The Cosmic Story: Venus retrograde in Leo:
Time to upgrade our Hearts.
Transformative Cancer New Moon
The rest of this summer, including the August 1st cross-quarter holiday of Lammas, the first harvest, is under the influence of Venus’ retrograde in Leo. Venus is sinking lower in the evening sky as she finishes up her 9 ½ month journey as an Evening Star and will turn retrograde on July 22nd at 29* Leo. Because of her retrograde, Venus will stay in Leo for 4 months, from June 6th to October 8th. Venus will join the Sun at 20+* Leo, when it starts a new Venus Star Point to begin its Morning Star journey.
Every 8 years, Venus’ orbit creates a 5-point star, a pentagram. For the coming years, the 5 points of this star will occur in Gemini, Capricorn, Leo, Aries and Scorpio (soon to move back into Libra). So Venus is tying together the energies of learning and communicating, of responsibility to the community, of our creative express, of our courage to be ourselves and of our psychological transformation. All qualities we need to upgrade for the personal and collective issues we face.
When a planet extends its stay in a sign due to its retrograde, we are energized to deal with the issues it raises. Venus helps us focus on our values, our relationships and listening to our body’s wisdom. On a more mundane level, our money issues want to be resolved. Our financial system is broken – Wall Street is basically gambling. Corporations are recording unprecedented profits and still getting government handouts. The wealthy pay less taxes than regular workers. Not the best security for anyone except the power brokers.
If you’re interested in learning more about Venus’ gifts to us, my book Aphrodite, Our Inner Venus will be out this August. It explores Aphrodite/Venus’ myths and dives deeply into the psychological aspects of her gifts of Beauty, Love, Sexuality, Relationships and Wholeness. This most important energy is the Initiator of Soul.
This week the Lunar Nodes (signs where eclipses occur which point to our collective destiny) are changing from Taurus/Scorpio to Aries/Libra. For the past 19 months, we have moved from Scorpio South Node, letting go of our emotional trauma to North Node Taurus’ wealth of body wisdom, as well as listening to Earth’s evolutionary genius. Now we’re moving into 19 months of becoming more self-reliant (Aries North Node) and away from relationship co-dependency (Libra South Node).
That means that while Venus has been the ruling planet of the Taurus North Node for the past 19 months, Mars, the ruler of Scorpio, took a back seat. Now those roles will be reversed. The Mars-ruled Aries North Node will be taking the lead now, while Libra’s South Node ruler, Venus, steps back. During this retrograde, Venus does step back and reviews and revises her Leo attitude. What does that mean for us?
Venus retrograde is a time to re-evaluate how we’re living up to our values and our partnerships. Since Venus/Aphrodite deals with beauty, we’re being asked to consider if we need to meet some collective standard or if we’ll learn to see our own unique beauty. Since she deals with sexuality, we are asked if our sexual relationships are about power and manipulation or about the sacred quality of this most intimate experience. We’ll be asked to examine how we express our love to self and others. Love is not for the weak-heated. Love takes work!
Leo is a fixed fire sign, giving us a big bonfire of warmth, generosity and fun. But it can also make us proud, overbearing and self-centered. Leo is the sign of the Sun, of the Heart and of the Child. With all that concentrated fire, we need to express ourselves in some creative way. How will Venus retrograde in Leo spark your creativity? Look to your Leo house to see where you’re being asked to re-wire your connections.
There’s some entitlement that goes along with Leo’s energies. It is, after all, the sign of the King and the Queen. Americans, especially some of the younger generations, have an entitlement issue. Our expectations often go beyond our means. But it’s also the baby boomers, with Pluto in Leo (1938 - 1958), who have raised those expectations. Nobody seems willing to sacrifice (to make sacred) for the greater good anymore.
With Venus retrograde in Leo, Venus will be transiting the baby boomers’ Pluto. Where do we need to evolve our creative expression for the good of all? It’s time for we baby boomers to grow up and become Elders. Where do we need to sacrifice for our children and our children’s children for the next 7 generations? The Uranus in Leo generation (1955 – 1962) will hopefully come up with some out-of-the-box ideas about how we can change things. Hopefully, our artists/musicians/storytellers will remember their archetypal purpose and take the lead to help that change come about.
Venus turns retrograde on the feast day of Mary Magdalene, the Sophia to Jesus’ Christ. Will we listen to our Sophia Wisdom? Will we remember that we are the Christ Spirit having a human experience?
Venus turns retrograde conjunct the fixed royal star Regulus, in the heart of the Lion. This is a call for feminine leadership as the Goddess returns to birth a new Age. The Sabian symbol for Venus retrograde at 29* Leo is: A mermaid emerges from the ocean waves ready for rebirth in human form. The mermaid is one of Venus/Aphrodite’s manifestation. The mermaid symbolizes an intense feeling intuition that is still partially unconscious – it has no legs to stand on yet. This symbol indicates that those intuitions need to take form in 3D reality. Artists recognize this state of being, when their creative ideas need to take a form or else they disappear back into the collective unconscious to be picked up by someone else. What is the new feeling/intuition that wants to be birthed by you?
The Sun and Venus meet up on August 13th at 20*Leo. The Sabian symbol is: American Indians perform a majestic ritual to the Sun. Like the Native Sun Dance, it is time for us to call on sustainable life-energies, sacrificing our ego desires for the greater good. This is the energy that will arise during Venus’ Morning Star phase. Will we create and sacrifice and help our tribe prosper?
Venus turns to direct motion on September 3rd at 13* Leo. The Sabian symbol is: Old Sea-Captain rests in a neat little cottage by the sea. This is a reward for learning to move from outer experiences to inner soul realms. Venus is directing us inward, to grow our souls. That’s the only way we will truly learn to love ourselves so we can love our neighbors.
With the Lunar Nodes shifting signs in mid-July before Venus turns retrograde, we need to ask if we’ve learned our lessons. As we exit Venus-ruled North Node Taurus, have we done all we can to honor the Earth and our physical well-being? With record breaking temperatures recorded these past few weeks, will we step up and demand climate action from our leaders? Mother Earth is weeping rivers of tears, enduring hot-flashes and burning with rage at what we’ve done to her beautiful gift of life.
With our new Mars ruled North Node destiny, will we have the courage to stand up for our values and for our children? If not now, when? North Node Aries can help us find our sense of identity and sense of purpose. Look for where Aries lies in your chart. This is the original spark of creation that wants to take form in your life. Now is the time to embrace who you are, warts and all. With the South Node in Libra, we have to stop being wishy-washy, stop giving our power away to others, and stop wanting to keep things on the surface. These next 19 months will help us define ourselves and our relationships. If we can’t be truthful to those people we are closest to, what does that say about us? Aries NN will give you the courage to face the truth and stand up for it.
In this time of intensifying climate change and war-mongering, we all feel the underlying collective fear and anxiety. This is the challenge of the end of an Age. Can we let go of our consumerism and learn to live with less, sacrificing what’s unnecessary so we all create a better world? We can if we concentrate on who and what we love.
Cancer New Moon
The Cancer New Moon occurs on Monday July 17 at 11:31am PDT/ 2:31pm EDT/ 7:31pm GMT.
This intense New Moon only connects to all the outer planets, which means that it brings up more than personal issues. The outer planets – Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, Eris – are transpersonal, meaning they effect all of us as a collective. The Sun and Moon in easy aspects to Uranus and Neptune indicate that we need to wake up to our dreams.
Monday’s Cancer New Moon is opposed by Pluto retrograde in Capricorn squaring the Aries/Libra nodes, with Eris, the warrior goddess, conjunct the North Node. Can we turn our collective attention to our home world and its healing, or will we continue to allow the elite their ‘winner take all’ attitude? The lines are very clear now in America – the wealthy and corporate interests own our leaders and are stopping the changes we need to make. They are using inconsequential ‘moral’ issues to keep people divided when we all agree that climate change and equality and freedom must be addressed. This opposition is squared by the nodes, indicating we have to re-examine how we see ourselves as part of a partnership with the rest of society. Are we a separate unit or are we all are connected?
“The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.” as Spock said.
Interestingly, the personal planets are all aspected by the social planets, Jupiter and Saturn, as well as Uranus. Mercury in Leo squares Jupiter in Taurus, opening our minds to new solutions to Earth’s problems. Mars in Virgo is opposed to Saturn retrograde in Pisces, asking us to be of service to humanity and to Earth. Focus on the important stuff and don’t get distracted. Venus slowing down in Leo squares Uranus in Taurus, waking up our feminine leadership qualities that will be under consideration during Venus’ retrograde period.
Venus in Leo wants us look at ‘what we value’. Her wisdom says that Love is the important thing. Love for our family, for the Earth, for each other.
All we need is Love.
Blessing of the Lammas harvest for us all,
Cathy
