December 19, Venus went retrograde in Capricorn for 40 days! Over 400 of you have already joined the Venus Retrograde Challenge, which is SELF-LOVE! (by sending a ‘like’ or a message to Guru Rattana Instagram or Facebook.) You can always join. Your first day starts when you begin the meditation in the latest Guru Rattana Blog on Sagittarius (where you can also read more about Venus retrograde.)
In this blog I share more about the 40-Day Self-Love Reset, the intense Venus/Pluto conjunction, and an important addition to our Self-Love meditation.
December 19 – Venus goes retrograde in Capricorn for 40 Days
Venus is retrograde for exactly 40 days! (Venus goes direct January 29, 2022.
The number 40 is a sacred number in most religions and spiritual paths. In Kundalini Yoga we practice a kriya or meditation for 40 days to break a habit and clear the space to install a new one. The promise is that we can attain a certain goal IF we do the energetic work required to make a shift possible. Setting intentions are not enough. Our transformation happens only as we align within ourselves mentally, emotionally, and energetically.
Magic is encoded in the 40 day Venus retrograde period IF we accept and diligently pursue the Venus retrograde challenge – Self-Love!
The ultimate goal of the Venus archetype is to see, feel, hear, and live Love. During its retrograde period, Venus guides us back to our heart. A great way to release stuck energy is to put on our favorite music and dance to abandon. We also have to release old beliefs and false ideas that keep us chained to fear and shame.
We experience a rebirth of the heart by LOVING fear and every aspect of ourselves.
We have 40 days to meet the Venus retrograde challenge – to upgrade our vibration from fear to Love!
Venus Retrograde Themes
Named for the goddess of beauty and love, Venus symbolizes (1) our core values, (2) how we choose our relationships, (3) what we are attracted to, and (4) how we find beauty.
Venus retrogrades every 18 months. During this time we are moved to (1) resolve grievances, (2) compete unfinished projects, (3) clean up and clean out our physical environment, (4) reconsider our priorities, and (5) realign with what is most important to us.
Venus retrograde is a time to review our life path, to revisit why we made decisions that changed the course of our lives, and to re-evaluate our emotional and relationship patterns. With deep honesty, we are given the opportunity to reset our life direction.
In Capricorn, Venus invites us to upgrade our level of satisfaction in our relationships, work, and life. As a result of its retrograde passage, Venus will be in Capricorn for four months (November 5 to March 5), instead of its usual four weeks, giving us extra time and support in (1) clarifying boundaries, (2) redefining our goals, (3) reassessing our commitments, and (4) renegotiating agreements. To do so we can ask ourselves some revealing questions:
What have I undervalued or overvalued?
What is worth my time, energy, and resources?
Where do I look outside myself for attention, permission and approval?
Where do I still do things out of guilt, shame, or obligation?
Am I choosing and acting from love (inner acceptance and security) or fear ( self-doubt and insecurity)?
Defining and establishing appropriate and respectful boundaries is a key Venus issue. Two questions to help you figure out non-codependent boundaries:
Who do I need to take care of? Who do I need or expect to take care of me?
As you tune into your answers to the above questions, you may discover that a core factor in most of our Venus challenges are rooted in self-worth/esteem/love issues.
Our Heart Is Our Inner Guru
We have to listen to our inner guru – our heart (not our head) – to know and align with what we really want for ourselves and our life.
Our personal Venus tells us (1) what we value, (2) what is most important to us, (3) what we are attracted to, and (4) what we attract. We know the above by our inner barometer – because it feels right and brings us deep satisfaction and contentment. Our inner Venus generates a very personal experience defined by what our heart computes as meaningful and special to us.
Venus Retrograde in Capricorn – Self Mastery
The Capricorn archetype is associated with recognition, contribution, status, and success in the world. As the tenth sign of the zodiac, Capricorn also represents self-mastery. Outer success and inner mastery work together. Our inner reality determines our success in the outer world. Our efforts to engage and interact with the outer world serve as grit to alchemize our inner world.
Venus retrograde in Capricorn invites us to apply Capricorn qualities of ambition, determination, and a drive for excellence to our inner journey from the head to the heart. As a cardinal sign, Capricorn will go for what she/he wants with the other Capricorn qualities of patience and persistence.
The Mountain Goat is not in a rush like Venus in Aries. We will take our time, commit to a goal, and design a strategy to achieve it. We have our Self-Love meditation and are devoting time everyday to our practice. Our commitment to our goal of self-love is what is going to make it possible to align with Venus’s partner Pluto.
Pluto – Partner in Love
Pluto is our partner in this game of Love. Venus can easily indulge in fantasies about being taken care of by the perfect partner. Pluto is the illusion buster. Try sleeping with, or even sharing the same room with, Pluto for 40 days. It will not be possible to ignore Pluto, who hovers in both our awake and dream space.
(Pluto has been in Capricorn since 2008 and will be there through March 23, 2023.)
The first part of the Venus retrograde/Pluto process gets us in touch with “the problem” (from December 3 until January 9th, when Venus meets up with the Sun). The Pluto probe spotlights where we need to transform our relationship with power, money, status, values, motivations, and self.
Venus and Pluto meet (conjunctions) 3 times – December 11th, December 25, 2021, and March 3, 2022. This is an extended love affair between 2 planets that operate in very different ways. Venus in Capricorn knows what she wants to achieve and does what it takes in physical reality to get it.
Pluto has an internal agenda and a very different mode of operation. Pluto is not about achieving external goals. Pluto propels us into a profound process of transformation. The Pluto process is about wiping out inner falsehoods, conditioned programming, and erroneous beliefs. Pluto’s goal is death of our superficial ego identity that prevents us from being authentic and true to our soul. For our human ego personality, the Pluto process is humbling. We will be brought to our knees until we accept that there are higher forces at play that we can’t control (and work in our favor if we let them).
Keep in mind that Pluto always wins. The more we resist, the more we suffer. Don’t do that to yourself! When we allow Pluto to penetrate under the facade and expose what really matters, we win too.
Pluto’s Liberating Agenda
Needless to say, our Venus in Capricorn isn’t too thrilled with Pluto’s agenda. A macho ego or tough feminist, who have worked hard to get what they want, to achieve status, financial freedom, and success in the world, can feel seriously threatened by what they perceive as wiping away what society has taught us is most important. But don’t worry, Pluto’s intention is not to destroy us. Pluto is determined to liberate us from cultural imprints and social games that themselves destroy us if we don’t wake up and become our own inner master.
Pluto wants us to be successful in climbing the mountain of ‘My Life.’ Pluto knows that we will not reach the peak by trying hard to follow externally dictated rules. Pluto is actually a perfect partner for the Seagoat, whose hind legs are a fish tail representing our emotions. It is interesting that the Capricorn symbol incorporates the symbology of its polarity Cancer – our inner emotional reality. The Cancer/Capricorn pair educates us to how our inner reality is the base from which we create our outer reality. Life is not only about what you do, but how you feel when you do it.
To successfully climb our personal mountain this lifetime, our emotional tail must be connected to the earth and be able to freely swim in the life-giving emotional waters of the earthly Mother. Without this foundation, we slip down the mountain instead of advancing. The harder we try to apply physical and mental force and the more we lose touch with our emotions, body, and heart, the farther we fall back to ground zero.
Laid Bare by Pluto
In Pluto territory everything that is not authentic will be destroyed. Pluto lays bare our ingenuous hidden motivations, which may not be as pristine as we would like to believe.
Why do we want what we want?
Is our heart leading the way? Or are we following a socially defined script?
Who are we trying to please?
Is one of the many forms of fear controlling us?
Pluto knows why we want something. Pluto knows when we are driven by cultural programming and a wounded inner child. Pluto cuts through superficiality. Pluto exposes the core problems (1) insecurity, (2) limited ego identity, (3) fear of being wrong, shamed, and vulnerable, (4) need for external attention, recognition, and acknowledgment. In sum, lack of self-trust, self-authority, self-confidence, and self-love,
Pluto shows us the fault lines that expose the difference between what we ‘think’ we want and what our soul wants. Pluto also makes it clear that we can’t think ourselves through our subconscious maze.
Our unawakened conditioned ego self will direct our life in a way that leaves us feeling empty and powerless! As we become aware of this underlying dynamic, we can take back our power by taking responsibility for what and why we keep creating certain situations in our lives.
What our soul wants is to experience the infinite number of ways that love and beauty manifest in physical reality. We can awaken to this primal non-verbal experience by connecting within to our soul identity. In other words, it is how we see, relate to, and identify our Self that determines what we want and value.
Born Addicts
Pluto exposes where and why we are ‘powerless over XXX (whatever our addiction is).’
We may not realize it yet, but we are created to be addicted to Love! Our physical mechanisms are designed to tune us into the higher Love vibrations. Our emotional body is wired to enjoy pleasure over pain. The higher the frequency, the more pleasure we experience. At the highest Love frequency, we experience joy.
At lower frequencies, we are slaves to our programmed emotional responses and physical desires. We become addicted to a whole gamete of desires, wants, and needs. Our addictions demand instant gratification. We know something is not right, but we can’t help ourselves. Our default programming runs and can ruin our lives. We are always in search of the next dopamine hit. The promise of a temporary fix drives us to binge on food, shopping, work, drugs, alcohol, and sex. These primal urges enslave us.
The first step in the Pluto ‘psychotherapy’ process is to recognize that we crave something. At a very visceral level we are not satisfied. We must recognize and FEEL the insatiable feeling in our body. We can’t get to the root cause if we associate the desire or the need with something or someone external to ourselves. We have to recognize (FEEL) how we have been driven to try to find sanctification from outside ourselves or in our mind, but not in our body. With feeling sensitivity we become aware of our default emotional program.
Help from Chiron
The same day Venus went retrograde (December 19), Chiron went direct at 8° Aries, ending a 5 month retrograde period that began on July 15 at 12º Aries.
Chiron’s passage through Aries (April 17, 2018 to June 19, 2026) calls us to heal the wounded warrior within, which includes (1) facing our fear of living our truth, (2) releasing ourselves from victimhood, (3) taking responsibly for our own lives, (4) establishing appropriate boundaries, and (5) being honest, respectful, and realistic with ourselves.
Chiron retrograde has been helping us recognize our core wounds. Similar to Pluto, Chiron forces us to go deep and bring to the surface what needs to be transformed or alchemized from fear to love, from self-criticism to claiming our innate powers.
Chiron’s mission is to wake us up to the dynamic of how our core issues are the seeds for our personal gifts. As we heal ourselves, we activate our gifts.
Venus retrograde also reveals hidden wounds. Chiron direct in Aries takes advantage of what we have learned about ourselves and takes us to the next level of personal empowerment from a deeper appreciation and knowledge of our expanded soul identity.
We become aware of a more subtle level of being. What we value comes from a deeper level of self-knowing, which magically turns our attention to finding satisfaction from within ourselves.
The shift of focus (1) from other to me, (2) from external to internal is the transformative gift of the Venus/Chiron/Pluto process.
A Journey Within
Venus retrograde is literally a journey into the darkness of our inner world. As the planet Venus slows down, it rises lower and lower in the sky each day, coming closer and closer to the horizon. At some point she disappears and vanishes into the glaring rays of the Sun.
There are many myths about Venus’ disappearance from the evening sky. Venus invites us to go with her, to go deep within ourselves to connect with how our human emotions either disconnect us or connect us with our soul and the Divine.
In the middle of the Venus retrograde cycle, Venus meets Ereshkigal, her sister – a metaphor for her shadow, for the dark, unintegrated part of her psyche. When that happens, when we embrace our shadow, we experience a rebirth of the heart.
When Venus meets the Sun (January 9), she begins to rise again. As a morning star our inner Venus emerges with more self awareness, more self- love, and more connected to and committed to what really matters to us.
Venus in Capricorn and Retrograde Dates
* November 5 to March 5 – Venus is in Capricorn
* December 11 – First Venus/Pluto conjunction
* December 19, 2021 – Venus goes retrograde at 26° Capricorn
* December 25, 2021 – Venus retrograde is conjunct Pluto for the second time at 25° Capricorn
* January 9, 2022 – Venus conjunct Sun at 18° Capricorn (a new Venus cycle begins)
* January 29, 2022 – Venus goes direct at 11° Capricorn
* March 1, 2022 – Venus returns back to 26° Capricorn
* March 3, 2022 – Venus, Mars and Pluto all align at the 27th degree of Capricorn!
Check your birth chart for planets and angles between 11°-26° Capricorn (or 8° – 29°) to identify where you you will be especially influenced by this retrogradation. If you’re a Millennial born in the late 80s’ or early 90s’, you have at least 2 outer planets in Capricorn. This Venus retrograde will influence your whole generation.
January 29, 2022 – Venus Goes Direct – 40 Days are complete!
Now for the best part of the story. We have completed our 40 day inner journey! While retrograde in Pluto’s underworld, Venus experienced where she was enslaved by her superficial desires and controlled by default and destructive emotional patterns.
The 40 day Venus retrograde and the intense relationship with Pluto has prepared us for the next stage of our great adventure of Self-love. The best chapter comes after Venus goes direct on January 29, 2022.
For the next 33 days we continue to awaken to the reality that the Universe’s frequency is Love. Everything that aligns with the frequency of Love can flourish and grow to make the impossible possible. The power of Love is the gift of the Venus/Pluto journey together. We continue to nurture the seed so that it can grow in our own hearts.
March 3, 2022 – Venus, Pluto, and Mars all align at the 27th degree of Capricorn!
When Venus meets Pluto for the third and last time, she has transformed her inner reality and opened her heart to herself. AND this time Venus has a new partner –Mars! In terms of archetypes, this is a passionate triple conjunction.
This time we have our inner Mars to support us. Aligned with our inner Mars, our inner Venus feels strong and powerful, ready to claim our inner victory and take our secure self into the world. Our inner Mars gives us a stable inner foundation from which to create in the physical world. When our inner Venus (our heart), our inner Mars (our courage, motivation and ability to take action for ourselves, and our inner Pluto (our soul connected to the divine) align, we are self-empowered by the alchemy of our inner masculine and feminine.
Venus now knows what is most important to her and is ready to realign her life, with her heart leading the way. She has identified how she has been emotionally conditioned to have ‘expectations’ of specific outcomes on how her life ‘should’ be. With her new awareness, she disposes of her ‘should’ fantasies and creates a beautiful ‘IS’ box, with plenty of room to expand to allow in what feels good in the vibration of Light and Love. Pluto is profoundly pleased. Mars is mesmerized. Venus is in love with herself and her life!
Self-Love Meditation –Love the Feeling
One of our biggest human challenges is to focus on what we are feeling in our body. Thoughts and thinking incessantly dominate and command our attention.
Another big challenge is to accept, embody, and LOVE what we are feeling.
An effective cure for fear, anger, and sadness is to love the feeling in our body. We can’t talk ourselves out of negative feelings. But we can love these energies into higher vibrations. The vibrations of mantras help elevate the energy and the feelings. Then it is easier to feel and love them.
At least 2 times a day, place your hands on your heart for 5-11 minutes and feel love for your body, mind, emotions, life, and soul. I like to do this after meditation and as I go to sleep. The warmth that you feel in your spine behind your palms will bring a comforting glow to your whole being. Enjoy the deep pleasure of the light of your soul. Do this silently for at least 5 minutes or as long as it takes to generate the warm feeling and to enjoy it.
You can also chant any mantra with this meditation. Choose your favorite one. The mantra sounds can release thoughts, clear the mind, awaken the neutral mind space, and bring you into feeling awareness in our body. If you include a mantra be sure to feel the vibration in your body while chanting. And sit in silence afterwards to anchor the feeling in your physical and emotional bodies.
The more you are able to cultivate a satisfying feeling of Love in your body and hold this sensation during the day, the more you will experience that
Where there is Love, there are always miracles.
