Is it the most wonderful time of the year, or is Venus about to go retrograde?!?
Here we are again, facing off with the prospect of yet another personal planet retrograde. Venus, our planet of love, money, and what feels pleasurable, is about to retrograde at 26° Capricorn. Be prepared for 40 days and 40 nights (actually 43 but whose counting?) in which we will be forced to rethink, reconsider, and reevaluate our thoughts, beliefs, and actions around ideals both Venusian and Capricornian. Maybe that means something to you, maybe it doesn’t but come hell or high water, you have to live within this energy either way. So then, what can we DO about it?
If you’ve been around for a while, you’ll know that I don’t believe in cookie-cutter magic. Magic should be personalized for you so that it can work for you. So let’s talk personalization. First I’m going to go over how you might explore how Venusian themes might be affecting your life currently and then I will discuss how to apply this to your own magic for this time (with an example of a self-love spell).
Let’s get specific: Venus will be retrograde from 26° to 11° Capricorn from 12/19/21 to 01/29/22. On this journey, she will make a couple of important aspects: She will conjunct both Mercury (on 12/29/21) and the Sun (on 01/08/22), make a series of conjunctions to Pluto, and a series of sextiles with Neptune in Pisces. It is also worth noting that her retrograde cycle will overlap with Mercury’s during the days of 1/14/22 to 1/29/22 which is all but 5 days of Mercury’s retrograde cycle AND Venus retrogrades backward from 26° Capricorn while Mercury is retrograded backward towards 24° Capricorn (both points which will be conjunct to Pluto sitting at 25-26° Pluto).
This butterfly effect is highly indicative of the amount of transformation that will need to be undergone during these important retrograde cycles. Pluto is the OG God of Death and Transformation and he rules the center point in which both retrograde cycles begin and end retrospectively. For more on this topic, you can read my post here but suffice it to say that you should not view this Venus retrograde cycle without also taking into account its twin in Mercury and vice versa.
This is where your personal work must come into play. For this, you’ll need a natal birth chart with correct birth information (date AND time). You can get yours for free at Astro.com. Here you want to look at two things: your placement of Venus by sign, house, and aspect AND where 11-26° Capricorn falls in your chart (what houses it is in and if you have any planets at these points). The synthesis of these two things will get you a feeling of the types of themes that you will likely experience during this Venus retrograde cycle. While you at it, look at your natal Mercury as well as the points from 24° Capricorn to 10° Aquarius as that will also impact this retrograde cycle significantly.
Next, consider where you are in your life with the planet Venus in general. Are you having problems with relationships? What about money? Do you feel comfortable in your life? Is your sex life where you want it to be? How are you feeling about yourself? How are love and money flowing through your life? You will likely find that one or two of these questions sparks a lot more thought or anxiety than the rest – this is where the good stuff is. This is a sign of what you may need to focus on during the Venus retrograde ahead.
The goal of this spell isn’t to force anything but rather to encourage ease in this area during the retrograde cycle. Venus is never a planet of force (that’s Mar’s job) but rather one of attraction. When she stations retrograde, it can really feel like everything in the Venusian areas of your life has dried up – we’re looking to try to keep that energy flowing. This ritual is super simple: you will need a candle colored appropriately to your intention, dried rose petals (optional but encouraged – you could sub in another Venusian herb here), and a stone appropriate to your intention (either to wear or carry with you throughout the retrograde).
Your intentions could be endless and should be specific in some way to your own feelings about Venus and her placement within your chart. For most people, this will likely have to do with issues or love (either self-love or otherwise) or money but you know yourself and what you need to keep flowing during this retrograde cycle. Most people will likely be working with pink, green, or red stones but ultimately use your intuition here.
I’m going to use myself as an example. I’m a Taurus Sun and Ascendant so Venus doubly rules my chart. My Venus is in Gemini in my 2nd house of finances and values. She makes a tight off-element sextile with my Mars and Jupiter in Virgo, a wide square to my Saturn in Virgo, and a fairly wide opposition with Neptune in Sagittarius. Here you see a push/pull feeling of the connection to both Jupiter and Saturn – I experience this as intense periods of love energy followed by retraction and reevaluation as my square with Saturn sets in. This actualizes in my life through my empathic nature – I get very overwhelmed by the emotions of others and then bottom out, unable to find my own emotional center.
Because of this focusing on self-love and returning to my center is always very important for me. This is especially important as Venus’ energy becomes more diffuse during the retrograde. The ritual that I’ll be sharing today is a part of what I will be doing to help and protect myself during this retrograde season. I will, of course, be further personalizing the spell to myself as I suggest that you do the same.
A Simple Self Love Charm for the Venus Retrograde Cycle
You will need:
1 pink candle
An Oil to anoint the candle
Rose petals or another appropriate herb
1 piece of rose quartz (jewelry or a stone to carry with you)
An offering and altar space for Venus
Here we will be enchanting a rose quartz with self-love energy so that you can carry it with you throughout the retrograde season. Start by crafting a simple intention – one sentence is ideal – try to make it something that you can remember and recite to yourself easily. “I am loved.” would work perfectly for this purpose but ultimately this part is up to you. Then, spend some time with your pink candle and rose quartz. You can cleanse or clear them if that is your practice, or leave them out to change under the light of the waxing to full moon, you can rub them together or all over your body – intuitively do what feels right to you to connect these two object together. This is called sympathy – you want to think about the color similarity between your pink candle and your rose quartz (and their connection to the heart chakra if that is a part of your practice). You could meditate with the two of them repeating your intention as a mantra.
When this process feels complete (take as much time as you need!), write your intention onto your pink candle. Then anoint it with oil and some crushed rose petals. Put your crystal in a safe place nearby in a bed of rose petals (I like to use a dish for this so that if my candle sheds wax, it doesn’t get all over my crystal). As you light your candle, speak your intention/mantra and envision a pink light flowing out of the flame and into your hands. Use your hands to direct this light into your rose quartz – imagine this until it feels like the quartz is overflowing with the pink light and energy of your candle. Sit with your candle until it has burned down, or, if it is a very large candle, put it out with the intention of lighting it again further into the Venus retrograde cycle to continue the energy of this spell.
Now, the challenging part: wear or carry this rose quartz with your every single day of the Venus retrograde cycle. Make this in and of itself a mini ritual – when you put it on in the morning, repeat your mantra to yourself. Let the warmth of the candlelight and the feelings of self-love that you put into the candle and the quartz pervade your being. You can return to this mantra or touch your stone anytime over the course of the retrograde where you feel stuck or out of balance. You can return to your candle (or light another pink candle, perhaps one you charged at the same time as the original) to further empower the spell. You can meditate with your rose quartz as needed.
Most importantly, show up for yourself over this retrograde cycle. Take time for yourself. Drink water. Take a bath or do something else that you find relaxing. Let your rose quartz be your inner guide towards what feels right for you – every single day. This is where the true magic lies.