Venus Is Slowing Down

On August 17th, 2018 Venus is at the greatest elongation from the Sun. If you look in the evening sky, Venus will rise as far away from the Sun as she can get.

This means Venus starts slowing down as compared to the Sun.

Venus is still moving direct, but because she now moves at a slower speed than the Sun, the distance between her and the Sun starts to decrease.

![WARNING: Venus goes retrograde in October]!

On August 17th, 2018 Venus is as far east of the Sun as she can go. There’s no more place to go. She has reached her limits. At least the evening sky limits. This is her greatest elongation. 

Venus is still rising as an evening star. She started her night walk in early January 2018. This is also (no coincidence!) when Oprah gave her women empowerment acceptance speech.

She will end her night journey on October 27, 2018, when Venus (by then retrograde) will move on the other side of the sky, only to re-emerge, a few days later, as a morning star. 

But let’s go back to the greatest elongation. Venus at the greatest elongation is as far as she can go. This phase is like the Full Moon phase of Venus and will bring a culmination of her journey as a night star.

Topics related to Venus will come to a conclusion, to a culmination.

Something you started early this year can come to fruition, especially if it’s related to ‘Venus’: women and feminine archetypes, beauty, love, money and things you value or feel strongly about.

But just after Venus reaches her greatest elongation, she starts slowing down. She doesn’t want to travel any further.

She got what she wanted – all by herself. Now what?

The irony of this position is that Venus is now as free as she can possibly be. She has never been more independent, more on her own. She can do whatever she wants, away from the binding rules of the Sun.

The Sun is the Self. Your Sun sign is so important for a reason. This is your mission in this lifetime, this is the divine script your soul wrote. The Sun is the reason you are here.

Venus And The Sun – Never Tear Us Apart

But living only from the Sun is pretty boring. That’s why we have all these wonderful planets to go along with, Venus included.

Each planet represents a particular archetype of your psyche. Each planet will show you how to grow in a particular area of your life. Mercury is the mind, Venus is love, Mars is action and so on.

Venus and Mercury have the most important relationship with the Sun, because both Mercury and Venus travel along with the Sun. Mercury never travels more than one sign away from the Sun, and Venus never travels more than two signs away.

So Mercury, Venus and the Sun have a special relationship. Sometimes, Mercury and Venus travel a little faster than the Sun. This is when they are more independent and explore the world on their terms.

And sometimes they travel slower than the Sun. Whenever they do that, they get closer to the Sun. They align what they have learned in their solo journeys, with the individual purpose your soul has chosen to manifest in this lifetime (the Sun).

And this is exactly what Venus will do, now that she starts to slow down and catch up with the Sun.

She has everything. Yet she doesn’t want it anymore. She feels alienated with all her riches.

Venus will move closer to the Sun (to the Self) to integrate what she has learned in her 9-month journey as an evening star.

As Venus begins to move slower than the Sun, your inner Sun takes over.

You will experience this role reversal in your inner sky as well. You can have an internal shift, an ‘aha’ moment. “This is why I wanted to do that”. “This is what that thing really means”. “It’s not what I expected but it makes sense now”. “And this is how that thing fits into my story”.

“La donna e mobile / Qual piuma al vento”  

This is the famous line from Verdi’s Rigoletto which translates to:

“The Woman is fickle / Like a feather in the wind”

In astrology, Venus is associated with women, or with the feminine, ‘Yin’ part of the self.

There are endless poems and songs about women’s apparent frivolity and indecisiveness. If you are not that familiar with how Venus ‘works’ – yes, women can seem like that. Maybe you feel like that too sometimes, and you don’t like it. 

A Subtle Change Of Heart

But what’s really going on? What happens is not really a change of heart. Women are not fickle – and that’s because Venus always knows what she wants!

What happens is that she takes different approaches to get what she wants. When she moves away from the Sun, she wants to explore, when she moves toward the Sun, she wants to re-align with the Self. Explore and adjust.  

You can like the dress in the window, but this doesn’t mean it fits YOU and your character. But at least now you know what it’s ‘out there’. And you got inspired.

Venus rules what we like and what we don’t like. When Venus is direct and has speed, what we like and what we don’t are more important than who we are. We are in the exploration phase. 

When Venus is slower than the Sun, the expression of the Self becomes more important. The Self starts to integrate what Venus has learned and use it to fulfill its individual mission. This is also when we become more disciplined, more focused and more aligned with our mission.

EXAMPLE: lately you felt drawn to women who always seem to look good on camera. Their hair always looks amazing, and their clothes always fit. You start following them on Social Media. This is Venus’ exploratory phase. You notice the world around you and get inspired.

Around August 17, when Venus slows down, you have an ‘aha’ moment. The grass always seems greener on the other side but is it really?

What did that appeal to women-who-look-good-on-camera means to you and to your journey? Maybe you liked they always seem to have the time to take care of themselves. And maybe this is exactly what you need too – more ‘me’ time. Why do you need it? And how can you get it?

Think about it.

This is a subtle, but powerful shift that can give a new meaning to your inner struggle.

On August 17 (plus minus two days) you can experience too an internal shift. What subtle change of heart are you experiencing? And what is really going on? 

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