Text/astrobutterfly
Translation & Finishing/Rustling
Venus will retrograde in Capricorn starting December 19, 2021, and will resume retrograde on January 29, 2022.
The retrograde time of Venus is a total of 40 days. That said, you have 40 days to revisit, re-examine, re-evaluate, and ultimately reset your relationship and relationship patterns so that you can find out what you really want.
Venus' 40 days retrograde is no coincidence. The figure 40 is sacred in almost every religion, usually associated with the fulfillment of commitments, but only after a period of trial, judgment and trial.
The purpose of Venus retrograde is to guide you back to the heart, to let go of the wrong things that no longer serve you, and thus to experience the rebirth of the heart.
When Venus Capricorn meets Pluto
Venus is something we subjectively consider valuable and important to us, something we feel "so is right." For example, if we fall in love with someone, love is a personal experience: we give meaning to that person, to make them special—to be special only in our eyes.
In Capricorn, Venus embodies capricorn qualities: ambition, ambition, determination, motivation for excellence.
Capricorn is a startup sign, and if Capricorn Venus wants something, she will act to get it. But she won't be as presumptuous as Aries's Venus, nor will she lack opinions like Libra's Venus—she'll take the time to set a strategy on how to get from a point to point B to final goal. Venus in Capricorn knows what he wants.
But there's a small problem, and that's Pluto.
Pluto has been traveling in Capricorn since 2008 and will be here for a few more years. So Venus will remain in close contact with Pluto throughout its 40-day retrograde journey.
Without Pluto, Capricorn's Venus would do what she does best: achieve goals, get what she wants, and reach the top. But that's not how Pluto works.
Pluto represents the death of the self and the attitude of surrender. It's a profound process of transformation, and Pluto represents how we accept that there is a more powerful force at work in the universe—a force beyond our control.
For Capricorn Venus, it's not easy to do that. Venus in Capricorn is like a female CEO who has worked hard all her life to get what she wants and earn the respect of others.
But effort, self-discipline, and all these things that make Capricorn a Capricorn, are not what Pluto cares about.
Pluto doesn't care how much effort we put into our goals—because Pluto came to tell us that there are always things in this world that we can't get no matter how much we desire. With Pluto, the harder you fight, the deeper you'll get into the mire.
It's not because Pluto wants to deny our desires. Pluto considers the bigger question, and it only cares about what is real. It will mercilessly strip itself of itself.
Pluto destroys everything that is unreal. Higher positions, rich partners, luxury bags... These may be the things Venus is trying to get in Capricorn. But if these are not real desires, but only some kind of worldly desire—"I want because others want it too"; "I want it because it makes me look more like a successful person"— then Pluto will reveal the nature of this desire. We crave those things because we lack true self-love or our inability to communicate with others on a real and fragile human level.
That's what Pluto does. How do we get out of the bubble and have a real communication? How do we bring another person into our own world? How can we really understand what we want?
"We can only be faithful to our feelings". We may think we know what we want, but the arrival of Pluto tells us, "You don't know." What we really want, what we truly cherish, is so primitive that it is so deeply rooted in our unique personal identity that it guides our lives in an impotent way—until one day we suddenly realize where the underlying motivation comes from.
We often surrender to desire, dependence, and instant gratification, which is the most primitive path of emotional gratification. We know something isn't right, but we can't control ourselves. Dopamine stimulates, rewards, and drives our behavior, enslaving us. We may crave connection, for higher levels of love, but we can't get there without stepping out of the old patterns of life. And Pluto is a force that makes us change deeply, a cruel force.
The first step in the transformation journey that Pluto takes us is to become aware of our default emotional patterns.
The more we try to resist the information that Pluto reveals, the harder it hits us. Pluto will always win, even if it destroys everything important in our lives—only then will we understand what is truly valuable to us.
40-day cultivation trip
What makes the energy of this Venus retrograde so intense? The conjunction of Venus and Pluto is only one aspect, and on the other hand, Venus's relationship with Chiron during retrograde travel.
When Venus is retrograde, she is within a tight 1-degree conjunction with Pluto. On the same day that Venus was retrograde, Chiron resumed its anterograde.
Pluto and Chiron are very intense energies – both planets focus on "shadows" . They don't shy away from the dark side, but instead bravely go deeper and dig into all the truths we need to know. So when Venus is retrograde, it may also be the moment when the emotional wounds are revealed; at the same time, the healing process begins to kick in.
We may suddenly realize what we desire and cherish, and we may suddenly realize that this time, we cannot repeat the same mistakes. We must first go to the world beneath the surface and look at it. Venus retrograde is defined as the journey into the underworld. (The mythological interpretation of Venus retrograde can be read here)
Let's take a look at the most important phases of Venus when it is retrograde:
December 19, 2021 – Venus retrogrades 26 degrees in Capricorn
December 25, 2021 – Venus and Pluto meet at 25° Capricorn
January 9, 2022 – Venus meets the Sun at 18° Capricorn (this is also the beginning of a new Venus cycle)
January 29, 2022 – Venus resumes its anterograde at 11° Capricorn
If you have a personal planet and an important landing point between 11°-26° Capricorn on your astrolabe, you will be particularly affected by this retrograde. If you were born in the late '80s or early '90s, you'll have at least two exoplanets in Capricorn, so this retrograde venus will affect your generation.
Even though each retrograde of Venus is different, the retrograde period of Venus follows a clear pattern. Every 8 years, Venus will return to the same area of your chart and retrograde once. The last time Venus was retrograde in Capricorn was from December 2013 to January 2014. Think back to what your life was like back then.
The power of love
But wait – the story isn't over yet.
When Venus turns anterograde on January 29, 2022, it will collide with Pluto again: on March 3, they will meet again. This time, Venus is not alone, she will hold hands with Mars. That said, on March 3, 2022, we'll see an incredible, passionate triplet – Venus, Mars, and Pluto are all at 27 degrees Capricorn!
If, on retrograde, Pluto would tell Venus where she was enslaved by desire and default emotional patterns, then when Venus met Pluto again, she would not be the Parsephone in that dungeon.
Venus now knows what she wants and is ready to start over—without any emotional conditions or expectations of how things "should" develop—she's just aware of what she wants, and that desire is strongest and most irresistible when aligned with what Pluto wants.
Honesty and vulnerability are magical. Opening up on a real level is the most powerful energy in the universe.
Opening our hearts is often frightening, but fortunately, Mars will support us. Mars will give us the power to act. When such Mars is combined with Venus and Pluto, it will produce unstoppable forces. Nothing is impossible, and there is nothing we dare not do. This is the hope of Venus's retrograde cycle—the power of true desire in the heart, and the power of love.