This article has been published as a preview in Premium Subscription.
A Retrograde Venus remains a rather rare phenomenon in the sky and must necessarily draw our attention more strongly when it occurs (the previous one having taken place in Capricorn at the end of 2021 and beginning of 2022).
Main signs impacted during this retrograde motion:
The Fixed signs (Leo, Aquarius, Scorpio, Taurus), and the Fire signs (Sagittarius, Aries) especially all the 3rd decans, on which the stationary phase insists.
Summer 2023, important relational and affective work
Venus will pass retrograde on the very end of Leo (28°) on July 23, 2023 (Paris time), but this transit will probably have been noticeable especially from the end of June and the beginning of July when the Venusian energies will already start to enter their loop, I have already talked about it in my articles on the new Moon of June 18 in Gemini as well as the new Moon of July 17 in Cancer.
In the colors of the leonine energies, during this month of June, there is not only the Venus transit, because this one is conjoined to the transit of the Black moon and to the one of Mars, so much so that it is a sector of the sky of the present which remains particularly energetic!
Even if these are “fast moving” transits, which do not have the “depth” of other types of slower transits, one should clearly not neglect the short-term “trigger” aspect that this can have.
Especially, if Venus is quite gentle in its effects, Mars and the Black moon are much less so, they can add an intensity, a passion, but also an excessiveness and a sharp aspect not negligible!
This can obviously concern more directly the relational and affective world, and could as well correspond, according to the chart of each one, either to a new meeting having a particular karmic charge, or to the fact of having to “manage” an already existing link, but in a way that is at least impetuous.
Well analyze the month of June 2023, because these forces will rise and will be already at work, we see moreover that this trio of Leo is placed to the square of the transit of Uranus in Taurus in the long term, so that can clearly underline a very important charge of emancipation!
That it is in front of a new meeting, or with an already existing relationship, one will not support now what is too sclerosing and imprisoning, the bonds must be thought there in an optics of freedom / of release, even if that presses more strongly on secure fears in the way…
Beware of the end of June and the beginning of July which seems to be a rather “nervous” phase, and which can easily translate a mental and emotional agitation.
What can be played out there may have a longer term repercussion, and must therefore be analyzed accordingly more finely, because certain correlations of cycles even seem to extend to the spring of 2024!
It could be that this phase has a very important resonance on the medium term, and that all that is awakened there cannot be settled on the only retrogradation of Venus of this summer, that it needs more time…
This retrograde Venus will insist a lot from August on the square of the transit of Uranus and still conjunct the Black moon (the transit of Mars will have had time to pass through Virgo and move away quite quickly), so this kind of configuration could insist a lot for example on an internal questioning of one’s attachments.
Schematically, especially if one “undergoes” a relational pattern, also in one’s own way of being personally in front of the other, consciously or unconsciously, one will be able to wonder a lot about the way to free oneself from it, to extract oneself from it, or to change.
Do not forget that the Fixed Cross remains very attached by nature to the notion of “possessiveness”, to the feeling of belonging, so here this Venusian transit can really form an important crisis of values, a deep questioning of attachment patterns, and even if this has to pass in the present by notions of detachment!
Do not believe that everything is necessarily the fault of the other! Each one must also sweep in front of his own door and question himself personally of his own behavior (a couple is managed by 2, and each one has his responsibility in the created mixture).
If these transits concern a new encounter, it may be the opportunity to stop reproducing the same patterns of domination / submission as before.
If on the other hand they concern an already existing relationship, this retrograde motion could represent at least a momentary “break”, the time to take stock of oneself and especially if one has been in a “shaky” relationship for a long time and one is fully aware of it (in the best of cases it will be a “step back for a better leap”, to help the relationship bounce back behind)
At the end of August and the beginning of September, Venus retrograde may experience a “calm”, Venus finding its stationary phase before going direct again on September 4, 2023, without forming a big pressure in the sky (it may be a bit of a ” floating ” period).
However, be careful again at the end of September and beginning of October 2023, because Venus will come out of its retrograde loop in a definitive way, it will form again a square to Uranus, and the period could have a particular energetic charge!
It may be necessary to finalize some points raised since June/July, so the period may remain quite intense, nervous, passionate, but also quite sharp and frustrating on some points, because it must be recognized that Venus does not come out very “bright” from this retrograde phase…
She finds the conjunction to the Black moon, on the beginning of Virgo (its sign of fall), as well as the opposition to Saturn in Pisces, thus a rather “dry and brittle” configuration, which requires more seriousness, maturity, mastery, thus not hyper harmonic for the natural Venusian energies.
Either Venus will not have had all that it wanted during its retrograde period, or worse it risks to return to its old patterns, in particular very sacrificial forces, of self-forgetfulness, of submission, that forms in any case a risk not to be neglected on this period.
In any case, do not forget that this is perhaps only a postponement! And that the points raised there can again rebound in the first quadrimester of 2024, so everything may not be “finalized” right here…
Also read my article on “How to best experience Venus in retrograde motion in transit” to help you to better understand and accompany this type of phase…