Venus Retrograde cycles last approximately 40 days and 40 nights, taking us on both a personal and collective journey to face off with our shadow and those rejected, lost parts of ourselves. Venus started this descent on May 13th and will pass through the heart of the Sun on June 3rd.
We’ve all heard modern astrology give Gemini a bad wrap: it’s two faced, never present, talks too much etc… but what is embedded in Gemini’s mythology is an underlying theme of loss, grief and reconnection via a journey that can take us to the edges of the Cosmos; the twins, Castor and Pollux, are on a perpetual search for wholeness via their relationship with one other.
This Gemini Season has been like a fresh breeze amongst the decay. It invited in some playfulness for us to reconnect after being quarantined, and some levity amongst the seriousness of it all. As fleeting as this may feel, it’s not separate from the Venus Rx cycle currently moving through Gemini’s terrain, so keep your sails up!
Like Gemini, Venus also takes us deep into our psyche, digging up old stories of love and loss, highlighting what is unresolved and reminding us of where healing and release are required. In true Gemini style, it’s a double dose.
This week Mercury switched gears and ingressed into Cancer. Being the driving force behind Gemini, this change in temperament adds another layer to the Rx cycle. Cancer has an undeniable survival instinct; try standing between a mamma bear and her cubs and you will understand the fierce protectiveness that imbues Cancer. You will not see the weakened, overly emotional figure that patriarchy has attempted to undermine Cancer (and femininity) with.
With Mercury in Cancer at the helm, Venus Rx is tugging at our core sense of home and belonging; we can’t experience one moment of grief without it triggering all the rest. Cancer remembers. It has intimate, emotional bonds with the past that weave through the threads of now. It’s the warm embrace you give a friend or loved one you haven’t seen in too long. It’s the memories that flood back when looking at an old photo. It’s the people you bring close to you who feel like family. Cancer offers a safe nest for survival. Together we’re stronger, but going forward we must remember our past.
With the USA doing its shadow work on the world stage, offering us the macro-micro view of ourselves externally, we’re witnessing what it looks like to not feel safe, to have the grief of the past ever present in our now. People who feel supported don’t loot. People who are treated equally, with respect and dignity don’t need to burn down police stations. People who are listened to don’t get pushed to desperate measures to be heard in their deepest grief.
Indigenous communities constantly hold up the mirror for us to acknowledge our complicity in stolen land, stolen generations, displacement and the generational trauma inherent in being disconnected from home and culture. Hong Kong is illuminating the power of state over people, the ripple effect that lack of sovereignty brings and what disempowerment can drive people to do for survival. These narratives are happening everywhere, on the world stage and in our daily lives.
While these ongoing issues occur outside of these Rx cycles, they are signposts on our current trajectory and Venus Rx always comes through and exposes what lies hidden.
This week we are descending with Venus. We’re in the phase of the cycle where Inanna is stripped of an item of clothing at each of the seven levels down into the Underworld. We’re being stripped back, our shadow is being exposed, our grief is echoing all grief everrrr, bringing up aspects of the past we might have hoped had been laid to rest.
Gemini reminds us of the finality of death and the eternalness of grief, that you can bargain with the Gods for change but the scars remain. We may be able to film everything now and utilise technology for change, but that means nothing if we remain detached from facing our own place in the story, our own separateness.
The Twins of Gemini are two pieces of the one whole, seeking union and release from the pain of separation. Now is not the time to look away or deny what’s coming up. It’s a soul retrieval on a collective level. The small things we all do in our personal lives can only have a ripple effect across the collective, across time.
