∞ 88 Venus on Fire ∞

88 - Lion Gate - Venus Retrograde and let’s not forget Lilith (BML)

The number 88 stands for transformation & manifestation. 8 Is the 8th house of Scorpio in astrology. 8 Is the Strenght card in the Tarot. 8 Is the 8th month of the year, August, Leo season. Leo runs the 5th house in Astrology.The Sign of Leo signifies creation, children (we create our children), drama, spotlight, theatre, stage, sports, play, fun.  Scorpio is the undercurrent of the soul, the gateway between heaven & earth.

Venus is currently retrograde (in Leo) and closing her cycle after 8 years. That ending cycle always takes place in the sign of Leo at about 20°; so go back 8 years in time down to memory lane and try to remember what changed in August 2015. 

Every 584 days (about 1,5 years/18 months) she is for 40 days retrograde. Currently she undergoes an energetic metamorphose and turns from a evening star into an morning star. She makes a perfect infinity loop when she changes. During that proces she disappears from the sky. (Related to the myth of Persephony who disappeares into the underwold taken by Hades).  She appeared after sunset in the sky (see several photo's on my website) and as of August 17, 2023 she will appear in the sky at sunrise. Read more about the full Venus cycle process here.

In your natal chart you can look up if you are a morning star Venus or an evening star Venus. Are you Hesperus or Lucifer (yes, Lucifer!)? When she is clockwise from your Sun you are a Lucifer and if she is counterclockwise you are a Hesperus Venus. I.e. I am an Aries Sun and my Venus is in Taurus. So my Venus is located counterclockwise from my Sun, so I am an Hesperus/Evening Star. 

As a Lucifer, you are a 'feel first, think later' person who tends to be guided by your emotion.

As a Hesperus, relationships are serious business and emotions are slowly revealed. 

Venus will only retrograde in five Zodiac signs:
Gemini 
Capricorn/early Aquarius 
Leo/early Virgo
Aries  
Late Libra/Scorpio 

This is the cycle of Venus (the Rose)

click on the picture for date cycles.

With Lilith (currently also transiting in Leo), our deepest soul urge & rage coming to front. Lilith is the raw sexual, primal Scorpio energy. The raw woman, banned from the garden of Eden, because she refused to be subservient to her husband. 
My natal Lilith is conjunct with Vesta in Leo, and that merge is a sacred force to be reckoned with; Vesta is the keeper of your spiritual flame, she represents the sacred feminine creative energy that allows you to dedicate yourself to aspirations, plans, and goals. Since Leo resides in my 8th house, the Venus cycles play a deep transformative, life changing role in my life as these cycles are (every 8 years) trining my Karma asteroid at 22° of Aries in my 4th house, in the core of my being. 

Mix Scorpio & Leo and you get a transformative soul level creation during the Lion’s Gate. 

But what is the Lion Gate portal?

This cosmic event occurs yearly between July 28 & August 12 (between 4°-19° Leo) where the Sun in Leo, Earth, the Orion Belt and fixed star Sirius (has the nature of Jupiter & Mars, at 14° Cancer) line up and reaches it peak at 8/8 (August 8). It has a powerful cosmic force, as Sirius is rising and the Lion is known for strenght & determination as ruler of the animal kingdom. It'll square off Scorpio & Taurus, the area where the karmic nodes passed through the past years. So a karmic cycle is coming to a close and the energy sets soul level change in motion. 

Like the eyes in in sky, Venus and Sirius are like the Eye of Horus (Egyption falcon which represented power, where the right eye signifies the morning star and the left eye the Moon) or Ra (Sun God) this time of the year; in ancient Egypt, this symbol represents power, protection, health, and restoration.

From my deck: Intuitive Astrology & Numerology Cards

What I want to highlight is that much is depending in one's chart where this powerful transformation is happening, which house and which planets & asteroids are residing in Leo and very important: which natal aspects they form. 
Mine happens to be in the 8th house, which is in the heart of the Lion's gate as the Sun (15°) on 8/8 is exact shining it's rays on my Lilith (14°) & Vesta (13°). My raw intuitive sacred flame.
No surprise to me that I am writing this article intuitively in the midst of all these energetic changeble universal forces, with one of my favorite red thread throughout life songs 'The Eye in the Sky' accompanying me. And to no surprised at all, that album (with the song 'Sirius') is released by the Alan Parsons Project in May 1982 and the song in August that year, a very significant year for me, 12 years old at the time.
1982, Venus turned as a morning star on January 25th at 28° Capricorn. Today, Pluto is exactly retrograde at the 28° of Capricorn.
The scent of my mother (Leo) passing by my senses, she's there, helping me getting this done. No surprise as my 8th house cusp starts in Cancer at 14° exact conjunct fixed star Sirius and current Moon is transitting in Cancer. Cancer, ruled by the Moon is signified by the mother. My mother (Sun, North Node (at the heart of the Lion's gate!), Moon, Mercury, Pluto, Jupiter and Lilith in Leo (Aug 1, 1943) crossed over 30 years ago, brought me back the gift of family which I am so thankful for 🖤.

Just as Lilith, Lucifer was a cast out, the light bearer turned from holy angel to fallen angel. Lilith & Lucifer: water & fire.

The Lion’s gate and the Phoenix. Something needs to be burned (fire) down to the root and the soil (earth) needs to be fertile again before a seed can grow again. Mix fire with earth and it’ll steam due to the air and water. The fire needs air to burn and the earth needs water to get fertile. 

August, in the midst of summer (Northern Hemisphere*), the Sun is burning the soils away on one part of Europe (a lot of fire’s and heatwaves are hitting Europe), whilst the other part of Europe is facing an inexplicable amount of rain. 

My story:

8 years ago, 2015, my divorce was finalised (ending Venus cycle) and entered a new cycle where Fieniks (Phoenix), cat, joined our lives to cheer us up. I got him through someone who wanted to give him a home with a garden as he was living -unhappy and lost his kitten brother- indoors. From the first day he was so thankful, he continuously came for kudos. He came into our lives in a difficult peroid, he was 5 years old and joined my other cat, who was already 15 years old at the time. I named him Fieniks (Phoenix) after the bird who rises from the ashes after he went up in flames.

Fieniks was the 'Undercat' and I think that was his role to play, to observe from the sideline and absorb as an emphath the energies in our household. His health wasn't the best, eventhough I never needed to take him to the vets'.
There wasn't an ounce of evil within him, nothing! He lived his life unnoticeable but forcefully. For 8 years long he lived with us. With sadness in my heart as his body was at his end, the time came to let him go at the 10th of this month. A cycle finished (10th). His spirit was still strong and he endured a lot in his cat life. But what he gave us these years was unmeasurable. A cycle ended with him, I guess that was his duty and he remembered me that in the winter, far beneath the bitter snow, there lies the seed that with the sun's love, in the spring becomes the rose [B.Middler-the Rose]. On the day he died a Queenpage butterfly flew in my garden, I never seen one in real life and wow, they're huge. Butterflies in general stand for transformation. The Queenspage in particular symbolizes immortality and rebirth.
The next day I had a black butterfly flying by in my garden, also one I have never ever seen before and I understood never to think you're not good enough, strong enough or smart enough. My Fieniks sending a final message, he's doing ok, his job is done with us. Thanks Fienepien, for all your kudos 🐾💜🐾

Everything that happens in the 8th house stays in the infinite 8th house -∞-
The house of dept & depths, the soul, transformation, money, joined posessions, transcendent, intimicy, life & death. It'll crack painfull experiences.
Like an oyster, where the outside shell is uggly robust, but the inside reveals an aphrodisiac pearl if you are lucky.

The other day I hear -out of the blue (coincidence? as we have a blue moon the 31st coming up)- a specific piece of music, with specific lyrics and I find a rose on the floor. It shook me up as it brought bittersweet memories of love and a lot of happiness. A light bringer, making me longing to turn back time and that's what retrogrades are all about. I check the astrological sky and the rising and angle degrees where more than significant to me. Two days after, the exact same thing happens again. Than I realise again that everything happens for reasons, that thoughts are transcendental, that universal forces are mysteriously and that I feel lucky to understand what I need to understand.

Current VenusRX (ruler of Libra & Taurus, the houses of relationships & worth) in Leo (the house of creation) squares of Taurus & Scorpio and transforms any emotional & physical creation built the past 8 years and closes a karmic loop of the past 4 years.

What needs to die has fit's it's purpose, to make you aware and create change to purify it's fundament to prep for a new cycle, so new bricks can be build again. 

Wrote during Venus cazimi: Venus in the heart of the Sun, her energy fortifies & amplifies her qualities.