Venus, the second planet from the Sun, goes on its retrograde course around the Sun about every 18 months. The retrograde phase lasts for just about 40-43 days. On May 13 Venus goes retrograde until June 25 during which time we have time to reflect on our ideas, beliefs, and experiences with love. As long as we are tied to worn out conceptions and unresolved issues in this realm, we are unlikely to be able to move into the fullness of our ability to experience love. However we use this time for reflection, discernment, and realigning, the effects will have an impact on the next 10 years.
Love, or our perceptions of what that is, are based on what we value in relationships with others. Love is also based on how we value ourselves and our own development and growth. How do we understand how Venus Retrograde cycles affect us most? It all depends on where in our charts/lives the Natal and Progressed aspects appear, and what houses/areas of our lives the Transiting Venus is in our charts. For example, if I have natal Venus in my 6th house, concern for you during this time will most likely be about taking care of the details and beautification of your daily life, your home environment, and work space. Most likely this would make you a prolific list maker and planner about how to organize or reorganize your daily life spaces and time. During retrograde cycles you'd probably take better care of yourself, work on improving your hygiene and appearance, and spend time refreshing your living and work spaces.
In terms of relationships, you'd probably be spending more time with partners with shared interests in the daily life aspects of you, your work, and your home. Ideally, you might even attract those with whom you could live and work with harmoniously. And if you are not with someone like that, it would most likely be a longing. The nature of the 6th house is how your sense of order, beauty, and passion are grounded. Another aspect of this would be the sign in which Venus is transiting. Venus in Aries would have more of a quixotic and fiery nature, while Venus in Taurus would be even more soundly grounded in showing love, rather than the flowery speech of lovers. Creating beauty is Taurean domain, and Venus would be enhanced in this sign.
When in retrograde, whatever the house or sign, would signal a time when whatever is out of order in this area, wherever we are not fulfilled or satisfied, would become problematic. At the very least we'd begin to feel the need to rethink issues and conditions related to both the house (area of our lives) and the sign (energy and rulership of the sign). Retrograde times are slowing down times. They are the periods of time when whatever area of our lives are most affected, would be in need of rethinking, renewal, and refreshing. When we get stuck in old, outworn beliefs or patterns or both, we create limitation where none need be.
Retrograde times are not times of punishment or deprivation, but of a time when we can really examine what we value in ourselves, in our ways of living and being, in our concepts about love, compassion, and beauty, and in our interactions with others in partnerships, friendships, and relationships.
Venus will enter her retrograde cycle in mid-May in the sign of Gemini, at 21'50". This period will be tumultuous as it's a time when we're going to be rethinking just about everything about how we do relationships. We are going to be aware of where we have been lost in the darkness of our own fears, wounds, and distorted views of love. Venus pulls us out of the depths of despair or awakens us to the lapses and distance we've been experiencing. Rather than making plans or making changes, we spend this retrograde time reviewing and remembering what our lives have revealed about how we value and view love, beauty, relationships, and the full expression of who we are.
Artists may revive some part of themselves that set them on the course to creating beauty long ago. We may also be awakened to those times and connections that most deeply touched us and helped us feel alive and fulfilled. This journey into exploring our experiences in and of love, may be somewhat uncomfortable, especially if the beliefs and stories we've created to rationalize or justify our experiences are built on distortions or a clear perspective of how all involved helped create what became those experiences.
Again, depending upon where Gemini is in your chart, this retrograde transit of Venus will swoop in and open our inner awareness and it will evoke the emotions, memories, passions, and woundedness that has yet to heal. As Venus transits through the houses, note how it may affect you in your life:
1st house transits will raise the possibility of rethinking the way you choose to present yourself to the world. Our worlds have all changed significantly and suddenly, so this retrograde period may be just what you need to reevaluate the ways you want to refine or redefine yourself. Some may be reconsidering their public persona, or considering adding a new dimension to what you already do.
2nd house transits are in the area of your life where you determine what you value and what your own worth is. Often this is programmed into us when we're young, but as we grow and develop, it is more and more a choice we make on our own. Who are you, and what really matters to you? What are you willing to do, what can you learn to enhance your skills and scope, and what do you want to do more of and less of? It's a time to get your priorities/values straight, and to work on integrating who you really are with what you need and want.
3rd house transits focus our attention on all forms of communication, particularly with those near us (siblings, neighbors, community) as well as the varied forms of communication. We may notice areas of this realm where you find yourself overwhelmed or out of contact. You may notice ways that no longer satisfy or meet your needs, and may begin remembering how you've compromised or rationalized others' needs over your won. Time for finding balance amid the shifts. Finding new ways of communicating is necessary now, and for you, this is even more important.
4th house transits involve the inner sense of feeling at home, with yourself, and in your home. How are you feeling about where you are and how you are feeling about being at home? How are your security needs being met, and what is in need of readjusting, realigning, or removing in order to regain a sense of safety, security, and comfort?
5th house transits involve our ability to enjoy life, create beauty, find pleasure, and connect with children. Your appetite for joy may be reawakened, and you may discover greater depth in your creativity and may feel the urge to break away from established and routine patterns to open yourself to unknown depths.
6th house transits focus our attention on our daily routines, the work we do, and our physical bodies/health. We may be paying closer attention to the details of daily life and routines, with an aim to create a healthier, more balanced life. It might be a time when clearing clutter and unnecessary parts of life is called for. A good time to sift and sort so that there's room for new plans, new methods and/or a new set of priorities in your daily life/work routines. When we are happy with what we do, we nourish our health and well being.
7th house transits are all about relationships, partnerships, and marriages. The places in our lives where we work in tandem with others. We associate many of our partnerships on love and marriages on love and romance. We also identify our partnerships as an extension of our own fulfillment, and during the retrograde, we may become more critical of what we perceive. No relationship or partnership can flourish and grow if it's stuck in ruts and choked off by the weeds. Time to clear the air regarding what we need, desire, and expect of, first, ourselves in relationship, and then of our partners. Knowing who I am and what I want or expect is crucial in all relationships. We cannot bury ourselves in someone else's vision without paying a price. Nor do we want to trap anyone in our own unconscious needs.
8th house transit is a time to review life and look for the blast from the past that got you motivated, charged, or set on fire for life. When dreams die, as Langston Hughes wrote, it is often because of that dream deferred. What dreams have you allowed to die, and what might you need to do to revive them and get that passion for life back? Go deep and go out on a limb to refresh your memories, revive you imagination, and let you intuition and spirituality be the path to fulfillment and love.
9th house transits remind us of of the wanderlust that has been put on hold abruptly. Dreams and plans may have fallen apart or at the very least, changed direction or course. Time to reevaluate possibilities, and to remember Emily Dickinson's words, "I dwell in possibilities." The nature of exploration may be on hold or may be changed in significant ways, but your quest may find new avenues, yet to be imagined.
10th house transits are all about our life purpose, often taken to be a career. But a career is only part of that quest. Life purpose is the bedrock of who we are and what our journey here is. It exists in spite of anything else we do purposely. Our life purpose is what we do to bring service, meaning, and the fullness of our human expression to life. This retrograde time is when you examine this purpose more deeply and make plans, plans that will carry you into the next 10 years.
11th house transits are about our friendships, associations, group activities, and connections to institutions. As most of us see and experience, this has shifted almost overnight. Some of us are working and homeschooling and taking care of all the household chores. We've had to change the way we rely on others, and have become more responsible in some ways, and less so in others. This period of time, though it may be tumultuous, is a valuable time for reassessing what we need and what we can offer others. We must make some adjustments now in order not to burn ourselves out.
12th house transits are about the unconscious, hidden aspects of our lives, that appear to us in forms like dreams, intuition, sparks of ideas, and chance meetings and opportunities. What are our hidden resources, and how can we more creatively access them so that we can grow and nurture ourselves and those we love? What hidden beauty is longing to be expressed, and how might we engage with the subconscious to bring that beauty into the open?
Whatever the Venus Retrograde transit has in store for you, it's a crucial time for evaluating what we truly love, value, and desire to create in our lives. How we handle ourselves at this time, through this transit in particular, will provide the impetus, energy, and focus for what we do for the next 10 years. For those who were around for the Summer of Love in the 1970s, think back to what was growing in your life then, for this is a new opportunity to take out those old dreams, dust them off, and no longer defer from creating ways for them to come true. Blessings all.
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