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A Venus Retrograde is rare enough in the sky to be of significant importance.
The last retrograde took place in Gemini in May 2020 at about the same time as the lunar nodes were changing axis, the north node was then in Gemini, and we can see that again for this retrograde motion the nodes are also changing axis to Scorpio/Taurus at this period…
Purging our relationships and attachments
Venus retrograde will take place on December 19, 2021, at 26° of Capricorn, while the planet will have insisted enormously in stationary phase in conjunction with the transit of Pluto, this clearly announces the color of this retrograde period of “the planet of love”: the Plutonian forces of transformation but also of corrosiveness, will be maximized!
By nature, a Venus retrograde motion is always a moment of “crisis of values”, of relational and affective questioning. The proximity of Pluto adds intensity and violence to your feelings, which could be difficult to express naturally through Capricorn! (a lot can happen “inside”).
This can go back even to what may have happened since the end of November 2021, when Venus was gradually settling into its retrograde motion, hence it is particularly important to analyze what is going on!
During this period, if you meet someone new, if you have a particular discussion with your partner, if a relational event occurs… This could have repercussions well beyond, and in the medium term.
The Venus/Pluto conjunction brings to mind a “love/hate” or “attraction/repulsion” contrast: on the one hand passionate parts are activated, but on the other hand it can also indicate relationships of power, domination, jealousy, possessiveness, resentment…
Similarly, this highlights yet another contrast between “attachment and detachment”: Venusian energies inherently represent the way we attach and relate to others, but Plutonian energies often represent forces that bring us face to face with what we must give up, renounce…
This can be interpreted in terms of “relational sorting”, either in an “active” way if we want to turn a page ourselves, to break a bond, or in a “passive” way if the other person in front of us rejects our attachment and confronts us with a “fait accompli” !
As mentioned at the beginning, it is clearly not insignificant that at the very end of 2021 also, the axis of the lunar nodes moves to Scorpio/Taurus, Pluto and Venus thus become the karmic regents of this axis, and this increases the intensity of these forces!
This clearly indicates that what is being played out over this period of a few months of Venus retrograde at the beginning of 2022, could even mark the entire transit of the lunar nodes in these signs, so perhaps over a year and a half!
It is an axis of the lunar nodes that can ask us intrinsically to “purge” our attachment mechanisms, to secure and stabilize ourselves in a different way, even if it means some losses, mourning, renunciations…
It is not excluded that in this context, this “Venusian crisis” forces us to implement a kind of scorched-earth policy, and that we are also more “radical”, that we tend to want to throw the baby out with the bathwater, to start again from a new point of departure where we can no longer suffer (or accept) the choices of before.
Regardless of the losses or frustrations during the period, they are also there to allow us to “clean up our bases”, our values, to allow us to leave somehow “lighter”, having consumed what must be consumed…
Let’s not be mistaken, it is indeed an alchemical process of Calcinatio that is activated during this period and by these Plutonian forces (South Node moving to Scorpio as well): symbolically a high intense psychic pressure in order to create the “diamond”!
The plutonian acid fire acts to corrode the dross that has become useless, and whether it is at the material level, or at the relational/emotional level, it is necessary to know how to redefine what is truly important, what really forms the immutable bases on which we want to rely from now on (by avoiding the superficial, the useless, the futile).
If something or someone is not solid, not reliable, not stable or lasting, this Venus retrograde motion will underline it and will directly ask to “treat it”! And this is in order to obtain a better personal independence/emancipation!
The Fixed and Cardinal signs, especially the 3rd decans, may experience this in a more difficult way, as they seem to be the ones most targeted by these influences and who must make the greatest adjustment and question their attachments.
I recommend you all to read my article on “How to best experience Venus in retrograde motion in transit ?” where I give some tips and understanding to better go through this kind of transit…
The development of Venus retrograde in Capricorn
December 19 corresponds to the start of Venus retrograde motion, but also to the half of the lunation, it is around the full moon phase, which maximizes a notion of “bringing to light”, of revealing something, and which can moreover “hurt” a lot, revive fears or even come “to cut”, several astrological influences of the moment go in this direction (Mars, Mercury, the Black Moon).
At the very end of 2021, the transit of Mercury joins Venus and Pluto in conjunction, which can represent a need to “verbalize and understand” things, even in a psychoanalytical sense. This influence can help to deepen our psychological understanding (of our behavior, of our relational patterns, but also of those of others, forcing us to have some “empathy”).
Mercury will also go retrograde around mid-January 2022, in the 1st decan of Aquarius, returning to Pluto: it is possible that the planet has given us a glimpse of a path to liberation, to free ourselves from certain ties, but this may take more time!
With these 2 personal fast planets retrograde in the sky, “communication” is clearly likely to be quite complicated over the period, a lot actually contributes to “confusion” at the beginning of the year.
In addition, with the Neptunian wave growing on the side of Pisces (Jupiter is rising in this sign and will join Neptune, which is another story), this can be seen in terms of a split between what is “thought” on one side and what is “felt” on the other.
For this reason, even if we live a “toxic” relationship or situation, it might be difficult to really turn the page and we might tend to “find excuses”, to have pockets of resistance to change due to certain idealizations, saying, for example, “yes such a pattern is toxic (awareness), but there are other qualities to it (relativization and will to preserve the old balance, to cling to the known)”…
Really try to avoid as much as possible this second half of January if you have to communicate, express yourself in public, or commit to something, rather give yourself this time in terms of hindsight, reflection and analysis.
The period will start to “unblock” only from the Aquarius new moon of early February 2022, and it will probably take this whole lunation to truly “take the bull by the horns” and put an end to this Venusian retrograde period…
The second ten days of February are worth watching for, as the transit of Mars joining Venus can certainly be an important triggering factor, and can be very useful to defend and assert ourselves, and to allow a rekindling of the flame (whether it is with an old or new relationship).
We can say that the beginning of 2022 really finds a better astrological dynamic only from then on, and this will definitely increase enormously until the next new moon in early March 2022 which will bring the Neptunian forces of Pisces to the forefront and will be one of the major lunations of the year…