How to make and defend art during venus rx

It’s Venus Retrograde, that time every 18 months or so where we are invited to go to couples counseling to check in with our relationship with Creativity. Venus Rx also has to do with love and relationships, of course, but Venus is also that pleasure-loving planet that is in charge of art and culture and all things erotic — erotic in the Audre Lorde sense of the term, as that which generates and sustains life force:

The erotic is a measure between the beginnings of our sense of self and the chaos of our strongest feelings. It is an internal sense of satisfaction to which, once we have experienced it, we know we can aspire. For having experienced the fullness of this depth of feeling and recognizing its power, in honor and self-respect we can require no less of ourselves.

— Audre Lorde, “Uses of the Erotic”

In fiery, bold, take-no-prisoners Aries, Venus Retrograde asks us to reclaim that erotic which has been misunderstood and maligned. To stand up for reproductive rights. To stand up for all women. To defend that which is considered (or damned as) “feminine.” To redefine what femininity is, period. In Aries, Venus is doing her job — making love, making art — with warrior Mars’ tools. This is a time to fight for who you love, for who you want to fuck, for your right to pleasure. To defend the arts and the humanities and all that would be censored and designated “obscene” by conservative courts.

But in order to do this, in order to defend the art of others, we must first ensure that our own creative wells are full. And if your well is full and you are ready to fucking go, find a local protest! Call your reps about censorship and obscenity and book bans! Go to your local school board and library meetings and town halls! Go to a local drag show! Put your money into local artist collectives and organizations! SUPPORT ARTISTS, WHO ARE, EACH OF US, SMALL BUSINESSES. The best time to start showing up is now, and perfection / guilt for “not getting involved sooner” is a tool of white supremacist class warfare to keep us divided.

If your well needs filling, however. If you have barely any energy for your own art, let alone supporting or protesting on behalf of anyone else’s. Here are some small, inexpensive, easy-to-customize ways to invest in your creative practice this Venus Rx — and to prioritize the Input that enables the Output.

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1. Take your project on a creative date

Longtime clients will recognize this one. Expanding on Julia Cameron’s “artist’s date” from The Artist’s Way, I have long advocated that my clients take their projects, specifically, on a date. Are you writing about an art historian, or about Romanticism? Find a local museum, or a film, that have to do with that time period. Immerse yourself in it, for once, rather than just doing “research.”

Other options: Take an in-conversation book to a coffee shop. Put on an album you think your main character would love and go for a drive, singing along. Do an activity your character loves, or does. You get the idea. This is an ideal Venus Rx activity, in the sense that we are revisiting our projects and really checking in about what is and isn’t working.

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2. Indulge your inner child

Go to (or stream) your favorite kids movie! Get some fancy grown-up slime for tactile and sensory enjoyment! Book a beginner ice skating lesson! Play D&D! Go to a toy store! Break out the arts and crafts, or go to Michaels or your local dollar store and pick some up! Build a fort in the living room!

I think it’s horrible that “play” is something adults “age” out of — perhaps namely because the further away we get from play, the further we get from the ease of creativity. Children create all the time. Just for the hell of it. They aren’t precious about their stories or drawings. They make something, and they let it go. They don’t hyperfixate on it being perfect, or on judging its value over whether they can sell it.

I know that some folks look down on inner child work, but I’d encourage you to tap into it, however briefly, if only because it helps to condition our creative muscles and get back in the habit of creating abundantly and without judgment.

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3. Spend time with creative community

Too often, writing is solitary business. And like, that’s normal. But also: it is really nice and encouraging to write in community with others, or at least to have fellow artists we talk about writing and art and creativity with. Venus is all about connection and relationships, and so Venus Rx is a beautiful time to reconnect with artist friends you haven’t talked to lately, or to join a writing-forward Discord (like the astrology for writers discord!), or to find an accountability group. Grab dinner or a Zoom/Facetime drink with one of your writer friends. My own writers’ group is meeting this week, and the timing couldn’t be more perfect.

Creating in a silo isn’t fun, and it’s not especially supportive of the artist’s mental health either. Sharing the process — and its beauties and frustrations — with folks who get it is both career- and sanity-saving.