Our only imperative in this life is to be. It’s easy to forget that–or maybe, never to learn that, surrounded by a social order that promotes doing and action, that sees value only in what we create, give, or make happen. We receive a message of perpetual pressure to do, to measure ourselves by what we achieve, by the stack of qualifications, money and assets we accumulate, and by the accolades we manage to drag back to our cave (the best cave we can find!) and pile up, dragon-like. We ‘reward’ ourselves with treats, pampering, or even something as essential as rest, when we feel we’ve ‘earned’ them, with our crime being we should value ourselves just because we exist; we are no less worthy for what we don’t do, for the rat race we choose not to run.

Venus in Capricorn can support that societal valuation that we are what we do or what we have, but turning retrograde in this sign offers a new perspective, a potential for freeing ourselves from the link between our impact on the material world and the worthiness of our existence that we may see as natural when it’s anything but. When Venus takes up apparent backward motion we may be able to see the true worth of our efforts, see the genuine usefulness as well as the unreasonable constraints imposed by the status quo, may show us how playing by the rules and judging ourselves by the social order has made appreciation of ourselves just as we are less possible, less obvious, and may have persuaded us that we don’t have worth, unless we conform. Well that’s a crock.

Add to this state the way Venus in Capricorn will pass over Pluto just before going retrograde in the wee hours PST of the 19th, at 26 Capricorn 29. That suggests that just before turnaround we’ll get a glimpse, flashback, or awe-inspiring preview of immense change, a re-making, a re-birth, or a permanent ending that’s coming our way–and that may shake our foundations that are built in Love, relationship certainties, partnership, or financial security. It will be almost impossible to separate our current Plutonian view/ issues from the Venus retrograde–though they may have nothing to do with each other at all.

Pluto will give Venus retro a shadow she doesn’t normally carry, even at times of regression and review, and we are very likely to perceive this as inherent to Venusian matters at this time, rather than as shading provided by the brooding, ultra-serious lord of the Underworld. In Capricorn, this may look like guilt (especially guilt over not being what we consider productive), or like shame (at having our nose to the grindstone, and so missing some Venusian aspect we should’ve attended to), or it could bring a kind of morbid insistence on re-hashing a failed relationship, financial venture, or investment from the past.

Since Venus retrograde is a period of reconnoitering relationships, experimenting with aesthetics and interactions, and trying new, Venus-related activities of the House where this happens, the Houses that Venus rules, and the House where she is placed (the retrograde occurs in the same sign, and so often the same House with Placidus, absolutely the same House with Whole Sign) every 8 years, we are likely to re-visit whatever was cooking the last time Venus turned around here–and that’s where the Plutonian shadow may temporarily fall. The emphasis is always on the matters of the House where the retro occurs, with other Venus-connected factors of secondary relevance, unless receiving an aspect from the transiting body. Sometimes issues dealt with the last time she retrograded here come back in new forms; other times the very same issue springs to life once again, in the very same shape, as if no time has passed at all–and this time around, we are likely to be overly focused on the ways in which something didn’t work, was destroyed or lost, or on our own part in permanent change that the retro cycle prompts us to re-examine and mourn–and that’s even if we are fully aware the change was necessary, or we’re happy with the way things turned out.

It can feel like deja vu all over again, as they say, when Venus turns backward in the same area every 8 years; it may take a little detective work to see the consistencies and connections to the last time, or it may slap us right in the face with a sense that we’ve been unsuccessful in resolving the issue–or that, not having chosen definitively the last time around, we’re being given the same choice (or opportunity) again.

Also notable may be the way Venus turns around just short of quincunxing the Earth. That suggests that we won’t get the entire meaning of Venus’ retro phase, particularly the implications for our material situation, until later, when Venus finally makes another aspect to Earth/ Sun, slated to happen when Venus meets the Sun in Inferior Conjunction, 8-9 January 2022.

At the time of Inferior Conjunction the two, Sun and Venus, will be roughly semi-square Jupiter in Pisces–so look for big effects, sometimes world or social sphere events mirroring or echoing personal ones, and look immediately for the spiritual ‘message’ delivered by relationships or financial situations–they’ll be telling, but despite new revelations, save choices for after direction, early hours PST of 29 January. Venus will go direct with her first major contact being the Moon, just entered into Capricorn at the moment of direction and slated to meet Venus in just under one day. Emotions rush in, feelings become clear and probably undeniable, and intuition speaks loudly of the meaning of what’s happened during the retrograde.

That’s when we return to our customary tastes and relationship state-of-mind–and when we’re in the best position to assess our findings from the retro period. That’s when we have our personal renaissance, having re-visited and refreshed matters of the natal House where the retro occurs, and re-gained clear consciousness of both Venusian facets of our lives, and the worth of ourselves, being, just as we are.