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...