by Robert Wilkinson
Around Noon PST today, November 17, Venus will enter its “shadow zone,” or the zone where it will be retrograde between mid-December and late January. What does this mean?
Like Mercury when it’s in its shadow zone, it means we’re getting the first pass of Venus over the span it will traverse 3 times in the next 3 ½ months. It also means Venus is now beginning to slow down more and more rapidly over the next few weeks before it goes retrograde on December 19 just hours before Chiron goes stationary direct. Use the next few weeks to get your Venusian ruled areas ready for reviews, reversals, and new looks back and/or valuable returns coming during the retrograde.
I’ll write more about the actual Venus retrograde period and what it promises in a couple of weeks when it’s closer to its retrograde station. Until then, remember that every 8 years, Venus closely repeats its retrograde span. The last Venus retrograde in Gemini in 2020 brought echoes of 2012, when Venus went retrograde at 24 Gemini and direct at 8 Gemini. That 2012 Venus retrograde was expanded when Jupiter occupied that span in Gemini between July 2012 and June 2013, activating the promise of that retrograde while opening doors of perception.
This retrograde begins at 27 Capricorn in mid-December and retrogrades back to 12 Capricorn, where Venus goes stationary direct at the end of January 2022. This mirrors when Venus went retrograde at 29 Capricorn in December 2013, and went back to 14 Capricorn, where it went stationary direct in January 2014. Those Venus retrograde themes were revisited by Saturn’s transit of 14-21 Capricorn from January 2019 through March 2020, and again between July and December 2021. That would have crystallized the prior Venusian lessons and themes into the structures we built last year which we’ll be using in the future.
As you know, Jupiter transited the span between 14-29 Capricorn, opening that Venus energy to expansion from late January 2020 through mid-December 2020. That gives last year’s dance between Jupiter and Saturn extra importance, since they were taking prior Venusian experiences and weaving them into the collective consciousness, especially in terms of seeing our larger spiritual work to be done and accepting a new level of spiritual individuality. That’s going to be our experience again from now through early February, with Mercury joining the late Capricorn show conjunct Pluto in late December and again in early February 2022!
After the Inferior conjunction between Venus and the Sun around 6:50 pm PST on January 8 at 19 Capricorn, Venus will begin to speed up a little before going stationary direct at 12 Capricorn on January 28. After that, Venus continues to speed up gradually until it leaves its shadow zone on March 1/2. So Venus will slow down between now and the middle of December and then after its Inferior Conjunction it will again speed up.
Venus in Capricorn is harmonious with its Taurus nature, so we should find many excellent practical returns and remembrances during the coming retrograde! We’ll get a look back on old relationships with an eye to self-discipline and self-reorganizations which can serve us moving forward in February. This will help us take a new look at how our structures are serving our sense of what is valuable, or how they are or aren’t helping us capture whatever we need to secure in our Capricorn sector of our chart.
By the time it’s over, we’ll be leading with our feelings while being in a continuing retrograde swirl thanks to Mercury still being retrograde! So Venus’ Inferior Conjunction happens not long after Mercury goes retrograde, and then Mercury’s Inferior Conjunction at 4 Aquarius happens just before Venus goes direct a few days later. Then Mercury leaves its shadow zone of February 23/24, just a week before Venus leaves its shadow zone.
Because of Venus going stationary retrograde at 27 Capricorn and Pluto at 26 Capricorn moving forward, Pluto will be sitting close to the Venus RX station pretty much all of 2022! So pay attention, since the coming Venus RX period will have a powerful Plutonic presence the entire time, and Pluto will sprout its transformational seeds the entire year. That makes this an extraordinarily important Venus retrograde period, likely with powerful purifications, transformations, and probably some losses that have to happen to clean our decks for the Pluto in Aquarius era beginning in 2023!
© Copyright 2021 Robert Wilkinson
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