Venus Retrograde as Descent of Inanna
The ancient story of the descent of Inanna into the underworld, realm of her dark sister, Ereshkigal, where she is stripped of her implements of power, killed and then resurrected, is a passion play telling us the story of the Venus retrograde cycle, where Venus as the evening star vanishes from the sky into the western horizon, 'descends into the underworld', to return to visibility in the eastern pre-sunrise sky, becoming the 'morning star'.
There are two versions of the story of Inanna's descent - one is the older, original Sumerian version, which is considerably longer than the later Akkadian version (where the name of the goddess is the later Ishtar).
In the Sumerian version, as Inanna plans to go into the Underworld, she tells her second-in-command, Ninshubur, that if she doesn't return in three days, she must go to the other gods for them to come save her. In most instances, only messengers could go into and leave the underworld. Inanna prepares herself to go into the underworld by donning a wig, turban, beads upon her breast, a lapis necklace, the 'pala dress' (the ladyship garment), mascara, a breastplate, a golden ring, and she carries her lapis lazuli measuring rod. These are all items representing her various powers.
When she reaches the underworld and asks to enter, her message is taken to her older sister, Ereshkigal, who is queen of the underworld. Ereshkigal tells her attendant to let Inanna enter, but to take one of her items of power at each of the seven gates of the underworld. By the time Inanna reaches the underworld, she is naked and disempowered. Inanna is judged by the judges of the underworld and is struck dead. Her dead body is hung on a hook. There she hangs for three days and nights...
While Inanna was in the underworld, her husband and consort, Dumuzid, has not mourned her, and has in fact made himself sole ruler and is dressed lavishly and being entertained by dancing girls. So Inanna, seeing this, gives Dumuzid to the demons of the underworld, who drag him down with them. A deal is struck whereby Dumuzid spend six-months in the underworld and six-months in the upper world.
There are so many echoes of later mythological dying and underworld gods and goddesses to be found in The Descent of Inanna. The whole 'dead for three days in the underworld' story reminds one of the story of Jesus, as well as many other dying/savior god stories. The deal that is truck that Dumuzid spends half the year in the underworld and half in the upper world is the same as in the later Persephone story.
Ereshkigal is Inanna's dark side, the hidden, rejected shadow. The descent is to face the inner darkness and rise into a full realization of one's own power and light. The 'putting on of the garments of power' before the descent is the period of Venus as evening star as it slows for retrograde motion. The entry into the underworld is the period when Venus is so close to the sun that it can't be seen. The ascent from the underworld after the resurrection is the period when Venus ends its retrograde cycle and becomes the shining morning star. The descent is the period when we go down into the darkness to confront our shadow and find our denied inner resources, power and light.
The current 2020 Venus transit takes place in Tropical Gemini and True Constellation Sidereal Taurus. This layering of signs suggests we will review issues of self-esteem, resources and information. We can expect new understanding about communication, as well as new awareness of issues relating to the earth and the environment. We will also review our ideas about food, luxury and comfort, as well as ideas about how we interact, our social interaction and what we expect, and want, from interactions in relationships. We will also have to face our individual dark sides and shadow projections in relation to communication and the way we think of and treat each other and the earth.
Much like Inanna, during the Venus retrograde, we have the opportunity to descend into our own inner darkness and find the power and light there. I can't tell you what that will be. You have to find it yourself, but whatever it is, it will change you. Once Venus goes direct again, we can then ascend back to the upper world, as Venus becomes the morning star and takes on her role as champion and Queen of Heaven. Take time during the retrograde period to seek your darkness and let it whisper to you its secrets so that you may carry them back into the light as the morning star.
Addendum
The above was written in April 2020, in preparation for publication in early June. Now in early June, Venus in her retrograde cycle comes back to conjoin the Sun. The period of Venus approaching the Sun is made up of 'under the sunbeams' (within 17 degrees from the Sun), 'combust' (within 8 degrees of the Sun) and Cazimi (within a degree or less of the Sun). As she transits the 17 degrees on each side of the Sun, that is her descent into and ascent from the underworld. The Cazimi marks her period of death, a period of about three days, after which she is resurrected to become the Morning Star. We are right at the Cazimi now and about halfway through the Venus retrograde cycle. As the conjunction of Venus/Sun occurs, Venus will continue to travel backwards as the Sun moves forward and so Venus begins her period as Morning Star.
While modern people, influenced by millennia of patriarchal indoctrination, only tend to associate Venus with the bombshell sexpot, in most other cultures the energies of the planet was seen to represent both love and war. Venus as the Evening Star is the soft, Yin energy of receptive love. Venus as the Morning Star is the active, Yang energy of war and justice. In the later format, Venus becomes a protector of the helpless and powerless, and an avenger seeking justice and balance. The balance and transition point of Venus from Evening Star to Morning Star, and back again, is marked by the Cazimi periods with the Sun, and these sometimes manifest as a travail in the underworld, depending on the other planets and aspects at the time, where we encounter the inevitability of death, put away our soft pleasure seeking, see the harsh reality and come forth, sword drawn, to rise as a light of justice.
Venus retrograde made her second square to transiting Neptune beginning around May 19-20, and then by May 23 she was within 17 degrees of the Sun, entering the "under the sunbeams" period, and marking her descent into the Underworld to face death. George Floyd was murdered on May 25th, setting off the wave of anger and protest currently sweeping the US, as we are forced to look at, and deal with, injustice, systemic racism, the plight of the powerless and death. This event, and its aftermath, is in part a sad manifestation of the energies of the descent of the goddess into the Underworld, while Venus was within range of the square to Mars and Neptune, in combination with the heavy planetary presence in Saturn's signs, Capricorn and Aquarius. Jupiter, traditional ruler of Pisces, is in Capricorn, and so Saturn disposits the planets in Pisces. This is no simple manifestation of one transit or another, but is the manifestation of a unique point in time that is exposing injustice, grief and, hopefully, creates real change.
As the cycle finishes, and Venus becomes the Morning Star, I would expect protests to continue and for a major push for social justice and reform to continue to sweep the country. Venus, by then direct, and in her Morning Star phase, will make one final square to Neptune (gone retrograde by then) around July 27th. Retrograde Venus will square transiting Mars within one degree, from the degree of Cazimi (13 Tropical Gemini) on June 3rd. Mars will enter Tropical Aries at the end of June and will then make a transiting sextile with Venus, direct by then and fully the Morning Star, throughout most of July. The energies of Mars in Tropical Aries do not, to me, indicate a calming of tensions (more on Mars transits through 2020 in an upcoming post). Venus in her Morning Star phase becomes more Mars-like in nature, and the two in sextile throughout July will intensify that Yang energy.
Mars will spend the last half of 2020 in Tropical Aries, with its retrograde cycle. As Mars goes retrograde in early-mid September, Venus will be in Tropical Cancer, squaring Mars. By the end of September, Venus will be in Tropical Leo and will trine retrograde Mars. In early November Venus in the middle of Tropical Libra will oppose Mars as it stations to go direct. Throughout the last half of November and the first half of December, Venus will be in Tropical Scorpio, so that both Venus and Mars are in Mars ruled signs, Aries, the Yang sign of Mars hosting its ruler Mars, and Scorpio, the Yin sign of Mars hosting Venus. Venus will then trine Mars from late Tropical Sagittarius in early January, and as Mars finally leaves Tropical Aries to enter Tropical Taurus (where it will make a conjunction to Uranus and square to Saturn), Venus moves into Tropical Capricorn carrying the trine with Mars as they both change signs.
The next Cazimi of Sun and Venus will occur in March of 2021, taking Venus, which is direct this time, back into the underworld where she will soften in the heat of the Sun and become the Evening Star again at 3 degrees of Tropical Aries. In a wide conjunction to Chiron, this will happen with a wide sextile to Mars, by then in Tropical Gemini, and within two degrees of the Cazimi degree (13 Tropical Gemini) of the retrograde Sun/Venus Cazimi from June 3, 2020, at which time Mars was in exact square from Tropical Pisces. It is at this time that the energetic cycle of the June 2020 Cazimi and the Venus Morning Star cycle ends, and with the conjunction to Chiron deep healing will be available after the long and tempestuous period of Venus as Morning Star and Mars in Tropical Aries throughout the last half of 2020.
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