Venus

As many of you know, I love the richness of the language that astrology gives us to more deeply describe and embrace our experience. I do not believe that the planets act upon us. We are not victims to their movements. We are not separate. This is not a cause-and-effect relationship. Rather, we are all expressions of the same bigger waves of quantum flow. We are evolving and changing together. As above, so below. The archetypal symbols and imagery of the planets gives us a way to comprehend and describe our experience. It helps us to trust what is happening, especially in moments that are dark or scary, because archetypal language offers a detached, universal perspective from which we can observe the greater dynamics at play within us. This allows us to lean into our experience, so that we may use it to evolve and transform, rather than to cry the victim and try to fight or escape reality.

All month, I have been reflecting and feeling into Venus. Venus went retrograde on October 3rd. She will be retrograde until November 13th. Before I elaborate, I want to make a comment about retrogrades in general. Typically, when people hear retrograde (especially Mercury, who also went retrograde just yesterday and will synchronistically station direct on the same day as Venus), they think it is just trouble and chaos and mishaps. While it is true that retrogrades may involve a level of less-than-smooth sailing, that is not their defining characteristic. Retrograde periods are vital and necessary gifts. We cannot always be speeding ‘forwards’. What do I mean by this? Think about it in terms of writing a book. You do not just pour out content and keep pouring out new content and never look back. Rather, you put down a draft, or multiple drafts. Then, you go back to edit your content. You reflect, review, revise. You look at it on different days, with different eyes, and you re-work it. This is what we do in any planetary retrograde periods. This is where we revisit themes and situations, to see if maybe there is something in there we want to re-work.

The specifics of what we are being called to reflect, review, and revise are going to be different from person to person, based on what house the retrograde planet is aspecting in their natal chart. However, despite the individual variability, there are certain themes that are inherent to each planet in a retrograde period, themes that will be relevant to us all in a collective sense.

Which brings us back to Venus. Venus governs love, beauty, relationships, diplomacy, the ability to appreciate and enjoy the elements in the physical world, including nature, food, and our own bodies. Venus governs the theme of value. What do we value, what is valuable to us? Venus governs abundance. Money is under the jurisdiction of Venus. As is self-worth.

Venus is not at all superficial. Having a true understanding of Venus means seeing that abundance is not just about having nice things. At its core, abundance is about the relationship we have with ourselves.

In a Venus retrograde, we are being asked to reevaluate all of the Venusian themes. Our invitations for this reevaluation may first appear as ‘challenging’ situations. For instance, during a Venus retrograde, things often feel a little less beautiful, the world may feel a little less loving. You may be experiencing financial stress, people may be acting in ways that are not in alignment with their values, you may be having issues arise in your relationships, you may be having issues arise in your feelings about yourself, your worth, your body.

This Venus retrograde is extra special because tomorrow, October 26th, we have a powerful full moon in Taurus. Venus is the ruler of Taurus. This increases the emphasis on our deep call to explore the areas of life that are represented by Venus.

More than anything, Venus wants us to know that we all have value. We all matter.

In order for us to tap into true self-worth, however, it is important for us to first embrace the understanding that we are not ‘special’. We are people amongst people. No one is above or below. We are parts to a whole. No one is better or worse.

In the recovery community, we have a term called “terminal uniqueness”, when a person so deeply has a need to feel different, unique, special. They are desperate to be noticed, to be seen, to be validated. This need, which I consider a craving, is based in a lack of connection to their own self-worth. This phenomenon is pervasive in our culture.

We are all being called to get down to right-sized, to smash the addiction around terminal uniqueness and look at the truth.

There's no thought you've ever had that others haven't had. There's no experience that you've had that others haven't had. Nothing you have done that others haven’t done. No wilder time. No more intense trauma. No greater ecstasy.

The moment we crack the egg, shatter the cage, and open our eyes to the jarring truth that we are not "special" or “unique”, we are free. We are liberated from the lie that we somehow need to stand out, to ‘be someone’, to be seen, loved, noticed.

Once we level ourselves in this way, once we stop trying to one-up, once we erase the obsession with external validation, we can finally drop all the masks and armor. We can finally love and be loved.

We can understand that we all fucking matter. We all have a contribution. We do not have to structure our lives around the story of greater than or lesser than anymore. We can say, “This stops here. This stops with me.”

In this retrograde, Venus is inviting us all to go deep and take an honest look at where we are trying to find our value in the externals. She is inviting us to look beyond the surface, to smash the conditioning and connect to something deeper within. She is inviting us to experience the innate value of who we are, a value not based upon any conditions.

As you go forward into this full moon, celebrate the beauty of unity. Bask in the embodied understanding that we are enough. Play with the fun of knowing that we are all made of the same fabric. We are quantum sculptures, dynamic shapes, all arising from the same totality. Our essence is what matters. That is what speaks. To our hearts. To all. To animals, to nature, to people, to the sky. We are all beautiful. We are all strong. We are all precious. We are all vulnerable. We are all moved. We are all called. To speak. To share. To connect. To feel. To embrace. And we must. We all must. There is room for everyone. Not only is there room, there is a need – a necessity – for all of our voices to sound, to resound, to be heard, over and over and over, forever in this now.

~Stacy Jane Kluck