Venus: Station-Retrograde at 28 Capricorn

A Hinode Space Telescope view of Venus' 2012 Transit of the Sun on June 6, 2012

(photo credit: NASA, Goddard Space Flight Center, 2012)

So no sooner does Uranus go direct on the same day as a Full Moon – then Venus goes on station to turn retrograde on December 21st.

What’s a planet to do?

And that December 21st date? That will be just as the Sun reaches its Solstice. Thinking of all this as some sort of complicated piece of machinery, we thus arrive at Venus’ going on station as a ‘slow down’ to all we might want to create or see coming of our efforts (or patience) as a result of what we’ve done…(or not done, depending.)…just as our will either ebbs to its lowest point (in the northern hemisphere) or reaches its maximal, yearly ‘high’ point (in the southern hemisphere), depending.

Now…with that said, that north/south hemisphere thing can be literal – as in, one person lives in Oslo, Norway and the other person lives in Brisbane, Australia. OR it can indicate your intellectual or logic-driven will (north) versus your emotional or ‘impassioned’ (south) perspective. And yes, both of these functionalities can be in operation at the same time in like or different situations/venues/areas in or of your life.)

December’s astrological trail seeming to describe a period of wanting to break out, innovate, share, network, rebel, escape, integrate or change (the Uranus-Full Moon) which is then followed by a period of reconciliation with Self (often as set off or triggered or mirrored in or see in the actions of others) which isn’t – traditionally – what we might want to feel.

In other words, to have Venus hitting its ‘turnabout’ in the traditionally ‘cool’ (or ‘cooling’ – on occasion even ‘chilling’) sign of Capricorn may be “fair play” in the cosmic sense that we in time need to learn or see or experience what we need to see or learn or experience….at the same time that things may not feel all that warm, cuddly and rewarding. And to have this turnabout happen at the Solstice is either to ‘see the light’ or to realize you didn’t see the light at some ‘maximal’ level, depending.

On Planet Venus: Maat Mons rises 8 km above lava flows spread across the Venusian plains

(photo credit: NASA, JPL)

 

All this is yours – indeed, all of ours – as of December 21, 2013 at 9:54 in the evening, UT/+0 time.

And of course the two days before and the two days after are likely to be telling in more than a few lives too.

Which is why, seeing as there IS a crossover with Uranus’ December 17th station…why one would say that if your chart answers to both 8 Aries AND 28 Capricorn. Allow for standard orbs as follows…

Conjunctions, Squares, Oppositions, Trines (+/- 5 degrees)

Sextiles (+/- 3 degrees)

…and for the getting-to-be-pretty-much-standard orbs for inconjuncts (aka quincunxes) and semi-sextiles…

Inconjuncts and Semi-Sextiles (+/- 1.5 to 2 degrees)

…then apply them to these charts of standard sign aspects.

Next, a quick run down on aspect meanings, seeing as we haven’t done that in a while…

Conjunctions always feel personal, whether or not they’re personally directed at us.

Oppositions are about being challenged, opposed or faced with issues, problems, situations or relationship dynamics.

Squares challenge us to see there is more to what we are dealing with than we thought. Can we take everything into account and make it all work as one? Can we keep everything in balance or will we be brought down by that we fail to acknowledge, deal with or manage?

Sextiles representing opportunities we may or may not take sextiles prompt us to exercise the right and personal choice and the responsibility to own which choices we make in life.

Trines: Far from being any candy-floss ‘perfection’ trines have been marketed as, trines are ‘ongoing energy’ which on one hand lowers the need to try, but which can also represent limited or inhibited circumstances.

Inconjuncts (Quincunxes) always represent an adjustment whether between the optimal and workable, the idea(l)/vision and the reality or  the personal-individual and accepted-pluralistic perspective.

Semi-sextiles manifest as ego-bruises and irritations which feel more serious than they generally are in any long run except where denials or emotional triggers are being set off.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

Now that we’re all aspected, on to Venus going retrograde specifically at 28 Capricorn. Referred to in terms of its association with ‘clairvoyance’ by both Dane Rudhyar and Marc Edmund Jones the Sabian symbol for 28 Capricorn, “A WOMAN READING TEA LEAVES,” is Venusian in its own right in that the ‘basis’ for ‘finding one’s way to the truth’ is a substance (tea) long revered and related to nutrition, health and eating – all of which suggest an association with Taurus (an earth sign, as is Capricorn) and thus the fact that at this moment it may be our ‘earthly’ or ‘earthy’ fortunes which take a turn.

December 21, 2013 – 9:54 p.m. (UT/+0) – Aries Wheel (location not specific)

 

Any degree in the third decan (last ten degrees) of any sign isn’t strictly individual, even though the effort of the woman in the symbol is personal and singular – she is attempting to read the leaves. And as we are given no one else in this image, we may presume she is seeking information for herself, though the idea of ‘a female’ in terms of gender here should not be taken literally. If you yourself have, or if you know a woman whose Sun or Moon is directly at 28 Capricorn the reference might be to her, yes. But otherwise, ‘female’ in metaphysical symbolism most often refers to our receptivity or our ability to ‘contain’ or “be a good container” for something or someone or some situation. So to have this idea embodied by Venus turning to retrograde may be a sign of recognizing we weren’t receptive enough to someone, something or the totality of a situation.

Or maybe it pertains to your ‘earthly’ fortunes.

Or the fact that in light of other things your attention is ‘turning’ or ‘being turned’ to more Venusian matters OR to the questioning of your personal Venusian values. This is not typically a ‘lighthearted” sort of metaphysical energetic level, as it clearly concerns responsibility – specifically that we take on when (and where) we aspire to achieve. Success or burden here can be one and the same as this degree promotes a clarity of logical thinking which owns up to the long-term necessity to be to ‘chart’ a responsible (not merely safe) course. All of this ‘questioning of quality’ (and qualities) is itself more than a little Venus-Taurus - and with 28 Capricorn being a degree assigned to an astrological Term (Ptolemaic) ruled by Mars, with Mars in Libra the aims of the moment would be Self-driven but dependent on others.

It’s just one of those moments. Business or personal, family or friendship, some relationships will be fine now. But some will be more meaningful to us at the moment. They’re on our minds.

And the reason they’re there is not about ‘that person’ but how we feel about that person – and all our feelings about those feelings. Isn’t that just what you want around the holidays?

Apparently life isn’t going to be cut-and-dried and simple right now.

But then, apparently we need this. If life provides that which we need, this next six weeks of Venus retrograde is going to have us learning a good deal about who we really are. And aren’t.

Who we are kidding. And who we’re not kidding. The overarching Capricorn quality of not meeting the world but being met by and concerned with the world and its worldly way of operating is going to catch more than a few of us judging ourselves short (that would be the retrograde thing as opposed to ‘judging others’ being direct motion) or paying some penalty large or small.

Tangible, monetary or heart felt, if it’s ‘real’ to us, if we can feel it – it’s up for re-examination. Much as the recent eclipse broke through many an emotional defense and denial by putting us all through wave after wave of challenging, trying, tolerance-testing experiences, now Venus’ turn to retrograde asks us if…considering all we’ve learned since the last time Venus went retrograde (in Gemini during May-June of 2012)…if we really are investing ourselves in being the person WE will respect ourselves for being, regardless of whether others respect us or not.

Well…okay, maybe that’s not entirely square. The ‘we’ part stands. But there is a part of how others act and react which counts now…and which may be bothering us now. Such concerns will come where we’ve (in essence) “bet” on someone who now proves – at least to our thinking – to be ‘structurally’ unsound. Or a least not of the caliber we expected.

Or were promised, guaranteed, led to believe as a condition of support, and/or where some sort of ‘fraud’ in essence has occurred.

Some of us (notably those more-rather-than-less affected by the popping of energy throughout the early/mid December Mars-Uranus passage) are virtually primed for a secondary release on the 25th  by virtue of December 25th being Mars perfecting its opposition to Uranus. How that happens is highly individual (isn’t everything Uranian?), but the net is likely to carry some sense of wistfulness about ‘the way things used to be.’

You know…at least in our heads it was like that. Strong Uranus-Mars connections can manifest as any sort of ‘separating’ from who you are in the moment – which on the genteel edge is nostalgia (thinking about who you were ‘then’) and which on the more esoteric and long-term level suggests the triggering of gains in perspective where you are suddenly able to see yourself as someone else does…or perhaps where you find yourself ‘standing’ in another’s shoes, experiencing their perspective on life.

At the time of Venus’ station, very few aspects are in force. On its own this hints at a subterranean wishing (which may be pretty constant at the moment) that we had the way or the means to just do what we want to do.

 

December 21, 2013 – 9:54 p.m. (UT/+0) – Aries Wheel (location not specific)

The Sun is at 0 Capricorn in this chart, with Mercury at 26 Sagittarius some four degrees away. The thirty degree semi-sextile – an indication of irritation or ego annoyance – theoretically falls right between Sun and Mercury at 28 Sagittarius. Metaphysically this is an image of ‘the Venus energy’ “standing” between what you have been able to accomplish or get to thus far (Mercury) and what your aim or aims really are.

In other words, this is a picture of annoyance – be it mild or frothy. Frustration maybe. Venus doing a turnaround in the Sun’s ‘sign of aim’ (if you will) suggests that there’s some need to wait because something isn’t yet in place…at least not as solidly as you (Mercury) think it needs to be in order for you to get to what you REALLY want to do.

And to make this all a little more annoying (to us as individuals, I mean), this Venus-Mercury also suggests that we’ll be going back and forth a bit on the like-not like, second guessing, wanting to be extra-special sure…all that.

It’s one of those driving other people crazy because you know you’re driving yourself crazy sorts of moments. We’ve all been there…it’s just that this one is sort of universally universalized by the station – which (oddly) is likely to be the hard part to remember. How could all those people be having ‘their moment’ while we’re having one of ours?

Answer: maybe because we’re supposed to learn something from the fact that we even have such moments? That sort of mortal, in-built vulnerability to one’s humanity isn’t something most of us tend to think of all the time. We so often get caught up in the temporal doings and how things (or people) look on the surface.

Then life comes along to remind us that we are all just human creatures experiencing the process of being human.

Yes…that is part of what Venus stations are for.

And about.

Just to make this a bit more poignant and poetic (you did know all of this was highly poetic and insanely poignant, right?), while on station Venus is also in trine to dearly beloved dwarf planet Sedna.

(Yes, I doth wax sarcastic.)

December 21, 2013 – 9:54 p.m. (UT/+0) – Aries Wheel (location not specific)

 

Here’s the bad news…Sedna is all about the need to mature. And thus ironically (or maybe logically) wherever we find it in the chart, that’s where we find someone’s immaturity. Right now (and for quite a few years to come) Sedna is in late Taurus, which is one of those really nifty notices about the materialism in society – which could make this whole station (on an entirely universal level) very much a statement about income gaps and the plight of those in truly terrible need, the suffering of children and all such.

It also could speak to generosity wasted and where greed or selfishness has overcome human and humane standards.

Considering that Sedna hangs out in a given degree (or set of two degrees) for years at a time, that means this Venus-Sedna trine is a process – one described by Venus trining Sedna by direct motion as Venus came towards its station (on December 3rd), again in retrograde as Venus ‘backs up’ and trines Sedna from 23 Capricorn (January 7-8, 2014)…and again after Venus goes direct on January 31st. That pass – which happens on February 23rd or 24th, 2014 (depending on what time zone you’re in) will finish moving us through dealing with certain facets of what we do and why we do them, causing us (in essence) to ask whether the ‘prize’ is worth the cost or price to our lives or dignity or self regard. That ‘prize’ is an image in our mind – some righteously wonderful “billboard” of some facet of life we think should ‘be’ or ‘work’ XYZ way – and we have that way all mapped out and perfectly if soulfully airbrushed in hues of personal satisfaction we are loath to give up.

And yet…and yet and yet and yet…somewhere between here and February, each and every one of us is likely to have a bit of a quease as we realize that maybe…just maybe ‘the image’ isn’t the real deal. Maybe there is greatness and great satisfaction to be found in owning our power and doing what we can do – replete with putting ourselves out there and getting bumped and bruised on occasion – so that the final ‘image’ of who we are is one which isn’t given to or us or provided for us, but rather something which is organically about who we are.

December 21, 2013 – 9:54 p.m. (UT/+0) – Aries Wheel (location not specific)

 

One final comment here: Mars will be going on station March 1st, with Saturn adding an either sobering, stabilizing or structural note by going retrograde a day later on March 2nd. That Mars station will be square Venus’ current station from Libra even as Saturn opposes Sedna from Scorpio gives us a kind of 'framework' within which we will be challenged to invest rather seriously in working through what kinds of standards we hold, what we stand for, and what that asks of us.

Astrologers often think of Venus and Saturn as having a harmonic likeness as both energetics are about what one gets for what one is or puts out there. The Venusian 'action' tends to be personal, creative and evocative where Saturn's tenor tends to be more intellectual, logical and productive. If this was Saturn's station we were talking about we would think of how 'Saturn things' (our achievements, our physical stature, our societal standing) affects us personally (in our Venus quarter). Instead, this is Venus' station - so this is a time when the issue of how Venus and our Venusian nature...the love of ease, beauty, creature comforts, appreciation...affect our ability to achieve or create (Venus) any structure (Saturn) which sustains our long term hopes.

This may feel like a sobering time. Venus retrograde is one of those times when we have to support ourselves, when we need to not expect others to give us the answers we want or to feel good about it even if those golden 'right words' come falling out of their mouth. Venus retrograde tends to feel cool...which for some becomes a feeling of disappointment - even depression. Certainly that Venus is going retrograde in a sign ruled by Saturn tells us that what we really want we need to work for - and that means with all that we are, not just the parts we tend to like.
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