Venus in Capricorn

Venus in Capricorn - Solidifying Alliances

"It takes two flints to make a fire."

— Louisa May Alcott

Last Friday's Capricorn New Moon and the impact of Jupiter in Aries is encouraging us to take action and express ourselves forcefully this week. However, there is still an overriding emphasis on developing cooperative, collaborative, 'group efforts'. We find some tension this week between individual expression and 'group mobilization' that needs to be ironed out through negotiation and patience. The transit of Venus through Capricorn takes a lead role, making a soothing sextile to Neptune, then moving on to conjunct the stationing Mercury and ending the week with an intensely passionate conjunction with Pluto, nearing the end of Capricorn. Venus in Capricorn helps us to keep the conversation going even when there are challenges and complications. Venus is not particularly comfortable in cold Capricorn but the significant interactions that she makes this week encourages patient determination to stay with the process as we reach an especially tense and highly pressurized 1st quarter lunar phase. Mercury turns retrograde this week in Capricorn as we reach the 1st quarter lunar phase. However, Mercury does not quite make it to a conjunction with Pluto before turning retrograde. This is likely to put the 'Big Picture' questions on hold until Mercury gets back to conjunct Pluto on February 10th — and well before Pluto arrives in Aquarius on March 23. Mercury retrograde in Capricorn encourages us to re-check our foundations, re-visit any past mistakes, and re-view the lessons that have enhanced our wisdom and understanding. Mercury does conjunct Venus as it turns retrograde before Venus makes her way to the conjunction with Pluto. In essence, this seems to ease the heavy challenges of Mercury's retrograde back through Capricorn. Areas where we have become stuck in crystalized ways of thinking will need to be reexamined. Overly optimistic expectations and ungrounded idealism need to be pared away. Venus can help us to stay focused on this challenge without losing hope. Once in Aquarius next week, Venus will help us to innovate new approaches that will be more collaborative and less self-centered. It is notable that Venus will also trine the retrograding Mars right before he stations direct on January 12th, which will further encourage enlightened, productive communication. Saturn, ruling Capricorn, will be in Aquarius until next March and is keeping us interested in innovation and cooperative group effort. However, with the arrival of Jupiter in Aries and Mars slowing down to go direct next month in Gemini, we are straining at the 'bit', looking for ways to free ourselves from the 'group' and charge forward on our own. The patience and awareness that is fostered by Venus this week is invaluable to keeping us from pushing too hard and losing sight of the value and importance of cooperative 'group efforts'.

Tension is especially high on Sunday when individual agendas and a desire to stand out seems to dissipate any potential for cooperative effort. Bringing people together is quite challenging. The Moon is VOC for much of the day on Monday. Avoiding Big Picture perspectives in favor of simple acts of grace and kindness will help us to stay centered. We soften our approach on Tuesday and become more willing to dig in to the complications in order to negotiate a more cooperative framework. There may be some midday bumps but the process continues throughout the day. Mercury turns retrograde on Wednesday in a conjunction with Venus. Passionate idealism keeps us from thinking only of ourselves. Patience is tinged with an aggressive determination to move things forward a bit more quickly on Thursday. We have the feeling that it's time to get off the fence and 'get in the game'. Self-control is important on Friday. We need to allow our expectations to get in line with the 'facts on the ground'. A new context begins to emerge on Saturday. We begin to find an increasing sense of comfort and stability even though there will be more to adjust to in the coming months.