Venus Retrograde and Forward Motion: A Descent, A Return, A Remembering - With the Wisdom of the Ancients

As of today, April 12, 2025, Venus rises in the early morning sky—reborn as the radiant Morning Star.

After weeks of deep retrograde motion, she is no longer retracing old steps. She has passed through the fire of the Sun, disappeared into the invisible realms, and now returns, changed. Like the ancient goddesses she embodies—Inanna, Hathor, Ixchel—Venus reminds us that descent is not the end. It is the initiation.

Her return signals a turning point: from reflection to embodiment, from unraveling to integration. Whatever you’ve shed, surrendered, or seen in the underworld of your heart—now is the time to rise with it. To weave it into the truth of who you are becoming.

Venus’ retrograde journey is not only personal—it is a collective journey. For millennia, civilizations like the Sumerians, Egyptians, Mayans, Nazca, and Caral honored this celestial cycle as a sacred passage. They knew what we are only beginning to remember: that sky wisdom is soul wisdom, and the dance of Venus holds keys to our own transformation.

The Sumerians and the Dawn of Civilization

The Sumerians, who flourished in Mesopotamia around 3500 BCE, were the first known civilization to document Venus. In their mythology, Venus was embodied by Inanna, the goddess whose descent into the underworld represented a powerful cycle of ego death and spiritual rebirth. As Inanna passed through seven gates, she was stripped of her adornments until she stood naked before her shadow—symbolizing the necessary unraveling we all must undergo to be truly transformed.

The Egyptians, Olmecs & the Symbolism of Venus

In ancient Egypt (circa 3000 BCE), Venus was linked to Hathor, goddess of beauty, pleasure, and renewal. Hathor was not only associated with fertility and joy but also the afterlife, guiding souls through realms of death and rebirth—just as Venus disappears into the heart of the Sun before re-emerging.

The Olmecs, precursors to the Mayans in Mesoamerica (c. 1500 BCE), tracked Venus with precision. They honored her dual role as both Morning Star and Evening Star—creator and destroyer—reflecting her immense symbolic power. Venus’ cycle was integrated into their calendars, architecture, and ceremonies, affirming her as a portal to divine knowledge.

The Ancient Peruvian Civilizations: Caral & Nazca

In South America, ancient civilizations like the Caral (c. 3000 BCE) and Nazca (c. 500 BCE–500 CE) were also Venus watchers. The Caral built one of the oldest known cities in the Americas, aligning their pyramids and ceremonial centers with celestial cycles. Their architecture and societal structure suggest a sophisticated spiritual culture informed by the stars.

The Nazca, famous for their mystical geoglyphs etched into the desert floor, possibly created these lines to honor Venus’ movements. Some of these geoglyphs align with celestial events and may have served as maps or markers for seasonal and planetary transitions. Venus' journey was likely revered as a sacred key that opened portals to higher wisdom during specific times of year.

To these cultures, Venus was not a symbol to worship passively—she was a living, breathing cosmic initiator, guiding humanity toward cyclical rebirth and evolution.

Venus Retrograde & Inanna’s Descent: A Journey Into the Underworld

The month of March offered us a threshold moment.Venus, the goddess of love, beauty, and deep magnetic desire, is retracing her steps in the sky—echoing the ancient myth of Inanna’s descent into the underworld.

Venus began her retrograde on March 1, 2025, at 10° Aries—a bold, raw, and fiery place to begin the undoing. She will complete her cycle on April 12, 2025, at 24° Pisces, dissolving the past and preparing the heart for a gentler, soul-aligned rebirth.

Every 19 months, Venus retrogrades, weaving a sacred five-petaled rose in the sky—a pattern our ancestors knew and honored. This particular retrograde invited us into the space between fire (Aries) and water (Pisces)—a space of reckoning, forgiveness, and reconfiguration.

You may have seen Venus shining in the western sky after sunset. But on March 15, 2025, she disappeared—swallowed by the Sun—marking her symbolic death. This was a potent moment of initiation when Venus transitions from Evening Star to Morning Star, a resurrection that comes only after the dark.

Inanna’s Descent: The Myth & The Message

Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth, was called to descend. As she passed through each of the seven gates, she was stripped of her power symbols—crown, staff, robes—until she stood vulnerable before her sister Ereshkigal, Queen of the Underworld.

There, Inanna was undone. Hung on a hook for three days, she surrendered to the void. Yet even in that stillness, rebirth was seeded. She rose again, changed, whole, sovereign in a way she had never been before.

This is the mirror Venus holds up for us. What are you being asked to release? What must die within you to allow new life to rise?

This is not destruction for suffering’s sake—it is liberation through radical truth and sacred surrender.

Venus Retrograde Through the Houses: Where was Your Descent Happening?

• Aries Rising: Venus retrograded in your 7th House (relationships, partnerships). Reflection and reevaluation of your close relationships, business partnerships, and how you engage with others were key themes.

• Taurus Rising: Venus retrograded in your 6th House (health, daily routines). This period might have prompted you to reconsider your work habits, self-care routines, and health-related decisions.

• Gemini Rising: Venus retrograded in your 5th House (creativity, romance, children). You may have revisited matters related to romance, creative expression, and your relationship with children or inner child.

• Cancer Rising: Venus retrograded in your 4th House (home, family, emotional foundations). This was a time to reflect on your home life, family dynamics, and how your emotional foundation shapes your relationships.

• Leo Rising: Venus retrograded in your 3rd House (communication, siblings, short trips). This retrograde period might have led you to reassess your communication style, how you interact with siblings, and your approach to learning and curiosity.

• Virgo Rising: Venus retrograded in your 2nd House (finances, values, self-worth). Venus's retrograde may have prompted you to review your financial situation, how you value yourself, and your relationship with material possessions.

• Libra Rising: Venus retrograded in your 1st House (self-image, identity). A time of reflection on your personal identity, how you present yourself to the world, and your approach to self-love.

• Scorpio Rising: Venus retrograded in your 12th House (secrets, subconscious, spirituality). This period may have prompted deep reflection, allowing you to reconnect with your inner world, uncover hidden emotional patterns, and heal old wounds.

• Sagittarius Rising: Venus retrograded in your 11th House (friendships, social networks, hopes). You may have revisited your friendships and social connections, reassessing where you fit in your community and the groups you belong to.

• Capricorn Rising: Venus retrograded in your 10th House (career, public image, reputation). This was a time for reflection on your professional life, public image, and how your relationships intersect with your career goals.

• Aquarius Rising: Venus retrograded in your 9th House (travel, higher learning, philosophy). Themes of expanding your horizons through travel, education, and philosophical exploration were present during Venus’s retrograde.

• Pisces Rising: Venus retrograded in your 8th House (intimacy, shared resources, transformation). This period brought deep emotional and financial reevaluations, potentially offering transformative insights into shared resources and intimate bonds.

  
  

The Rebirth: Venus as Morning Star

On April 12, 2025, Venus stations direct. Slowly, she rises in the morning sky—a radiant phoenix reborn. But this isn’t a return to who we were before. This is emergence after deep metamorphosis.

Like Inanna, we rise with new wisdom, new devotion, new power.

✨ What will you leave behind in the underworld?✨ What sacred treasure will you bring forward into the light?

A Final Invitation

Look to the sky.Venus is there—disappearing, dying, and returning—just as you are.

This is your moment to remember. To trust in descent as sacred. To surrender to what wants to be undone. And to rise, radiant, reborn, and wholly your own.

✨ Embark on a Sacred Journey: Peru Spiritual Tour - August 2025

As Venus’s energy encourages new beginnings, I’m thrilled to invite you on a journey of profound transformation and awakening. In August 2025, I will be leading a Spiritual Tour of Peru, where we’ll explore powerful sites such as the Nazca Lines and the Caral Pyramid Complex — places where ancient wisdom is alive and waiting to guide us. There are only two spots left open. If you feel the call, do not hesitate to reach out.

This tour is rooted in the energies of Pluto in Aquarius, and infused with the unprecedented cosmic energies of these times, embracing the excavation of long-buried knowledge and consciousness. Together, we’ll connect with the earth’s ancient energies and explore how these sacred sites can deepen our understanding of transformation, our healing, our legacy and our collective evolution.

If you're feeling called to embark on this sacred journey, email Angharad@angharadpicton.com for more details and secure your spot. I’d love for you to join us in exploring these powerful sites and opening to the wisdom they offer.

✨ Work with Me: One-on-One Intuitive Astrological Counseling ✨

If you’re feeling the call to deepen your understanding of Venus in your chart—to understand what this descent has meant for you—I offer Intuitive Astrological Counseling Sessions to support your personal transformation.

Together, we’ll explore your chart, uncover the threads Venus is activating, and tune into your soul’s unique rhythm of release and rebirth or simply explore other areas that you are seeking support and guidance in using your natal chart as a active guidance system. This is a powerful time to receive guidance, connect to your cosmic blueprint, and reclaim your sacred power.

🌀 Book a session through my website:

Booking link

Let’s descend, remember, and rise—together.

With Love,

Angharad 💫

Lineages of Inspiration

This piece is born from my own lived experience, sky-watching, and spiritual inquiry. My ongoing learning and understanding of Venus’s journey—particularly her transition from Retrograde to Morning Star—is informed by both ancient sky cultures and contemporary teachers. I honor the wisdom of the ancient civilizations and the temples dedicated to the living sky and the cycles that guided them, and the work of astrologers like Ariel Guttman, Daniel Giamario, and Demetra George, whose studies have deeply enriched the collective remembrance of Venus’s cycles. This blog is an offering from my heart, woven through my voice and guided by what I’ve seen, felt, channeled and continue to learn and integrate.