My longtime collaborator Trece Spalten and I are pleased to present a Friday workshop that will run right through spooky season, and dovetail with the upcoming Venus Retrograde and Mercury Retrograde cycles. Astrologically, it’s the perfect time to review, rethink, rework, and perhaps most relevantly for Venus, MAKE PEACE with who you are and what you love.

This workshop is suitable for all levels of astrological understanding. The focus will be on integrating your natal Venus placement, and truly apprehending your preferences and desires. Though many of us think we know what the astrological Venus is all about, I am always astonished whenever I teach this workshop by how much we shame our own nature. For all our social media performativity celebrating personal indulgences and taste, many of us are ashamed of our bodies, our longings, our loves, and our pleasures.

I have been practicing astrology for over twenty years and Trece Spalten, my co-facilitator, is a professional intuitive and ritualist. Though we have taught together multiple times, it was the last class we taught together (on the four elements of astrology and Tarot) that really helped me understand how Pagan my astrological practice is. This is partly because we made ritual use of material objects to integrate the practices.

Our four meeting times will be divided roughly into one hour of astrological discussion and integration, and one hour of journey work to meet the class ally, the dark face of Venus, the bright face of Venus, and the Old Powers of the material world that can support us on the path to self-love and joy. Your experience of the class will be enhanced by working with the materia of local honey.

While all astrologers work with planets, being a Pagan astrologer means that I also understand Venus to be a vibrantly alive and loving deity. Venus worship has been a central part of my practice as an ordained Priestess of Sekhmet, Bast, and Hathor. As Pagans, Trece and I perform deity work as a form of enhancement, or perhaps enchantment ~ so the workshop is designed to help you integrate the Venusian qualities of beauty, grace, sweetness, kindness, and harmony.

However, since it’s also Venus retrograde, a period when, famously, Venus’s gifts in our natal chart are inaccessible, we’ll also journey to meet the monstrous face of Venus. The dark face of Venus could be parts of yourself that you’ve rejected - your anger, your sexuality. Or maybe dark Venus represents your own negative traits that you shudder to see looking back at you in the mirror? Perhaps dark Venus for you is pervasive social messaging, or a family pattern. So we’ll also work with the seasonal energy of Halloween/Samhain to give these ghosts some air, and allow for integration with Venus’s brighter qualities.

Class times: Class will be held on consecutive Fridays over Zoom at noon Pacific (1pm Mountain, 2pm Central, 3pm Eastern, 8pm GMT).

Class length is two hours. Dates below:

Week I, October 23rd:

The natal Venus: aesthetic fulfillment and personal style

Journey to meet Venus Physica

Week II, October 30th:

The Venus shadow by sign

Journey to meet Venus dark: the monster in the mirror

Week III, November 6th:

The natal Venus: your relating style, friendship and romance

Journey to meet Venus bright: you are what you love

Week IV, November 13th: