The Fifth Gate of Descent
August 20, 2025: Venus meets with the moon in Cancer
Venus descends in the morning sky, shining brightly as Morning Star. She meets with the moon at the Solar Plexus Chakra gate.
Venus Speaks
My story is changing. I, am changing. My fire is met with water, again, and again, and again. The knowing of self is dissolving. The blazing forward is subsumed into the ancient vastness. I no longer know myself. I do not know this story, this path, what part I am to play. I am beginning to feel lost, stripped away. Who am I? If I am not my fiery burning forward, then who am I? If I am not my courage, my determination, my passion, who am I?
If I am not my fierce independence, then who am I? What anchors me? What guides me forward? How do I orient, if not for my claiming of myself? I feel disoriented, untethered.
If the story of unbridled fire is changing, then what is revealed in the ancient waters? What gifts, what guides of ancient lineage appear in the ancestral waters, when I am willing to slow down and look?
At this gate there is this place where spiritual lineage and blood lineage travel through time and space to ignite in a unique manifestation in the here now. As I strip away all that is not me, I change. A becoming, or an unbecoming. I do not know which. Yet I change.
The more you reject something in yourself, the more you tear yourself apart—because that something is you. It doesn’t matter what it is—hatred, or frustration, or love, or grandiosity, or anything else; if you’re trying to push it away, sweep it away, get rid of it, what results is a tremendous tearing apart of the soul.
-A.H. Almaas, Unfolding Now
Weaving the thread of the journey…
We began the journey in the celebratory procession, not knowing where we were going, but heading out. We took a tool for the journey, then went to the pool of water to meet the guide and receive the gift within the pool.
At the next gate we worked with the waters of knowing and unknowable mystery, the place of dissolving self images. Black Essence and unfolding mystery. We consulted the oracles to receive guidance in what familiar self image was ready to be dissolved.
At the third eye gate we worked with Fire, following the thread of ancient lineage back to the guide who could teach us to work with Fire, to help hone our Fire. We delved into Red Essence and the seed of our vitality.
At the gate of the throat chakra we explored releasing efforting and allowing things to be as they are, White Essence and the purity of being. We explored working with Earth, through the lushness of senses, through taste and touch. We journeyed to the caves of what was, what is, and what will be, seeing reality as it is. We saw the part of self that was bound, saw self as she actually is in the present, and saw what this self needed to grow in the future, unbound and protected.
We continued to the heart chakra, dipping into the power of sacred wanting. Learning to potentize wanting, holding and containing without repressing or acting out. Honoring, seeing, building, embodying. Finding the stillness in power, Black Essence.
In this journey, we have challenged old images of self and gained new ways of receiving direct knowing. We have released familiar ways of trying to make life happen, receiving gifts of water, fire, earth, and air. The courage and boldness of Venus in Aries initiated the journey into exploring the Essences of Red, Black, and White. Remember the journey, remember where you began. Look back before looking forward.
Who are you now? What have you experienced as you have walked this journey?
Fire meets Water once again, where lava meets the sea. Not the waters of deep knowing but the waters of holding, growing, tending, nourishing. The waters of home and lineage, where you came from. What are you here to do, to experience in this lifetime?
Red Essence
The Quality of Passionate Purpose
The lightning illumination ricochets in the cavern of the heart with such power I can hear it thundering and exploding. The Beloved now claims the heart fully. It has taken full possession of it, as its own throne. The Beloved is not an other, it is the true dweller of the heart, my source, my ultimate self and the ultimate essence of everything.
-A.H. Almaas, Love Unveiled
Inquiry Questions
Take some time to drop in, deepen into the quiet of your unfolding soul, and explore what is here now in your awareness, as you embody Venus as Morning Star.
Who are you? Who are you? Who are you? Fill a page or more with the labels and thoughts of how you have defined yourself, how others have defined you.
Who are you not? Why not?
What or whom do you protect? Why? Where did this directive come from? Is it still applicable in your life, or have you outgrown it?
What is a self image you hold? How does your body hold and become this particular aspect of self? How did this self-image develop? What is its function? Is it still applicable in your life, or have you outgrown it?
What is your own unique lens through which to explore this Essence of Red, the quality of passionate purpose, of Venus in Aries? With whom do you journey this cycle?
Ritual Space
Take some time to drop into ritual space as you receive the initiation of this gate. We step into liminal space, time out of time, in ritual space. We connect with the lineage of those who have watched the stars for millennia, receiving the gift of Venus's journey, aligning ourselves with the cycles that are already unfolding. We remember our nature as beings who cycle, change, transform. We remember how to receive knowing directly, rather than needing others to tell us what is so.
You may wish to create an altar, light a candle, and anoint yourself with oils. Sit with this gate, the quality of Essence that is being called forward. As you deepen in surrendering to receiving initiation, ask who would come to guide you in your journey with this quality of Essence? What of yourself do you offer in return? What is calling to be set down at this gate? What pattern, belief, way of being in this world, is challenged by this quality of Essence? What are you ready to release in order to deepen more fully in this journey?
What gift is revealed in the releasing of this pattern, belief, or way of being? What has more freedom to be itself in this release? You may see this directly, or may need to live with this initiation throughout the whole cycle and come back and answer this question before entering into the next gate. You may wish to draw cards to receive guidance in this way.
As you complete your experience in ritual space, take time to offer thanks and adoration to the archetype, to Venus, to your personal guide that arose for this journey, to your ancestors and lineage. Offer thanks to the land that holds and nourishes and grounds you. In the giving and receiving we remember our deep connectedness to all beings everywhere, throughout time and space.
Remember and Record
This cycle we enter the gate of "who am I" or even "who am I now." We have traveled through a number of gates, deepened into the qualities of Red, Black, and White, opened to receive knowing of working with Air, Fire, Water, Earth, walked with our Guides and received gifts and symbols along the way. Review where you have been, what you have received, what you are beginning to embody. Collect the clues that point to your sacred, passionate, purpose. These are just ideas, but energy to be embodied and lived.
At this gate we are called to take responsibility for the structure of our lives. To offer ourselves freedom from the wrong path taken, to receive the gift of lineage that wants to be embodied now, and to amplify that into the future, seeing how you will begin living this gift.
Review the journey, remember the tool needed at the beginning. Collect the clues and begin to see the future unspooling from this thread. Dream it into being. Who are you now? What is your passionate purpose?
Remember to write down the gift received from the well and how it was amplified into the future as you gazed into the Hermit's fire. Play with Water and Fire this cycle. What wisdom do you receive?
