Anytime planets are retrograde, it is a call to pay attention. Venus retrogrades are the rarest of all. Retrograde only 7% of the time, or about every year and a half, and this one is especially poignant. The shadow or set-up phase began on April 9th @ 5° Gemini. So, we are already feeling the disorganization and revelation. Retrogrades are not a time to fear, of course- just a time to understand. In truth, we are meant to use the energy to offer a choice point of enhanced evolution.
Retrogrades offer a momentary pause, needed restructuring, a bit of turmoil to undo what needs to be undone. Something you are likely attached to needs reassessment and reorganization. Something revealed. Something uncovered. Instead of going out, we are meant to go deeper in. The endpoint is to be able to put whatever is out of alignment back together in a more optimum way.
All retrogrades offer the gift of time, often in the form of pauses. Opportunities to reflect and gain some needed perspective to sort out the arising themes. These often forced stops are meant to slow you down long enough so new information can show up in this area of your life. Thus, retrogrades also excavate our shadow layers or unexamined truths, so we can reclaim any power we have consciously or subconsciously siphoned away.
Retrogrades do not change the meaning of the planet, just the momentum. Venus, the goddess of love herself (Aphrodite to the Greeks), rules all things of value.
This Venus retrograde is occurring in the sign of Gemini, giving us that added insight. To be sure, Gemini is pivotal energy this year. Why? The North Node of the Moon switches to Gemini (SN Sagittarius) from Cancer (SN Capricorn) on May 5th. And Venus is not the only planet offering some inward energy in May. We also have Pluto retrograde (4/25), Saturn retrograde (5/11), and Jupiter retrograde (5/14) reviving all the themes we have been currently living.
The pauses are real. Patience is key.
The particular flavor of this excavation depends on where this energy is showing up in your chart. (Look between 5°-21° Gemini for house placement and aspects or contact me for a quick reading).
Some key themes:
Love. It is easy to say Venus rules love and leave it at that. Where she is in our charts, reveals our specific flavor and language of how we both like to give and receive love. It also shows the types of lovers we with whom we choose to dance. Love, though, is a complicated thing. Venus both rules the night often pairing with the Moon, and she rules the day as a morning or evening star on the distant horizon. In this, we see the many faces of love. The soft and nurturing of night and the fierceness of the light of day. Venus reminds us love can both soften hard edges and stand tall in assertive truth. We are all being asked to look deeply at love right now. Reassessment is needed. How we love ourselves. How we love each other. How we love the world. Connection. Cooperation. Compassion.
How we do it well and how we can do it better.
This means we make space for all our feelings. All of our experiences. Everything that is arising (and it is rising!) has wisdom. Because that is the reckoning that is vital within this choice point. The need to apply love to everything that is arising means we make space for all of it, carefully sorting through what is an expression of love or what is a call for it.
Value. Venus rules what we hold most important, what gives our life meaning and stability. This can be things like money, time, or energy. It can also be deeper layers of definition like service, creativity, and integrity. This retrograde will call all of that into question- to reassess priorities. This has already been emerging in the intensity of late. Like all retrogrades, shadow layers will likely appear to show us exactly where the correction is needed. When everything else is stripped away, what is the foundation on which we are meant to build? What is the true definition of abundance? There is a required reassessment in our relationships with money, our values, our worthiness, and our resources to level up a new understanding of what really matters. Side note- Outer and inner, collective, and personal, this lesson will repeat until we get it.
Passion. What lights you up? Where are you called to shine? We are all meant to be stars in one brilliant sky, one illuminant piece of the whole. It is our individual purposes that encompass the interconnection of all, the conduit to the divine from which we are all simply unique vessels. Perhaps, you have been offered new choice points and clarity around where you are being summoned. Chaos has a fascinating way of igniting passion. And passion is messy. Venus has the most turbulent and storms than any other planet in the solar system. No doubt, you may feel some rising fire, some smoldering embers, and some anger. Good. This juice is meant to inspire and enliven us, connecting us to desire and passion. It gives us the energy to choose change. The reassessment and choice point of correction occurs anywhere we are misaligned, channeling our life force through the “should’s” or external measurements of success instead of harnessing our own fire. It can also show up in reactive anger, blame, projection, control, and the like. Retrogrades often reveal the shadow so we can reclaim what has been lost. It is time to find your light.
Enter Gemini-
The Twins. An air sign, Gemini is all about information, communication, and perception. It is the ability to allow new data. To find new solutions to old problems. To brainstorm possibilities. To question. To seek answers. To speak up and out. Gemini is ruled by the guiding light of curiosity and the ever-expanding path in which it is meant to lead. Something new wants to emerge, new ideas, epiphanies, and data.
So whatever arises during this time- first get curious. What appears on the outside may have roots you cannot see. What looks like an end may, in fact, be a necessary beginning. Gemini reminds us our path of destiny unfolds stone by stone often without us knowing the final destination. It embraces the uncertainty of a limitless future but holds steady to the present moment.
As Venus enlivens Gemini, we merge the two to help us find the guiding grace forward.
Facts matter- Gemini rules facts. Not fake news. Actual facts. Data. Information. Science. However, often facts are not convenient to an ingrained belief system or desire. This isn’t always what we want to see. It is what is. New information is a critical necessity right now. An endlessly open mind is a Gemini gift. The ability to see the many perspectives and possibilities and not attaching to the story of what we want but what is. We must use this time to clean the filter of our own perception. Whether it is our own limiting beliefs or long-standing cultural traditions, we are asked to look and assess. No light can get into a closed system. No growth happens without light. Gemini IS that light. New information. New ways of doing things. New solutions to old problems. Gemini will require that of us. No amount of spin can argue with the reality of what is.
Which brings us to change- Gemini is the sign most associated with lightning-fast shifts and change. Being nimble and aware of the shifting sands can allow us to explore this time. How we handle change is entirely up to us. We can resist the new, ever grasping to the old way, or we can lift off, allowing our feet to drift into what is becoming.
Which brings us to uncertainty and embracing the “I don’t know”- Gemini is all about exploring uncharted waters with an optimistic flair. The undetermined can be an amazing place of exploration when we let go of expectations. Expect the unexpected when Gemini is animating the field. Of course, we can also try and resist, control, demand answers, and some sense of a schedule. That is not the learning, though, and the only result will be exhaustion.
The uncovering is immense and ominous. Neptune is squaring this Venus Retrograde three times (May 3rd, May 20th, and July 27the), offering the energy of trust, surrender, and release. Significant changes are afoot. The lessons are swiftly rising to the surface. Which is great news for the parts of us aligned with transformation and healing, but not so much for the parts that wants security and control. We are being both summoned and initiated into a new way of being. We are being invited (forced?) to review, reassess, research, and revise both collectively and personally, what is most of value and importance.
And what isn’t.
That is the new foundation on which we are meant to build.
Specific dates:
- April 3 Venus entered Gemini
- April 9th Shadow period begins at 5° Gemini
- May 13th Venus retro @ 21 ° Gemini
- June 15th Venus goes direct @ 5 ° Gemini
- Integration phase until July 29th
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