Perhaps you have felt it already: a turning inward, a quiet recoiling, an insistence that your inner desires need attending to.

A name you have not spoken in years returns to you in a dream. A door you thought was closed nudges to be looked at once more. Questions of worth, long ignored, rise to the surface.

This is the journey of Venus retrograde. And this time, she's joined in the Underworld by Mercury. For forty days she travels backward through Scorpio and Libra, and midway along her path, Mercury turns to accompany her into the depths. 

The astronomer-priests of Babylon perceived two faces of the Venus goddess. As the evening star, Ishtar was the goddess of love, of longing and of beauty; as the morning star, she was the warrior queen, sovereign and unafraid. Between these two faces lies her descent.

In the Sumerian hymn of Inanna, and in its Babylonian echo, the Descent of Ishtar, the goddess passes through seven gates into the underworld. At each threshold she is asked to surrender something — her crown, her jewels, her royal garments — until she stands with nothing at all, and at her most vulnerable. The descent is then followed by a rebirth, whose emblem is the phoenix, consumed by flame and rising, luminous, from her own ashes. 

This is the transformation by which the woman who lived to please becomes the woman who belongs, at last, to herself. She pursues her desires with unapologetic passion.

This is not a transit merely to be endured, it's an invitation to enter the fire with intention, and in a circle of reflection.

Scorpio asks us to look beneath the surface, toward what we most deeply desire and toward what still holds us bound. Libra asks what is just, and what we are no longer willing to exchange for the comfort of others. Held together, they bring love, worth, power and voice into a single, searching light.

We'll gather on Fridays, the days of Venus. Sorceresses have long known that in planetary magic, each planet offers her gifts most fully on the day she rules. Week by week, from the evening of her disappearance into the Sun to the evening of her return, we will meet Venus on her own day, when her heart is most open to us.

In this 4-week journey, you can expect:

• Astrological and mythological insight into the Venus retrograde cycle, weaving the movements of the sky with the ancient stories of Inanna and the dual goddess of love and war.
• Sound healing and chanting, to soften the mind and open the heart to what lies beneath.
• Oracle card guidance, offering intuitive messages for your own passage through the descent.

• Dream incubation, a gentle practice for inviting your dreams to speak to the question each week holds to illuminate the wisdom of your unconscious.

• Group sharing in a safe and confidential space, where you can speak and be heard among women walking the same path.

Lesson 1 | Pluto in Aquarius Collective Metamorphosis

• Pluto is the planet of death, rebirth, and radical transformation, and it is now fully at home in Aquarius for the long haul. We explore what Pluto in Aquarius is dismantling and what it is seeding, and how its fixed air energy is reshaping our relationship to collective belonging, technology, and the future of the human community. Where in your chart is Pluto asking you to shed what no longer serves in order to step into greater power?

Lesson 2 | Uranus into Gemini Innovative Insights

• After seven years shaking the ground beneath our feet and disrupting everything we thought we owned, Uranus makes its ingress into Gemini, the sign of ideas, connection, and the lightning-quick mind. This is a profound shift from earth to air, from matter to information. We will explore what it means to live with Uranus in Gemini and how this electricity is moving through your own natal landscape.

Lesson 3 | Saturn and Neptune in Aries Embodying the Fire 

• Saturn, the lord of form, limitation, and time, meets Neptune, the dissolver of boundaries and keeper of the invisible, at 0 degrees Aries, the first degree of the zodiac. A new cycle begins in the sign of pure, unmediated beginnings. We will sit with the tension and the potential of this conjunction, and explore how you might consciously work with its invitation to build something real out of a dream.

Lesson 4 | Jupiter from Cancer to Leo Preparing for Bold Purpose 

• Jupiter is exalted in Cancer, a generous and nourishing presence amplifying everything to do with home, roots, belonging, and emotional sustenance. We will explore how to receive Jupiterian abundance in this tender, watery sign, and look ahead to what it will mean when Jupiter crosses into Leo and fortune favors the bold and creative.

• You have a working knowledge of astrology and are ready to go beyond the basics into the living, breathing dimension of the transits.
• You are drawn to astrology that integrates ritual, embodiment, and genuine spiritual inquiry.
• You want to understand 2026 not just intellectually but in your body and in the particular context of your own natal chart.
• You are seeking community with other thoughtful, spiritually curious practitioners who are navigating this extraordinary moment in time.
• You want to harness the Beltane current of creativity, fertility, and life-affirmation as a foundation for the year ahead.

Questions? Please contact Fern Vuchinich here.