The erratic behavior of Venus

Now, onto more weighted subjects.

Last month saw both Mars and Venus cross the tricky gap between Cancer and Leo, which can generate tension in whatever planet is involved. This month will see Venus retrograde back and cross that gap a second time in the reverse, essentially thrusting itself across a dangerous divide in order to go back and retrieve something it may have forgotten in Cancer. I will get into this in more detail, but first let’s meet Venus where she is now.

Venus has been with Mars in Leo since 7/6. Leo is a somewhat authoritarian sign in Venus does not do well, but Mars does (Mars being the archetypal soldier who takes orders from the king). This makes Mars stronger and Venus even weaker. The planet of love and sensuality will likely have to make some compromises to survive this type of environment. The nature of the sign and the heat of Mars together burn up some of the natural water of Venus, causing a reduction in the lusciousness of all things Venus during this time. On the ground this will look like control and restraint and maybe too much structure and rule around the Venus-ruled areas of life. A good example would be limiting your enjoyment for the purposes of beauty, or being too demanding in relationship.

Two other malefic aspects to Leo create an extremely pressurized and possibly chaotic experience for Venus here, who is by Vedic Astrology’s definition cursed due to so many malefic influences. This challenges everything connected to Venus: love, relationship, enjoyment, water and the energy reserves (ojas) which contribute to immunity.

Aside from the conjunction with Mars, which can bring impulsivity and aggressiveness to the areas of life ruled by Venus, Saturn is also aspecting from Aquarius and Rahu from Aries. Saturn and Rahu combined create a windstorm effect, which can create chaos and rises and falls in the areas of life ruled by Venus. There is also the combination of Rahu-Mars to consider, which tends to block one’s fire (making it difficult to follow through and/or creating a huge amount of frustrated energy), and the combination of Saturn and Mars, which tends to either require a large intervention or to squash Venus entirely.

Venus rules vehicles (because they are a luxury). As an example: the day that Venus entered Leo and the zone of affliction, I had to take my car in for a complicated service which required one week to complete. It is this type of dismantling and reconstruction which may be required of Venus with this transit. That applies to relationship as well, being one of the main themes associated with Venus.

It may also be worth noting that because of Venus’s connection with love, the planet also indicates self-love. The Venus affliction together with the Sun’s placement in Cancer suggest this is an important month to come back to center in your relationship with yourself. Venus afflicted will tend to create negative feels about oneself and particularly one’s physical appearance. Take this month to focus on how things feel instead of how they look.

On 7/23 Venus will turn retrograde, and on 8/7 she will cross the gandanta to move back into Cancer, joining the Sun.

The retrograde will cause Venus to reconsider and become ardent about her desires. The jump back into Cancer means that Venus is taking action regarding some of those reconsiderations, and will thus re-involve herself in the themes of Cancer which we would’ve seen from the end of May through the end of June, particularly in the areas of love, relationship and home.

The benefit of Venus revisiting Cancer is that she will be out from under the curse of the Rahu, Mars and Saturn. But the erratic movements of this planet (which will be crossing gandanta 3x in a short window!) suggest that Venus is operating under some confusion, at least from our perspective here on earth. What are called retrograde planets are not actually moving in reverse motion except from our vantage point on earth. This means that although we may feel we are moving backwards in life in some way in the area of life ruled by a retrograde planet, the difficulty faced is actually part of forward movement.

Retrograde planets do tend to require more energy and orientation to detail from us, so you can prepare yourself to devote a little extra time and attention to all of the themes of Venus.