This is Ishtar, also known as Inanna.

Arguably Easter is named after her, some say it’s named after the German Goddess Ostera, yet there’s plenty of similarities between all Spring Goddess archetypes and Mythology is not a space of pedantry but curiosity.
Ishtar is particularly interesting as her story reflects the Venus retrograde cycle.
She entered the underworld to confront see her sister Ereshkigal (her shadow). On her way to meet her she was told by her sisters gatekeeper she had to remove 7 items of clothing (purify 7 chakras), one at each gate. She arrived naked and was hung on meathooks (suspension of ego) by her sister and killed (ego death).
Knowing no one left the underworld alive she had warned her son to contact the god Enki (trickster/messenger/creator god) to save her. He made allies for her from the dirt from under his fingernails (humble beings).
These beings came and bargained with Ereshkigal, taking Ishtar in exchange for her largely indifferent husband (Ishtar’s decision to sacrifice the inessential).
Ishtar, resurrected by Enki’s water (technology of source, in the form of sacred rain/divine empathy), re-emerged from the underworld more beautiful and more powerful than before.
She is represented by an 8 Pointed Star, The Owl and The Lion.
In contemporary ‘chaos’ magick, (which is very similar to the left hand path shadow integration process as Kundalini Shaktipath) we see the use of the 8 pointed star, which includes the cardinal and mutable points of the compass. The Owl we see as the strategist, later totemic to Athena. The Lion as her vehicle represents courage and the Gate represents transcendence. The 8 pointed star is used in ‘chaos’ magick, or shadow incorporation processes, ‘Left Hand Path’ or Kundalini Shaktipath to demonstrate the liminal between the 4 cardinal directions. The between spaces of transition in life. 8 is also the number of spokes on the wheel of Dharma, the cycle of awakening.
5 is the number of self actualisation and the heart centered human, as in the Vitruvian man.
The path of Venus perfects a 5 pointed star in the sky over the course of her full cycle, which is an 8 year cycle.
The Sumerians who initiated the story of Innana (who later became Ishtar under the Babylonians) were incredible astronomers, and inventors of many astronomical devices (for example the astrolabe) and we aware of the planetary and constellatory cycles.

Venus is also known as Lucifer, the Light Bringer in her form as the morning star and Hesperus, the Guiding Light in her form as the evening star.
Therefore Venus is a dual planet and a binary projected consciousness.
She represents the beacon in her evening star form. What we are striving for, yearning for, what we project beauty into, our higher self, our aspirations.
In her morning star form she represents the light of revelation, awakening from unconscious shadow (created through projections and yearning) and realisation.
Be assured it is not ‘wrong’ to be desirous as the evening star, nor is it more noble to be awakened through process as the morning star. This is why Venus, like human desire, has cycles.

As Venus enters retrograde on May 13th to June 25th, we can view today (April 12th ‘Easter’) as the microcosm of that process.
Most astrologers say Venus retrograde is about break-ups and domestic and financial shifts.
I perceive Venus retrograde in a paradigmatic octave is about shedding non-essentials. Seeing if our projections were accurate and depending on how they do in revision either actualising to them or grieving them.
Projection is how we grow. We, like plants, strive for light. We reach for nourishment to power this striving. We see people who inspire us as children and now and we reach for their image. In the process we are becoming. Coming closer to them, or the idea they are representing.
As we come to reach and embody our projections we learn about the shadows of the image. We may crave fame, or a higher position of more beauty or money or love. We come to embody those we see attaining this. In that process we also come to know that shadow. Fame suffocates privacy, higher positions require more time and responsibility, beauty comes with expectation and impermanence, money is a loop of expenses, love requires authenticity to flourish etc. All heavenly bodies have a nature, a process, a 3 dimensional time and matter limitation.
This is the revelation of the morning star, of Lucifer, the one who reveals the grounded nature of the craving.

During Venus retrograde we are deciding what we wish to continue to hold the shadow/nature/process of. What we strived for and what the work of it is that we’ve got to commit to. Beyond the veil is this what you love? It is the time we chose whether or not we wish to re-emerge together with this idea, project, or partner. The self especially is something we can change our willingness to re-emerge with. We can completely transform who we believe we are and want to be, once we see the shadow of this.

Venus is retrograding in the sign of Gemini, which is the sign of inter-relatedness.
This is a powerful time to establish your soul family, your true tribe and true community and to reflect on how you are communicating. We will be seeing what we are projecting into others and revealing about ourselves. We will also being seeing the work we have to do to ground and care for the community, family, love, care and solidarity we are craving. We may have to accept rejection gracefully and prevent retaliation at unmet desires or needs. As this time rules the inter-relatedness of the twins, it’s certainly about being met half-way by the people we are co-creating with, including our governing agencies and our elemental, plant, animal, and mineral relatives.

This will manifest largely in the macrocosm of

Universal Basic Income discussion.
‘Othering’ and migration debates.
Intentional Community Building.
Depth of interdependence of globalization revelations.
Sibling rivalry revealed.
Self-sabotaging tendancies brought to awareness.
Exploitation brought to light.
Lying tendencies being ineffective.
Most potently (for me) including a healing environmental consciousness in our future though reduced human interference.
Personal habits of people pleasing and government placation collapsing.
For a personalized knowledge of how this will affect you check what astrological house you have Gemini in. Also check what sign your Venus is in.

Gemini can be oblivious and self centred, trying always to optimize personal outcomes and simply forgetting that others are involved in the process.
Leave that aspect of yourself at the Gates of Realisation.
This isn’t about you.
This is about us.

To optimize Gemini make a plan for meeting your shadow with vulnerability, honesty and humility. Staying with it until you can re-emerge knowing what you have in this world that is and isn’t supportive is a process of clearing incompatibility and making space for grateful co-creation.

2020 is a year of clearing cognitive dissonance.
If it isn’t true for you then it will not survive this.
Be honest about your desires and wishes and what you can believe in.
To achieve this honesty and clarity we have to pass through to admittance of what IS NOT WORKING FOR ME.
If you have sacrificed a part of yourself, today is a day to make the intention to resurrect that part, in it’s shadow and it highest expression, with divine compassion.

Watch your intention unfold over this summer, to be more fully yourself and to release yourself from anything in your life that restricts this part of you held hostage for so long.

In this time undeniably we are facing our underworld, while you’re down there you might as well strip yourself back to the essentials and let yourself see how powerful you really are.

Then we can all come together again as who we truly are.