Join IAAM for a conversation with JD Kelley on the Venus Synodic Cycle and Retrogrades through associated lore, astronomy, astrology, and the direct participation of observation, ritual, mysticism, and magic.
https://astromagia-org.zoom.us/j/84678884003?pwd=1OtcAmNnsCQRHZIVb3eTEPGmF9kkRX.1
Online: 10:00am PST / 12:00pm CST / 1:00pm EST / 6:00pm GMT/ 6:00pm UTC / 7:00pm CEST
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Combining ritual and observance, we join the flow of the living effluence of Venus’ presences, spirits, and materia. Engaging directly within the visible and hidden phases of Venus, we move from abstractions, interpretations, prediction, and displaced story to encounter, revelation, prophecy, and story that is situated and living.
Over time and place, the cycle of Venus plays a fundamental role in timekeeping and is equally richly storied. The shift from Evening Star to Morning Star is filled with journeys of trails and transfigurations, brilliancy and darkness, disappearance and death are accompanied by urges for withdrawal and purification leading towards refinement, renewal, and rebirth, reflecting both deep spiritual and magical themes and outer expressions of conflict, chaos, and catharsis.
In Mesopotamian traditions, Venus’ disappearance is Inanna/Ishtar’s journey to the Underworld, symbolizing initiation, sacrifice, and the price of power. The Mesoamerican Quetzalcoatl stories echoes this, portraying Venus’ retrograde as a time of death and renewal, where the god descends into darkness before emerging reborn. Similarly, in Greek mythology, Aphrodite and Adonis’ cycle of love and loss aligns with Venus’ vanishing and return, reinforcing themes of fate and cyclic change. Egyptian myths of Osiris’ dismemberment and resurrection, as well as Hindu stories of Shukra’s trials and wisdom, further emphasize Venus retrograde as a time of hidden knowledge, karmic reckoning, and inner/outer transformation.
Chinese, Nepalese, Japanese, and Tibetan stories surrounding Venus retrograde often depict it as a celestial warrior, trickster, or guide, symbolizing metamorphosis, karmic lessons, and cosmic balance, with influences from Daoist, Buddhist, and Indigenous traditions. Australian Aboriginal stories about Venus retrograde reflect deep cultural and astronomical knowledge, often linking Venus’s movements to creation, transmutation, and cycles of life and death. The Yolŋu see Venus as Barnumbirr, the Morning Star, a spirit guiding the souls of the dead to the afterlife, mirroring Venus’s periodic disappearance and return. These oral traditions, passed down for thousands of years, demonstrate an early recognition of Venus’s unusual path in the sky and its profound spiritual significance.
For many, contemporary magical and mystical practice of this period is one of shadow work, reclaiming lost power, encounters with death, and preparing for rebirth, echoing the wisdom that true, harmony, beauty, and love are forged through trials in the unseen realms. As astral magical practitioners, we have the capacity to go deeper by incorporating simple to elaborate ritual and practice—offerings, hymn, trance, movement, and journeying—and direct observation to witness one of the most striking celestial transformations visible to the naked eye.
cunningasfolk.com - Insta - @cunningasfolk/
John-David (JD) Kelley is the chairman of the Scottish Astrological Association, having served the SAA since 2017; the founding president of the International Association of Astral Magic (IAAM), and the organiser of Astro Magia.
JD is a professional astrologer, as well as a practicing astral magician. His astrological leanings are both traditional and modern. JD is influenced by historical approaches to magic, the exchange of magical and mystical traditions throughout the world, by an animist view of the Cosmos, by art and art-making, and by visionary and ecstatic practices. You can find him at Cunning as Folk where he teaches and practices his range of esoteric and interpretive arts, or you can follow his dance on Instagram @cunningasfolk.