The Deep Descent: Venus, Mercury, and the Hidden Self

Caverns of the Psyche: Navigating the Water Trine

The grand water trine that once linked the Sun, Jupiter and Saturn retrograde—illuminating the submerged circuitry of the psyche—now reactivates those same circuits in both mind and heart. If your tears have been flowing these past days, expect the tide to rise.

Mercury retrograde trines Jupiter retrograde in Cancer and both Saturn and Neptune retrograde in Pisces, while it conjoins Venus in Scorpio. This water trine remains with us until 29 November, drawing us into a meticulous review of thought, memory, longing and emotional instinct.

Mercury in Scorpio opens the trapdoor into the underworld mind—the place where motives, fears and truths sit in their rawest form. With Venus beside him, the underworld stirs with an unguarded tenderness: Persephone, the pulse of meaning in a realm accustomed to grief. Her longing is equally awakened by Jupiter in Cancer, calling her toward home, safety and a life not defined by dimming her vitality for the sake of shadow.

Yet this longing is where the new descent begins.
Venus in Scorpio, already dwelling in the underworld, is pulled even deeper by the combined gravity of Mercury and Jupiter retrograde—into a realm she did not know existed. The Sun–Uranus opposition on 21 November tore open a crack in the underworld itself, revealing a hidden cavern filled with the bodies of our ulterior motives: every disguised intention, every compromise of integrity, every desire we buried because we feared its truth. Here we are required to sit with them—not to condemn them, but to recognise them. Only by acknowledging these remnants can they be released. Only when they are given peace can they move on. And with them, so can we.

We continue this surgical descent into the root causes of our ailments as the Sun enters Sagittarius, the sign of the wandering philosopher, ruled by Jupiter—who, though retrograde, stands exalted in Cancer as a main participant in this trine. He is asking Venus the difficult questions, urging her not to settle for quick fixes but to pursue divine truths—the kind that can build empires from scratch.

But Saturn and Neptune in Pisces counter this emotional unraveling with their essential truth: responsibilities exist in both daylight and darkness. The ascent requires the descent; clarity requires confrontation. Desire alone is never enough. What the heart longs for must be met with structure, discipline and the willingness to engage reality without distortion. Otherwise, longing dissolves into fantasy—beautiful but weightless.

Saturn retrograde in Pisces, for the final time until 2043, dissolves karmic ties and old mythologies of escape. Pisces tempts with romantic visions that shimmer but do not sustain. If Venus believed she could manifest her deepest desires through mantras, rituals or charms alone, she now sees their limits: they amplify yearning but do not build form. They create anticipation, not embodiment.

Neptune retrograde pierces through illusion. Intuitive yet unsentimental, Neptune asks Venus through the blade of Mercury retrograde:

Are you awake?
Are you willing to create a reality that can withstand daylight?
Are you done worshipping potential instead of building structure?

2025 has been the year of shedding—skins, stories and identities that no longer hold. February 2026 ushers in the Wild Fire Horse, an archetype of unrestrained momentum. Until then, the shedding must continue so the gallop becomes possible.

This grand water trine fuses three retrograde planets—mind, meaning, structure—through the emotional depths of Cancer, Pisces and Scorpio, drawing us into the architecture of our conditioning. These are the patterns that kept us circling a familiar labyrinth, convinced that the twentieth attempt might yield a different result.

But Venus has exhausted charm. In its place she must craft a new mental architecture—one that keeps her rooted in a reality of her own authorship, sovereign even against her own temptations to drift.

Venus and Mercury continue their underworld dance until late November, when Mercury stations direct in Scorpio. Their next exact conjunction arrives on 24 January, in Aquarius, joined by Mars, the Sun and Pluto—an alignment that will initiate a comprehensive overhaul of the inner system.

Until then, the task is clear: continue the descent with precision and courage, wielding both scalpel and scorpion tail. The poison has always held the cure.

A Personal Message to My Dear Readers

As I deepen my relationship with the stars, I am called to deepen my relationship with my words—not merely as a writer, but as an artist. The Venusian calling is to move through the world through art, allowing it to speak louder than the voices of war and despair.

To honour this calling, I am dedicating more time and space to my craft through Substack. Here, I will share my astrological insights more regularly, exploring the fixed stars and their interplay with our planets. I’m also introducing a new approach to working with transits—when engaged consciously, these daily cosmic currents offer profound alchemical shifts.

Each report will include carefully designed journal prompts to help you excavate these pearls of wisdom with precision—the surgical, transformative way I love.

If you feel called, I invite you to support my work by “buying me a coffee” each month. Your support helps me continue this labour of love, and in return, you gain deeper access to my insights and guidance. Whether through Substack or any of my other channels, your encouragement fuels this work and nourishes the art we create together. Thank you—it means the world to me.