Cazimi (conjunction with Sun) marks the midpoint of the Venus retrograde. This is an important milestone, not only because it takes place at the heart of the retrograde zone, but also because the Sun is the Luminary at the center of our solar system, and he sheds the light of conscious awareness. So we can assume that by the time the Venus cazimi comes around, we are well aware of what core problem Venus is trying to draw to our attention this Zodiac season. If not, this should be an important light bulb moment.
There’s not much to say about this transit because it’s so straightforward. Conjunction marks the crossing of paths. Two planets meet up in the Zodiac, catch up with each other’s work, exchange information and resources, and afterward they continue on their separate ways.
Something important to note is that the Sun does not actually rule what a lot of people think he rules in astrology. If you have more of a pop astrology background, you might think the Sun relates to your internal sense of your own personality, as well as governing your self-expression. But those qualities are actually the domain of your ascendant. The Sun has nothing to do with how we feel inside. On the contrary, it’s about other people’s perceptions of us. Some few people have their Sun conjunct the ascendant, but for most people the Sun is a different matter entirely than the person we think we are.
Sun’s domain is actually our external impact – the way we shine a light on the world, or the way we fail to because we’re not living in alignment. Usually when we’re out of alignment, that’s an issue of Venus. No matter what capitalism tries to tell you about conformity, proper alignment is only possible between your actions (Mars) and your ethics (Venus). It’s not about you aligning with other poeple – it’s about you aligning with your own moral compass. When we defy this and choose to “align” with other people’s preferences or common social norms instead of our own Venus-ruled personal values, our Sun gets blocked and we can’t shine a light. Our impact on the world around us becomes negative, sickening others and spreading toxic energy.
If we can move through this light-shedding conjunction with an open heart and choose not to put up resistance, it’s likely that we will receive revelations about exactly what is blocking our light from shining. It could be a simple fix, or it could be deep. Maybe it’s more symbolic than literal. Either way, Venus and our alignment with our own personal ethics will surely be found at the heart of the issue.
Today I actually have a relevant personal example.
So one of my four contracts is with Saturn. Each contract comes with its own unique terms I have to fulfill. One of Saturn’s terms is that I need to hold sky-high standards for all of the things I consume through the body. This keeps my energy clean. But for years I’ve been saying I don’t really care that much about coffee. I’ve been chanting like a mantra that I don’t really mind whether the coffee I drink good or bad.
All this time I’ve been using the same shitty, cheap espresso machine that can’t pull a good shot. The coffee comes out underextracted and doesn’t taste good, and I’ve just been tolerating this. I don’t even keep the machine well maintained; it’s been two years since its last descaling because this POS is not worth taking care of.
Not caring that my coffee sucks has been such a normal part of my everyday life that it even came up in my last conversation with my therapist. He had asked whether I had a ritual around coffee, and I told him that if anything what I had was the opposite of a ritual. It struck me as dissonant even then, but I didn’t give it further thought.
The day after that therapy session, just after formalizing my contract with Sephie, she asked me to get a better espresso machine as her “wedding gift.” We looked at a few and I ordered the one she chose. It cost ten times what the shitty one had. When it got here I learned that my bean grinder doesn’t go fine enough, so I ordered a new grinder that’s specific for espresso. It’s here now, and I’m finally set up to pull a decent shot… and in the process of making this possible I’ve realized that I actually do care about the quality of my coffee. I’ve just normalized a lower quality standard than I really wanted. I’ve had this dinky ass machine for three years! Saturn must have been silently livid with me this whole time.
Since I’m hypomanic, I feel angry with myself for this divergence from my Saturnian quality standards If I had cared more about my own lived experience, I would have been enjoying my life so much more. I chug through an iced cortado every hour and a half regular, so this is a high impact area to make a lifestyle change!
My Venus is in the first house in Aries, and the way this comes through for me is this. The one thing I care about most is quality of life. It’s not just about me, though – I feel a real filial duty to my ancestors, who struggled and sacrificed to give me a better future than the lives they were born into. When I eat well and sleep well and exercise and pursue happiness, it brings fulfillment to untold generations of starving, suffering people. So I live as well as I can – but now I have to wonder, do I really? Am I actually doing it? In what other ways am I tolerating drinking garbage coffee?
