Photo by Jordan Rowland on Unsplash
One thing I’ve learned about love is that I can’t fight it. I can’t squash it down, ignore it, bypass it, avoid it or rid myself of it. I try, but it doesn’t work. I have to feel it all the way to the end. I believe that each love in a person’s life (however they want to define that themselves) appears in order to take them on a journey to healing and recovering a part of themselves. I’ve also found that the journey doesn’t end if and when the person (or place) disappears. This can look and feel irrational at times and it’s important to differentiate between moving along the journey and getting stuck in the past. Nonetheless, sometimes parts of people remain in the past, and it’s necessary to return to the past in order to reclaim those parts and evolve them so that they can be brought into the present, rendering the person more whole. This is one of my specialties … it’s also the purpose of any retrograde—to review and recover the past so that one can move forward more whole and with deeper integrity. The particular areas of love, relationships, connection, values, and worth are the domicile of Venus’ retrogrades … such as the one that began today in the sign of Gemini.
Last week, the North Node (the point of energetic destiny, also associated with eclipses) entered Gemini. Next week, the Sun will move into Gemini and the Moon will rebirth herself there. So, it is safe to say that the Gemini energy is very strong right now—which will certainly influence Venus’ retrograde. Gemini is the sign that rules communication (particularly of the informal/unofficial/off the record variety), divination (just communication with the divine), your neighborhood, siblings, extended family members, short-distance travel, early childhood learning, how you tend to learn naturally, and how you move through your daily life.
Gemini energy is variable, mutable, fluid. It’s pollinator energy. It’s the energy of running errands. It moves quickly between ideas and spaces and can be a bit chaotic. It’s often a fun, funny, flirty, playful energy as well. It flirts with, but doesn’t make commitments to—which is actually a great energy for a Venus Retrograde, when you may feel extra flirty, but are better off avoiding major relationship decisions, if possible.
Generally speaking, Venus Retrogrades are a great time to ask: How do I offer and receive love? What do I value? What matters most to me? Where/How do I diminish my value and/or give away my power? How do I define beauty? What brings me pleasure? How can I invite more pleasure into my life? What are my entry points and barriers to connecting with others?
This is a time for reviewing, remembering, rehashing and healing—which can include conversations with past loves. Venus Retrogrades can act as vortices. They take people into a different energy in which review and healing are possible. But when they’re complete, the energy shifts again. It’s kind of like being on a retreat where you experience deep and intense transformation, healing, and/or conversion of some kind … but then you have to return to real life. In fact, many believe that Jesus’ retreat in the desert occurred during a Venus Retrograde.
Photo by Krzysztof Niewolny on Unsplash
The story of Venus’ retrograde is the story of allowing a part of ourselves to die and be reborn, allowing ourselves to find a new life. Venus represents worth, value, love, connection, relationship, sex, abundance, beauty, and attraction. In your chart, Venus represents the particular way you approach, express, and attract these things. These particular aspects of your energy are the ones in which you’ll feel the greatest sense of transformation during this period. You’re most likely to feel them in the area of your chart inhabited by Venus as well as Gemini.
Venus retrogrades every 18 months. Her retrogrades are powerful 40-day journeys that begin when Venus is an evening star, visible in the sky. At the midpoint of her retrograde, she meets the Sun. This is called an inferior conjunction, or going Cazimi. During this 3-day period, she is invisible in the sky, and on the third day, she is reborn, reappearing as a morning star. In the mythology around this midpoint, it is said that her energy is soft and vulnerable when she “dies”. When she awakens, however, she emerges fervently, voluptuously, fiercely. This mythology is also associated with Inanna, the Mesopotamian goddess of love, sex, beauty, etc—the same general realm as Venus. In the myth of Inanna, she is lowered into a cave, hung from a hook, and left to die. In allowing herself to die, however, she is given a new life.
Gemini can be an experimental energy, so this can be used as a time for temporary experimentation with love, sex, dating, and even one’s aesthetics—but again, do so with the understanding that once the retrograde is over, you may not want to make your experiments permanent! It can be a time when past loves return. If so, it’s best to use it as a time to smooth out old rifts so that you and they can heal, rather than to get back together. It can also be a time when one reviews what one values—materially and idealistically. Again, it’s a fantastic time for experimenting. Maybe it’s a time when you want to try on some new values or allow yourself to return to some old ones that you thought you’d released. It’s also a time when things that are second-hand can turn into gems! Again – it’s a time when the past and what is from the past seems to hold more value.
You have 40 days. Don’t get stuck there!
Some places are beginning to loosen the reins on people’s movement in public--aligned with Saturn’s Retrograde earlier this week, which I wrote about HERE. And yet, movement is still limited. Gemini rules local environments, neighborhoods, the people who are a part of your regular daily routine, and the way you move about your environment. These spaces are likely to have a more acute focus than normal and certainly more than they have for the past couple of months, as people have been mostly at home. It’s also likely that people will explore their neighborhoods in different ways than they have in the past. Many neighborhoods will also be very different than they were a couple of months ago. They are likely to look different. Some businesses will reopen, some won’t. New businesses may pop up.
Photo by Denys Barabanov on Unsplash
This is a great time to get out INTO your neighborhood! Support local businesses—especially small ones. Get to know the people who own the businesses in your community. Learn more about why they decided to open their own businesses and choose to support businesses whose values are aligned with yours. Connect with the people in your community. Talk with people on the street, in the park, and other places you visit. Say hello to people! Make new friends. Get to know people you didn’t know before. Make an attempt to connect with businesses you’ve never patronized before.
Every community has a story—and a community’s story is not the same as a community’s history. Maybe you’ve lived in the same place for your whole life and you think you know your community’s history. And maybe you do. But it’s equally likely that you know one version of history that was made up awhile ago and has continued to be passed along. The story of your community lies in the collective stories of the people who are living there. Textbooks and monuments are snapshots of moments based from a limited perspective—and however powerful they may be, they can’t represent the present reality. The more stories you collect of the people around you, the deeper and richer your understanding will be of the history of your neighborhood and the community in which you live. It’s also likely that allowing yourself to listen to and receive the stories of the people around you will offer you a deeper and richer understanding of yourself.
The more you connect with others, the more you connect with yourself.
Gemini is the sign of communication, so this is an important time to review how you communicate. How do you use communication as a form of connection (or not)? How do you use communication as a weapon—either in terms of the way you speak or by withholding it from others? How do you communicate your values? What type of communication feels good, loving, supportive to you? If you’re allowing yourself to connect with people in your local community more, what are you learning about your connection style? It can also be a time when you become acutely aware of what forms of communication you’re attracted to or find beautiful. Gemini doesn’t only rule communication with humans, but also with the divine, so you may find yourself feeling more drawn to prayer, divination, meditation, etc. It’s a great time to commit to a 40-day devotion of some kind.
Finally, Venus is the goddess of love and I find that this can be a wonderful time to set up a 40-day devotion to a goddess of love, if you feel one has been coming into your consciousness.
This could be a deep and beautiful time. We are here to learn the art of non-attachment.
Venus Retrograde Blessings!
<3, Hilary