” Goddess on the mountain top, burning like a silver flame, the summit of beauty and love and Venus was her name “ Bananarama.

Venus the Goddess of Love and Beauty starts her once and every 18 month retrograde in late July (July 25th until September 6). She begins this process by moving backwards in the night sky before disappearing from view as she moves behind the Sun magically reappearing after 40 days and 40 days as a bright Morning Star (visible under the Moon just before sunrise) . Where she goes during this time has been the story of many myths and legends. The Romans gave Venus the name Lucifer or Light Bearer because of the myth when she disappears from sight, she travels through Underworld to re-emerge wiser and more of a Warrior Venus after her journey to the Underworld, reclaiming her femininity and power. The biblical references to Jesus’s journey or sacrifice of 40 days and 40 nights comes from this Venus Retrograde cycle.

Venus retrograde’s are a reclaiming of ones light, going inwards to your own inner and sometimes underworld to reclaim and re-evaluate your Venus, your femininity and your values around relationships and yourself. It is through the different signs  at different retrogrades that we are able to look at our Venus in a different light, being able to evaluate and evolve with a different lens to that we are used to. It’s a beautiful time to allow yourself the time to reflect on these Venusian ideas of values in and around relationships, love, old love, femininity, health, beauty, self-love and self nourishment. With Venus being in Leo at the time of this retrograde, honouring your Venus in a Leo style is particularly beneficial, fortuitous and nourishing.

Leo is representative of The Sun, Royalty, Nobility, Dignity, Beauty, Creativity, Shining your light via opening your heart to others or letting the Performer / Inner Child shine. It’s the creative expression of this Venus as you go within which is of particular value at this retrograde time, with the easiest manifestation being the pursuit of great hair !  Leo’s love to indulge in beauty routines, things that make them look great and feel regal and dignified so they can stand out from a crowd. It’s about letting that Sun shine ! It’s not surprising Madonna, Jennifer Lawrence, Cara Delevingne and Jennifer Lopez are Leo’s, flowing tresses and immaculately groomed. If eyes aren’t on them they feel as if they have failed ! Tori Amos another Leo has never been afraid to stand out, either with her bright red hair or her unabashed  performances which see her at times orgasm whilst performing on stage.  It’s this unapologetic shining of ones Venus or Feminine light and reflecting on how we do it,  is really the point of this Leo retrograde, honouring and encouraging it. Its is a little bit, I am woman hear me roar !

The only warning for a Venus Retrograde is to not to do anything that can’t be easily changed back. Venus retrograde are never a great time to get Tattoos or Plastic Surgery if that’s your schtick … as sometimes things aren’t always fully revealed under Venus Retrograde, so any experiment’s should be easily fixable just in case in reflection you missed a very obvious piece of information !

It is a time where old flames may come back or past loves are in contact out of the blue. Venus Retrograde does signify past loves coming back or you could be thinking of them after a long absence of thought. Very nice for the reassessment and looking at how life has evolved since then. But not the best time to push forward on or pursue a relationship. The approach should be more, letting the relationship breath and allow for room for the fire to grow as you re-assess and honour yourself for a while.

Currently Venus has been playing around with Jupiter in the night sky. If you look up after Sunset for the first 4 hours, Venus and Jupiter are the 2 brightest lights in the sky if you look West.  Due to the  upcoming Retrograde this will be elongated as Venus moves back to conjunct Jupiter again in August. The two luckiest planets in the sky, the major and minor benefactor slowly doing a sexy tango in the closest orbit for some are saying for 2000 years. Right now is a great time to look up and view them at their most regal and magical. To see them physically in the sky whilst thinking of the thousands of years of mythology and legend around their existence and movement is a great way to start to honour this retrograde cycle.

Venus in Leo Retrograde through the signs.

Aries: 5th house of Creativity, Children, Love, play around with your creativity, let your performers side out a bit, use your femininity with children or feed your inner child by doing something you used to love doing. It’s about merging your femininity with your creative urges or at least reflecting on how to interconnect the two.

Taurus: 4th house of Home, Family, Roots and Ancestry. show your feminine light at home ! bring out your inner child at home. Be playful, and do some self nurture at home while you reflect on the past. Home based beauty routines would be great as well as spending more time looking after yourself rather than sacrificing yourself for your Home and Family.

Gemini: 3rd house of Communication, Siblings, the Internet. Add some affection and drama to your communication. Not everything has to be all intellectual and clinical. Could you look at the Internet as a way of new creative expression ?  New communication might  pop up with old flames.

Cancer: 2nd house of Money, Self made Finances and Self Worth. Simple – by some glamorous grooming and treating yourself to some feminine luxuries, it will improve your feeling of self-worth … full stop ! review your personal grooming, Are you doing enough to make yourself feel like a glamazonian ? Get out of the house and tart yourself up ! Go glam or go home !

Leo: 1st House of how you express yourself, show the world what your made of by reviewing your style, How you love and How you present yourself to the world and bam ! When Venus goes direct the world will see a new you ! Its all about reviewing how you present yourself, its as superficial as that !

Virgo: 12 house of Inner Self, Healing, The Secret You, Mysticism, this retrograde is about you assessing the very foundations of how you identify and express your femininity, this is an opportunity for inner transformation. Chrysalis to Butterfly kind of material. Your inner re assessment could allow you to restructure the essence of how you present and engage with your feminine side, with the butterfly beginning to emerge as Venus goes in to your home sign of Virgo in October , just as Jupiter the great benefactor has entered your Sun sign for a year transit. How fortuitous !

Libra: 11 house of Friends, Community, the Tribe and your Hopes and Wishes. Look to your friends to show you how you shine,  Do they support you, Do they help you shine?  What are your Hopes and Wishes with Love are you aiming high enough ? or is it just an idealist explosion ? Are your feminine lights pitching in the right direction ? Do your Hopes and Wishes or your tribe allow you to fulfill your own personal wishes or are they being brought down by Qi Vampires as you try to hold the balance?

Scorpio: 10th house of Career, Success achievement and Acclaim. Is your feminine light being expressed to its highest level for all the achievements and success that you truly deserve ? Why not ? Is your Venus the secret to your success in the outer world of Career and Success and do the right people see it ? Could a little more subtle glam help you ? Or are you hiding it not realizing it might be the key to your success.

Sagittarius: 9th house of Philosophy, Higher Learning, Travel. To be traveling or studying some kind of mythology maybe around Venus or Feminine Divine would be a nice way of honouring and exploring yourself during the retrograde, perhaps some philosophical eureka moments may present itself or even going back to philosophy’s that have been left for a while could be brought back into your daily routine to help your feminine expansion.

Capricorn: 8th house of deeper emotional connections with people, psychology, the esoteric, external money sources. Venus in Leo would be a great way to put some colour and performance with your deeper connections with people or psychological processing, new ways of dealing with emotional issues could present themselves with less pressure on barriers and more focus on fun, creativity, heart-felt connections and opening of ones heart without the usual Saturnian doom and gloom or conservatism (or as you see it, home truths and realities) that comes with Capricorn. This could work wonders for you in this retrograde cycle. Transformation via creative expansion rather than realist restrictions.

Aquarius: 7th house of One on One Relationships (Work, Personal and Enemies) A bit like Capricorn an opening or re assessment of ones heart and passion, rather than going all detached Air on it, to sit down and focus on what YOU want out of your relationships for YOU, not the greater good, or not for anyone else’s benefit, By opening your heart to what you want and looking at how this would help you flourish is the perfect way to honour yourself.

Pisces: 6th house of service, daily routine, health and wellbeing. Simple – take the bull by the horns and hammer out what you enjoy doing that makes the above areas of life more interesting, creative and exciting. Putting a bit more flair and Colour and attention into your health, working and day-to-day routine will make things less laborious and more fun, what would the child version of you do to make these things more fun and exciting ?

All the best for this upcoming Retrograde, and enjoy the process of re-evaluating how you explore and assert your feminine wellbeing.

xx