Venus
Retrograde: July 25—September 6, 2015
The
Work of Love
To take love seriously and to bear and to learn it like a task, this is [what] people need. Like so much else, people have also misunderstood the place of love in life, they have made it into play and pleasure, because they thought that play and pleasure were more blissful than work; but there is nothing happier than work, and love, just because it is the extreme happiness, can be nothing else but work. So whoever loves must try to act if he had a great work: he must be much alone and go into himself and collect himself and hold fast to himself; he must work; he must become something!
For believe me, the more one is, the richer is all that one experiences. And whoever wants to have a deep love in his life must collect and save for it and gather honey.
Rainer Marie Rilke: On Love and Other Difficulties
If
asked, most of us think of Love as play and pleasure, but anyone who
loves someone knows that love
takes
work too.
It is the most important work we can do—to learn how to listen to
the heart, know its truths and
act on them.
Love wants
to
see through the collective glamour of romantic love into the heart of
the matter. Love
asks us how
do we let our connection to Self, to others and to the world shape
our lives?
For
the next 40 days, we get to think about these
heart connections and work at them. For the next 40 days, the planet
Venus is going retrograde in her final phases as the Evening Star of
Wisdom.
Go
out and look to the West as evening falls and you'll see Venus
shining brightly. But very quickly her light will begin to dim and
she'll move closer to the Sun until she disappears into its light on
August 11th.
On August 15th
Venus will conjoin the Sun before she reappears in the morning sky on
August 20th
as Lucifer the Light Bringer,
the Morning Star.
As
Evening Star, Venus symbolizes a
wiser love nature that takes into consideration
our
social responsibilities. As Morning Star, Venus is more instinctual,
urging us to find our personal values and subjective love.
Venus
is completing a 583 day cycle which began in January 2014 in
Capricorn. What did you learn about love and connection in the past
year and a half? As Venus ends this part of her cycle, which over 8
years forms a pentacle (5-pointed star) in the sky, she wants us to
become wise in the ways of the heart—Leo's great
task,
which includes the
joy of being alive as well as the joy of
relating
to others with
an open heart. If
you align
yourself with your heart needs, this can be a time of emotional
rebirth.
Venus
represents
the power of
love, sex, beauty, our values, the arts, all types of relationships,
as well as money and possessions. She
symbolizes the power of balance
and harmony,
attraction and cohesion, pleasure
and creativity.
Venus, who is a Romanized version of the great Greek Goddess
Aphrodite, also symbolizes deep feminine Wisdom, the kind of Wisdom
that we develop when
we open ourselves to Life and the Creative Imagination and listen to
our own instincts, feelings and intuitions.
Venus/Aphrodite
is the great Connector, the power of Love in all its phases, the
initiator of Psyche/Soul. In the earliest myths, Aphrodite arises
from her watery womb when the potency of Heaven mixes with the primal
waters of Earth. She is our blessing and our curse, for this myth
makes it clear that the truest gift of Life here on Earth is Love.
“Love
is the Water of Life. And a Lover is a Soul of Fire. The Universe
turns differently when Fire Loves Water.” (Rumi)
Our
patriarchal society has not been kind to Love, instituting 'rules'
about love that have twisted Venus' original energy to conform with
society's needs. While there are many forms that love takes,
patriarchy has only recently begun to let down the barriers it set
around Love, our sexuality and the wisdom of the heart. From the
twisted side of Venus' collective shadow comes the greed, jealously
and entitlement that is rampant in our society. On a personal level,
Venus' shadow can make us insecure, needy, jealous, manipulative and
materialistic. As a society, we're slowly losing touch with Venus'
need for beauty as we continue to ravage the Earth, creating ugliness
rather than celebrating beauty.
Old
astrological advice says not to start new love affairs or buy luxury
items during the 40 days Venus is retrograde. For the soul, it means
to stop looking outside yourself for love; it's a time to be with
yourself and decide what you long for in your life. When the planet
Venus turns retrograde, the energy of love and connection turns
within and we get back in touch with our personal values, our
individual sense of beauty, our self-love and our need for love.
It's a time for literal solitude as well as inner silence, so we can
re-connect with our psyche/soul and re-claim our own deepest truths,
which always entails the needs of our heart.
As
we all awaken from our patriarchal-induced illusions about life and
love, we can use the power of our passion to create the type of life
that we've secretly longed for since our birth. As the world
resonates with the energies of the Pluto/Uranus square, we have the
perfect
opportunity to incarnate this divine feminine wisdom for our own sake
as well as for the world.
Since
Venus retrogrades back through Leo and joins up again with Jupiter in
Leo, expect to expand on your heart's wisdom. Both
planets square
Saturn in
Scorpio after it turns direct on August 1-2, so we are challenged to
integrate the final intimacy lessons of Saturn's stay in Scorpio.
Use
Jupiter's curiosity and open-mindedness to
help
you let go of the past and trust in the future. Let your heart
knowledge guide you and open you to new experiences and people. The
new story is here to stay. Take what you've learned from the old
story and then let all the rest of it go.
The
astrological energies of the next few weeks are once again intense.
Try to attune to them, especially if you have natal planets involved.
1.
July 25th
– Venus goes retrograde at 1* Virgo. Mars at
22*
Cancer squares Uranus at
21*
Aries, urging us to find our freedom and express our needs.
2.
July 26th--
Uranus turns retrograde until December 25th.
3.
July 31st
– Aquarius Full Moon at
8* Aquarius-Leo.
4.
August 3rd
– Saturn at
29*
Scorpio turns direct and leaves Scorpio behind
on
September 17-18th
until its next visit in 2042.
5.
August 5th
– Venus and Jupiter unite again at 29* Leo on the powerful star
Regulus. Look to the West at sunset for a last look at this
beautiful celestial energy before Venus disappears into the Sun's
light on August 11th.
I'll
discuss these astrological happenings in more detail in the Aquarius
Full Moon newsletter.
Until
then, walk in the Light!
Cathy
Astrology
Time-Line
-
Venus in Leo until October 9 turning retrograde between 25 July-September 6th descending from the Evening Star into the underworld to re-emerge as Lucifer ahead of the Sun as a Morning Star
-
Venus and Jupiter in two conjunctions in Leo on July 1st and August 4th -a pairing known as the Guardian Angels
-
Jupiter square Saturn between July 19 and August 11th at 29 Leo/Scorpio
-
Saturn turns direct in Scorpio on August 2
-
The Master degree of 29 Leo on the Leo/Virgo cusp conjunct Royal Star Regulus is activated all summer by Venus, Mercury, Jupiter and the Sun
-
Jupiter enters Virgo for the first time in twelve years on August 12th
There is alchemy afoot
in the way the planetary trifecta of Venus, Jupiter and
Saturn perform a sacred and intricate dance through July,
August and September ; in the way Venus’ descend into the
underworld at the same time as Saturn excavates the Scorpionic
dungeons of our personal histories for the last time until 2042.This
is a summer long process of soul retrieval , made possible
by Jupiter the Hierophant carrying all the learnings of the heart
from his 12 month stay in Leo across the wisdom cusp into Virgo to be
mediated by Regulus..Our fragmented selves -those dispossessed,
abandoned, aspects trapped and lost in some past or future time–line,
are crying out for a homecoming, a true sense of belonging, where the
jagged injuries inflicted by the world can be repaired, individually,
collectively, nationally and globally
Venus is completing a
583 day cycle which began in January 2014 in Capricorn and ends as
she reveals the Leo mysteries. Expect a shift away from Saturn’s
preoccupation with authority, agency and responsibility towards the
Sun’s operating manual which includes how to enjoy being alive, how
to relate to others from an open heart and how to create your reality
so your needs are met easily and abundantly. With Venus as Queen of
the Heavens, put your own highest interests first so that you can
better be present for others. Just as the life giving light of the
Sun is always shining somewhere in the world, as you clear away your
small Me separations and specialness-Leo’s shadow-you become a
light in the Great Web for others. From July 25 when the Goddess
enters her Lucifer phase descending into the underworld, expect
relationship dramas, separations, endings, beginnings, the return of
former partners .Cast your mind back to the 8 year Venus
cycles of 2007, 1999 and 1991 to map your personal Venus
mandala on your birth chart. Frame the process as light being shone
into the dark corners of your psyche to show which of your
unconscious and habitual beliefs and behaviours are toxic, outgrown
or limiting.
Reflect on these
questions:
-
How much do I love myself on all levels?
-
Do I know that I carry the DNA of radical self love?
-
How do I express it day by day?
On August 15 UT
, when Venus conjuncts the Sun, if you’ve changed your
patterns to get results more congruent with your needs, your
emotional rebirth is over and you’re poised to begin a new phase of
love and relating.
The Retrieval
of Disassociated Parts: Saturn in Scorpio
Saturn
has turned back into Scorpio until September 18th
tapping the barometer of your psyche and giving you one last look at
anything you need to clear out of the basement of your life. Between
October 2012 and December 2014 you faced up to aspects of yourself
that were outgrown, unconscious and toxic- ready to be left behind.
This time around you return in a much more resilient and resourceful
state to get completely right with yourself by shining the lamp of
hindsight on to missing soul pieces, tattered ghosts and shoddy
compromises. Between July 19 and August 11th
when Saturn aligns with Jupiter, laser away those last rays
of Dark Matter and ask
-
What in me is dead by the roadside?
-
What is emerging, calling me, summoning me on?
The Return to
the Upper World: Jupiter
As Venus and Saturn are
excavating the dark corners of your unconscious, Jupiter holds his
lantern of wisdom as he journies through the last degrees of Leo .The
Hierophant reaches the master degree of 29 Leo and conjuncts Royal
Star Regulus between 7-18 August on the cusp of Leo/Virgo. During the
summer, all the inner planets will pass over this degree, sensitised
by the Jupiter /Saturn square.
The Chandra Symbol LEO
29
A broken sword.
Consecration to a higher power. The giving-over of the personal will–the marvel of root change. Coming to the end of your own path, and it is just the beginning of the greater way. The heart must open. The infinite must be born inside. The destiny-necessity is there–so much karmic backlog. So many ways to be right and to be wrong. The realisation in the very midst that there is nobody listening to the old tale and everybody is awaiting somebody else to come through. A profound and utter doorway into a great unknown. What has been is finished. What shall be is so very different. And what is now is a question and a prayer and a destiny that must find its redemption
A broken sword.
Consecration to a higher power. The giving-over of the personal will–the marvel of root change. Coming to the end of your own path, and it is just the beginning of the greater way. The heart must open. The infinite must be born inside. The destiny-necessity is there–so much karmic backlog. So many ways to be right and to be wrong. The realisation in the very midst that there is nobody listening to the old tale and everybody is awaiting somebody else to come through. A profound and utter doorway into a great unknown. What has been is finished. What shall be is so very different. And what is now is a question and a prayer and a destiny that must find its redemption
Regal
Regulus is the closest star to the ecliptic and
therefore closest to the red carpet path of the glorious Sun ,a
symbol of archangel Raphael, one of the four horsemen of the
apocalypse and a great protective healer.
When Jupiter
enters Virgo on August 12 for the first time since August
2003 with Venus shining as the Morning Star and the Lord of Time and
Karma heading back to Jupiter’s sign of Sagittarius, you will begin
to reclaim then integrate those gifts, talents and strengths that are
now available with the return of the soul. As Epigenetics and NLP
show, your brain has the endless potential to create new neural
pathways and out of those, new forms of behaviour. Whatever is
blossoming in you is drawing you nearer to a compelling future.
