The Venus Cycle - Comprehensive Overview
Art by Robin Chance
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. It spans 584 day, and creates one interior conjunction star point cycle. When Venus is retrograde, she is high in the sky, traveling closest to earth.
Our current Venus Cycle began in January of 2022 in the sign of Capricorn.
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 Capricorn overtone cycle.
The reason we’ve sensed so many Underworld, Dionysian themes over the course of 2022 in our personal lives comes from her close proximity to Pluto when the cycle began.
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. Each one creates one point of her pentagonal star. And inside of that smaller cycle she has several distinct phases.
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.
She spends almost nine months, the same amount of time it takes to gestate new life, in her Morning Star phase. This is why Venus is connected to the woman’s mysteries and cycles of creation. Each month She descends towards the horizon until finally she 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 of the Underworld. Leaving one of her ME, or Royal Vestments 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 happened on October 22, 2022, when Venus was below the horizon. For the first time in our lives, this conjunction happened in the Venus Ruled sign of Libra. At the aneretic (or crisis degree) 29th degree. Therefore, Libra becomes a harmonizing tone, that is overlaid to the original MetaGodess’s Archetype.
If the Wise Woman, Crone, is the Archetype of Capricorn, then we are adding the Archetype of Maat, Cosmic Order, to the mix. These next 9 months will be focused on themes of Resurrection, Justness, Balance, Equanimity, Beauty, and other Venusian/Saturnian themes.
After she travels between 60-90 days below the horizon, Venus 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 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.
This time, her conjunction to the Sun is quick. Just 8 days, in her longer 40 day retrograde period.
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 19 month 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 has 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. All of these and more fall under the mandate of the Gemini MetaGoddess.
Alternately, the initiating Earth Sign of Capricorn is the house of ANCIENT EARTH BASED WISDOM, the house of the ancient priestesses of the Melissae, It is where the Queen Bee makes her throne and the ancestors sing their songs into our bones. There are so many ancient future mysteries to be uncovered here. In this star point, we will tap an age old spirituality to help us change the story. Which is precisely why Inanna/Erishkagel are making their presence known with a booming clap of thunder. It is their connection to Venus, and the Venus Cults that existed long before them that is being resurrected now. The antiquated religious rites of life, death, and rebirth, the primary initiation of serious adherents is being thrust onto the scene for everyone to encounter. This next Venus cycle along with nodal shift is nothing short of an induction into the mysteries of the “Creator, Destroyer, Presurvor”. Those who thrive during this time, will be those who surrender to the notion that we must face the fear of death, in order to really live.
