“There is freedom within, there is freedom without
Try to catch the deluge in a paper cup” 

Don’t Dream Its Over – Crowded House

Venus the Goddess of Beauty, Love, Fun, Pleasure & Relationships, is about to make her trip to the mythical underworld; disappearing from sight for 40 days and 40 nights. Beginning on March 4th, this Astrological transit is sees our Goddess withdrawal from the public sphere and turn our lights inwards as we reflect on all things Venus  that are in our lives.

Venus retrogrades every 18 months, this time around the Venusian Voodoo is ending a cycle in Fire Signs.  Placed right at the turning point of the zodiacal cycle, Pisces & Aries. The point of Endings and Beginnings.  Venus turns retrograde on March 4th 2017 until April 15th 2017.

On her travels, Venus begins this cycle as an evening star,  being visible at night before disappearing from the night sky as it enters its retrograde. As Venus goes behind the Sun, She is said to be traveling down to the Underworld to have her baptism with Pluto/Hades or Lucifer in the Biblical retelling. Before re-emerging into the Night Sky as a Morning Star, visible again just before dawn.

Venus when retrograde is about about reflection, turning the light inwards and re-evaluating your own personal Venusian values and re working your Venusian Voodoo. As this retrograde is in Aries and Pisces, Aries and Pisces energy flavours it,  Pisces is the end of the zodiac cycle, Aries is the beginning of it. This Retrograde is about big endings and big beginnings.

These Venus Retrograde periods can be looked back on as being turning or flash points. Times to reflect rather than push forward blindly. When planets go backwards, they move back over aspects of your life, to rework and remould to help reintegrate a certain section of your life, to really solidify an individuals evolution.

Aries significators are : The Warrior, Fire, Passion, Creativity, The Individual, Personal Pursuit. The Aries part of your chart is your internal Spartian Warrior. As the retrograde slips back into Pisces, this internal Spartian Warrior becomes more reflective around internal spiritual pursuits, about the bigger picture. It evolves into a more mutable, more deep and transcendent experience.  Which will be very contary to how this retrograde kicks off.   The key thing is that things can’t be rushed or pushed, as it is a time of flux. It is not recommended as a time to do anything to you body that you can’t change back. i.e.: plastic surgery or tattoos.  Venus is aesthetics and Beauty.

Interestingly enough this Venus Retrograde in 2017 is occurring at the beginning of Lent, and goes direct on Easter Saturday at the last degrees of Pisces, the most spiritual and trancendant of all the signs. This free’s Venus to continue her journey to meet with Mars right on time with the resurrection.  Her meeting with Mars has been delayed since early February due to her slowing down to do her Venus Retro cycle.

The last time Venus Retro’ed in Aries  was in 9 March – 17 April 2009,  so look back to then for some clues into what could be coming up. Astrology is the study of cycles, and these cycles do repeat. Some more than others.

2017’s Venus Retrograde is very much a key thread in a very dynamic year. Fire Energy  dominates the year with the Venus Retro being one of the most self evolving parts of 2017. The Retrograde is part of a larger story that began in early February that will end in 5 October 2017. Venus spends the year trying to meet up with or conjoin with her partner/lover Mars.

The conjunction of Mars & Venus on October 5th,  is the meeting point that never quite happened in early February. This meeting of Mars and Venus never quite happened as Venus slowed down to begin this self reflective Retrograde transit we are about to enter. It is with new found knowledge and information that Venus moves forward to finally make contact with Mars in October.

Interestingly this Mars / Venus conjunction on October 5th 2017, is the date of the next Venus Retrograde, October 5th 2018 in the signs of Libra (ruled by Venus) & Scorpio (ruled by Mars in old astrology).  There are many stories and cross overs in Astrology and the story of Mars and Venus is perhaps one of the strongest ones.

Its a great time to revisit how these Venusian archetypes are working in your life, and whether they are serving you well.

THROUGH THE SIGNS 

ARIES – 1st house  The Story of how you reflect your Venus Values to the World is the Story of this transit. Taking time out to take stock and re-evaulate how you look and how you show your relationships to the world will be the main focus with this Transit. If you have your birthday in the last 2 weeks of March, this Venus Retro will go over your Sun and Venus Retrograde will recolour your egos core by re-evaluting how you present your Venus Voodoo to the World.

TAURUS – 12 house  Taurus will deal with its ruler going retro in its secret 12th house and the house that rules Pisces with a very personal and potentially solitary processing. Going deep into the personal sphere, potential re-wiring  your Venus Voodoo will strike a deep and healing cord. Its not easy when your ruler is retrograde as the experience is stronger. But a chance for deep healing of the solitary kind around Venus style issues will be the focus this time around, and it will be so good !

GEMINI – 11 house  Friends, Social Groups, Gatherings and Personal Hopes and Wishes  are the focus of this Venus Retro.  Things may slow down in this area as you re focus your relationship and involvements in such things. Venus loves to be Social but this retrograde may see this slow down in your social life, and seed new ideas. Taking stock taking around the above themes will see you out of the social spotlight for a bit. Think of its as a bit of time out to reconnect with 11th house themes.

CANCER – 10 house  Cancer peeps will see this Venus Retro hit their 10th house of  Career, Status and Achievement. Some of the rose coloured glasses focal point’s  may shift. The changing of focus to things that would benefit you more Individually & Spiritually being the spark that changes your focus. Which is all very Cancerian at the end of the day isn’t it.

LEO – 9 house  Leo finds it Venus Retrograde focus taking its time in its 9th house of Philosophy, Higher Learning and Travel.  A hankering for travel and engagement with places that might be slightly left field for a Leo in its thirst for adventure. The slow down might not be so fun, but the kick start after will be re-invigorating.

VIRGO – 8 house  Virgo is about to explore the merky depths of the 8th house with Venus shining her internal light on to psychological depths of the house of deep connection. Also the house of other peoples money -Taxes, Debt and Inherited Money. This Venus Retro will turn all these themes inwards for the Virgoan microscope to analyse. Deep subconscious states and interactions will be the theme du jour

LIBRA – 7 house  Like Taurus, having your ruler go backwards over areas that you thought were claimed in the House of your rulership (7 house)  makes this a potentially sticky Venus Retrograde. Nothing like having the double whammy of your ruling planet of Relationships going out of kilter in your home house of Relationships. The plan is to not fret ! Those that are meant to fall away, will fall away simple ! Don’t stress for mull over the hardship of imbalance. This phase will pass with a clearer road head after Easter.

SCORPIO – 6 house  Scorpio your work & health routines will be under assessment, nothing to drastic needs to be executed just yet. The acknowledgement and reassessment of these areas of life and how to infuse the Venus Voodoo is all you really have to recognise and do .. for now. Any action can be done post Easter.

SAGITTARIUS – 5 house  Venus Retro in your house of fun, creativity and children might feel like someone is raining on your parade. Don’t let this initial first impression put you off. Its all about channelling the philosophical shifts which is right up your ally and taking it to the higher vibe level. This is something that really resonates with the fun loving Sadge, It just might feel like a wet blanket at first but the shifts will allow you to unleash your awesome, post Easter.

CAPRICORN – 4 house  Capricorn loves Structure, they get off on it. The 4th house is the house of Home, Ancestors, Family and the Tribe. Structure and Strength generally doesn’t come more solid than that. With Saturn being the God of Karma, Saturn being Capricorns ruler a Venus Retro in the 4th House could see a more Empress or Goddess like vibe gracing your inner home or family life. Some A-ha moments, some nice reassessments or resolutions around the family and home would be a good manifestation of Venus Retro. Perhaps some ghosts of your former lives could pop up and say hi as this retro treads back in to Pisces. Either way its big re settings of cycles around Family, Home and your Ancestors, Former or the lives before that.

AQUARIUS – 3 house  Aquarius is a sign ruled by Mercury the Great Communication God Hermes.  Venus Retro in your 3rd house of Communication resonates with you. Looking at how you communicate and how that works with your relationships with others would be a good way to see this retro play out. Another way could be how you communicate your style aesthetics wise, as well as written and oral is a good use of this energy.  Either way try not to go the other way and loose your grace and tact when communicating when Venus does her dive into the underworld.

PISCES – 2 House  Pisces is part of the key areas of this retrograde. With people born in the the middle of March, having this Retro Venus going over there Sun. As this will be occurring in your 2nd house of Earned Money and Self Worth, this is a really good reset time for you. Venus Retro in your sign and over your Sun will see a reset of your own self worth internally. Its a really great and powerful way to kick start your year with some good inner ground work and soul searching, something Pisces does so well. Beware not to spend to much money on beauty products or on any impulse decision. It may not be the best idea post Easter. Up the self worth and try not to spend to much money on impulse pleasures ! The reward will be so much better after last April.