On Saturday, Brett Kavanaugh was sworn in as the 114th Justice of the Supreme Court.
I, and most women and woman-identifying people I know, did not take it well. We mourned, we panicked, and we grieved. I wanted to talk through it with friends, wanted to rally myself to get the eff up and get back to working toward change. But at the end of the day, I surrendered to what I really felt like doing. And that was to temporarily retreat. (I was out of town celebrating a very special birthday with a childhood best friend!)
If you, too, felt (and still feel) like you want to hide away and protect your heart, you’re not alone, love. Not only has it been emotionally and spiritually demanding to watch this patriarchal process slap us in the face, but—astrologically speaking—the Universe is also supporting our internal descent.
On the same day that Senator Susan Collins made the announcement that she would be supporting Brett Kavanaugh with her vote, Venus turned retrograde in Scorpio—the sign of power, secrets, and intimacy. And with Venus’ backspin, she encourages us to reexamine how we got here—personally and as a collective—and where we’re going next.
Venus’ Movement In The Sky: Retreat Before The Reckoning
As the planet of love and values, Venus represents the two sides of the Divine Feminine. When she’s positioned as an evening star over the Western horizon, she embodies the Goddess of Love. In this position, she is passion and allure in their most feminine forms. But as she goes retrograde, she dips completely out of view as she retreats into her own values and emotions. She is called back to her internal wildness to reclaim what has been lost within. And during the first half of this transit, Venus is back-spinning through the most emotionally intense sign of the zodiac, injecting us with a double-dose of personal intimacy and accountability.
Halfway through this retrograde cycle, Venus will conjoin the sun in Scorpio, on October 26th. This marks an auspicious turning point where a new Venus cycle officially begins again. Seven days from this conjunction, on November 3rd, Venus will rise once again, this time as her other side—the morning star.
Forget about date nights and daydreams—Venus in this position is a fierce warrior. After retreating to the Underworld to re-examine who she is, who she loves, and what she values, she’s stronger than ever before. And she’s ready to kick some ass.
Our warrior goddess will spend the rest of her retrograde period in Libra—the sign of equity and justice. Let’s just hope this time we get it right, and we can truly embody the words “justice for all.”
What’s Happening Now: Reclaiming Our Feminine Rage
All of this has been playing out in our political landscape since Venus entered her shadow period in early September. Dr. Christine Blasey Ford testified against Brett Kavanaugh, reliving trauma and abuse that has plagued her for over three decades. And the rest of us watched on, many of us reliving our own.
On the day Venus began her descent, this man who undoubtedly represents a dark side of our broken systems and structures, secured the votes for his nomination to the highest court in the land. In turn, the womxn and our allies who stood as witness to Dr. Ford’s pain have begun our descent, too. Our interests are not visible in our courts. We are not visible to our own government. Which means we’ve become ungovernable.
In this first half of Venus’ retrograde, we have to allow ourselves to go deep, loves. We have to re-examine what we know to be true about ourselves and let go of what others have insisted is true about us. We have to reassess our values and reaffirm our commitment to our humanity over the structures that tell us it isn’t okay to love, play, and be who we are. This period of introspection allows us to lick our wounds while remembering exactly where our strength comes from. And let’s be honest—it’s going to hurt. If we’re doing the work, we’ll feel it all—despair and rage.
This is The Turning Point. Now is The Time To Act.
Venus rises again as a warrior goddess just in time for the midterm elections on November 6th, and with her ascent comes our collective rage transmuted into action. We’ve done the internal work of feeling it all, and this is the time to use the rawness of our experiences to push us—and society—forward so we can finally have Justice with a capital J.
This Venus retrograde period offers us a singular opportunity to pivot. It gives us the time and space to descend within, resource our rage, and use that energy to chip away at the cracks in our systems that have started to form. We have a rare and poignant opportunity to change the course of history.
Looking forward, 2019 is a less intense astrological year in order to bring us back to neutral before going full steam ahead again. By early 2020, Jupiter, Pluto, and Saturn will form a stellium in Capricorn—the sign of traditions, structures, and government. Mars will also join the party then, too, activating this rare stellium even more. This is a powerful alignment of supportive, masculine energies in a patriarchal sign. On one hand, this could represent the beginning of the end of the systems that no longer work for us. On the other, it could represent securing these systems for the next hundred years. Either way, it’s going to be big.
No matter where you are on the political spectrum, please know that we’re at a pivotal moment in history. This may be our last major opportunity to change who we are personally and as a nation.
Finding your voice during this retrograde period is non-negotiable. Ignoring and drowning out your sacred rage is not an option. Tune into the Scorpio frequency of power and the Libra frequency of Truth. Join Glennon Doyle’s #BlackFridays to channel this hopelessness and rage into powerful political action. And vote on November 6th. Vote with your raw devotion to changing the course of history, because that’s exactly what we’ll all be doing.
What other ways are you channeling your Divine Feminine rage this Venus Retrograde? Let me know in the comments.
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