A Chaotic Start to Venus Retrograde

Venus is currently stationary at 8° Scorpio, preparing to turn retrograde. During her sacred 40-day underworld journey, she'll travel backward through the early degrees of Scorpio and eventually stationing direct at 22° Libra, the Air sign she rules.

What makes the start of this Venus retrograde especially intense, even chaotic, is the landscape it’s occurring in. Venus is in her sign of detriment, Mars-ruled Scorpio, where themes of death, destruction, determination, trauma, and bonding run deep. She is also conjunct messenger Mercury, and together they form a tense T-square with Mars in Leo and Pluto in Aquarius. If we bring in Chiron, we have nearly a Grand Cross formation with the wounded healer.

The destructive potential of the Mars–Pluto opposition is loud right now. Mars in Leo is eager to take bold, audacious risks, while Pluto in Aquarius represents the revolutionary renovation running beneath the collective's angst.

Oppositions often play out through relationships: planets at opposite ends of an archetypal spectrum, facing each other and fully aware of one another. Unlike squares, oppositions aren't always about conflict. However, Mars is a planet of conflict, as well as assertiveness, impulse, and action, and here Mars is fired up to challenge the power Pluto represents. A Mars opposition can be as much about rebellion against as it is about its competitive streak being ignited.

Pluto contains buried, volcanic energy, and Mars is the trigger that sets it off. Mars moves quickly, while Pluto moves slowly and carries a heavy, concentrated charge. When Mars rips open the wound, the seething resentments and buried traumas Pluto has been holding are unleashed.

Meanwhile, Mercury in Scorpio is forming tight squares to both Mars and Pluto. Mercury in Scorpio is notoriously secretive, because the information it holds can be dangerous or shameful to reveal. With Mercury at the apex of the T-square, caught between provocative Mars and demanding Pluto, the pressure to reveal long-guarded taboo or traumatic information becomes inevitable.

Chiron, retrograde at the anaretic degree of Aries, is the wounded warrior whose fresh battle scars are part of the story being told by Mercury. There's been an onslaught of painful stories being aired in the collective this past week. One of the most prominent being the sexual assault allegations at Cornell University which has triggered another tidal wave of #MeToo revelations on social media.

This is the combustible atmosphere in which Venus slows to reverse direction. As the goddess of the feminine, love, attraction, money, pleasure, desire, and biological survival, a retrograde Venus ultimately draws us inward to reassess our deepest desires and to release the "dead" values that no longer serve our emotional growth and evolution.

This period can certainly bring back former lovers, along with old emotional bonds, past pleasures, and forgotten creative pursuits that may temporarily reawaken passions. Any retrograde can be a fertile time to experiment, and with Venus, that experimentation often shows up in how we relate to one another. Venus in Scorpio relates through emotional bonding and power plays, while Venus in Libra relates through diplomacy, people-pleasing, and aesthetics. Moving between the two can feel uncomfortable, but this underworld journey is like trying on a range of personas before settling on one that feels the most authentic.

Erin Sullivan writes about the Venus retrograde station:
"An instinctive recoiling occurs at the station-retrograde, sometimes because of an event, at other times as a conscious, voluntary retreat. More often than not, the area in the chart which is being examined by Venus retrograde has gone unattended for some time - certainly with this deep perspective. One tends unconsciously to withdraw, seeking hidden meaning in experience, hoping to draw value or deeper knowledge from one's daily interactions. The area in which Venus is retrogressing becomes vulnerable to attack and is often the stage for a confrontation upon resuming direct motion."

Take some time to reflect on the area of your natal chart where Venus is retrograding, from 22° Libra to 8° Scorpio. Which house, or houses, does this span cover for you? What has been neglected in this area of your life? And what role do relationships, desire, and beauty play here for you?

Throughout this retrograde, it can be helpful to look back at the last time Venus retrograded in this part of the zodiac, in 2018. That year, Venus stationed retrograde on October 5 at 10° Scorpio and stationed direct on November 16 at 25° Libra. This retrograde won't be an exact repeat, but expect echoes of both the Venus in Scorpio themes (bonding, betrayal, and power dynamics around relationships and money) and the Venus in Libra themes (cooperation, beauty, and justice).

For specific guidance on how this Venus retrograde period will unfold for you, book your 1-1 astrological consultation on zoom here.