Venus Retrograde Conjunct the Sun: A Spotlight on Our Desires

On January 8/9, Venus Retrograde in Capricorn will be conjunct the Sun. In traditional astrology, this is called Cazimi, or being in the “heart of the Sun”. When a planet is Cazimi, it is placed in a spotlight and allowed to express what it wants before moving on to enter a new phase in its cycle.

The Venus Synodic Cycle

To understand what this means in a deeper way, it’s important to touch briefly on the Venus synodic cycle.

In literal terms, a synodic cycle is the amount of time it takes for a planet to return to the sun as seen from Earth. In Venus’s case, this begins with what is called the “superior conjunction” when she is direct. At this time, she disappears under the sun’s beams and reemerges as the evening star, which starts a new synodic cycle.

Halfway through this cycle, Venus makes what is called the “inferior conjunction” when she is retrograde. Like before, she first disappears under the sun’s beams and reemerges as the morning star. The Cazimi this weekend also marks the mid-way point in her retrograde cycle.

After this point, she continues on until the next superior conjunction, when a new cycle begins. In total, each Venus synodic cycle takes 584 days.

In figurative terms, synodic cycles represent the life and death of a planet and what is stands for.

When Venus enters the sun’s beams before the superior conjunction (the last one happened on March 26, 2021 in Aries), she’s worn out and spent. Rejoining the sun, she is “burnt up” by his rays which is a death of sorts, but also a purification.

When she reemerges as the evening star, she is Venus at her happiest: reborn, fresh, dewy eyed and young and ready to embark on a new cycle which calls us to explore new terrain around Venusian topics, like relationships, desires, beauty, sexuality, joy, women, creativity and so on.

By the time she comes to the inferior conjunction, she’s already done stuff and had her experiences. Think of her as someone who’s finished school and they’re ready to start a new chapter in their lives as a mature adult, but first they have to reexamine and revisit those Venusian topics I just mentioned.

Do they still want what they wanted at the beginning, or do adjustments and changes need to be made?

At the end of January, Venus will reemerge as the morning star.

What this means for you

Since this Venus Retrograde Sun Cazimi is taking place in Capricorn, you should look at the house in your chart with this sign on the cusp to better understand what this particular aspects means for you. You can check out this post here where I go through the houses and what Venus Retrograde might mean in each one of them.

If you’d like to deep dive and connect with this energy even more, you can also do the planetary attunement work I suggest here.

Most likely you already know what topics are coming up for you – I know I do – but if not, this Cazimi might be a Eureka moment where things become clearer and you get a better sense for what to do and where things are headed.

Even if that’s not the case, sit tight, keep on exploring whatever comes up, and get ready for Venus’ reemergence as the morning star at the end of the month.

While Venus shows her more yin, harmonious qualities as the evening star, when she becomes the morning star, her energy is yang and much more assertive – a true action-oriented warrior goddess or, in more modern terms, a bad-ass girl boss.

Photo by Daria Sheveleva on Unsplash