On the 19th of December 2021, Venus goes retrograde at 26 degrees of Capricorn. But it is not just that.
From Youth to Maturity.
Venus is finishing her youth part of her dance with the Sun. She is ready to be taken into the Underworld and later reborn as a morning star, wiser and more determined.
The beginning of this whole story goes back to the 26th of March, 2021. Venus co-joined the Sun at 5 degrees of Aries and was later born as an evening star. Look back and see what was happening in your life in that period.
Back then, it was a Superior union, with Venus on the other side of the Sun and in direct motion. Venus was furthest away from Earth and said to be communicating with the Gods. Venus has received a new message that she has brought forth with childlike enthusiasm and the foolishness of youth.
Now Venus is heading towards the Inferior marriage, which only happens with retrograde motion. The Inferior state sees Venus passing between the Earth and the Sun, so nearer to us. What happens now is that Venus’ effects are more felt in our everyday dealings. Venus is more into the affairs of the Earth and its inhabitants.
As Venus heads towards retrograde motion, the youth starts learning some lessons. In the darkness of the Underworld, Venus will leave behind the carelessness of youth.
When Venus rises as a morning star around the 20th of January 2022, she rises as a mature woman who knows well what she wants and how to get it. Venus enters her more outward going phase. Her lucifer phase. The bringer of light. She has less moisture in her makeup: more dryness, less empathy, giving no importance to what others say, more wrinkles and a lot of determination.
A Story in 8 years Cycle.
Venus’ movement around the Sun brings Venus’ Superior and Inferior union position at the same zodiac sign every eight years. The same story of Venus undergoes a revision with such cadence. The particular transits given by the other planets will then modify its overall flavour.
We last had a Venus Superior and Inferior Union in Aries and Capricorn, respectively, in 2013. So look at what happened in that year, especially in March and December 2013. Look at how that story has developed in time and how it is being brought forth again now. The start of a Venus cycle in Aries, where Venus is in exile, makes the first part quite challenging. Aries, the temple of Mars, does not give Venus what she needs to do her work.
Venus’s role in life is to relate smoothly with others, which can be circumstances, people, or objects. Venus sets things in motion by attraction. In the house of Mars, Venus’ action is turned upside down. Relating with others has to come through individualisation, tension, and the act of taking a stand. It requires time and experience until Venus understands how to make the best out of such a situation. At first, it is a constant battle with more mistakes than success.
So in the first part of the cycle, we not only see a young and inexperienced Venus ready to go out of its way to create bonds. We also see a Venus that struggles with the circumstances. As the cycle proceeds, things get better. Scars become a sign not only of victory but of beauty and life lived to the full. This means that much work has already been forged when Venus’s time for the Underworld comes.
From Fire to Earth.
A Venus in the house of Capricorn, the temple of Saturn, is a lady that has learnt how to harness her passing desires for more lasting ones. The fire in Venus in Aries that sets the world in motion has now found a way to face the music with fewer faux steps. Venus in Capricorn has still the capacity to move the world through attraction but now knows how to draw in the chess game the right players.
Since January 2008, when Pluto entered the house of Capricorn, Venus’ descent into the Underworld in that part of the Zodiac has become even more potent. The natural magnetic force that Venus has becomes amplified to the nth time. Pluto, the Dark Lord, can act as a catalyser. Venus’s rite of passage takes on a new dimension beyond our immediate imagination. A catharsis.
From Aries to Capricorn. From Fire to Earth. What these elements have in common is dryness. The ability to separate matter into its essential constituents. Venus here has to work hard because she does not have enough water to create bonds the way she prefers. The presence of Pluto has further transformed the Earth of Capricorn into smouldering lava.
This Cycle 2021.
It is interesting to note how this year’s cycle has already been woven into the fabric of our reality.
On the 18th of November 2021, Venus has reached the 11th degree of Capricorn. The 11th degree is where Venus, at the end of her retrograde, will come again on the 28th of January 2022, when she will station to go direct.
The 18th of November 2021 was the eve of the North Node Lunar Eclipse in Taurus, the first in the Taurus-Scorpio series. So Venus’ narration is entangled with the eclipse signature giving its effects longer lasting properties. It is also worth pointing out that the 28th of January 2022 is also when Mercury in Capricorn, retrograde, will unite with Pluto in Capricorn.
The Lady, The Messenger and The Dark Lord
Mercury retrograde in Capricorn is implicated in more than one way with this Venus retrograde. On the 29th of December 2021, Mercury, already in his shadow phase, will unite with Venus at 24 degrees of Capricorn. Like Venus, Mercury will enter Pluto’s distortion field whilst having an Inferior Marriage with the Sun.
This Venus Retrograde will broadcast far and wide on the mundane level. Mercury will make sure of that. Venus and Pluto usually appear when there are sex scandals or things that have to do with sex and how we live it. Venus and Pluto are related to things and events we consider untouchable or taboo in our society, a point we dare not go to. Venus in Capricorn is sure a lady of high society. She is aware of what goes behind the scenes. Dark secrets will definitely come out. Shocking, to say the least. Devastating, but in the long run, healing will come.
On a personal level, we will have the ability to formulate in thinking and in words what we are feeling. It might not be perfect. It goes by trial and error. Probably cold and brutal at times. Venus and Mercury are working in tandem, undergoing the same process in roughly the same part of the Zodiac. The least we can expect is an acceleration of our own personal evolution, which obviously will reflect on the society we live in.
The Midwife, The Lady and The Dark Lord
Venus will station retrograde on the 19th of December 2021 at 26 degrees of Capricorn, just as the Full Moon in Gemini is occurring. The lunation cycle becomes part of the Venus cycle. Venus will reach this 26 degrees again on the 2nd of March 2022 with the Dark Moon in Pisces. Again Venus and Moon cycle interlinked. As mentioned above, the shadow period started with an eclipse.
The Moon is the midwife of the planets and stars. Thanks to the Moon, such energies are filtered down to our Earthly plane. The Moon opens us to receive. The fact that Venus’ process is more than once rolled in the lunation cycle, including eclipses, makes me think that this particular Venus cycle will be a crucial one.
The Moon, on a mundane level, also represents the people at large. The Moon will stir up our personal, nurturing and survival instincts. Which will shift according to the ever-changing cycle of the Moon. This Venus retrograde will sway back and forth masses like the huge rolling tides.
The first union with Pluto, Venus, had it on the 11th of December 2021 at 25 degrees of Capricorn. The second one will be on the 25th of December 2021 whilst she is in retrograde and being burnt by the Sun (combust). The last union with Pluto will be on the 3rd of March 2022, just as she goes out of her shadow period (the part of Zodiac revisited twice).
Venus will completely surrender herself to the Sun on the 9th of January 2022 at 18 degrees of Capricorn. This is when the shift from evening star to morning star happens, the midpoint of the cycle where the pendulum shifts.
This story is in no rush. The change will come through primordial forces that will trigger many reactions. The events happening will need to be witnessed with integrity. A lot of manipulation and coercive influences will be in play. Some will be subtle; others will be straight in our faces.
What can we do?
Have a look at what was happening back in 2013. How did that year change your life trajectory? How did the decisions you took back then bring you here and now?
And now, which part of that story needs to be taken a step further?
Do not expect that you will resolve all issues immediately. Earth is a slow-moving element. Although Capricorn can set things in motion, it does so with pragmatism and cold pondering. Cardinal signs such as Capricorn tend to bring crises. That is how they start the ball rolling.
Capricorn is methodical and takes on responsibility as easily as eating bread and butter. Efficient with scrupulous zeal, the change that comes here is Earth-shaking.
Expect to face things you rather would not. Expect to face pain in realising how much is going on and how much needs to be healed. Expect further crumbling of our society with the same precision and coldness a businessman chops off an unproductive line.
Like Venus, surrender piece by piece all that needs to be burnt down. Each time thank the process. Not easy, I know. This is the part where the clay structure is being placed in the furnace to be strengthened and glazed. Only those infernal temperatures will bring the lustre, the light from within, so we may too become bringers of light and shine like a morning star heralding a new phase.
Yes, all this may sound extreme. It is. But aren’t we living in very intense and powerful times?
And because we are in such extreme times, I have decided to introduce this kind of payment for my services.
In service,
Hilary
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Photo by Jelle de Gier on Unsplash