, it’s a screaming deal that is my offering to you to honor Venus.
Even though we are working with Venus this is not a traditional astrological class. This is an embodied experiential workshop (yes, even over zoom) personalized to the participants. Yes, we will actively be working with your personal Venus’ and the charts of others in class but there will not be an overview of Venus in all twelve signs. You may learn some astrology but what I am aiming at is being able to consciously live our charts. As I said earlier, our natal chart is a guide, an alchemical compass, to our journey here in this lifetime.
