Venus in Capricorn--Journey into Self-Love (What the World Needs Now)

Wikipedia

Since so many astrologers are writing about Venus in Capricorn (currently retrograde), it seems almost redundant for me to include another post on this transit.  However, as I'm seeing this Venus playing out in my own life and the lives of people around me, I feel that I need to address the theme of self-love and self-honoring.  Too many people are confused about these concepts and confuse self-love with self-centered behavior and narcissism, which it is not.  To hate oneself is narcissism, but to love oneself from the inside out is a gift to the world.  Who will love you if you don't first love yourself? Who actually can penetrate through another person's self-loathing without loathing the person too?

Perhaps we are expected saintly lovers who have magical abilities to love us unconditionally and their unconditional love will heal all our wounds and we'll turn into doves and ascend into clouds.  Does that sound farfetched? We choose to forget that everyone carries wounds to their heart and to their soul.  And wounds only attract more wounds whether those are matching wounds of another person (who seems so alluring with those matching wounds) or we attract people who will wound us deeper.  It's like someone ripping out stitches to a gaping wound and pouring vinegar into the wound.

If we love ourselves we will know this is wrong behavior and fight the person off with all that we have and not feel an ounce of guilt.  But if we don't love ourselves we will rationalize that we deserved that treatment from the other person and they will twists our words and manipulate us into thinking that it's for our own good because we are a naughty person.  I have discovered this ugly pattern in my life and I'm seeing it played out in the world in horrendous ways with the blame and shame game that leads to more guilt and self-loathing.  The problem is epidemic and yet, no one is addressing it.

Rider Waite deck, Wikipedia

Venus, co-rulers Libra and Taurus will play nice to fit in and she will also play passive-aggressive games when she feels helpless.  She might use beauty and charm to get her way, until she runs out of those resources, then she just turns into a nagging matriarch, think the old fisherman's wife with the shrill voice.  The Libra Venus wants you to love her above anything else so she will shape herself into the right mold that pleases you.  The Taurus Venus is actually more out to please herself through hedonistic sensual experiences that the finer things in life bring her.  The Empress Tarot card represents this Venus.  She is fruitful, creative and fertile earth or what we might call the Earth Mother or Earth Goddess.  She doesn't have a problem with self-love unless she suffered deprivation or punishment as a child and then she transforms into a Kali figure ready to destroy and deconstruct, like Demeter when Hades abducted her beloved daughter Persephone.  Now, we are moving over to the polarity of Scorpio.

Venus in Capricorn asks us to take a sober look at how we treat ourselves.  Do we feed ourselves healthy food, do we drink enough water and do we get exercise in the fresh air.  Or do we throw ourselves into our work so we can shut out the rest of the world and not heal our deeper wounds? Is hiding from wounds the true cause of workaholism and other forms of self-punishment? Do we feel guilty because we have so much stuff and other people in the world have nothing? What good is there in getting rid of all your stuff just because someone else doesn't have anything? Wouldn't it be better to donate time, resources and money toward a cause that lifts these people out of poverty rather than punishing yourself?  Venus has a say in this behavior too.

Venus in Capricorn also has to do with treating our body with the respect it deserves.  Since Capricorn represents discipline and integrity as well as, responsibility, we need to treat our bodies more lovingly.  Our bodies represent the first structure in our life.  Haven't we referred to our bodies as our temples? And if we desecrate our bodies, we desecrate a holy temple, a sacred and divine vehicle that did not return to the earth to punish his or herself.  We really came here to experience Divine Love in action amongst our forgetfulness.  Venus is about love after all and not just romantic love.  Combine Venus with Neptune as in a flowing aspect or a flowing transit and you really could transcend the suffering in the world and get a glimpse of the bigger picture.

Wikipedia

The Venus-Saturn combination is more tricky because when these two line up as energies, there is a tendency to play sadomasochistic games with others.  When ego takes the lead, a beauty contest takes over and women will starve themselves to win or they will play petty games with other women that they envy.  Greed and limited-fearful thinking could dominate leading to all types of relationship problems.  Think of the Saturnian business man hooking up with a super model for instance--comical maybe, but painful too if the two people come from their egos.  The man will never feel wealthy enough and the woman will never grow up as long as she can rely on her outer beauty to get what she wants.

When Spirit leads the way, Venus and Saturn can create a fair playing field where women's contributions in the work place are recognized and rewarded.  Men and women get along because of mutual respect and creativity flows from both men and women creating a harmonious environment of shared gifts and self-honoring.  Well, Venus is staying a long time in Capricorn with the retrograde and this gives us time (until March) to reach for this idealistic dream.  And isn't that what Venus does, hand us idealistic dreams?

The most healing thing we can do for the world is to love ourselves.  When we love ourselves we take care of our needs.  We say no when "no" is appropriate and we stand up for our truths in the face of opposition without allowing our opponents to twists our words or cause us to feel shame or guilt.  In fact, we know when we have reached a place of self-love when no one can make us feel anything we don't choose to feel.  When we reach the point when we say no and not feel remorse or guilt, then Venus has taught us the most important lesson of all.  We finally ascend to knowing our true Divine Essence and we love the world without expecting any reciprocation because the act of love is enough.

Would you like to know where Venus transits in your chart and the lesson coming up for you now? Contact me for a transit consultation at http://www.wholemusicexp.weebly.com