Venus Retrograde
Venus Retrograde, is her most Erotic expression.
Venus begins her 19 month Cycle high in the Sky at her Interior Conjunction with the Sun.
If we were observing Venus from the same place in our backyard every night, we would find that each Month as she meets with the Moon and travels further and further from the Sun, it appears as if she’s descending.
Until finally it seems as though she’s dropped below the Horizon and fallen into the “Underworld”.
At this point she is on the opposite side of the Sun, as far away from Earth as she ever is.
In her Underworld conjunction, Venus is completely occulted by the body of the Sun. Obscuring her light rays, making it difficult for her influence to reach us.
That’s why, to the ancients, it legitimately felt like an “Underworld”. Like the easily accessible Venusian current had left and gone away.
Venus was last in her Superior Conjunction, “Underworld” Phase in Oct. 2022, and won’t be there again until May 2024.
We are in her interior conjunction, Retrograde phase, now.
When Venus stations Retrograde, I often hear people say she is again in the Underworld.
I’ve been syncing with the Venus Cycle for years. In my opinion it is neither astronomically correct, nor “feeling tone” correct, that Venus is in the Underworld when she is Retrograde.
At this point in her cycle, she is shifting Overtone energies. Beginning a whole new cycle.
This time around she began Retrograde July 22nd in the Capricorn current. The Overtone she’s resided in the last 19 months.
On August 8th she will enter her Metamorphic phase, and will transfigure herself in the rays of the Sun, then emerge in the Leo Overtone energies on August 19th. And finish out her retrograde here, on Sept 3rd.
In Retrograde, Venus is traveling as close to the Earth as she does at any other point in her cycle.
During the phase change conjunction, she passes directly between the Sun and Earth, adding the Sun’s Light to Her own.
It’s a mistake to call this energy the Venus the Underworld. The Underworld is when she is absent.
Instead, during Retrograde, it’s as if she’s presenting herself to us. Baring herself. Present.
Venus Retrograde is actually when Venus is most potent.
It’s a time when an immense erotic current streams down on Earth, magnifying her energies. Similar to the mechanics of a Full Moon.
It reveals where we are out of alignment in love, self-love, relationships, our feminine essence, wisdom, gnosis. Where our attachments and sense of attunement, need a tune-up. Liberation, or temperance.
Her meeting with the Sun combines their energies. The Sun is our life-force, radiance, Truth with a capital T. It is also consciousnesses, & the process of illumination. The Archetype of the Higher-self, and the Divine Magical Child.
The Sun is wholeness. Take a moment to meditate on the symbolism of the Sun, ☉ and we can see this.
So when we combine these two, there can be an extreme impulse to transform ourselves. To leave behind places that feel “un-whole”; fragmented, or are frozen, dead, or numbing. To re-enliven. To prepare for Divine Union. To clear out places we’ve been out of integrity.
The strong impulse to transform, to liquefy into Imaginal cells can appear like madness.
Perhaps Venus Retrograde mimics an Underworld environment because of the magnified Feminine Current.
The Feminine rules the liminal, chaotic, irrational, and unconscious. So we may have a spiritual awakening (or emergency) during this time. An emptying of our unconscious contents. Let’s re-write this as a positive development in our overall evolution.
A temporary feeling of insanity, is a natural stage in alchemical work.
Just a few days ago I wrote about Crazy Wisdom. A punched up energy of embodying and experiencing seeming contractions.
The invitation is in the places we feel a live wire of apparent insanity, that we surrender into it.
The worst thing we can do when a part of self, an old identity, a mask, or a crystallized layer of crust, is ready to die, is to grip onto it.
To come up against or resist the energy of change will only exhaust us. Steal our life force.
The upcoming cycle in Leo is going to feel like radical energetic shift.
We are moving from the current of the “Static Feminine” (Capricorn) to the “Dynamic Feminine” (Leo).
The Leo cycle promises so much more movement, intensity, and sensation.
If the energy feels like a lot, begin by tempering it. Open to a small percentage of it. Play with how wide you can open to, and hold it before it overwhelms us. Then allow that to circulate.
If we aren’t used to this much energy, we will open too wide, too fast, and the energy will run us, not the other way around.
I believe this phenomenon is why Venus Retrograde gets a bad name. Why we say heart break abounds during this time.
We aren’t used to this punched up current, and we can’t hold it responsibly.
My other advice is to approach it as energy and sensation, rather than pining “meaning” to it.
In the old days, if I woke up feeling wild, and feral. Feeling boxed in… I might look at my environment and find “wrongness” in all the things that appear to be imprisoning me.
Instead, if one wakes up feeling wild and feral during Venus Retrograde, I might find a way to work with the energy. Apply it towards a creative outlet, without making it mean anything.
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In short, Venus Retrograde is not the Underworld. It’s an intense alchemical cauldron of INNER transfiguration.
It’s about emerging from the Chrysalis, with your wildly artistic New Wings.
And in Leo, it’s about strutting. Strutting those beautiful new wings out in the world for everyone to see! It’s the end of hiding. Even if you only come out 2% more than you normally would. It’s an opportunity to challenge yourself to be seen.
In a upcoming episode for Blaire Lindsay’s SIREN podcast, we mused a bit about how we allow ourselves to be seen, without it turning into some kind of vulnerability porn. Without it becoming sloppy. A kind of being seen that is, for the most part, clean. As this Leo Cycle progresses and we play with the idea of letting more and more of ourselves come out. We will have an opportunity to refine this piece. In the meantime, know that when humans develop new skills, it’s often a messy process. And making room for the wild mess is important.
I’m so excited to see the gallery of new wings that will pepper my feed over the coming weeks and months.
Wladyslaw Benda, 1923 Cover of Life Magazine
