Venus Retrograde in Capricorn 2022 — The Queen of the Ice

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An austere and composed woman, severe like winter. She is a lover of snow and silence, serious and dedicated to duty with love. Snow peaks are her home, and the heart of the mountain has taught her to do what is necessary.

Lady of Winter, she inspires all the beauty of the season. The magic of the snow, the geometrical patterns of its flakes, as well as the play of light through ice crystals. The magnificence of the Alps is hers.

Venus in Capricorn teaches us tough love. The kind of love which promote responsible behavior and makes us mature.

Her stay in this sign is going to accompany us for most of winter. This because Venus is going to turn retrograde on December 19th, prolonging her stay in Capricorn. In this article we are going to talk about it, introducing Earth as the element that is going to open the dances for the new year.

Venus Retrograde in Capricorn

We have already discussed about Venus retrograde significations in this article. In general, we said that when Venus is retrograde we start second guessing the value of things and people. In particular, Venus in Capricorn is going to put them to the test, by asking ourselves:

• Are you giving value to something (or someone) founded and stable?
• Is it going to survive winter (hard times to overcome)?
• Are you taking responsibility to make things work? How?
• Do you just want the good part of it?

When Venus is direct, she inspires us to act according to Capricorn energies, as if we were answering “yes” to those questions. But when she’s retrograde, she starts checking on the situation in a very saturnian way (being Saturn the ruler of Capricorn). And this process may turn out to be quite challenging.

To discern the two periods, you can check the key dates of the transit in the list below:

• November  5, 2021: Venus entered Capricorn
• December 19, 2021: Venus turns Retrograde at 26° 29′ Capricorn (First Station) in conjunction to Pluto
• January 29, 2022: Venus turns Direct at 11° 04′ Capricorn (Second Station)
• March  6, 2022: Venus leaves Capricorn and enters Aquarius

As you can see her stay in Capricorn is pretty long: four months in total. As always the most sensitive spots are going to be the two stations, taking place at 26° and 11° Capricorn. You can check your natal chart, to spot in which astrological house those degrees fall. This way, you can give the transit a context, knowing exactly which kind of relationships/goods are going to be affected.

First Station
The Venus-Pluto Conjunction

Concerning the first station, we want to focus our attention on the fact that it’s going to take place very close to Pluto. The Venus-Pluto conjunction refers to the archetype of Persephone’s abduction by Hades (Pluto). But in general, it introduces power issues and dynamics in relationships.

In this regard, we can add these questions to process consciously the transit in the days around December 19th:

• How am I consciously or unconsciously exercising a form of control in the relationship?
• In what area am I more powerful than my partner?
• Where or how are they more powerful than me?
• Do I undergo some kind of power in the relationship?

Please note that rape—the worst manifestation of the Venus-Pluto conjunction—is a form of violence where men (Pluto) abuse their physical power on women (Venus). Of course this doesn’t mean that the Venus-Pluto conjunction always manifests that way! In general, the issue is about power dynamics in the relationship. And rape is an extreme manifestation of this conjunction.

Let’s now focus on the elements. As we mentioned also in the Astrology of 2022, Earth is one of the elements of the year. And this transit is going to introduce us to it. Not only because Venus is in an earth sign, but especially because the transit is going to feature two stelliums (cumuli of planets) in Capricorn.

This means that 2022 is going to start with a lot of Capricorn energy. Let’s take a look.

First Stellium in Capricorn
From Winter Solstice to the New Moon

On Winter Solstice (December 21st) the Sun enters Capricorn. Our star is going to join in this sign Venus, Pluto and Mercury, for a total of four planets. This is going to last since January 2nd, with the new moon in Capricorn and Mercury leaving the sign.

This form of stellium is usually very common. This because Mercury and Venus are never more than 28 and 48 degrees away from the sun, respectively. So it’s usual having them together with a slower planet, forming a stellium in the same sign.

We cannot hide that stelliums in Capricorn are very demanding. This because they impose themselves with the necessity of the spirit of survival, typical of this sign. Yes—winter can kill you.

However, this stellium is not the more challenging of the two. It’s mainly the preparation for the second. The most interesting part of it, is going to be the Venus-Mercury-Pluto triple conjunction as you can see in the picture above.

Basically forces of mercurial cleverness are going to fuel the aforementioned Venus-Pluto conjunction, introducing two factors. On one hand secrets, lies or omissions; on the other, obsession. Mercury in conjunction with Pluto in fact can easily lead to obsessive mind games and manipulation, especially when relationships are involved.

I highly recommend to resist this temptation, because ultimately these things always backfire.

Second Stellium in Capricorn
Double Conjunction

From January 2nd to January 26th we are going to have a break. This because on January 24th Mars is going to enter Capricorn, and on January 26 Mercury retrograde is going to enter back into the sign. This means that the second stellium is going to include Venus retrograde, Pluto, Mercury retrograde and Mars.

So not only Mars is going to replace the Sun, but this stellium is going to feature a Mercury retrograde. We are going to talk about Mercury retrograde in a dedicated article. But both the planets are going to make things more challenging.

On one hand we know that Mercury retrograde is about misunderstandings and communication issues. On the other, Mars in Capricorn is not only very strong (exaltation), but also ruthless. It is a will of steel hardened by winter, so you don’t want to mess around with it.

We can also see that this stellium forms a double conjunction: Mercury with Pluto, and Venus with Mars. Venus is still very slow, so it’s going to be Mars reaching out for her. This is going to start a very long conjunction as we are going to see later on.

But how do we interpret this second stellium? In a nutshell, it is going to be the time of the trial. If we have not elaborated what Venus retrograde and Mercury retrograde have asked of us, the severity of the Capricorn will strike. That is, we will have to embrace the sword of Mars and fight the clash that we have not been able to prevent.

Venus-Mars Long Conjunction
in Capricorn and Aquarius

Usually Mars and Venus aspects last not even a month. In the picture above you can find a list of their aspects across 2022. As you can see they are very short, except for their conjunction that this year is going to be particularly long.

It is going to start with the second stellium we’ve just described in early February. And it’s going to prolong to Aquarius until late March. In particular the conjunction (green arrow) is going to occur on:

• February 16, 2022 : Venus–Mars perfect conjunction at 16° 53′ Capricorn
• March 3, 2022 : Venus–Mars–Pluto triple conjunction at 27° 50′ Capricorn
• March 6, 2022 : Venus–Mars perfect conjunction at 0° 01′ Aquarius

The second conjunction is very interesting and highly sensitive since it’s going to involve again Pluto. In my opinion this is going to be the end of the Venus in Capricorn process, at least in terms of forces at play. You can interpret that as the big finale.

The third conjunction instead is going to take place as the planets enters together Aquarius. From there, they’ll start to separate more and more till late March.

In general Venus and Mars complement each other, being like the two cosmic lovers in the sky. But in the contest of a very complex transit like this, Mars functions more as a trigger rather than a complementary force. This especially in Capricorn, where it’s way much stronger than Venus (even though Venus is one of the Earth triplicity rulers).

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