Venus Retrograde: All things breathe together
This Sunday, February 23, Mars stations and goes direct, moving forward for the first time in 2025. Mars’ retrograde motion has given us a somewhat slow start to the beginning of the year, and now, gradually, as he doesn’t move out of his shadow period, meaning he is moving more slowly, until May 2, our collective sense of initiative and focus will begin to feel like it is more back on track. I like to think of the post-retrograde shadow period as a time when we can work to consciously integrate into our lives some of what we realized during a retrograde period.
This is the trick with any transit, if we want to harness their invitation, we have to view them not as random events that we are at the effect of, but rather processes with which we can choose to consciously participate. This is how you use your chart to align with your evolution. This is rooted in the belief that the universe/your soul is a benevolent force. Why not work with it?
Astrology can be used in many profound ways. A reading provides insight into the road ahead, most often with astonishingly specific details. Ideally, these are seen within the spiritual context revealed within your natal chart, the what, where, and why of this lifetime. In other words, the context of it all lies within the natal chart. But that’s just the beginning. Your chart is a treasure map. It can be used as a tool for self-discovery, and inner realization. It reveals inner depths that you have felt but not been able to fully articulate. Working with it in a process-oriented manner can help you to come home to yourself, to truly experience a sense of awe in the magic of how your life is and has been continuously unfolding and you’ve been supported the entire time.
Our lives aren’t happening to us, they are happening through us. They are both an embodiment and reflection of our creative expression.
During any retrograde a planetary archetype has paused and changed its direction. Symbolically, we are being asked to do the same, to pause and then to shift, to change direction.
This Sunday Mars changes direction and moves forward, yet Venus pauses shortly after, on March 1st, and enters her retrograde period. Mars and Venus are two of the three personal planets, which are, in many ways, the building blocks of our personalities. The third is Mercury. Mars and Venus retrograde less than any of the other planets, personal or otherwise. Mercury retrogrades three times over the course of a year, whereas Mars and Venus change direction only once every other year.
Every moment in time offers an opportunity. During the shadow period before the retrograde, we can begin to prepare to move through our lives with intention and awareness of the shift ahead. What does this mean? If we choose, we can begin to gather ourselves and shift our focus, aligning with the flow of how the universe is moving around us.
When Venus retrogrades, for 40 days and nights, she heads to the underworld before she is reborn as a morning star. The fact that her retrograde is 40 days and nights is fascinating, we see this number throughout myth and mysticism. Noah and the ark, Jesus and the desert, Elijah fasted for 40 days, and some pagan traditions believe that the soul continues to wander the earth for forty days after the initial death. The number of weeks in the typical 9-month pregnancy is measured at 40. In mysticism, this amount of time signals the preparation or purification stage such as in a spiritual rebirth, mimicking the physical birth time frame. In alchemy, an Alchemical or Philosophic Month consists of 40 days and is sometimes used during stages of the alchemical process.
Venus is full of magic. We directly experience glimpses of this when we are in love. At these beautiful moments, we feel at one with the movement of the universe. We are past, present, and future all in one. No boundaries can contain us, there is nothing we can’t achieve. The truth is this experience awakens us, even if it is just for a brief moment.
Archetypally, Venus is about connection. She is the planet that governs relationships, both with others and with ourselves. Where she is placed, we are learning how to live our authentic values, and priorities. She is about our felt sense of worth. Her symbol represents a hand mirror, which is a mirror that is turned toward ourselves, our desires, and our longings, that point us down a path that is valuable to ourselves.
Attuning with Venus is to attune ourselves to our essence, to our core. When we apprentice ourselves to her over time, we learn that love isn’t an emotion, or an experience, or a state of being. Love is a power. A connecting power. It’s the ultimate creative force.
That’s the essence of the opportunity of a Venus retrograde. To practice consciously aligning yourself with this creative force, and then during the post-shadow period to work to integrate some of what you began to understand.
Let me also acknowledge, Venus retrogrades are infamous for breakups and divorce. Consciously or unconsciously, our values are realigned during this period. (One of my primary rules for using astrology to choose a wedding date, known as electional astrology, is never get married during a Venus retrograde.) Generally, it is not considered an optimum time to begin any new partnership, romantic or otherwise, because often shortly after Venus goes direct, you discover that you and the person you have aligned yourself with have very different values.
It is an introspective period. Think of her hand mirror again. The power during a Venus retrograde is to look within, but remember; the universe is constantly reflecting parts of our inner world that we remain blind to, whether because we refuse to see or simply can’t. One empowering question to ask yourself is, “What am I pretending I don’t know?”
The reason we pretend not to know something is that we are afraid of the implications of knowing. What will knowing require of us? But to truly step into the life we imagine, the life that is at the very least a whisper in our ear, a siren song we cannot let go of, we have to own and value what we know.
