On December 19th, 2021 Venus goes retrograde in Capricorn.
Venus goes direct on January 29th, 2022. You have 40 days to review, revisit, re-evaluate – and ultimately reset your emotional and relationship patterns so that you find out what you truly want.
There’s no coincidence that Venus is retrograde for exactly 40 days. The number 40 is a sacred number in pretty much every religion and is usually associated with the fulfillment of promises, BUT ONLY after a period of testing, trial and probation.
The purpose of this “trial” or Venus retrograde period is to guide you back to your heart, to allow you to release what is false and no longer serves your path, so that you can experience a rebirth of the heart.
Venus Retrograde in Capricorn – Slave To Love
Venus is what we subjectively value, what is important to us, what feels right. We are in love with someone and loving them is a personal experience – it is the meaning we place on them that makes them special – in our eyes only.
In Capricorn, Venus embodies Capricorn qualities: ambition, determination, and a drive for excellence.
Capricorn is a cardinal sign – if Venus in Capricorn wants something, she will go and get it!
She will not rush in like Venus in Aries, nor listen to what other people have to say like Venus in Libra does – she will take her time and concoct a strategy of how to get from point A to point B and reach her target. Venus in Capricorn knows what she wants!
But there is a small ‘problem’.
Pluto.
Pluto has been in Capricorn since 2008 and he’s not leaving anytime soon, so Venus will spend her entire 40-day retrograde journey in the same room with Pluto!
There are 3 Venus-Pluto conjunctions – we had the first on December 11th, the 2nd December the last one will be happening in March 2022… so this is a lengthy love affair.
Why is there a problem with Venus in Capricorn sharing the same room with Pluto?
If it was not for Pluto, Venus in Capricorn would do what she knows best: achieve, get what she wants, be on top of things.
But Pluto doesn’t work this way.
Pluto represents the Ego death and humbling, the profound process of transformation when we get to accept that there are higher forces at play that we can’t control.
For Venus in Capricorn this doesn’t come easy. Venus in Capricorn is the feminist, the female CEO, the woman who has worked hard her entire life to get what she wants, has worked hard to earn other people’s respect.
But hard work, discipline and all those things that make Capricorn a Capricorn, don’t impress Pluto much.
Pluto doesn’t care how much work we did to get on our hard-earned paths – because his goal is to show us that there are things that we can’t get when we follow the non-Plutonic way, no matter how much we want them. With Pluto, the harder you try, the deeper you sink.
That’s not because Pluto wants to deny us what we want. Pluto has a big heart(and we will get to this aspect a bit later). Pluto only cares about what is real and stripped of ego.
Pluto will destroy everything that is not authentic. The promotion? The successful spouse? The designer bag?
These are things that Venus in Capricorn may work hard for, but as long as they are driven by some sort of societal ideal “I want this because everyone else wants it”, “I want this because it makes me look successful and accomplished”, then Pluto will expose it for what it is – a lack of self-love, or an inability to connect with other humans from an authentic, vulnerable place.
And this is where Pluto comes in. How do we get out of our personal gratification bubble and have a real exchange? How do we allow another human being in? How do we get real about what we want?
“I’m just true to my feelings”. We may think that we know what we want but Pluto comes to show us that we don’t. What we really want, what we value is so primal, so rooted in our identity, that it is directing our life in a way that leaves us powerless – until we become aware of the underlying dynamic.
We are slaves to our desires, our addictions, to instant gratifications, our primal emotional pathways. We know something is not quite right but we can’t help ourselves – we go for it, running on our emotional default mode.
Whether that’s emptying the fridge, binge shopping or meaningless sex – our primal emotional pathways, the dopamine kick, the reward is driving our actions and enslaves us. We may crave connection, a higher love, but how do we get there when all we know is what we’ve been doing all our lives?
There’s always something brutal about Pluto’s revelations, no matter how much shadow work we have done in the past.
The first step of the Plutonic emotional deconditioning process is to become aware of the default mode of our feelings.
The first part of Venus retrograde (from now until January 9th, when Venus meets up with the Sun) will expose “the problem”.
The more we try to resist Pluto’s messages, the harder Pluto will hit us. Pluto always wins, even if it has to wipe out everything that we value in our lives.
It is only then that Pluto can show us what truly holds value for us.
Venus Retrograde in Capricorn – Aspects And Dates
What makes this Venus retrograde cycle so intense, is not only the connection Venus makes with Pluto, but also Chiron in the retrogradation chart.
When Venus goes retrograde, she is in a tight 1-degree conjunction with Pluto. And on the very same day Venus goes retrograde, Chiron goes direct.
Pluto and Chiron are very intense energies to work with – both Pluto and Chiron are interested in shadow work. Neither Pluto, nor Chiron shy away from the dark side. They go as deep as needed, they excavate whatever needs to be brought to the surface, so that whatever needs transforming is transformed.
When Venus goes retrograde, a very powerful emotional revelation will unveil a hidden wound, and at the same time, will set in motion the necessary healing process.
We may suddenly become aware of what we want, of what we value, and we will also suddenly become aware that this time, there’s no “doing the same things over and over again” – we must go to the Underworld first.
Venus retrograde is by definition a journey into the Underworld. Venus slows down, rising lower and lower each day, closer and closer to the horizon, and at some point she just disappears, she just vanishes into the glaring rays of the Sun.
There are many myths around Venus’ disappearance from the evening sky, including the Inanna’s descent into the Underworld. When Venus is retrograde, we too need to go deep within ourselves to do the required emotional work.
In the middle of the Venus retrograde cycle, Venus meets Ereshkigal, her sister – a metaphor for her shadow, for the dark, unintegrated part of her psyche. When that happens, when we embrace our shadow, we experience a rebirth of the heart.
Once the union is completed (when we have the Venus-Sun conjunction) Venus is now ready to rise again, this time as a morning star – with more self awareness, connected to her heart, and to what really matters.
Let’s have a look at the most important aspects Venus makes while in retrograde:
December 19th, 2021 – Venus goes retrograde at 26° Capricorn
December 25th, 2021 – Venus retrograde is conjunct Pluto at 25° Capricorn
January 9th, 2022 – Venus conjunct Sun at 18° Capricorn (a new Venus cycle begins)
January 29th, 2022 – Venus goes direct at 11° Capricorn
If you have planets and angles between 11°-26° Capricorn you will be especially influenced by this retrogradation. If you’re a Millennial born in the late 80s’ or early 90s’ then you have at least 2 outer planets in Capricorn so this Venus retrograde will influence your generation.
Even if every Venus retrograde is different, Venus retrograde cycles follow a clear pattern.
Venus cycles repeat 5 times over a period of 8 years. Venus goes retrograde in the same 5 signs for approximately 100 years.
Each Venus retrograde is a repetition of the Venus Retrograde that happened 8 years ago, 16 years ago, and so on. Every 8 years Venus goes back to the same area of your chart.
The last time Venus was retrograde in Capricorn was in December 2013 – January 2014. What was going on in your life back then?
Venus Retrograde In Capricorn – The Power Of Love
But wait – there’s more.
The story doesn’t end when Venus goes direct on January 29th, 2022. The whole Venus retrograde cycle, the intense affair with Pluto, has only been a prelude to the great adventure of love. Venus and Pluto will meet again (for the 3rd time) on March 3rd.
Venus is not alone, and this time she’s holding hands with Mars. In fact, we have an incredibly passionate triple conjunction on March 3rd, 2022 – Venus, Mars and Pluto all align at the 27th degree of Capricorn!
If while retrograde, Pluto showed Venus where she is enslaved by her desires and default emotional patterns, when Venus gets to meet Pluto again, she is not the same Persephone-Venus from the dungeons.
Venus is now in touch with her heart and knows what she wants. Venus is now ready to start again – with no emotional conditionings nor expectations of how things “should” be – but with an awareness that what we want, only matters as long as it is in alignment with what Pluto wants.
There’s something magical in being honest and vulnerable. Opening your heart from that place of truth is the most powerful energy in the universe.
Being truly connected with our feelings doesn’t mean whining if we don’t get what we want. Emotional honesty always has a vulnerable, cathartic feel to it. When we open ourselves up, we don’t know how the world will respond – we may win, or we may lose.
There’s an element of surrendering to the feeling, to allowing the feeling to emerge without expectations of particular outcomes.
Opening our hearts is always scary – but thankfully Mars is there to support us. Mars will make sure that Venus doesn’t just bat her lashes and wait for things to come toher – instead, she will go and get them.
When we’re in touch with our heart (Venus), when we act in alignment with what we want (Mars), and with what the universe wants (Pluto), then we’re unstoppable. There is nothing that we cannot put into motion.
The Universe’s frequency is Truth. Anything that is not in alignment with the Source will die. Everything that is in frequency with this Truth, will not only stay, but will flourish and grow to make the impossible possible. That’s the silver lining of this Venus retrograde cycle: the power of love.
Astro Butterfly
www.astrobutterfly.com
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