What's Venus Retrograde? Why Does It Matter?
Do you follow astrology? No? That’s okay I’ll explain.
As best as I can anyway. I’m not a master, just educated by a good couple of years of research and a good few astrologer friends. In a sentence; each planet, house, and sign has its own imprint, how they fit together where you are at the exact moment of your birth creates a blueprint. The blueprint of you.
That’s not to say you can go around blaming your chart placements for you shitty behaviors because you have choice, BUT they do show you your natural disposition. This is called a Natal chart, mine looks like this…
Of course it’s not actually simple at all, and the way that the celestial bodies move around us affect our everyday lives. Ask any nurse what happens during the full moon… It influences us on a subconscious level, as do the rest. Today we’re going to focus on Venus retrograde.
Ooooh the planet of love eh? You all know it. Clearly, Venus does influence matters of the heart… she also influences matters of beauty, pleasure, and value (of all kinds, including money and financial purchases). Our Natal Venus shows us what we like, from music and art to the clothes we wear Natal Venus shows us what makes us feel good. She shows us this by where she sits in our chart and how she interacts with the other celestial bodies. Maybe I’ll explain this more in another post, but today we’re not focusing on Natal Placements as much. We’re going to give a general overview of the Transit Venus is making right now, because its going Retrograde baby.
Wait, what’s Retrograde? It’s when a planet moves backwards… or appears to from earth any way. Its some sciency stuff but to put it simply it’s just perspective it isn’t actually moving backwards, but it had a major influence nonetheless. See when a planet is Retrograde the energies of that planet are hyperconcentrated. I would not be surprised if y’all have heard people blaming problems on Mercury Retro. The Retros DO cause problems, they’re disruptive. They do start with re- after all, so you can certainly expect blasts from the past, friends, lovers, colleagues, come crawling out of the woodworks like roaches. You might find yourself reminiscing far more often than usual, the focus is any word that starts with re-; reevaluate, resolve, reconnect, revision, and so on. There’s a reason for this and it’s a good one.
The universe knows better than you about what you’ve left unfinished, unresolved, unhealed. Retrogrades are the universe force feeding it to you so that you can move forward to where you’re supposed to be.
We’re in the midst of one hell of a Retrograde season let me tell ya, Mercury, Mars, and Saturn have all gone direct recently, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto are all currently Retrograde, and Venus has hit its shadow. Shadow? Shadow is the ‘adjustment time’ of a Retrograde. Let’s look at my chart again, simplified because all those lines are confusing.
This Retrograde is between 10 degrees Scorpio and 25 degrees Libra. When Venus hits 25 degrees Libra for the first time we are officially in Shadow. This was September 2nd. Think about September 2nd, think about the days since. Think about the conversations that happened, the issues brought up or ‘resolved’ the types of problems you’ve had, because the things from September 2nd until October 4th are going to be visited again. And again.
Retro goes like this…
25 degrees Libra to 10 degrees Scorpio (Shadow), back from 10 degrees Scorpio to 25 degrees Libra (Retrograde motion), and then resuming normal forward motion from 25 degrees Libra to 10 degrees Scorpio (Shadow). Have you ever lost something and had to retrace all of your steps? Only to find it and turn around to go back the same path to continue what you were doing?
That’s Retrograde. The universe retracing your steps to grab that bit you missed. It makes us examine the lessons related to the planet and placements not once but three times. Without knowing a damned thing about you or your chart I can give you some basics about the kind of things you might expect from a Venus Retrograde.
Any Venus Retrograde there’s going to be a lot of reminiscing, good or bad, about past one on one relationships particularly concerning romantic love. You need to remember the lessons learned from them. It drags them up and makes you look at them. Any Venus Retrograde is going to cause impulses regarding beauty and finances. For the love of god if you’re a tomboy and have sudden urge to throw out all of your jeans and buy a closet full of dresses, don’t. You will most likely regret it when Venus resumes its normal motion in mid December. You might have impulses to drastically change your hair (I chopped my long locks up to my chin last Venus Retrograde and I’m still angry with myself for it) cosmetic surgeries, tattoos, ext… It causes impulses romantically, you may feel abnormally flirty, you may suddenly cheat on your partner, your affair may suddenly be exposed, you may look at the person you’ve been with and thought you really loved and say ‘eh nah’ or suddenly feeling love and attraction towards someone you didn’t anticipate, break up and make ups run rampid, you may have the impulse to go on a spending spree... just… hold off on these kind of impulses for a bit and if you still feel the same in January go for it.
This Venus Retrograde especially. Venus makes this super pretty sky flower pattern. It goes retrograde every 18 monthsish but only at the same five fixed points in the wheel. As mentioned we’re on the Scorpio/Libra Venus Retrograde. The Last Scorpio/Libra Retrograde was around the time of October 2010. They are connected in a way. Think very hard about what was happening in your life at that time, what issues did you leave unresolved? What wounds did you never heal? What haven’t you let go of? Look closely and openly because if you don’t Venus will most likely make you, and it’s never pleasant if the stars have to force your hand.
So let’s start with the beginning of the Shadow and move on through. September 2nd we hit 25 degrees Libra. Venus is happy in Libra, she’s comfortable because Libra (and Taurus) are her homes. She’s doe eyed and has the whole ‘well I’m happy if you’re happy’ feel. She’s smooth, she’s easy going, she’s more willing to compromise and coincide. She’s content. She did square Mars on the 8th, which likely caused a temper flare, a fight, or a sudden angry discontent.
On September 9th she moved into Scorpio. She’s not quite as docile or tame in Scorpio… It is very possible that the Mars flare you felt was almost instantly addressed… In deep, transformative Scorpio she wants MORE. She’s restless and unfulfilled and she is not at all afraid to make it known. She’s seductive and dark here as well. She wants it ALL and can feel very, very instance. Jealousy, infidelity, obsession are the negative sides of Venus in Scorpio. There can be positives though in the form of deep connection, sexual exploration, and raw self sharing.
She’s going to continue forward like this, hopefully more on the positive end as she crawls towards slow moving lucky Jupiter, but she will stop at ten degrees on October 10th more likely backtracking with even more inesisity and predisposition to bring those intense negative traits along for the ride. She’ll be squaring off with mars again on October 10th so be prepared for some seriously intense flares. Or some seriously intense desires. Maybe both.
On October 15th however she makes a harmonious aspect to Mercury, so that might just break into smoother communications. This is where you’ll likely talk out those arguments or at least try. October 26th, invisible to our eye she makes a conjunction with the Sun. The Sun is the center, the Sun is the self. This is where you’ll feel yourself asking “Do I love this? Do I love them? What am I getting out of this? What am I sacrificing?” I personally don’t view this as selfish or narcissistic, your needs are just as important as anyone else’s so don’t be afraid to ask those big questions, and don’t be afraid of how you feel about the answers.
On October 31st she makes an explosive opposition with rebellious Uranus. Uranus loves to shake things up, to rock you to the core, thankfully Venus also returns to her sweeter nature as she re-enters Libra. On November 9th she makes a harmonious aspect with Mars, if you’re going to fight for or against the situation, this is likely where it will start. On November 15th she changes course again as she hits 25 degrees Libra, you might feel a little less like you’re swimming against the current, breathe a little. We still have the Shadow though so keep holding off on those major decision while you go back over everything. November 30th we get another of those Uranus opposition shake ups. This, I feel, is the final general Retrograde test. From there, on December 2nd, she moves back into Scorpio feeling that intensity with a dash of uplifting hopefulness from Jupiter. Finally, she leaves Shadow and takes her normal place in the sky on December 18th.
This is the general overview. Where 25 degrees Libra to 10 degrees Scorpio is in your chart, and what Natal planets are there, is a major influence and will show you where your personal over all focus is going to be. Peep my chart again. This entire Retrograde is happening in my 6th house. So for me while this is happening I’ll also have a huge, huge focus on physical and spiritual health, daily routine, work/work environment, all the little nuances that make up the whole of a day will be my big concentration. For someone with the Retro going through their 2nd house… they’d be looking at how they value their personal finances. For 11th, social life and friendships.
If you don’t know where this is happening for you and you want to, drop a comment and (with the right information) I can (for 1 steem, this shit is time consuming) give personalized Venus Retrograde reports based on house placement of the transit and which planets it hits in your Natal chart. Any questions on the general Venus Retrograde report just ask me bellow. ;) Peace and love galactic travelers.