Exceptional greenhouse effects and constant volcanic eruptions make Venus the hottest planet in our solar system. We look to Venus to understand our romantic paths and circumstances most commonly in astrology, but it can also wrap up our value systems, our sense of femininity, and our own scope of beauty. Venus is bursting with heat, held in by its own atmosphere. It is also usually the brightest star in the night sky. Wherever and however Venus lands in your chart, its power is bright, hot, and defining to the house it illuminates. This is all to say that our collective obsession with love, relationships, and beauty are laid out in the stars. We want to love more than fight, or work, or change. We are called to experience our own hottest heats, our own constant simmering, and our atmospheric enclosures of love.
Every 18 months, Venus goes retrograde. On the 6th of this month, Venus will stop its usual path and visually start moving backward. Venus will start its retrograde phase in Scorpio, and move back into Libra next month. Venus defines how we love; Venus retrograde makes us strongly consider why. It brings up history; it brings back previous partners, memories, and challenges. It exposes the shaky, shitty parts of our current relationships. It challenges our foundation of who we are as romantic humans: why we go for a “type,” why we are constantly in the same rut in our relationships. Ideally, this is a time to ditch the bad parts of our history. This is a time for ending relationships that don’t function well. This is a time to make amends with yourself for being in something that was bad for you, whether ten years ago or last week. From person to person, and dysfunction to dysfunction, this will appear differently and with varying levels of grief. Everyone can consider how to be better in their romantic lives, and undo pain caused or ignored.
This retrograde phase starting in Scorpio is a doozy. Scorpio rules birth, death, and sex. Working on our romantic foundations and undoing trauma around any of these themes is the name of the game. If you don’t know where to even start on this transit, here are some homework questions: Where does your sexual worth come from? How do you hold sexual trauma and bring it into your current sexual experiences? How does the idea of the loss of a loved one impact the way you date or maintain partnerships? Do you feel physically, emotionally, and spiritually safe in the way that you start new relationships? Do you want to have a kid? Are you with someone who wants to have a kid? This is a time to get tested for STIs. Be honest and vulnerable and open about what you need in your love and sex lives. They are different, and we can very clearly define either or both during this month.
The most common fear of this retrograde phase is breaking up. The planets are an internal compass for our movements. Having all your past and present crap brought to the surface when you haven’t worked through it might cause a breakup, but sometimes we can’t work on ourselves while maintaining bad relationships. Boundaries and rules are tested, and it is important to think about our choices before we act on impulse during this retrograde phase.
ARIES
The last time Venus was retrograde was March of 2017, in your sign. Sometimes, it’s good to think about how far we have come in our romantic experiences and expectations between Venus retrogrades. This precise stretch of time between these two signs is especially important for you, Aries. Venus retrograde of 2017 ripped open everything to show you some truths, and this retrograde will show you the lasting impacts. The suggestion to every sign is to consider their own history, and this retrograde phase will be dense with people popping up from your past, sexual revelations, and a keen relationship to your feminine energy. Mars will be in your house of friendship this month, so if any of this gets too heavy, your friends will be the life raft. Surround yourself with people who were there or have been there for you in heartbreak or change.
TAURUS
Your ruling planet, Venus, goes retrograde this month, in your opposing sign of Scorpio. This is also the last full month of Jupiter in opposition to your sign. There are so many important lessons to be learned here: in the way that you love and in the things you want, need, and feel in your romantic history and future. These transits open up a part of you that is untouched usually—your extreme relationship to longevity and the future. You do not need to sacrifice yourself because you promised you’d be something forever. Careful consideration of the burdens you are carrying specifically related to your love life are key during this transit. There is a significant energy around marriage this month: you can do irreversible damage to a marriage that exists, end the same fight that’s been happening since you met, or decide to never marry. There is an emotional and social response that is totally individual to marriage, and it is time to deconstruct it.
GEMINI
This month’s Venus retrograde lands in your house of daily life. Everyone is looking for the perfect work/life/health balance, and it seems like there is always something that needs more of a central role as a means for survival. This month, you will be forced to explore how work and health inform your romantic life and endeavors. Do you work too much to be present for a relationship? Do you work too little and create mental drama in your relationship out of boredom? Something to be aware of: the small things that annoy you about people you are romantically interested or involved with will be magnified a lot with this transit. Do not yell at your partner for the way they chew, for example. Unfortunately, this is a transit that might just make you salty in your love life, but even constant annoyance can be productive.
CANCER
Sometimes the act of emotionally reacting makes us feel that something is behind us, as if we can just get past years of dysfunction or difficulty because we cried and talked about it with our best people. This month on the 6th, Venus retrograde will nudge open some doors to what you are avoiding in your romantic history: what you aren’t over, what you need to change, and who you need to cut out. Cancer’s superpower is being able to make room for the people you love, to the point of that person fully taking over. Kicking someone out of that space, especially romantically, is an act that goes against your nature. You want to love someone fully and deeply; you want to know that you are with them always. Often, this creates feelings of inadequacy and personal distrust. Your homework for this month: how has your ability to love people through dysfunction shaped your relationships?
LEO
The planets of love and action (Venus and Mars) are in a square to your sign for the entire month. Squares produce change, and generally not in a way that is quiet or gentle. When Venus goes into a retrograde motion on the 6th, you can expect major changes in your love life. It will happen in Scorpio, stirring up very personal, emotional, lifelong patterns and awareness of who you have loved (and how) from your past. This is all happening while Uranus and Neptune are retrograde, which will help soften the blow, especially when you allow yourself to take a break from all the work that comes with these transits. In your free time, prioritize unwavering love and new places.
VIRGO
Let’s talk about sex, bay-bee. This month, Venus retrograde lands in Scorpio, the sign of sexual health and desire, in your house of communication and learning. Whether sex is a central part of your current life or in a galaxy far away, you can explore a lot around this part of your health. As a person who is deeply rooted in knowledge of self and health in any way possible, it is important that you strongly consider your sexual health during this transit. This is a good time to get STI tested and have your reproductive health looked into. This is also a good time to communicate your desires and make choices in your romantic life if you feel unfulfilled. This is an important and significant time to think about how your sexual history has influenced your relationships, and talk about this influence. Mars is in your house of daily life, boosting the messages this transit brings to a daily awareness of health, and positive outcomes in action around these health choices.
LIBRA
Venus retrograde, by its nature, has a way of imploding our value systems, especially in the romantic department. So picture this: you’re truly in love, makin’ lists together, checkin’ things off—and out of nowhere, you feel the internal pressure to get out, to see what else there is. Obviously, this message can be productive, but you consistently know your movement and the measures of your health. You can take risks, but make sure you consider the whole picture. An unattached Libra will come face to face with every part of themselves that they value, and how their value is reflected in the way that they date and choose new partners. It is time to highly consider if you go after people on your level. Mars spends this month in a trine to your sign, bringing the important message to come back to yourself, always.
SCORPIO
This is a very dynamic month for you, Scorpio. Venus is in your sign all month, and starts a retrograde phase on the 6th. Mercury is conjunct Venus in your sign from the 13th to the 18th, and on the 24th the sun enters your sign. This is a time to face your dysfunction head on, and make actual change in your mindsets and outcomes, especially romantically. This month also marks a time where you get a lot of empowerment through the processes you are naturally doing anyway. Processing deeply, expressing feelings, and taking necessary emotional steps is a lot easier, and you should feel more understood during this time. If you have periods of doubts during this time, Mars is square your sign, reminding you not to fall too deep into any spiral. But if you feel the spiral coming anyway, reach out to a close friend who can help you check yourself.
SAGITTARIUS
Venus retrograde happens this month on the 6th in your house of spirituality and psychic energy. There is a lot of power in relationships where you share a very private and personal connection. There is magic in the world that only the two of you know about. The problem with this transit is that it has the potential to bring in people that are seemingly fine, but in your private world are not good to you. And maybe this energy has already happened. The secret world that you lived in with someone was not as rosy as you presented. This is a time to sort that out. Feeling someone on a spiritual level is key to your happiness; the murky, gross parts of what you took away from that secret world can be shed now.
CAPRICORN
On the first day of this month, Pluto goes direct in your sign, re-energizing the almost decade-long transformation through Capricorn. This retrograde phase started in April, and during it there was an eclipse in your opposing sign and Saturn went retrograde and direct. There is so much below the surface that will come flying out this month, Capricorn. The direction you need to take will become so clear, and you should feel full momentum in the same way you felt last spring. Venus is retrograde this month and part of next in your house of friendship. There is a likelihood that you will have to walk a close friend through heartbreak. If you are in a relationship, reacquaint yourself with the idea that your partner is your friend. If you are not in a relationship and want to be, consult your dearest friends to either set you up or give you some thoughts about how to meet new people. If you’re not looking, it is still a good time to consider your own romantic past. Oftentimes, Venus retrograde has teachable moments that we are not expecting, after which we are fully changed as a romantic partner (single or not).
AQUARIUS
The retrograde phase of Venus is happening in a square to your sign this month, starting on the 6th and going through November. In our love lives, it is natural to fall into a routine that just works for us. With comfort, it is rare to challenge ourselves. This Venus retrograde will do just that, even to a point of discomfort. Squares in astrology create challenge, and sometimes these challenges just pop up from nowhere. In this case, the “nowhere” is your deep psyche cleaning out your history and showing you how it manifests in your current and past relationships. Mars spends the month in your sign, which will definitely help with knowing what to do with this extreme self-acknowledgment. Now is a time to take action and right wrongs. Now is a time to have difficult conversations and face truths that you have been avoiding. These planets are not here to smooth things over just yet, and you have reason to feel the upset. Use that energy for change.
PISCES
When major changes occur in water signs, you feel them so fully, and the ripple effects for years after. This month, on the 6th, Venus goes retrograde in Scorpio, which has a positive-result-trine to your sign. In thoroughly investigating our romantic history, a lot can come up. It is not that difficult for you to pull up the feelings a relationship brought to your life, and this is a good time to examine those feelings and heal spaces where they did not serve you well. A word to the wise on this transit: there is a tendency to reach out, to create peace or get clarity during a Venus retrograde. This is not ideal for your sign, because with the skewed view of this transit, you could see the heart of the matter without seeing the fangs of the predator. As you sort things out, keep your eyes open.
by CHRISTINA IGOE | @iamastrology
illustrations KALLIE TIFFAU
