venus retrograde in capricorn
Venus is in her shadowy way towards her retrograde period. She will be retrograde for 40 days, from 19/12/21 until 29/Jan/22.
Before that, she will conjoin Pluto, who will conduct her towards the underworld while she is retrograde.
I am making this narrative of the underworld, because as Venus retrogrades, she will be seen as an evening star in the sky where the Sun sets, slowly and slowly disappearing every evening until she goes “under” the horizon, and is not visible anymore in the evening (around 8/Jan/22, when she will conjoin the Sun). Then, after several days, she will be visible again in the morning southeast horizon as a morning star (by the end of January), and just then, she will come out of her retrograde period on 29/Jan/22.
While she’s retrograde, she will also meet Mercury in Capricorn together with Pluto, all pretty much like the myth of Hades taking Persephone to the underworld and then mediate with Mercury to let Persephone out.
A lot of people know about Mercury retrograde and how it messes up with communication, but outside from the astrological community, almost nobody knows about Venus retrograde (or any other planet going retrograde).
Venus goes retrograde approximately every 18 months. Last time Venus retrograded was in May 2020 in Gemini. Next time will be on July 2023 in Leo.
What’s interesting about Venus retrograde is that every 8 years Venus will retrograde in the same sign (in this case in Capricorn) at around the same date, and make a conjunction with the Sun.
With any retrograde planet, the need to revise or reflect upon certain topics in a deeper way, and “going back” to find some answers regarding to the issues we are experimenting in relation to the retrograde planet becomes prominent. But also, certain challenging situations regarding to the nature of that planet can come into life.
With Venus, we see the topics that fall into her archetype becoming prominent in some sort of way that requires paying attention. Venus represents everything and everyone that is valuable to us: relationships, partnerships, possessions, beauty, pleasure, and last but not least, our own measure of our self-worth.
In simple ways: we might experience challenging situations in one or all the aforementioned topics, which in turn push us to dig deeper into these matters in order to understand how they have played a role in our lives (or actually, what’s the role we have given them), how that role has impacted our present, and how can we reassess them in new realistic ways (the Capricorn quality coming up), so that we can make better choices and/or adopt a better attitude in the future. It’s all about what is truly valuable in our present lives, what matters and what’s important.
We might get to truly understand the real foundations of some of our decisions in the past, regarding to certain relationships/partnerships, investments, and possessions. Why we made certain choices? What was important for us in that moment? Why did we feel or not feel attracted to a person (or other thing)? What happened there?
We might experience some challenging situations with our partner, members of the family, a friend, colleague, or with any other type of relationship. The challenge might instigate the necessary contemplative inner work, where we might want to tap very deep inside in order to understand our own inner dynamics playing their part. This in turn leads to some adjustments in our own expectations about ourselves and others. On another extreme, it could potential te the emancipation from people, partnerships, attachments, or thoughts.
For some people, memories about past relationships, friendships or partnerships can also resurface. “What if’s” might come to the mind. It’s a contemplation of what we’ve been through, with whom, what we’ve learned from them, or what we might have missed. On a practical sense, this has to do with assimilating and integrating the past into the present in an untroubled way, and from this point keep moving forward.
Another situation that might arise is the feeling of not being at the “place” where we would have liked to be in life at this moment, or the feeling of not having achieved certain things in life (might be good to look at the house in our natal chart where Capricorn falls, which reveals more about the areas of life where these questioning or challenges will likely manifest).
With Mercury’s presence at the beginning of Venus retrograde journey, together with Pluto, we can start thinking and digging deeper into our minds, in order to come into terms with what’s going on. What does achievement mean for us now? What did it use to mean before? Has something changed in the way we define achievement? What about the relationships we have created? What motivated us towards establishing certain relationships? Are we capable of noticing valuable lessons that we’ve learned from? Is it something ultimately valuable? Is it not? It is always worth to look at what chain of events and choices led us to the present. What sort of motivations. It helps us understand from where we are coming, assimilate lessons, adapt our mindset, and come into peace with things.
Because of the presence of Pluto at the beginning of this retrograde journey, and because this happens in Capricorn, looking at what others have (be it material or human), or what others have achieved can also be a thing. Comparing to others, or feelings of jealousy could also come. In addition, not feeling enough, or feeling like a failure, could also be an ongoing situation during the time Venus retrogrades.
Again, now that we know about the possibility of these dynamics, we are left with the possibility to do some inner reflection work. To dig deep into our minds, and understand the motivations that have made us make some decisions in the past. After all, Pluto also means rebirthing. So we literally penetrate deeper into our layers, understand and assimilate things, and then coming out reborn in some way.
Around the day of the Full Moon in Cancer (17/Jan/22) things might get a much more emotional tone, and some of the aforementioned situations might come into maximum manifestation. There might be pressure coming from other areas in life, which sum up to the strange feelings that Venus retrograde might awaken. And some sort of sadness could also be felt. Full Moons always reveal stuff. And a revelation can, at the same time, bring a clearer picture of what is going on, or a new understanding of what we are being challenged with, and of what we are left with in order to adapt our mindset, concepts or expectations in order to move forward.
On a different scenario, and because Venus rules possessions, Taurus, and the Second House, we also have to be careful about how and where we invest money. It is Christmas time, and people are buying things and gifts. But let’s try not overspending, or at least not spending on things that we don’t need, and on things that bring no ultimate value. Keeping gifts, decorations and food simple. Avoiding big investments or purchases is best. Taking it easy and being extra careful with stocks, cryptos, or NFT’s.
Venus rules beauty, so in terms of physical things it’s better to not make big changes in our appearance (because maybe later we might not like it). The same goes to radical changes in our home.
In terms of forming new relationships, perhaps it’s better to keep the new relationship in the phase of “getting to know each other”, before turning it into something more serious or more established.
As January progresses after the Full Moon in Cancer, Venus starts slowly gaining force and coming out of the underworld (of deep reflections, contemplations, questionings and self-and-others-explorations), and she emerges visible as a morning star.
On 29/1 she turns direct, but with some company. She is in a Capricorn stellium with Mars, The Moon, Mercury (retrograde), and Pluto. This doesn’t indicate an immediate shift from the possible challenges that were presented by Venus retrograde, but that some of these situations might linger in a lesser way for a while.
Nevertheless, by turning direct, the shift towards a new way of understanding relationships, the value of things and our own value becomes rooted.
After this, there are other important alignments that we will also want to look at later in the future because they can bring again some of the things we experienced while Venus was retrograde, or they might simply indicate the necessary “closure” of what we went through while Venus retrograded in Capricorn.
3/3/21: Mars conjoins Pluto in Capricorn
3/3/21: Venus conjoins Pluto in Capricorn (while very close to Mars)
6/3/21: Venus conjoins Mars in Capricorn
I am very curious to know about how this period is felt by people. If you wish to, let me know how are you experiencing these days in the comments. What are your thoughts and observations?
