Overview of the Venus Cycle
I understand that the Venus cycle can feel complicated. And I admit, it’s not an easy cycle to pin down until you’ve lived and embodied it once or twice. I write today in the hopes that you are feeling the call to journey with Venus in this upcoming cycle, so that you too can feel the inherent power and depth that comes to life when syncing with HER. If you resonate with this idea, read on for some clarifications.
I thought I’d take an opportunity to, in a very linear, masculine way, clarify some Venus Cycle Knowledge.
The Venus cycle begins when Venus is in Retrograde. This is her Metamorphic phase. The phase that bridges the end of one cycle and the beginning of another. In Retrograde, Venus is high in the Sky and very close to the earth. Her full cycle spans 584 days, and creates one Interior Conjunction Star Point cycle. Or in other words, From one Interior Star Point to the Next Interior Star Point. Our current Venus Cycle began in August of 2023 in the sign of Leo and will end when Venus next stations retrograde on March 22, 2025 at 2 degrees Aries.
The sign that Venus occupies when she makes her interior (retrograde) conjunction becomes the “overtone” of the Cycle. Or, the “MetaGoddess”, who’s archetype colors the entire cycle. Therefore, we are in a Leo overtone cycle.
Her cycle has many phases. Cycles within cycles like Russian Nesting Dolls. She has an eight year cycle. Which is the time it takes for her to trace the full Venus rose around the earth. Inside that cycle she has five 584 day cycles which creates a full petal on the Celestial Rose of Venus. Or one point of her pentagonal star. And inside of that smaller cycle she has several distinct phases. Metamorphosis—> Descent —> Underworld —> Ascent —> Back to Metamorphic Again.
PHASES
The Metamorphic Phase is Venus’ 40 day retrograde which begins the cycle. In retrograde Venus is high in the Sky, traveling close to earth.
The Descent Phase is characterized as a slow, nine month descent as Venus travels further and further from earth.
The Underworld Phase happens when Venus appears to dip below the horizon. In reality, she is making her trip around the far side of the Sun. In the Underworld she makes her superior conjunction. This conjunction adds a secondary “tone” to the Venus cycle (see below)
Her Ascent Phase begins when Venus emerges from the far side of the sun, low on the horizon. She then spends the next nine months ascending in the sky, traveling closer and closer to earth each month until she goes retrograde and begins the cycle once again.
Another, more detailed way of saying this is:
The first phase begins at her helical rise as Morning Star. This happens just after her conjunction with the Sun during Venus retrograde at the beginning of her cycle. In this latest cycle that happened on August 13th 2023 when Venus met the Sun at 20 degrees Leo.
She spends almost nine months, the same amount of time it takes to gestate new life, in her Morning Star phase as she descends through the night sky. This is why Venus is connected to the woman’s mysteries and cycles of creation. Each month She descends towards the horizon until she finally disappears from view.
If we are using the Hymn of Inanna as a template for the Venus Cycle (which is legitimately a Venus Sky Story) this is the period in which Inanna is descending through the gates on her way to the Underworld. Leaving one of her ME, or Royal Vestments of Power, behind at each gateway.
When Inanna is finally stripped naked, and bowed low before sister Erishkagel in her throne room, THIS BEGINS HER UNDERWORLD PHASE, the midpoint of her 585 day cycle. She stays invisible, or below the horizon for between 60-90 days. This is the point in the myth where Inanna is murdered by her sister, and hung on a meat hook. Until supernatural creatures come to her aid by sprinkling her “60 times'' (days) with the Water and Bread of life”. Which is the precise amount of time that Venus was invisible to the astronomer priests who manned the ziggurats (star watching towers) on the flat lands of the Mesopotamian Desert. For other places on the Planet, where the horizon is occulted by mountain ranges, or hilltops, Venus can spend as many as 90 days in the Underworld.
The Underworld-superior Star Point conjunction in this cycle happens on June 3rd 2024 at 13 Degrees Gemini, when Venus is below the horizon on the far side of the Sun. When the Sun makes it’s Superior, or second conjunction of the larger 584 day cycle, it adds another “tone” or “harmony” to the “mega-goddess overtone”.
In the case of this Cycle, Leo is the “overtone”, and Gemini is the secondary harmony coming in at the Superior Underworld Conjunction.
If fiery Sekhmet is the Archetype of Leo, then we are adding the Archetype of Isis, the Great Mother Magician and High Priestess, with our upcoming Gemini Conjunction. She is the Alchemical Goddess. These next 9 months will be focused on themes of Sacred Union, “The Lovers”, Magic and Queendom, The Energy of the Throne, and Weaving New Worlds.
After Venus travels between 60-90 days below the horizon, She then makes her triumphant return from the Underworld, at Her Heliacal Rise. This is when Inanna begins her ascent from the Underworld, back up through the gates, low on the western horizon. This begins her GEMINI Evening Star phase, in which she climbs to a higher and higher altitude, reclaiming her royal vestments. This phase again lasts roughly nine months. It ends when Venus turns retrograde.
Two Underworlds? No
Oftentimes, when Venus goes retrograde, we mistakenly think she is in the Underworld.
That is a mistake.
Instead, she is being transmuted, burning up in the light of the Sun. She meets the Sun in the Bridal Chamber and their Sacred Union takes place. This is why Sacred Union is a theme of each Venus Cycle.
In her retrograde metamorphosis phase, conjunction and thus invisibility is quick. Just 8 days, in her longer 40 day retrograde period. In her superior conjunction underworld phase, Venus is invisible for 60-90 days.
In the Underworld Venus has less power to act. She is furthest from the earth, her influence largely drowned out by the beams of the Sun. In retrograde, she is closest to earth. And aside from the 8 days she is conjunct the Sun, she is still fierce and influential.
During retrograde, she helps us to reclaim, and remember who we really are. Bringing old mirrors, or lovers into our lives, to help us shear off any weight that is holding us back from our divine purpose. To complete anything that was unfinished, or that we hadn’t the courage to face previously. That is why we see relationships breaking down, or being reworked during this time. While her action in our lives may feel full of intensity, and sharpness, it is ultimately in service to our success in the next cycle of evolution. She will take from us all that is necessary to help us to fulfill our dharma in the next leg of the journey.
The Meta Goddess colors the evolutionary intention of the Sacred Feminine in that time period. In the previous 2020 cycle, under the influence of the Gemini Meta Goddess we cultivated the Sacred Androgyne, integrated our inner masculine and feminine. We saw women activating their solar powers, often for the first time, and men interested in cultivating a relationship to their own inner feminine. We began to utilize the alchemy of intellect and embodied wisdom to guide us through the tumult. We encountered polarity and duality, on a previously unimaginable scale, and learned to map it, so we didn’t lose our center in all of the chaos.
The way we consume news and media changed, as the Goddess has exposed major cracks in the systems we previously used to glean “trustworthy” information. We’ve had to develop new mediums of communication. Because we were left skeptical of the information we were getting from “trusted sources”, we’ve had to strengthen our connection to the psychopomp, our ability to receive messages from the Great Beyond to help guide our steps. Our freedom of speech is now under threat, and yet, we have innovated. Additionally we’ve learned that we can multi-task and rework projects in ways we never thought possible. Gemini, ruled by Mercury is the sign of the Magician, and a master innovator. All of these and more fall under the mandate of the Gemini MetaGoddess. I am so excited that we get to work with this energy now in 2024 as an ASCENT energy vs in 2020 when it governed the whole cycle and mandated the descent energy.
Alternately, the Fixed Sign of Leo, is the house of ANCIENT FIRE/SOLAR WISDOM. The Morning Star Energy being fiery, and precipitating War over what is righteous. In Sekhmet’s mythology, she is angry because people have stepped outside of their contracts with the Sacred, with the Divine. She is the protectress of the Solar Mysteries and her Father God Ra’s gifts to the world. We can feel this same anger alive in the collective today. Anger at immorality, and indulgence in the material. Leo is here to remind us of the Christic Codes of Ascension and Descension as the path of the Red Thread and Sacred Union. Read more about the Leo cycle at the button below.
To drop in with an understanding of the Full Venus in Leo Cycle, Click Here
