In true Venus retrograde fashion, we’re starting with Laboratory. 

At the United Astrology Conference, I found myself most inspired by Imani Harmon’s lecture on Talismanic Photographs. In the lecture, Imani proposed experimental ways astrological magic can be used in contemporary art making, particularly in documentary photography and collage. In one example, she selected a photograph from an artist and on an election, illustrated the magic square and seal of the planet on top of it. She also described the ways cultural specificity and context can enrich our artistic and astrological praxis, which I found resonant.

While there are not many quality talismanic elections for a while, I found myself eager to experiment with the ideas Imani presented. I have always enjoyed an experimental creative process and desired to bring planetary magic into it eventually, but felt uncertain of where to start. A couple months ago, I’d become interested in what theurgical attunement to Venus during the shadow and retrograde period could bring. Would it enhance the pain Venus’s retrograde motion is bringing up? Would it invite chaos? Would it invite room for emotional transmutation and artistic experimentation? Could it be all of the above? I wasn’t sure how I wanted to go about it yet. After hearing Imani’s lecture, ideas started flowing.

To dip my toe in the water, I decided to write a sestina about the Venus Retrograde and ritualize the process through planetary hours. For those of you who don’t know, a sestina is a poem with six stanzas and six lines, with lines that end with the same six words, but in a different order in each stanza. The poem then ends with a three line envoi, or summation, using the six words. Additionally, planetary hours are time periods where we can connect to certain planets, organized in the Chaldean order (planetary speed to the naked eye) and define the days by sunrise and sunset. 

While Venus had not stationed retrograde at this point, I wanted to attune to what her decrease in speed was foreshadowing for the weeks to come. This did not require an intricate talismanic election as it was simply theurgy. On a Venus day and hour in September, I did my usual prayer and meditation to Venus. I reached for Georges Bataille’s Erotism: Death & Sensuality, a book I had spent a large portion of the summer reading and ran it through rose incense smoke. I asked Venus for help with bibliomancy for the sestina. I opened the book about nine different times and each time I selected the first word my eye caught onto. I swear at a point, certain words started glimmering off the page. The words selected were: revert, behave, difference, family, back, experience, eroticism, silence and sacrifice. Out of those nine words, I personally chose: silence, sacrifice, experience, revert, behave and eroticism to end each line in the poem.

From there, I wrote. Check out my first draft above! The following morning and afternoon, I completed it. At first, I cringed at what I was writing, but that didn’t last for long. The poem came together quite well, even though I had not written a complex poem like this in years. From there, I decided to bring design into it, experimenting with the selected words using typographic exploration. You can view the design and poem below.

Sestina / Venus Retrograde

Eyes between us, silence
What are you willing to sacrifice 
An instinct, an experience
Lick your wounds all you want, will not revert 
You can run, they will follow, behave
Drive your eroticism 

Eroticism
Witness you from afar, silence
Watch your animal, behave
Make love, make sacrifice
Flip a coin, revert 
Experience

Tell me the story, the experience
How you usurped eroticism
Churned your soul to revert 
A knowing told all, now a silence
Deep cut. Blood sacrifice 
Your love for I cannot behave 

A deepening, animal in me behave 
Orient me to wise experience
Give me something to live for, a sacrifice
Bite eroticism. 
A bullet. Sit with silence
Come out alive, a prayer revert 

Hands tied, lips sealed, now revert 
You do not know how to behave
Tells me everything your silence
Betrays my experience
Drains my eroticism
I am not alive, entangled in sacrifice  

Bad magic, I require sacrifice 
Eat it out of your hand, let it revert 
Constraints of fate restrain eroticism
Or do they. You shall behave 
Shall succumb to mirrored experience
Let love flood your silence 

Your existence, my eroticism. Your presence, my sacrifice. 
I feel for you in silence. Though the yearning must revert. 
With my fate, I behave. With you, fin de l'expérience.

If you would like to read more of my thoughts about the Venus retrograde in Scorpio & Libra, take a moment to read my recent blog post!

The Pulse of Desire

Jupiter in Leo Cards / $4

Brief commercial break…good news! My Jupiter in Leo cards are available. I made these for UAC and have a lot leftover. So if you’d like one mailed to you (or multiple!), fill out the form by clicking the button below. I am requesting $4 to assist in handling shipping expenses and time. This means I can mail internationally without additional cost to you!

Jupiter in Leo Mail

Red Room / Louise Bourgeois

Red Room (Child) and Red Room (Parents) were two installations part of a larger series created by Louise Bourgeois called Cells. The Guggenheim Bilbao website writes, “created over a span of two decades, the Cells present individual microcosms; each is an enclosure that separates the internal from the external world. In these unique spaces, the artist arranged found objects, clothes, furniture, and sculptures to create emotionally charged, theatrical sets.” 

Louise Bourgeois’s work is known for exploring psychological trauma and the particularly disturbing, uncomfortable feelings that come with it. She also had a background in psychoanalysis. Bourgeois had experience with all kinds of mediums, but shined brightly with sculpture. While she was growing up, she contributed to her parents’ tapestry restoration business by using her artistic prowess to draw missing elements within the tapestries. At this time, her father had an affair with an English tutor who would visit her house. This destroyed any trust and safety she had with her father and disturbed her interiority for the remainder of her life. 

Both versions of Red Room seem to represent the turmoil of her childhood experiences. Red Room (Child), is a space enclosed by wooden doors. It has a semi-cloudy window that has the word “private” written on it, however the letters “p” and “e” have faded or are in the process of fading. Inside, there are miscellaneous red objects that could be associated with childhood, including spools of thread or yarn, coiled glass vases, an oil lamp, hour glasses, mittens and more. The objects are vibrant, varied and evoke overstimulation. It’s almost like they represent a fire inside her that never burned out. In the periphery, there is a blue bookshelf that holds some objects, which showcase an attempt to cool down the fury. There is not much that is comforting about the space, not even a bed, and it is clear by the choice and placement of objects that there were overwhelming, tangled layers to the pain she felt.

Red Room (Parents) by contrast is neat. At the same time, there is an eeriness to it. A xylophone case and toy train are laid out on the bed, on top of a red board. In my opinion, with the unsettling feeling this room evokes, that xylophone case might as well be a case for a gun. But it’s not! There are marble sculptures of nude bodies on the side tables, indicating some intimacy. In the room, there is also a mirror, which reflects the image of the bed. A need for deeper connection and reflection cuts through the neatness of this room. It seems inaccessible and uncomfortable, and exposes a lack of awareness for the interiority of the child.

*Louise Bourgeois’s natal chart, courtesy of astro-seek.com.*

Louise Bourgeois is Aquarius rising, ruled by Saturn in Taurus in the whole sign fourth house. Saturn, the planet of limits and deprivation, is conjunct Mars, the planet of conflict and inflammation; they are both retrograde and oppose their ruler, Venus in Scorpio, who is caught in between them, or besieged. Venus, the planet of art and love, rules 4th house Taurus and Mars rules 10th house Scorpio, meaning they are in mutual reception. Although Venus is afflicted by Mars, Venus has sympathy and help from Mars. This shows how Bourgeois’s parents (4th house) had a heavy hand in the artwork she was known for (10th house), both in a practical and emotional sense. Due to the malefics being involved, this involves a great deal of challenge and pain. Her art was successful and continues to be, but the trauma she experienced shaped her work. In any parent-child relationship, there is a power dynamic, and it is clear by Bourgeois’s work and natal chart, that this dynamic was not handled with care. The Moon, the planet of the body, interiority and material circumstances, closely squares Mars and is besieged, indicating experiences of strife with power and deprivation in her life. With the Moon in the first house, she was open about what her mind and soul looked like because of this. 

This month, Venus is retrograde in Scorpio and squares Mars. Like I’ve said multiple times, this transit will excavate wounds to find the desires that lie at the bottom. In Bourgeois’s work, particularly Cells, she relentlessly digs and claws at the trauma she experienced growing up, revealing the needs and desires which were unfed and betrayed. While I do not advise you to intentionally scratch at a wound this month, Bourgeois’s work invites us to look at any wounds that surface square in the eye (with caution and care) to understand the structures and power dynamics in which they were formed.

Strength / Tend to the Lion Within

What does it take for the unruly animal within us to become tender? What does it take to create trust with friction? Acting out, lashing out, causing harm, we’ve all done it. Our capacity to cause harm increases when we ignore tension within. We all have a ferociousness inside of us which obeys to no one. And sometimes, rightfully so. How do we fight it? We don’t. 

In the Rider-Waite-Smith Strength card illustrated above, a figure wears a white dress adorned with flowers and tenderly pets a lion, which is as receptive as a puppy is to an adorned human. What did it take for the lion to get here, to let down his defenses? An infinity symbol floats above the figure’s crown. Perpetual receptivity. Remember what I wrote in the last newsletter about meeting each other where we’re at? That’s what’s happening here. Over and over again. 

Lions are apex predators. We are aware of their ability to cause harm for their survival. (Which doesn’t mean we as humans should be harming them, to be clear). We all have a lion within us that needs to be seen as is without control or threat. Dangerous is dangerous. Feral is feral. Pretending otherwise will not fix anything, it will only magnify and externalize the damage. We must coexist with our fury. In the RWS illustration, the lion’s claws grip onto what appear to be mounds of grass, showcasing that the cultivation of tenderness requires capacity for friction. Additionally, when we see distress for what it is, we can also increase its ability to protect us in the right situations. I know for a fact that lion does not play about the figure in the white dress. Just saying. 

Our ability to tend to discomfort, anguish and conflict becomes possible with little acts of trust and courage. This builds toward a larger capacity of receptivity for what’s hard. I don’t often use affirmations, but my favorite one is “I can do hard things.” The simplicity in naming it works. I often pull this card when I am experiencing pain or a challenge that feels unseen and exposed at the same time, which as a result makes me feel agitated. It serves as a reminder to tend to the lion within, with gentleness. For me, naming the feeling placates the pain, tenderly deconstructing a long-standing belief around being misunderstood. For you, this process may be different. 

Regardless, agitation can be clarifying. It can show us what’s missing, where our desires truly lie, what need has been neglected. It can expose a truth. (Who here in therapy know HALT? Hungry Angry Lonely Tired). As Mars transits Leo, squares Venus retrograde in Scorpio and applies to Jupiter and the South Node, I hope this reminder can circulate our hearts.

Retrospective / Mars Retrograde in Leo-Cancer

Speaking of Mars in Leo, Mars is approaching the degree where he stationed retrograde in December 2024. I wanted to look back at the collage and poem I created for the transit. It’s one of my favorites. The colors and contrast are particularly striking, and you all know I love tigers. The eclipse season which preceded this retrograde was significant for me on a relational level, and that whole autumn and winter was creatively and emotionally rich for me as a result. I was listening to a lot of Chris Isaak at the time. This Mars retrograde was destructive to many relationships, homes and sense of safety, but in a convoluted way, from what I observed, it brought some people closer together.

Updates & Availability

Hello everyone, I hope you all are faring well under this intense astrological weather! This month, my October calendar is full with client design projects. If you’d like my design services for a project in November or December please reach out as soon as possible so I can prioritize you in my schedule. I also have a couple openings for astrology consultations this month if you’d like one.

This September, I spent time beginning new branding and social media projects for clients, and tying up loose ends on others. In my personal projects, I’ve been doing a lot of writing which feels refreshing, along with some behind the scenes design-related projects. One of them is a design workshop, so keep an eye out for details next month! Lastly, a poster design for the New Moon in Libra will be posted on social media this weekend. I hope to make one for the Full Moon in Taurus too! The Venusian lunations are always my favorite to design for. Lastly, I am hard at work in Fundamentals of Astrology Year III studying planetary triplet combinations. I have a four planet stellium in Gemini opposing one planet in Sagittarius, so this section has been a delight.

Anyway, not a whole lot to share, but excited to see you all next month :)

Sincerely,
Rishima

02. Paradox & Pleasure October ‘26

Venus Retrograde in Scorpio & Libra: The Pulse of Desire