Venus Retrograde and Her Descent into the Underworld
Venus is spending 4 long months in Capricorn from November 2021 to March 2022. She entered the pre-shadow phase November 17th, though the retrograde officially began a month later on December 19th. Venus will station direct January 29th and will finally leave her shadow March 1st.
During this retrograde, Venus will conjunct Pluto, the planet of death, rebirth and transformation, a total of 3 times— December 11th, December 25th and March 3rd.
Venus represents what we love and value, beauty and feminine energy. Though these energies seem quite different than what Pluto embodies, Venus and Pluto have an interesting similarity— Surrendering to the underworld to strip away worldly possessions in order to be reborn anew.
Venus is always within 45 degrees of the sun in the chart so during her retrograde, she makes 2 conjunctions with the sun. She starts her retrograde journey as an evening star, visible after sunset. Venus has her first conjunction with the sun January 9th, 2022. This is known as the Venus Star Point, a term coined by astrologer, Arielle Guttman.
Venus creates a 5 pointed star in the sky over an 8 year cycle,
The Venus Star point is similar to a new moon and marks the beginning of a new Venus cycle. As she nears the sun, she becomes invisible in the sky, hidden behind the sun’s rays for 7 days. When she appears in the sky again, she shifts to a morning star, where she is visible just before sunrise.
Because of this shift from an evening star into a morning star, many ancient cultures believed they were seeing two different objects in the sky. And because of this, they created 2 different archetypes that represent Venus— The goddess of love and beauty we are familiar with of the evening star, and also the goddess of war, who she transformed into as a result of her descent into the underworld.
The Sumarians wrote of Venus in clay tablets 4,000 years ago through The Decent of Inanna. Inanna, the goddess of love, beauty, wisdom and fertility descends into the underworld for a funeral and to visit her sister, The Queen of the Dead. To ensure she remained unharmed during her descent, she was armed with 7 amulets to protect her, including a lapis lazuli necklace and a crown. She passed through 7 gates and upon entering each gate, she was forced to remove an amulet.
By the time Inanna passed through the gates of hell, she was stripped of her jewelry and clothes that were meant to protect her. After 3 days and 3 nights, she was ready for her ascent back home; Though leaving the underworld isn’t so easy. Two demons were ordered to escort her back but in order to do so, they needed to find someone to replace her in the underworld. Upon arriving back home, Inanna’s family was mourning her as they thought she died but her lover was celebrating. Innana ordered the demons to take him to the underworld as her replacement.
So how does the story of Inanna’s descent into the underworld apply to us during this Venus retrograde cycle? Inanna wasn’t a whole person until she appeared naked and vulnerable by surrendering to the darker aspects of herself, to be reborn. She shed her ego through the objects that were stripped from her through her descent. She confronted her shadow which led to the death of who she once was, so she could be reborn, whole and embodied.
During this Venus retrograde, many of us may be tested on our values, while questioning our sense of authority and power. So ask yourself—
What might you be clinging onto that is actually weighing you down? Is there something holding you back from transforming into a more powerful version of yourself? In what ways are you able to reclaim your power? It isn’t until we let go and surrender, that we are fully set free.
