Part I is HERE.
Probably the most important aspect of Venus's retrograde through Capricorn is her three-peat conjunction to powerful Pluto.
Pluto brings up hidden fears/old karmas (unbalanced energies).
With Venus retrograding over Pluto there is something here about what we thought we were past/thought we were over with, coming back around. This is something like, "I thought I was done with this. I don't want to have to deal with THIS again".
We need to be gentle/kind with ourselves now and understand we are not back where we were before. This is Capricorn. We can age in dog years here. We are older and wiser.
Know that things that feel like life and death, most likely will not be. Things can have an irrational intensity and be based on older situations we might not even remember. Also keep in mind this is Venus we are talking about. This isn't like when Saturn met Pluto. This is our most benevolent energy.
So what happens? Venus meets Pluto, she stations retrograde, starts moving backward and quickly she meets Pluto again - this all happens within a couple weeks - then she continues to move backward for another month, stations direct and meets up with Pluto for the final time a few weeks after her direct station. I am not going to fill this post with dates - see part I for that - but as I write this we are approaching her second meeting with Pluto (the one where Venus is backtracking).
So, she, as we, gets past Pluto (death!) in the exhausting sign of Capricorn, she can almost see Aquarius from here/breathe that fresh detached air - it is R-I-G-H-T THERE. We can almost touch it. We can almost taste it (FREEDOM!) and then .. hold up a minute Venus ... this Cappy mountain ain't climbed yet sister. She (as we) is going back.
Now, it may not play out exactly like this for us personally and we might not remember the last time we were in this situation, we might just feel this kind of irrational intensity. And everyone's chart will NOT be deeply impacted, sometimes we are affected through other people or collective happenings. But, the story is the story, and it will apply to MULTIPLE situations at the same time. Nothing is ever just one thing, but sometimes when BIG collective things are going on it is easier to connect the dots. In our personal lives and collectively, because Venus is a personal planet, her retrograde through Cappy will have repercussions - the situations will be different, but the story-line, this back and forth climb of the mountain, past death/the intensity again and again, will somehow be the same.
For now, let's focus on their second meeting. Have I said this is happening on Christmas Day? Maybe I haven't - this is happening on Christmas Day (timing is a little loose with planets other than the Moon, we might feel this more in the build-up).
Here's the chart:
We can easily see that pile-up in Capricorn.
Cappy is the sign of winter. A sober season where people die if they don't take things seriously. Cappy is a cardinal sign - something wants to start. Yes, even with that ice cold ground. And it's the last cardinal sign - the something that wants to start is in a way a final start. A last chance, sort of.
Now what else do we see?
Venus is conjunct Pluto at 25 degrees. They are both conjunct asteroid Astraea EXACT. Venus in Capricorn is answering to Saturn in Aquarius who is conjunct asteroid Asclepius.
Saturn in Aquarius is answering to Uranus in Taurus who is answering to Venus - so Venus can get back to herself through Saturn - the old and responsible - but she has to go through Uranus, too - the new and liberating - and have I mentioned they are squaring each other. This whole two-step 'mutual reception' which I might have just made up - is there such a thing? maybe not, but it makes sense - is repeating the chart's Saturn/Uranus square. The old vs the new. Tradition vs the future. Responsibility vs freedom. And we are all working both sides of this square at the same time. There isn't a right vs wrong here.
Two important asteroids are pulled into the Venus/Pluto story, so let's take a look in that direction.
Astraea was discovered in 1847 by a German amateur astronomer named Hencke. At the time, the
four Goddess asteroids – Ceres, Pallas, Juno and Vesta – were still called PLANETS. Astraea’s discovery announced there were likely many more asteroids in that asteroid belt, and the four planets/Goddess energies were
demoted to asteroids (kind of like what Eris recently did to Pluto). I think of these asteroids as the feminine energy placeholders (probably something like our junk DNA) for the discarded Goddesses during the patriarchal twist (the one son/sun shift where the power moved to the churches/governments) unleashed during the Cappy time-frame of the Age of Pisces (now ending). Imagine the world we would be living in if these celestial bodies had remained planets! If everyone knew their names! Sniffle ..
Astraea is the Goddess of service, peace and justice who became part of the constellation Virgo/Libra when she was the last Goddess to leave the Earth after Pandora's box was opened at the end of the Golden Age/Silver Age. She was said to return at the time of the New Earth/New Golden Age and thought to represent (in our charts) both this new awakening energy - where we come back to ourselves - and the part of us that might stay too long/have trouble letting go of things that are no longer good for us.
She joins Venus and Pluto at this second conjunction, so we've got Venus, Pluto AND Astraea at 25 degrees Capricorn. Past the point we've always died before. Bringing in this new awakening energy AND something about us staying too long at the show.
(and this is going to be a big theme with the upcoming South Node in Scorpio, which is really already in play,
a need for the pruning of these complicated life/death intense situations that are no
longer needed for our growth, noticing what pay-off we are getting from all this
Scorpian drama and letting it go by turning toward something more
nourishing - we will talk about this in the Taurus/Scorpio nodes post next)
Saturn, because remember Venus is answering to him, so he is a major player here as ruler of Capricorn, is conjunct asteroid Asclepius.
Asclepius is the God of Medicine (born a mortal), son of the sun God Apollo and the mortal Princess Coronis and father of the healing Goddesses including Hygeia. Chiron taught Asclepius the art of medicine/healing and he is said to have been able to cure people through their dreams and BRING PEOPLE BACK FROM THE DEAD. This earned him the ire of Zeus, who was afraid he would soon have all these immortal mortals running around and how would that work for the Gods, so he killed Asclepius with his thunderbolt. Apollo, the sun God and pissed off daddy then killed the cyclops who made Zeus's lightning bolts which got Apollo evicted from Mount Olympus. Later Zeus regrets his hastiness and awards Asclepius eternal life as a God and he is placed in the sky as the serpent bearer at the end of the constellation Scorpio/beginning of Sagittarius (right where the South Node and Mars are now). The serpent represents the kundalini and the double helix of DNA.
Sooo, what does this mean? "Mean" is a bit loaded and has many definitions none of which I am particularly fond of, but I will tell you what I see and mostly let you ponder this out for yourself and see how you might apply this personally and collectively. This is really a time when we want to be thinking for ourselves.
As Venus crossed "time runs out/power is cemented" the degree Saturn met Pluto (and the Sun and Ceres and Mercury back in January 2020), the FIRST time earlier in December while applying to her first conjunction to Pluto, South Africa announced their discovery of the Omicron virus. So, the virus is part of the Venus retro story-line for us, at least collectively. Again, Venus is our most benevolent planet. She isn't her strongest in Capricorn, but she is still bringing something BENEFICIAL to the situation. Keep in mind though, just as she is impacting "time runs out/power is cemented", this energy is influencing her. We might feel weakened/tired. She crosses Pluto. Now she is 'past the death', but she is drained and forced to change course. Believe me, Venus would have liked to just keep on keeping on, but somehow her job (our job) isn't done here yet.
Now, it's two weeks later and Venus is back to face off with Pluto (death/transformation) AGAIN joined by Astraea, the Goddess who speaks of staying too long in difficult situations and is a symbol for a new golden age - the re-integration of the discarded Goddess energy in all of us both women and men. And, Saturn, is with Asclepius, the healing student of Chiron who becomes a great healer. Bringing people back to life. Through their dreams. It is not a coincidence this is happening at Christmas our most magical and holy season, as Jupiter finishes up in Aquarius and as the Nodes finish up in Gemini/Sagittarius.
At the same time Mars is conjunct the South Node (separating) and trining Asclepius's teacher - Chiron. There is healing here, of very old/very deep wounds, if we are willing to work this Mars in Sag on the South Node in a positive way. Through the Nodes - not 'make a mountain out of a molehill', not think we know it all, make some new choices, have some new conversations, talk to some new people, ask questions. And Mars in Sag himself - expand in some way/have faith/stay optimistic.
When you think Mars in Sag - think QUEST.
This is a great QUEST that only looks like something has totally f'd with our holidays.
Think about the asteroid energies activated in this chart. What are they saying to you? Think about beneficial Venus. She's a winter Venus here, a practical/all-business Goddess because winter can be deadly and she's got to truck her ass up this snowy mountain. She can't 'beat' Pluto, but we can see in the weeks ahead she IS going to get past him and so will we.
By the time we get to the end of January, Venus will be direct and the North Node (our path forward) will be in Taurus and answering to her. Things will look quite different. AND as early as next week Jupiter leaves Aquarius for Pisces, the sign of his ancient rulership and gets out from under Saturn's thumb for the first time in 3 years.
I can't say exactly what's going to happen, because there isn't a ''thing that is going to happen". There are multiple ways this can all play out depending, for us personally what we do about what we feel/the situation (keep in mind this is the retrograde part where we are re-evaluating) and what we do as a group/collective and, of course, the karmas playing out. We also have the whole Uranus/Saturn square that will start unwinding after Christmas Eve, but is still in play next year.
I hope something here is helpful. Life is a transit folks. Everything passes. With Venus retrograde we have the opportunity/gift to approach something in a HIGHER way. Let's be kind to each other whether or not we agree with each other. We don't need everyone to agree even when it looks like we do. This is a planet of duality and this 'ending of duality' isn't something we want to be rushing through, less we get this wrong and end up with something quite different than what we are hoping for.
Have a lovely holiday week everyone.
Back with that nodal shift post I keep promising!
xo all
artwork by the amazing akramness
