during this recent venus retrograde in Aries and Pisces, i offered a discounted special for artists, looking at their birth chart and venus placements to explore questions and themes around their artistic practice. i spoke with many artists and folks looking to understand their relationship to creativity and art.
it was a very meaningful period for me personally – each reading felt so special. once the retrograde was over i wrote a litte contemplative loveletter to everyone i gave a reading to. and because venus ended the retrograde very close to saturn, i was thinking a lot about the relationship between venus and saturn and the role of longevity and time in creative expression. and i wanted to share the crux of this letter here too…
dear friend,
many of us are experiencing fear, doubt and anxiety not only around venusian topics like pleasure, art and self-expression but also around finances, stability and resources (which, yes, are also venusian topics).
and i guess i just wanted to let you know that whatever fears you are experiencing, you are not alone. we are all in this tumultuous time together. i’ve been thinking a lot about venus and saturn, since venus spent the entire retrograde ultimately moving towards saturn, and ended the retrograde right next to saturn in the sky.
the archetype of saturn denotes limitations, reality, endings, constrictions, consequence, delay and things that take really long. also generally some kind of depression, grief or pessimism. most astrologers don’t like to see saturn and venus together. saturn is the sober wet-blanket at the party, offering existential critiques to venus’s orgy of pleasure and fun – it’s hardly a great pairing. and yet, in traditional hellenistic astrology, saturn is considered to be honoured in venus’s diurnal sign of libra.
i think this is because artistic practice, like relationships, require some sort of staying power, some sort of grit and grip on both reality and the long-term. artistic work can critique, but also create space for grief, for sorrow, for joy to be contained in. the sign of libra is a deeply relational sign, concerned with both harmony and fairness. saturn being celebrated in libra tells us something about boundaries bringing joy into relationships.
another reason i like saturn and venus together, is because it can help you take your artistic work seriously, it can enable you to be disciplined about rest, and gradually allow you to understand the long-term consequences of joy and the radical act of carrying pleasure with you into your old age. have you ever met one of those erotically alive joyful crone-elders? they are pure power! saturn and venus together, given some time and some rest (i think) is pure power.
all this to say, if you’re feeling despondent about the role and value of art, i hear you. that’s fair. it is a profoundly unstable and uncertain time we are living through. but also, there is a reason why fascist logic punishes art and artists. look at history, art is one of the first fields to be restricted, monitored and controlled in times of extreme chaos and fear not because it doesn’t matter, but because it is a genuinely powerful tool and medium for connection and transformation. there is a point, whatever you’re making, whatever you’re busy with, it has a point, it has meaning and value – because you’re making it.
so let your art be slow but steady. let your relationships keep you anchored to reality, to the present, to what’s real. let your rest be the wet-blanket ruining capitalism’s party. let limitations invite you into a new kind of creativity. let constrictions and endings introduce you to new materials and methodologies.
my hope for you is that you are able to access how seriously consequential any creative act you do is. how materially meaningful love and connection is. how durational and enduring authentic connection is.
venus and saturn are not the first planetary archetypes i think of when i think of the word “revolution”. but when i think of “sustaining revolution” – that’s where i think these energies come in.
let us sustain each other and ourselves in revolutions both mundane, domestic, large or small. let us sustain ourselves and each other with our artistic work, our love and willingness to stay in it for the long-term.
with love,
nic