Venus in Retrograde

I write this post in January 2022, as Venus makes her descent from being the evening star to disappear and reappear once again, rising as the morning star, concluding her 8-year cycle. 

Symbolically, this descent and ascent is often linked with the myth of Inanna, who cast off all her clothes in her descent to the underworld, before re-ascending to be re-adorned in brilliant, new garb. At this time, Venus invites us to reflect on our own inevitable descents and ascents, and to ponder:

What are we now being asked to shed? and what are we being called to take up? as this new year begins.

This 8-year cycle feels particularly powerful for me, as it was 8 years ago that I had the onset of "bipolar", which turned my life upside down and stripped me utterly bare, breaking me down and open. Stanislaus Kennedy's words in her beautiful book 'The Time is Now' sum up so much of this 8 year journey for me:

When the heart breaks open we hurt, and in this pain we feel raw and tender, but we are at that point in touch with the very core of who we are. The heart can never really break, for it is already by nature soft and receptive. When our heart breaks, what really breaks is the defensive shell around the heart, which we have constructed to try to protect our soft spot, where we feel most deeply affected by life. When that is exposed, we feel a presence of reality that we never did before. When our heart breaks out of the protective shell, we shed our ideal images of how we should be and feel naked and it is in this nakedness that we taste the essential nature of our existence and we are healed.

For the last six months or so, I've been "wandering", which feels like the culmination of a much longer process, an 8-year journey of descent, a long period of often enforced stepping back, of often enforced looking backwards and inwards, a wild, brutal and beautiful re-discovery of who I really am. 

As part of this "wandering", I've also found myself skilling up, refining my own process and style as a coach, facilitator, trainer and poet. This has involved taking part in a 5-month Psychosynthesis Leadership Coaching course, as well as finding a Zen teacher (both of which have been hugely eye-opening and healing for me!).

As 2022 begins, I find myself, along with Venus, drawn upwards. I feel the pull to open up into a more forward and outward facing perspective. I notice a deep desire to utilise and implement all this learning that I've been so fortunate to receive, and to re-engage myself more actively in "tikkun olam" (the repair of the world).

And so, I'll sign off with the words of the poet Adrienne Rich:

My heart is moved by all I cannot save:

so much has been destroyed.

I have to cast my lot with those

who age after age, perversely,

with no extraordinary power,

reconstitute the world.

May 2022 be a wonder-full year for you, full of ascent, full of joy, friendship, healing, connection, creativity, wildness and love!

Photo by Andy Vu from Pexels