To understand the cycle of Venus, including her retrograde phase, the Sumerians told the story of Inanna, Queen of Heaven, who ruled over love, fertility, sensuality, procreation and war. She makes a choice to travel to the underworld to visit her dark sister Ereshkigal, Queen of the Dead. Knowing that this will be a treacherous journey, she advises her loyal servant, Ninshubar, to send help if she doesn’t return in three days.

As Inanna descends, she is stripped of all her royal vestments – her crown, lapis lasuli earrings, necklace, breastplate, ring of power, ankle bracelets and her royal robe as she crosses seven gates. Naked and humiliated, this royal queen is reduced to her hands and knees, in honour of her sister. However, Ereshkigal slays Inanna and hangs her up on a meat hook.

After three days, Ninshubar petitions various gods to assist with Inanna’s rescue but only gains the help of Enki, the God of Water and Wisdom. Enki creates two emissaries, Kurgarra and Galatur, sending them down with the water of life.

When Kurgarra and Galatur descend, they meet a suffering Ereshkigal who is screaming in pain. Kurgarra and Galatur hold space for Ereshkigal, listening and commiserating with her moans. Upon healing, Erishkigal was so grateful to the two envoys that she grants them one wish, to which they asked for the body of Inanna. When they receive the dead body, they sprinkle 60 drops of the water of life on Inanna and brings her back to life. Slowly, the trio make their way back up through the seven gates, adorning Inanna with all of her vestments again. At this point, she is back to her full glory as Queen of the Heavens, and seen brightly in the evening skies.

The symbolism of the Inanna myth

Though shortened, this myth richly explains the process of the Venus cycle. In fact, this story was told to explain the literal movement of Venus, Mercury, Sun and Mars (though this part of the myth was omitted). Inanna is Venus, Ninshubar is Mercury, the rebirth is the conjunction with the Sun and the 60 drops of the water of life represents approximately the number of days that Venus is retrograde.

So what does this story mean for you as we enter into this Venus retorgrade phase? Breaking it down, here are some significant points to reflect on.

A willing choice

Inanna made a conscious choice to descend into the underworld to meet her sister, Ereshkigal, representing her shadow self. In our lives, the Venus retrograde presents us with this same choice; to go within to face our fears. No matter what status we hold, there’s always a time when we are reduced to our hands and knees, just as Inanna was. This is a test of our humility as we step away from all of our ego-holding ‘vestments’ and stand in our bare, naked truth.

Holding space for our shadows

Through Ereshkigal’s suffering, Kurgarra and Galatur hold space and nurture her towards healing. During the Venus retrograde period, we too can sit in our shame and suffering without judgement.

9th  Century astrologer, Salh B. Bisher, writes “A retrograding planet indicates disobedience, collapse, repetition and disagreement.” Therefore, if you experience any setbacks, conflicts, challenges, delays and reversals during the retrograde period, this could be real-world projections of our shadow aspects. Just a Kurgarra and Galatur did, we could also listen, reflect and honour these shadowy parts of ourselves that we often want to neglect.

A rebirth

Just as Inanna met her death, we too can face our metaphoric death, and be rebirthed, just as Inanna was. In the Venus cycle, this is represented by the conjunction with the Sun which initiates a new Venus cycle and a new life to Inanna. The Sun purifies Venus, giving her new life as the morning star. We will start this new Venus in Gemini cycle on the 3rd June.

The seven gates and the seven chakras

The gates that Inanna passes through during her descent represents the activation of our seven chakras. We can see this around two weeks into the new Venus cycle in the eastern skies just before sunrise every month when Venus is nestled within a waning crescent moon. This will be a monthly occurrence for seven to eight months, symbolic of the activation of the crown chakra, through to the base chakra at the last month.

After this, Venus will become the evening star, and be seen in the western sky just after sunset, this time, nestled within a waxing crescent moon for seven to eight consecutive months. The base chakra through to the crown chakra is activated at each of these Venus-Moon ‘gates’.

Planning rituals and meditations around these Venus-Moon conjunctions are a powerful way to work with the chakras and the entire feminine creative concepts. These conjunctions are easy to find in the morning or night skies each month, and could serve you as an important cosmic clock to observe the unfolding of your intentions that were set during the beginning of the cycle.

To assist you with this, I’ve created this infographic which depicts the phases of the Venus cycle and provides dates for the current and next cycles, as well as dates for the monthly Venus-Moon chakra gates. Email me if you’d like a high res copy for your wall or journal.

Conclusion

Though I’ve only just scratched the surface of this intricate myth, I can’t emphasis enough how much I’m fascinated by it. This story cleverly illustrates each phase of the Venus cycle and the purpose behind each stage, which we can all relate to personally. The characters in this myth also intricately describe the physical movement of the planets connected to the Venus cycle. And, best of all, for the sky-watchers out there, this cycle is easily observed throughout this 18-month period, if you follow the story.

If you’re curious to know my thoughts around this specific Venus retrograde in Gemini, please refer to my other article, “Venus retrograde in Gemini – Welcoming the Venus New Year”.

And, of course, if you’d like to study Venus cycles within your personal chart, I’d be honoured to assist you with this. Sessions can be booked here.