The planet Venus is also known as Queen of Heaven and Goddess of Love. Her realm is that of love, relating and social connection. Venus represents the feel-good of life and the beauty available to us through nature, art, music and our finest creative expressions. She represents how we enjoy life in all its abundance and how we are sustained and nourished by that. Life, and Venus’s realm, may seem limited to us right now, as we find ourselves in social isolation. Even when that ends, there is great uncertainty about how daily life will look and how our connections to each other will express. Money is a primary focus for many people too. As always, the ‘as above, so below’ of the planetary energies give us clues to this unfolding global crisis. Not in terms of circumstances but in terms of the energy behind them. So what are the links between life now and the planet Venus’s movements?
Venus is the closest planet to Earth and the most similar in size. Partnered with Earth orbit, Venus orbit around the Sun over eight years, creates the beautiful Flower of Life symbol. During this eight-year period she moves retrograde (backward from Earth perspective) five times. You might know Venus as Morning or Evening Star, visibly shining brightly just before sunrise or after sunset. In the retrograde period Venus disappears from our view as she meets with the Sun, seeding a new eight-year cycle in terms of love, enjoyment and pleasure. During this period we have the opportunity to explore how our heart intelligence operates and creates. We are called to more deeply understand what we love, how we relate and what our true values are. It is said that the heart is the most intelligent organ in the body with a magnetic field massively superior to the brain. The heart is where we integrate all the bodies from spirit to physical and it’s about to receive a powerful uplift. As Venus travels retrograde through Gemini, May 13 through to June 25, we receive the opportunity to embody new heart resonance with ourselves and in our connections.
Venus in Gemini
Venus makes her retrograde journey in air sign Gemini. This cycle is known as the Gemini cycle and is one of five ‘new petals’ on the Flower of Life pattern that Venus makes in her orbit with the Earth over eight years (the current key signs of this cycle being Aries, Gemini, Leo, Scorpio and Capricorn) The current Gemini focus provides us with clues to the emerging heart resonance and the pertinent questions to ask ourselves. Gemini is the air sign of the twins. We all have it somewhere in our birth-charts. Gemini’s gift lies in making connections. It is one of the most social signs, valuing intelligent communication, questions and learning. Gemini is a sign that represents our rational, logical processes. Venus is all about love. With Venus in Gemini how we connect through mind and heart is a growing focus. The process involves those ‘foot in mouth’ slips ups, secrets, lies and revelations that act as catalysts for growth.
Connection is an existing focus as we live currently, cocooned in our homes. Our mirrors of connection are limited right now, or contained within an online screen. We are forced to learn to communicate differently. We are called to slow down and feel what we feel during social isolation, or with those closest to us. Feelings of disconnection, loneliness, isolation, and loss may arise but more than anything we are called to discover what being in relationship with ourselves means. We receive the benefit of getting to feel what we may not be aware of when our usual distractions are there. As our self-relating shifts through these changing, sometimes challenging times, our other connections come under the spotlight too.
Looking in the Mirror
Mirrors act as reflectors. We get to see what is there, or what has changed. What we do with that seeing is where we have an opportunity to act or learn, if we are willing. For instance, the recognition of looking tired may cause us to check in, recognise that we are in fact exhausted and take a rest. Yet in an alternative reality that recognition could spin out through mental projection into a big story. ‘OMG I look so tired. I should have… I wish.. That means…. Bla bla’. Before we know it what was a simple reflection has become a major issue. This happens when we energise the mirror image with beliefs, judgments or stories. Don’t we all know how a storyline comes from judging our self image? And how it can become a deep dive into negativity?
Mirrors work similarly in relationships. What we see acts as a reflector. Sometimes we react to what we see, feel or experience in another. Seeing where we react to the reflection is to recognise there’s something to discover. What lies deeper? Not as a mental exercise, but as a feeling response to explore. In other words: how might I return to the heart?
As Venus turns retrograde in Gemini, the sign of twins, this is a strong focus. Often the stories we tell depend on the mirrors we look into. Gemini is a wonderfully entertaining story-teller yet its shadow can tend towards making something of nothing as a distraction away from the truth. The twin energy brings focus to ‘other’ and what that other is doing, rather than to accountability for being love. Projection of negative energy acts as a pressure release but it doesn’t resolve what’s happening. It tends to make situations more challenging. We avoid having to take responsibility for the build up of tension in our own system and for transformation. Venus calls us back to the heart, to love within, as a precursor to love with another. Her instruction is to take back the projection, to return it whence it came i.e. to you, its creator.
As Venus makes her retrograde journey the growing awareness opens into the subtleties of communication and our social connections. What we want, what we need, what makes us feel good, what nourishes and what doesn’t. At its best Gemini possesses some of the brightest qualities of social connectivity. I see the butterfly as a potent symbol for this airy free-flowing sign. There’s nothing quite like the sight of two butterflies spiralling around each other as they fly is there? When the butterfly lays its egg, it flies away. It’s the same with Gemini and connection. Once the connection is made it is free to fly again. Yet everything is changed through the connection being made. Butterfly energy is a potent symbol for the transformative processes of life – its life cycle encompasses egg, caterpillar, cocoon and finally butterfly. Now there’s a powerful metaphor for evolution. As Venus flows through the retrograde cycle phases of completion, transition, inception, gestation and birth, emerging renewed as Morning Star on 9 June, she gifts us this potential for evolution too. One thing is certain none of us can avoid the process of change through these next few months. Our connections will mirror that too. For the wheel of life is turning.
