Weekly Insights: Venus Turns the Tides...

We are used to Mercury Retrograde coming in and messing with our electronics and bringing back old friends and conversations, but what do we know about Venus Retrograde? Venus is the planet of Love, harmony, and play. Our Love relationships and friendships are highlighted during October 3rd to November 14th when Venus goes through its retrograde season. Venusian energies bring out the inner child and encourage us to indulge in the finer things in life. There is romance, beauty, and sensuality that help us feel wanted and Loved. Venus brings the party and gives permission to dance, create, and play. It is the planet that truly appreciates the arts and all forms of personal expression. Knowing all of this, how then does the retrograde effect the planet Venus?

Venus Retrograde begins in Scorpio and ends in Libra. This allows the lessons of sexuality, intimacy, power, and secrecy to be highlighted. Scorpio brings out the shadow side, control issues, and passion, while LIbra brings our relationships to a balance through equality, justice, and both judicial and social contracts. In saying this, Venus Retrograde is a time to reassess our relationships, beauty issues, deeper values, money and self-worth, and our ability to receive Love and attention. It is a time to return to the heart, heal emotional energies that have been left open and unfinished, and come back to our most authentic values and beliefs. It is a deeply reflective time to sit with our memories of the past and come to terms with the deeper lessons around Love.

We may find ourselves questioning our relationships on all levels. Whether it is a Love partner of attraction, a friend, co-worker, or a family member, our emotional experiences with others are addressed with this retrograde season. A new perspective can be born once the retrograde kicks in. Maybe we are questioning why we need approval from others, the deeper meaning of Love in our lives, or our relationship with success, prosperity, and/or beauty. This is a time when we may see things for what they really are. Venus Retrograde can amplify our ability to discern what is right and wrong for us when it comes to our relationship with ourselves and others. It can also bring up past addictions to substances, people, and the material world in general. If someone from our past comes back into our lives, we have to ask what unfinished business needs to be addressed. Perhaps we are ready to forgive and forget, or maybe there is unfinished business there to discuss. Our reaction to what comes to revisit us during this time can say a lot about where we are at with it. Is there a pattern to pay attention to, or are there unmet needs that are yearning to be addressed? Our sexuality and relationship to pleasure is another topic that can resurface. Pleasure in the forms of both self-care and self-soothing can come to test us. Are we seeking relationships to people, substances, or behaviors that nourish us or that help us avoid our current realities?

Venus Retrograde can bring up our greater values and ask us to decide what is most important to us. When it comes to success, are we trying to impress other people or follow our dreams and passions? Do we seek abundance to accumulate possessions or to create security? Are we seeking validation from the outside world or self-Love from the inside? We need to address the topics of self-worth during this retrograde season. When we answer questions around our attachments, need for validation, self-esteem issues, desire for approval, personal value, and our heart's desires, this Venus Retrograde will reveal its lesson to us. Whether these topics involve Love relationships, money issues, beauty concerns, the power of forgiveness, the balance between giving and receiving, or ideas around pleasure, we are being asked to identify where we believe we are worthy of Love and happiness.

Venus Retrograde can also help to reveal deeper truths in the world through a clearer lens. Scorpio and Libra will bring the shadows to Light and the secrets out of protection in order for justice to prevail. This is going to be a powerful time of reckoning in our lives and in the world when we are ready to face the Truth, otherwise we will just jump right back into another karmic cycle to repeat the same lessons over again. It is our choice to decide if we are ready to grow past the lessons of our past.

Return to nature, practice self-care, and be honest with the self in order to get the most amount of healing out of this retrograde season. Venus is here to help amplify the Love within and around us. Surrender to the process and pay attention to the signs. The truth always sets us free!