Hello Friends:

My mornings begin with a walk on roads that have lake and hill views all around me. The air is dense with humidity and it has been gloriously raining these past few days, ushering in temps in the mid-80s here in Austin. I start with prayer and gratitude with each step followed by greeting the birds, animals, and trees along my path.

Recently, I have been finding vulture feathers (or they have found me) in the grass by the road. Different days. Different roads. I suppose we can chalk it up to the reticular activating system that looks for things we have seeded in our minds. The yellow Volkswagen or the 11:11 we keep seeing. However, the meaning I am choosing to give them is that vultures have a lesson to teach us right now as fall enters and light diminishes.

Vultures are both fascinating and scary to me. They're very large birds and tend to travel in groups. They're called a "kettle" when they're soaring on warm air currents, a "committee" when they're perched on a rooftop or trees, and a "wake" when they're feeding on a dead animal. On one of my walks at my previous house, a car had interrupted a wake, which sent the vultures flying towards me and stopped me in my tracks with my heart racing. They landed on a rooftop several feet away, having brought the carcass up there to continue their breakfast.

Their highly acidic stomachs destroy deadly pathogens that can be transferred to feral scavengers. Within hours they can strip a carcass down to its bones to help limit the spread of bacteria that can seep into water and soil. They are part of the regenerative cycle of returning nutrients to the earth while giving flight to the dead. In spiritual symbolism, vultures represent death, rebirth, protection, purification, and transformation.

These vulture feathers along with this unique cosmic energy have inspired this newsletter. I hope you find support here for your next steps, even if they're hard or scary.

Venus at the Threshold

Today, Venus stations retrograde in Scorpio, beginning six weeks of revisiting what we love, what we want, and what we are willing to give in exchange. I’m interested in the desires we have difficulty admitting, even to ourselves, and the arrangements we continue to uphold after something in us has changed.

The Venus Star Point

Over roughly eight years, Venus passes between Earth and the Sun five times. Connecting these meeting points around the zodiac outlines an approximate five-pointed star. Astrologer Arielle Guttman calls the Sun–Venus conjunctions Venus Star Points.

On October 23, Venus meets the Sun at 0°45′ Scorpio. In Guttman’s framework, this concludes a Scorpio series that began in 1926, with the transition into Libra already underway. Symbolically, I’m taking this as an invitation to reconsider how love, desire, and power shape our relationships.

Morning Star vs. Evening Star

During this cycle, Venus transitions from evening star to morning star, disappearing from view around her meeting with the Sun ("cazimi") before eventually emerging in the dawn sky. Symbolically, I find something meaningful in that interval when a new expression of desire is taking shape before it becomes visible.

We all have a natal Venus Star Point based on our birthdays:

• Morning Stars are born after the retrograde cazimi. They are the trail-blazers who live and love out loud.
• Evening Stars are born before the cazimi. They are the deliberate, soul-searching guardians of love.

For example, in my own chart, my prenatal Venus Star Point is a Venus Morning Star Point at 5°50′ Virgo. Because it conjoins my natal Jupiter and Vertex in my 9th house, my personal “star point” acts as a compass, constantly pulling me toward higher wisdom, teaching, foreign lands, publishing, and deep spiritual exploration. I find my Venus Star Point useful as a symbolic anchor for exploring what brings fulfillment and where meaningful connections appear in my life. Mapping out your personal Venus pentagram may show your children or significant relationships. My Venus Star Point is near Gabe's Virgo ascendant in his first house!

How to Find Your Venus Star Point

It’s simple. Find the Conjunction: Look up the closest Sun-Venus conjunction that occurred just before your birth. That exact sign and degree is the “Head” of your personal pentagram. If you need help, book a session, and we can understand your five points together.

As Venus is retrograde through Scorpio over the coming weeks, pay close attention to what is coming up for you. Look back to October 2018, when Venus last made this retrograde passage through Scorpio and Libra. What was asking for your attention then, and what feels different now?

Venus retrogrades tend to bring back people from your past. Towards the end of 2018 I was finishing my fractional CMO role at a startup fitness app and beginning research and client interviews for a SaaS platform I was building with my co-founder. Using that milestone, I can see how much I've grown and what I value now.

Inanna at the Seven Gates

To go deeper, here is a version of the well-known Sumerian myth of death and transformation.

Inanna, Queen of Heaven, turned her attention toward the underworld, the realm of her elder sister, Ereshkigal. She gathered the seven divine powers, dressed in the garments of her authority, and prepared to descend.

Before leaving, she entrusted her attendant, Ninshubur, with instructions: if she did not return, Ninshubur was to mourn her and seek help from the gods. First Enlil, then Nanna, and finally Enki.

At the entrance, Inanna encountered Neti, the gatekeeper. She told him she had come for the funeral rites of Gugalanna, Ereshkigal’s husband. Neti carried the message to his queen, who ordered that Inanna be admitted through seven gates, surrendering something at each one.

At the first gate, her headdress was removed. At the second, her necklace of small lapis beads. At the third, the paired beads resting against her breast. At the fourth, her breast ornament. At the fifth, her golden ring. At the sixth, her lapis measuring rod and line. At the seventh, her royal garment.

Each time Inanna protested, she was reminded that entry required obedience to the underworld’s laws.

She arrived naked before Ereshkigal. Even then, Inanna attempted to take her sister’s throne. The Anuna, the seven judges, condemned her. She died, and her body was suspended from a hook.

Three days and nights passed.

Above ground, Ninshubur kept her promise. Enlil refused to intervene. Nanna refused as well. Both regarded Inanna’s descent as a choice whose consequences she must bear.

Enki, god of wisdom and fresh water, responded differently. From the dirt beneath his fingernails, he fashioned two small beings, the kurgarra and the galatura. He equipped them with the means to restore life and gave them precise instructions for approaching Ereshkigal.

They slipped into her realm and found her suffering.

When Ereshkigal cried out about the pain in her heart, they acknowledged her heart’s distress. When she cried out about the pain in her liver, they acknowledged that suffering, too. They stayed attentive to what she expressed, answering each cry with recognition.

Their task was to meet her where she was. Before asking anything of her, they allowed her suffering to be heard.

Ereshkigal responded to their acknowledgment and offered gifts. They declined water and grain, asking instead for the body hanging from the hook. She granted their request. With the life-restoring substance and water Enki had provided, they revived Inanna.

But being alive did not make her free to leave. The underworld demanded someone to take her place.

Its demons, the galla, accompanied her upward. They first sought to claim Ninshubur, but Inanna protected the attendant who had mourned her and secured her rescue. She also protected Shara, her singer and attendant, and Lulal, her loyal companion. Both had grieved during her absence.

Then they found Dumuzi, Inanna’s husband, splendidly dressed and seated on a throne. In contrast to those who had mourned her, he appeared untouched by her loss. Inanna gave him over to the demons.

Dumuzi appealed to Utu, the sun god and Inanna’s brother, who helped him escape for a time. Inanna later grieved for her husband, and a fly helped reveal his whereabouts. Eventually, Dumuzi and his sister, Geshtinanna, were assigned alternating portions of the year below: each would spend half the year in the underworld.

How to Apply This Myth

Inanna initiated crossing the threshold. What stays with me is how little Inanna’s familiar authority can do for her in the underworld. All my old ways of coping and being productive are not working now. Much of Inanna's return depends on relationship as mine has. Ninshubur remembers her. Enki responds. His messengers acknowledge Ereshkigal’s suffering.

I wonder what we might discover if we approached our own defenses with that kind of attention. The willingness to surrender at each stage. What has this belief and pattern been protecting? What happens when someone listens to our distress without asking us to hurry?

These are questions I have been exploring in my own experience of Hakomi.

To embody this myth, I've put together a Venus Rx in Scorpio Playlist that you can dance to. Or simply pick a song and see what comes up for you. Perhaps journal with this prompt: "A desire I have been reluctant to admit is…” or "Who remembers me when I lose myself?"

The Gift of Hakomi

Back in 2024, Dylan Moffett and I co-hosted a few lunation ceremonies and one included a Hakomi-inspired exercise of simply witnessing and naming. In August of 2025, I attended Dr. Katrina Curry's retreat "Body As Earth Song" on Salt Spring Island, BC, and experienced her Hakomi-influenced methodology, which included dance and creativity.

Hakomi is a form of somatic (body-centered) psychotherapy developed by Ron Kurtz in the 1970s. It combines Western psychology with Eastern philosophies, particularly Buddhism and Taoism, to help people uncover and transform deeply ingrained, unconscious core beliefs.

The five foundational principles are:

• Mindfulness: Operating in a slow, present-focused state to notice internal experiences.
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• Organicity: Trusting the client's innate, internal wisdom to heal themselves.
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• Nonviolence: Cooperating with defenses and resistance rather than forcing past them.
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• Mind-Body Holism: Recognizing that the mind and body mirror and influence each other.
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• Unity: Recognizing our interconnectedness with one another and the larger world..

​Jessica Steinbomer, the certified Hakomi practitioner I work with at Hakomi Austin, also practices massage, Thai bodywork, Reiki, and more. In my last session, we spent time noticing, asking questions, and exploring small experiments. This was followed by massage informed by what we had discovered. While I received the massage, I am invited to share about any memories, sensations, symbols, colors, etc. to further the exploration. I had been trying by myself to emerge from the heaviness of my grief over the past year, but realized I couldn't do it alone. After our session, I finally felt an opening in my chest, a gentle unblocking, and the next day vitality returned.

There is something very powerful that happens when grief is expertly supported by non-judgmental, loving presence. I recognize something of this in the messengers’ response to Ereshkigal: they acknowledge her suffering, and their encounter makes Inanna’s rescue possible.

Cosmic Weather & Events

October offers space to reconsider what matters and approach difficult questions and mystery with curiosity. We can use this season to revisit a decision, have an honest conversation, or try a small experiment. Plan for patience in your travels towards the end of the month.

October 3 — Venus retrograde begins; Mars opposes Pluto: Relationships, desire, money, and power come into focus. Where might we go inward to hear what we need?

October 10 — New Moon in Libra; Venus squares Mars: Consider where keeping the peace has become costly. What would a more honest agreement look like?

October 23 — Sun enters Scorpio; Venus Star Point: Venus meets the Sun: a symbolic turning point in our re-evaluation of love and value. Give an emerging desire some attention before before deciding how to act on it.

October 24–25 — Mercury turns retrograde; Venus returns to Libra: Revisit conversations and assumptions. What is a better question?

October 25–26 — Full Moon in Taurus: Return to the body, the land, and what sustains you. What helps you feel supported enough to do something difficult?

A Clearing For What Comes Next

All of this speaks to what I want to make room for at The Clearing, November 6–8: time to hear yourself, the company of people willing to listen, and space to approach whatever feels difficult with loving presence. You may have a decision taking shape, or simply a feeling that something needs your attention.

3 Days. 6 People. No performance. No required outcomes. No pressure to become a better version of yourself.

Through a farm experience, movement, restoration, listening, creativity, nourishment, and solace, we return to ourselves. The trees, lake, trails, harvest, and paintbrush don't require you to figure anything out. Tap into the intuition and needs of your animal body.

It is located at Wild Candy Farm in Wimberley, TX, the same place I apprenticed at in July to de-romanticize farm life, gaining stamina, strength, healing, and confidence.

Each guest will be chosen with care—not only for what has brought you to this threshold, but for the quality of presence, creativity, and generosity you may offer one another. My hope is that the relationships formed here will extend well beyond our weekend at the farm.

Applications are now open. For those who feel ready to join us, the early invitation rate is available through October 18.

Thank you for reading this far. I know your time is valuable and I hope you have found something here that is helpful on your path.

As always, you can Book a session if you'd like some cosmic guidance or strategy. Past and recurring clients get 20% off all single sessions. Reply to this email for the code :)

Love, plants, & planets,

Monica