***My new online course The Alchemy of the Asteroid Goddesses starts in September. This is Part One in a Three Part Series on the Divine Feminine in Astrology. You can get more info here- https://divineharmony.com/alchemyoftheasteroidgoddesses2023/
We are currently in the front end shadow of Venus Retrograde- heading into the portal of the Descent of the Goddess that commences on July 22nd which is Mary Magdalene Feast Day! The front end shadow is the period in which Venus transits all the degrees of her Retrograde journey for the first time. From June 19th until July 22nd we have this ‘preview period’ of what is incoming this summer. As such it is important to pay attention to what is arising right now as hints from the Universe of where our deep dive journey is taking us are incoming.
Venus Retrograde is traditionally seen as a time to reevaluate relationships, finances, values, self worth and self Love. It is a time to go over the past, deal with unresolved things and wrap up loose ends. With Venus Retrograde in Leo we can also find ourselves reevaluating our creative self expression, authenticity, self confidence and self esteem, and our capacity to truly and fully Live from the Truth of our Hearts. Although Leo and the Sun rule the Heart in Medical Astrology- Venus the planet is the heart and planet of Love and Beauty. At best Venus in Leo knows how to live fully from the heart- radiating and shining authentically! If we over do the ego energies of Leo OR undergo them and hide our Light under a bushel- this journey of descent can confront us with all the ways we block ourselves from embodying more of our Light.
It is interesting to me that Venus’ front end shadow began on the day of the Jupiter/Saturn sextile. The Jupiter/Saturn sextile is the ‘crescent moon phase’ of the Jupiter/Saturn conjunction that happened back in December 2020. A new 20 year Jupiter/Saturn cycle was seeded then at the 1st degree of Aquarius- majorly activating the next phase of the Age of Aquarius that we are in and have been in since the 1500’s (you can learn more about this in my Masterclass here- https://divineharmony.com/anchoring/). To see Venus head into front end shadow when these two teacher planets align in the deeply yin and feminine signs of Taurus and Pisces feels incredibly potent. Pay attention to teachers, teachings, inspiration, downloads and opportunities for growth and mastery incoming right now- they can be game changing! Allowing the feminine to lead is going to be important in the upcoming descent- which means paying attention to your intuition, feeling your emotions, tending to your body and being here now (as Ram Dass would say).
Venus Retrograde spans from 12’12 Leo to 28’36 Leo- so pay attention to where this area of sky falls in your chart and if you have any planets or angles here it can make this Venus Retrograde particularly important for you. There are always themes in each Retrograde journey and the themes for Venus’ Descent in 2023 involve her triple trines to Chiron & Eris, triple squares to Uranus, triple quincunxes to Neptune and triple squares to Jupiter.
The harmonious trines to Chiron and Eris show us that part of this descent will be reclaiming our healthy fire. Sacred Rage, boundaries, agency, taking a stand for Truth and speaking up are all supported with these transits. The squares and quincunxes will require more finesse to navigate. Squares to Uranus can be destabilizing. Things you did not see coming all of a sudden happen. This can be freeing and liberating or it can be chaotic and unexpected. You never know what you are going to get with Uranus the planet of unpredictability!
The quincunxes to Neptune bring tension between the lower heart (Venus) and the Higher Heart (Neptune). These two in alignment are uber romantic, compassionate, altruistic and idealistic. Yet the tense nature of the aspect can make it so we see the Light but not the shadow. If we are wearing rose colored glasses, deceiving ourselves or others or allowing others to pull the wool over our eyes- these transits can pull the veil of illusion from our eyes!
The squares to Jupiter- the other Benefic planet- can expand the desire to enjoy life and have fun but can also lead to excess. It is interesting to note that Venus stations Retrograde in a double quincunx to Neptune (July 15th-July 30th) and she stations Direct in a double square to standstill Jupiter at the Beltane Degree (August 22nd-September 17th). Of all the High Holy Days Beltane is the most associated with Venus- so this amplifies the Divine Feminine, embodied Goddess energy in powerful ways. And we do want to be aware of the shadow of overdoing the Benefics- they both want to see the positive and do not like to deal with limitations. Too much Love and Light is not a good thing if it’s not balance by seeing the shadow and seeing the Truth as it is right now. Too much overindulgence can also throw us off. Keep this in mind in your upcoming journey!
The midpoint of the Venus Journey is on August 13th with the Sun and Venus cojoin at 20’28 Leo with both tightly trine Chiron the Wounded Healer. On offer is deep healing of the heart and Spirit. Venus in Leo is the Solar Feminine- the radiant Sun Goddess seen archetypal in figures like Egyptian Sekhmet, Celtic Aine, and Japanese Amaterasu. Modern myth posits the feminine as the moon and the masculine as the sun- but ancient the sun was female. Ultimately there are Solar and Lunar versions of the masculine and feminine- and the journey is one of finding balance between activity and receptivity, yin and yang, assertion and surrender. For those who need to activate their fire- this Venus journey can do just that. For those who need to temper their fire (and ego)- Venus can provide the means for that as well.
Venus exits back end shadow right after quincunxing Pluto on October 6th. She only quincunxes Pluto once because her station retrograde was just shy of Pluto and she only catches up with him at the end of her journey. With all the outer planets (Uranus, Neptune, Eris, Chiron) powerfully activating Venus throughout her journey- her journey ends as she faces the Lord of the Underworld and God of Death & Rebirth. After she passed Pluto she moves into Virgo October 8th and aligns with Regulus the Royal Fixed star known as the Heart of the Lion, now in the sign of the Virgin. I have a 2+ hour Masterclass on the movement of Regulus into Virgo and the Rise of the Divine Feminine in positions of leadership and you can get it here- https://divineharmony.mykajabi.com/offers/DsNfeMKK/checkout
I leave you with the Star Sparks and Sabian Symbol degrees for the station points (see below). They can be powerful meditations for Venus’ standstill points- so read through them below. Dates for the entire Venus Retrograde journey are below as well.
Blessed Venus Descent to you!
~Harmony
P.S. If you enjoy the teachings about the Divine Feminine and the ancient pre-patriarchal myths- my Year and a Day Stargate Mystery School is now available on demand. You can learn more about this course here- https://divineharmony.com/stargate-mystery-school/
You can learn more about other Masterclasses and Course I teach here- https://divineharmony.com/my-astrology-classes/
You can purchase directly via my Kajabi online classroom here- https://divineharmony.mykajabi.com/store
STAR SPARKS
by Ellias Lonsdale
VENUS RETROGRADE 7/22-
Leo 29 A broken sword
Defiance of law and precedent. Advocacy of something which can only be grasped when duality is no longer the basis for how we see things. Aspiring to a way of life which we must earn by great suffering and perseverance.
Insistency on the spirit of the law and outlasting the letters of the law. Coming to a realization, almost a second birth keyed to everything that awaits us through grace, through moving inside of deaths, and through becoming at one with spirit in the most unlikely places and times.
A formidable journey to undertake. Made to go back and relive each side of every dispute. Rights and wrongs, goods and evils, praise and blame. Needing to burn out the karma of the polarities. Showing everybody in the vicinity what it is like to be warrior who moves beyond all fighting and resolves the disputes internally.
A mission taken up with a passion. Definitely likely to fail. The odds are all against anybody freeing themselves of history and habit, routine and assumption, partisanship and ego. Yet this is the path of the impossible. We are after a miracle. Nothing less will do.
We go through this for ourselves and for all the world. We are met by Christ along this way and this encounter may be the determining one. Once we do get far enough to find the Christ Within Us, what we have sought becomes attainable. But it is only from that place of true peace that we can take our own multiple duality’s and liberate them from going against each other endlessly.
Along this journey, we know before we start what the victory is like, we see what we are signing up for. It is foolhardy, crazy to take this one on. But if we are strong and inwardly unswayed by opinion, we can make the claim to free self and world of their most poisonous blockages. It simply requires deep guts and a faith to move every mountain.
VENUS DIRECT 9/3-
Leo 13 A man painting scenes on a ceiling
He sees. He knows. He feels it all. For he has been through it forever. Now he has a task to do which is so very challenging and demanding. He must take all his gifts, everything he has worked so hard to achieve over many lifetimes. And he must sacrifice what he could draw from his attainments, so that these things will be released into the whole and freed from him, no longer his in any way.
This is one of those assignments which is too much for mortal flesh to bear. How can he resist importing into his supreme expression little hints and undertones of his own personal stuff, just enough to gratify the one who feels themselves to be placed in front of a destiny that is unfair, rigged against him, an absurd kind of situation to face.
When he does persist in loading separative baggage onto selfless expression, he comes up against a mountain of internal feeling of wrongness, of being far off the mark, not knowing what to do with these old patterns. His conscience won’t let him get away with much of anything. But that doesn’t stop him from trying. Anybody else would do the same.
He is inside a chamber of spirit initiation. Every bit of his experience is part of it. The fragments he plays out and can’t quite strip away are boulders in his path. Everything looms large. Nothing is just a matter of finding a reasonable approach. The stakes are high. The tale here is epochal.
As grandiose as it looks to self and others, this frequency will not yield to any way to defuse it, lighten it, make it acceptable and easier. He is asked to conquer his own weaknesses, to emerge victorious from his ardent battle with himself, and to become at one with Christ in every cell of his being.
SABIAN SYMBOLS
by Dane Rudhyar
VENUS RETROGRADE 7/22-
PHASE 149 (LEO 29°): A MERMAID EMERGES FROM THE OCEAN WAVES READY FOR REBIRTH IN HUMAN FORM.
KEYNOTE: The stage at which an intense feeling-intuition rising from the unconscious is about to take form as a conscious thought.
The mermaid personifies a stage of awareness still partially enveloped by the ever-moving and ever-elusive ocean of the collective Unconscious, yet already half formulated by the conscious mind. Any creative thinker or artist knows well the peculiar mixture of elation and anxiety characterizing such a stage. Will the intuitive feeling fade away reabsorbed into the unconscious, or will the inexpressible realization acquire the concreteness and expressible form of a concept or a definite motif in an art form?
This fourth symbol in the thirtieth five-fold sequence suggests that the fire of desire for concrete and steady form burns at the root of all techniques of self-expression. An unconscious energy archetype is reaching toward consciousness through the creator, as cosmic Love seeks tangible manifestation through human lovers. The whole pre-human universe reaches eagerly to the human stage of clear and steady consciousness. It is this great evolutionary urge, this elan vital, which is implied in this symbol of the mermaid seeking human incarnation — the YEARNING FOR CONSCIOUS FORM AND SOLIDITY.
VENUS DIRECT 9/3-
PHASE 133 (LEO 13°): AN OLD SEA CAPTAIN ROCKING HIMSELF ON THE PORCH OF HIS COTTAGE.
KEYNOTE: The quieted mind’s recollections of crises and joys long past.
The sea captain has steered the ship of his ego-consciousness through seas and storms, maintaining the integrity of his individual selfhood while in close contact with the collective Unconscious. Now retired, he may try to distill wisdom from his many experiences and from his victories over elemental forces. The “swing” of the child-consciousness has now become a “rocking chair” from which one can contemplate past as well as present scenes, gently moving as waves roll over the shore. Peace at last.
At this third stage we find the consciousness of old age, after having witnessed the spontaneous play of children close to protective nature (Leo 11°) and the fashionable social parties of escaping adults (Leo 12°); three phases of mental development. Keyword: QUIET RECOLLECTION.
VENUS RETROGRADE DATES
(RX means Retrograde)
Venus stations Retrograde at 28’36 Leo on 7/22- 9:33pm EDT
*** MARY MAGDALENE FEAST DAY ***
Venus stations Direct at 12’12 Leo on 9/3- 9:20pm EDT
6/19- FRONT SHADOW BEGINS
(same day as Jupiter/Saturn sextile)
6/29- Venus trine Chiron
7/2- Venus square Uranus
7/8- Venus trine Eris
7/15- Venus quincunx Neptune RX
7/22- VENUS STATIONS RETROGRADE 28’36 Leo
Stations in double quincunx to Neptune***
7/27- Mercury conjunct Venus RX 28’11 Leo
7/30- Venus RX quincunx Neptune RX
8/5- Venus RX trine Eris RX
8/9- Venus RX square Uranus
8/13- SUN VENUS RX CONJUNCTION 20’28 Leo
8/14- Venus RX trine Chiron RX
8/22- Venus RX square Jupiter at15’18 taurus- BELTANE DEGREE***
9/3 VENUS STATIONS DIRECT 12’12 leo
Stations in double square to standstill Jupiter at Beltane Degree***
(9/4 Jupiter stations Retrograde 15’34 taurus- BELTANE DEGREE)
9/17- Venus square Jupiter RX
9/23- Venus trine Chiron RX
9/29- Venus square Uranus RX
10/2- Venus trine Eris
10/3- Venus trine North Node in Aries
10/3- Venus quincunx Neptune RX
10/6- Venus quincunx Pluto RX 27’53
10/7- BACK END SHADOW ENDS
10/8- Venus moves into Virgo- aligns with Regulus