Friday, June 5, 2009

Venus Leaves Aries After Four Months! A New Venus Cycle is Well Underway...

Venus will enter Taurus, the sign of its rulership, at 3:07 a.m. MT tomorrow - Saturday, June 6. So this should take the edge off a little for the weekend.

Taurus is a much more comfortable placement for Venus and this ingress is some relieving news, especially in the midst of all the squares we're dealing with.

(Although, both Mars and Venus in Taurus are heading to...you guessed it! Squares to the Aquarius triple conjunction.)

Venus is the sign of what we love, need and value and how we express these things, especially in relationships. It is not very comfortable in aggressive, me-first Aries. Venus rules Libra (along with Taurus), the sign opposite Aries. So four months in Aries and a very intense retrograde period squaring Pluto in Capricorn has put the Venusian energy through the ringer!

All for good reason, though. Venus needed a good stint of Arien training...building up those Aries muscles of instinct, action, survival and self-preservation. As well as the stripping of relationship detritus from the Pluto connections, related to doing what we have to do to make concrete progress in our lives.

During the retrograde period in Aries, Venus had to deal with all the things it would prefer not to: anger, rage, and corresponding passive aggressiveness coming to a head related to all the crap she puts up with from people, the ways she dulls her flame in order to keep the peace with those around her, the way her personal will and desires are put on the back burner in favour of others,' the ways her identity is subjugated...

We've worked through that stuff over the past four months, and hopefully now we are a lean, mean, well-integrated machine related to these themes. :)

We've become aware, during this retrograde and the squares to Pluto, of relationships and ways of interacting in relationships that have run their course. Relationships that can no longer contain who we really are have been dusted off to make room for more vital ones...or have been gutted and transformed.

There is a new set of rules we started following during this Venus retrograde period. We have to be ourselves 100% and speak up when people project onto us who they (wrongly) think we are. We're expressing a Venus that is no longer willing to put up with any crap. And I like this version much better!

The conjunction of the Sun and retrograde Venus at 6 degrees Aries on March 27, 2009 officially started a new 18-month Venus cycle (the period of time until Venus goes retrograde again).

Venus' next retrograde is in Scorpio in October 2010. (This one is interesting to me because I have Venus just turned Rx in Scorpio in my natal chart, and it is something I will deal with (natally and progressed) my whole life.)

In effect, the recent Venus in Aries retrograde also started a new 8-year Venus cycle and discharged the previous 8-year Venus cycle, as Venus retrogrades in a cycle of the same five signs every eight years. The last time it retrograded in Aries was March 2001 - so we discharged the energy and themes of that cycle during this retrograde. The next time Venus goes retrograde in Aries is March 2017, which will then discharge the 8-year cycle we began in March 2009.

Oh, all these cycles! haha

Venus Cycles

Unless it is retrograde, Venus spends a little under a month in each of the 12 zodiac signs - about 24 - 27 days. It takes 225 days to orbit the Sun/complete one cycle through the zodiac.

Venus has a very regular cycle related to the Sun and Earth, also, and retrogrades every 18 months through the same cycle of five signs (with slight variations/overlap). Aries, Scorpio, Gemini, Capricorn (which shifted over time from Aquarius) and Leo. Meaning - Venus retrogrades only happen in one of those five signs, in the same order, and repeat the cycle of signs every eight years.

The points of conjunction of Venus and the Sun during those retrogrades form a pentagram (five-pointed star) pattern in the sky.

During the 18-month period from Venus retrograde to Venus retrograde, Venus conjuncts the Sun twice, once in retrograde motion, once direct.

The conjunction during the retrograde is called the interior conjunction. It is the point of Venus perigee - when Venus is closest to the Earth in its orbit.

Another conjunction of the Sun and Venus happens about 10 months after the interior conjunction as Venus is moving direct, and this is called the exterior conjunction. This conjunction is the point of apogee - when Venus is furthest from the Earth in its orbit.

We just experienced the interior conjunction during the Aries retrograde.

To illustrate the 8-year Venus cycles, here are the patterns of retrograde:

March 1993 - Venus Rx in Aries
October 1994 - Venus Rx in Scorpio
May 1996 - Venus Rx in Gemini
December 1997 - Venus Rx in Aquarius/Capricorn
July 1999 - Venus Rx in Virgo/Leo

March 2001 - Venus Rx in Aries
October 2002 - Venus Rx in Scorpio
May 2004 - Venus Rx in Gemini
December 2005 - Venus Rx in Capricorn (from 1 degree Aquarius)
July 2007 - Venus Rx in Leo

March 2009 - Venus Rx in Aries ** current cycle March 2009 - October 2010**
October 2010 - Venus Rx in Scorpio
May 2012 - Venus Rx in Gemini
December 2013 - Venus Rx in Capricorn
July 2015 - Venus Rx in Leo (from 0 degrees Virgo)

March 2017 - Venus Rx in Aries
October 2018 - Venus Rx in Scorpio
May 2020 - Venus Rx in Gemini
December 2021 - Venus Rx in Capricorn
July 2023 - Venus Rx in Leo

So you can see how Venus retrogrades kick off a new short-term cycle while discharging the previous one (18 months from retrograde to retrograde), as well as a new longer-term cycle (eight years as it cycles through the five signs).

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Absolutely love this post! I like how it educates readers about cycles and so perfectly explains the dynamics involved between Venus RX in Aries and Pluto in Capricorn.

It certainly has been a time for shedding out-worn relationships for me...and there's been tons of internal processing going with does of anger/rage. Me think it is best to take the "dark matter" out of the closet and look at it. So thank you Willow, Venus RX and Pluto. :-)

Willow said...

:) You're welcome! And yes, thank-you Venus Rx and Pluto for cutting the crap!

freeforall said...

Thanks Willow. Venus moving into Taurus is great, except that it is opposing my Neptune-Mercury conjunction at 0 Scorpio. Good ol' Pluto is squaring my natal Venus at 0 Libra, so the relationship shit hit the fan.

I agree with Anonymous - lots of shedding/processing accompanied by anger/rage. But - getting free of those relationships that aren't working, especially family (Pluto conj. 4th cusp). The tide is still on the way out though, so most of the yecchy relationships are stampeding out the exit door. Only new relationship is through music - a perfect Venus in Taurus manifestation, and something positive, at least!