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.
The Gatekeeper Speaks
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
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.
What’s right about self-absorption? Where do you lose sight of what is around you when you are in this place of self-absorption?
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.
