Often times in the Celestial Natal Reading that I offer to my clients, I go over their Venus cycle, the phase of their natal Venus, whether invisible, visible, morning or evening star, and then when she changed her phase, to offer deeper insights into the love evolution and growth for the client. So today I thought I’d share with you about what The Rose of Venus means, and how to find the petals of your own rose using the celestial maps.
Currently Venus is a morning star, i.e. not currently seen in the night sky, and she’ll rise again as an evening star on June 4th at the 14 degree of Gemini. She’ll be last visible as a morning star on April 28th, at which time she’ll begin her invisible phase. When Venus is invisible, she is known to be symbolized as Ishara, who was an ancient Mesopotamian goddess; she was known as the goddess of sexual love, eros, and was associated with rolyalty, divinity, healing and mysticism. She was also associated with diving into the deeper underworld like the scorpion, and there, she was meant to face karmic relationships, heal and release what was needed, come into forgiveness and grace, and rise beyond her primal desires.
The key for her phase was to love without expectations. So if this was your natal Venus phase, this was your main Venus lesson, especially if conjunct you South Node or associated with Pluto, the 8th house or Scorpio. In this phase, Venus is closing off past life cycles and refining herself to rise higher than all, becoming the real royalty of unconditional love that she is.
And then she rises as an evening star, known as her Aphrodite phase. Evening Venus is the epitome of the Aphrodite essence – she is delicate, sensual, sensitive, mystical, gentle, tender, magnetic, artistic, feminine, deeply intuitive, romantic, and private. She has deep fires of desires, but she values privacy, and the comfort of her bed chambers, she protects her lover and rejoices in their sensitive private cocoon; and it may take her a while to warm up and open her heart, showing her vulnerability and express her feelings to new people, but that’s who she is – she is an evening star.
The Rose of Venus
The Venus cycles are known as the Rose of Venus – because over an 8 year period, she dances with the earth in her orbit around us, and as seen from the earth, her orbital path creates a geometric pattern that looks like the five petals of a rose. Each one of those petals is formed as Venus moves through its 18 month cycle, and each petal is said to represent a new stage on our path to greater love. After five of these cycles, Venus returns to the same spot where it started, completing the rose. Then the cycle begins again with a new rose waiting to be formed.
The current 8 year cycle of Venus began in 2020 and will last until 2028. There are two important components that make up the cycle of Venus: Venus’ transition from a morning to an evening Star, and Venus’ move in and out of retrograde. There are also two conjunctions: the inferior and superior conjunctions, which are astronomy terms. The inferior conjunction is like a new moon Venus and is the start of a new cycle; and the superior conjunction is like the full moon phase of the cycle preparing to become her evening star.
If you are Venus ruled, have a strong natal Venus, or Venus is your atmakaraka, then the cycles of Venus become even more important, and you may find that every 8 years a lot of new beginnings and main theme are explored in your life on all levels, not just romantically.
Venus: Copper, Rings and the High Heart
Venus rules copper and rings, like a wedding ring as it rules our vows and the circle we bind ourselves to. We make vows not only with lips, but with our souls too; and within the circle, the relationship or marriage or that to which we vow ourselves to, becomes the temple or monastery, and within it we evolve i.e. we don’t separate to evolve, we stay “held” to each other evolving within the relationship while also individually as well.
Within the marriage, even as we get older and change, we still stay connected to each other through this circle and ring of Venus, and we allow our partner to evolve within the union, even when it seems as though their metamorphosis could break you apart. Because we are rarely the same people we were when we first married – and change happen, and we let go of our dreams that never happened, and the people we never became, and within one marriage there are a few – after each phase, a new one begins, and we learn new ways of communicating, relating, touching, and we re-learn and re-explore one another, and we re-learn to make fire, and we re-learn the kissing, the holding, and the tending, not in the way we always did but in the way we need to right now.
The ring symbolism, and Venus’ higher spiritual essence, also relate to “those who pray together stay together”. And this isn’t about religion necessarily, but it is about believing in something greater, opening the palms of surrender and acceptance of what is, and together, looking towards that direction, whether it is having a garden, a creative project, a boat, a dream, a mutual horizon towards which we look together and dream together and value together.
Venus also rules copper as I mentioned, and she is often portrayed with a mirror – it was a mirror made in the old days from polishing copper, until it was polished enough to see our reflections in it. And so – this is why self reflection is the building block to intimacy and relationships, and self love.
The Venus symbol, ♀, is a circle with a small cross below it, representing her higher spiritual essence, i.e. transcending physical matter (as the cross symbolizes matter). Some people also connected this to her polished copper mirror, thereby showing that we can only reach spiritual growth through our willingness to self reflect; the path out is in, the path of transcendence is through the inner realm, because the heart is the initiatory pathway to higher consciousness.
Venus rules the high heart, the virtues, the love, and she speaks the language of the heart, and of intuition. Love comes in various speeds and movements, different shapes and forms. Love unfolds in generosity, tenderness, patience, forgiveness, grace, discernment, gentleness, delicate communication, kindness, compassion, laughter, creativity, and so on. Venus’ evolutionary cycle thus, through our life, is about connecting us to a deeper and more meaningful love, and to be of service to others, to love others, in more meaningful and intentional ways.
The Petals of Your Own Rose
So how can you gain deeper insight for your own life? The first thing to see is where she was in your natal sky. What phase was she in, and in which constellation was she in? What is the meaning of that, and where is she in relation to the rest of your celestials?
Then, you need to check what was the cycle that had already started and into which she was born into. For example, if you were today, the current Venus phase is that she is a morning star – and this cycle began on her inferior conjunction on August 13th 2023; and the next phase, when she rises as an evening star, will be on June 4th 2024.
Both these dates are important, but especially study what she’ll look like on June 4th, and how far she’s travelled since your natal birth, to see the story that might be unfolding in your love life – and also, see if she makes any connections to your natal planets and in which house.
And perhaps one of the most beneficial aspects of knowing your Venus cycle is that the day when she went “last visible” of the phase in which you were born on, is what’s known as her death – and this degree is the one you need to be mindful of, as when you experience a relationship with someone whose Ascendant or major planets are in this degree, it may be imprinted with a lot of tough lessons.
Suppose your natal Venus was in the part of your celestial map near the mouth of the sea goat, yet away from it, not surrounded by any stars; and that you were born on an evening Venus phase. Being close to the mouth, yet away from it, may show that you could have felt like you could almost smell it, taste it, the it which you desired, and yet you never quite had it sustained in long term relationships.
Fast forward to the time and day when your Venus travelled to her next phase, as a morning star, and now we find her at the belly of the lion, at the degree in your natal chart conjunct Pluto at your midheaven. Firstly, it shows that your growth came from profound inner transformation, and you have to climb the stairs rising higher; perhaps you had to kiss a few frogs until you found your prince.
But – being at the belly of the lion shows that after your devotion to inner work, as you emotionally matured and developed spiritually, what you desired would be birthed, manifested physically, as the belly is the conception and the birth. You tamed the passions, you aligned to higher values, you paced your steps like a lion does, and you will get what you were seeking. Your willingness to stay in open heart and still put yourself out there, willing to unveil yourself with the courage of soul through vulnerability and self esteem, will be what deepens you in intimacy and true love.
Remember that our natal charts are essentially a spiritual study of that which is consumed by time. The stars, the planets, the constellations are only great indicators of time; and while it is a celestial imprint, all moves and travels through the horizons. Surely all rises from the east; but each month a new one rises, and all moves and moves and moves, just like we too move, grow and travel along both our inner and outer wildlands. The engine: our love.
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Cover art by William Blake Richmond, between 1889 and 1890, Venus and Anchises.
