When Venus stationed retrograde on Saturday afternoon, I spent the day in the spa and sauna, eating snacks with my friends. I bought six cinnamon donuts on impulse, unsure if anyone else would eat it. It was gone by the end of the night, our fingers licked clean of cinnamon and sugar.

The next day I reflected on how I had a great day, and wrote on my Instagram story:

Venus: stop assuming the worst.

Yea yea yea just unravelling the survival groove of anticipating the worst.

Body running on the spot from fear when it's actually already here, already in the underworld. I'm walking into this descent, knowing that I will be asked to give up a sliver of my armour used to defending against the prickly unknown.

ִֶָ𓂃 ˖ ִֶָ་༘࿐

A relational practice I'm inviting you to join me this Venus retrograde:

For seven days, ask a person for what you want, and get really dang comfy with the potential of receiving a No.

Make it low stakes. Play with the possibility that what you want wants you too. Ask more than one person, cushioning the ouchy-ouch of hearing what you don’t want.

Who is willing to participate with you around your desires? You will never find out unless you ask.

Asking increases the opportunity for a deeper connection.

Imagine that someone is waiting for the opportunity to play a new and different role in your life if YOU ASKED - increasing intimacy in relating, bit by bit, ask by ask.

Directly.

A hidden ask is still a request - so bring it out of the underworld and make it explicit.

ִֶָ𓂃 ˖ ִֶָ་༘࿐

Stop playing coy and start enchanting the world with the arousal of your wanting.

Stop waiting for someone to offer what you secretly yearn for and ask for it.

Stop averting your gaze to expand your tolerance to stay with the fear of being witnessed in your longing.

ִֶָ𓂃 ˖ ִֶָ་༘࿐

Ask your crush: how do I see you again?

Ask your barista: I'm not a boomer but can you make this coffee extra extra... extra hot?

Try this on for size: this is exactly how I want things to go.

Ask, and become willing to befriend the sting of rejection.

Hearing a No to your desires does not mean anything about you, that you are stupid/unworthy/not-enough/[insert familiar seductive lie].

Someone else’s lack of capacity and availability is simply that - they are not available for what you want right now.

ִֶָ𓂃 ˖ ִֶָ་༘࿐

Look at you! Brave enough to ask, brave enough to stay with yourself long enough to remember how you're gonna bounce back from the pain.

Knowing that you can walk away from a dynamic that depletes you more than it uplifts you, that you can sever the habit that keeps you questioning your worth to take up space, that you can face the honest truth of what your current reality is reflecting about where you are - with increasing neutrality, curiosity and compassion.

Imagine though… your delight at hearing YES and YES and YES and YES and YES and YES and YES to your desire, an ever-expanding collaboration for a new experience you created because you chose you first.

ִֶָ𓂃 ˖ ִֶָ་༘࿐

When Venus becomes invisible from our skies, how can you embody more of what she represents?

Be the bond that holds this web of relations alive ~ throbbing with pleasure, humming with infusions of love, offering your gratitude for everything and everyone that made your heart smile along the way.

May you feel the presence of love deeply this week.

♡
Rachel