Ishtar’s Decent into the Underworld is a myth often linked to today’s inferior conjunction of Venus with the Sun. On 25 March 2017, Venus passes between the Earth and the Sun and so disappears from the sky. She moves from being a Evening Star to , in a few days, as she emerges from oblivion, she will reign as the Morning Star.
There has been some fascinating new research by Adam Gainsburg and Gary P. Caton, on the link between Venus as Morning Star vs Venus as Evening Star and the quality of Venus as She expresses in the Natal chart.
“The solar feminine is, literally, our ‘light body’. She’s the one inside each of us who leaves nothing uncovered, nothing unfelt. We experience the full range of our actual feelings as her body.” Yet the Sun is expressive, so this is about being moved to take creative action. The symbology is the intervention of Venus between our earthly existence and the Sun. Venus is the intermediary that takes our requests for love and happiness to the solar deity and translates them back to us. Astrological Venus represents our values and the way we view the world as well as our ability to love and connect with others, and the Transit of Venus can only happen when Venus is traveling retrograde. The sense here for me is that we are being called to re-evaluate our values and the things in our lives that are most important.”
In his excellent article at astro.com, Michael Meyer states “The inferior conjunction, equivalent to the New Moon phase of the lunation cycle, occurs when Venus is in the middle of its retrograde cycle and moving quite slowly across the zodiac. It is then nearest to the Earth and, from our point of view, dark. Rising before the Sun, Venus appears in the pre-dawn sky about a week after the inferior conjunction, when the Sun and Venus are about ten degrees apart. As a herald of the new day, Venus is called Phosphorus and Lucifer, the latter name meaning “light bearer.” Venus turns direct about three weeks after the inferior conjunction (15 April ). Thirty-six days after the inferior conjunction (1 April ), Venus is most brilliant in the morning sky. Thirty-six days more ( 6 May ), Venus reaches its maximum distance from the Sun. At this time, Venus is moving through the zodiac at the same speed as the Sun, and gaining.”
So how can we best use this Retrograde Venus period? This is a great time to take a hard look at our own value sets and see where they may need re-ordering or reevaluating. On a physical level this is a super time to declutter and eliminate things no longer having value to us – which might offer real value to others. Do not be surprised to have old friends and even lovers, appear from the past.
As Venus brightens in the morning sky, we will notice a tendency to use less reflection before acting, so with gratitude for life and for the things and people we love as our rudder, we can take a breath with the Universe, and THEN choose – hopefully more wisely