On March 4th, Venus, the planet most associated with love and beauty, shuffled backwards into a six-week retrograde, gliding first through the sign of Aries, followed by a jaunt into Pisces, where it will eventually turn direct on April 15th.
This retrograde, unlike that of Mercury, occurs solely once every eighteen months and as Venus is the ruling planet of both Libra and Taurus, this isn't forced contemplation in just one area of our lives, but two; that of love and money.
As with all retrogrades, this is a period of intense reflection. A time to reevaluate what is and is not working in certain aspects of our lives, most especially in regards to the love we have for others and in turn for ourselves. We might be finding ourselves asking what exactly it is that we value in this lifetime. What is it that truly brings us joy, happiness and a sense of fulfilment.
With the first few weeks of this retrograde spent in fiery Aries, anything that wasn't quite in balance was suddenly up for inspection, whether that was work or relationship related. Ultimately, Venus wants harmony and in order to obtain it, certain things needed to be dealt with. Therefore any previous leanings we may have had towards burying our head in the sand and hoping our problems went away were probably eradicated during this time frame. Whether we liked it or not, for the good of all, our cracks were now fully on display.
Being the first sign of the zodiac, Aries literally represents beginnings and forward motion. It demands action and it's not about to wait around for everyone to get their shit together before it proceeds forward. It's a now or never, do or die kinda sign. It's not about to compromise. This astrological hot head wants all or nothing.
And just as we thought all hell was breaking loose on the emotional front, Venus did a side step into watery Pisces, a mutable sign that ushers in both endings and thus in turn beginnings. With this energy in charge, it was probably always on the cards that old habits, old wounds and potentially old flames were going to crop up, in order to be redealt with.
This shuffle back and forth between signs is comparable to the tide flowing in and out. Venus wants to pull back, collect what it can from the sea's murky depths and then drag its findings out onto the shoreline. It's attempting to cleanse its waters of any pollutants that might have collected negligently over time. It's arduous work granted and the emotional fallout can be intense, but oh is it necessary.
By the time Venus moves back round to close out its retrograde, we'll be only too painfully aware of what we need to cut loose, whether that's a person, a relationship, a job or even just an outdated idea we have of ourselves and the way we do things. It will be time to finally let go of anything we've come to realise no longer serves us. This shift in energy, if we choose to use it wisely, will help us lay to rest old wounds, old patterns and anything we need to move on from, in order to start anew.
Regardless of the conclusions we come to during this time, the only way we can truly move forward is fearlessly. Love of self, love of others, love of life and of our craft; It takes a courageous heart to love anything at all because it requires us to be able and willing to accept the inevitability of loss. Yet, to hold ourselves back from loving in order to avoid the pitfalls that come attached is to cease to live altogether. When you accept that there is no joy without pain, there is no light without dark, you live in a state of appreciation and non-resistance. You live fully and what is the point to life, if not to be lived.
May this retrograde period bring you the clarity you need and the strength to know what to do with it.