In the post you will find the meaning of Venus Retrograde in general and what it means for your zodiac sign. Venus will station retrograde on July 23rd 2023. It will go from 28º Leo back to 12º Leo.
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Venus Retrograde Meaning In General
Venus retrograde usually lasts about forty days and forty nights. Forty is mentioned in the bible often, but most famously when Jesus was tempted by Satan in the wilderness for forty days. Could this be referring to the astrological phenomena of Venus retrograde? After all, Venus has two sides to her. She is the goddess of love and war according to the Babylonians. The word Lucifer (which is often confused with Satan) means light-bringer and refers to Venus in her morning star phase.
The ancients said the first few days of Venus’s Lucifer phase was a particularly dangerous time. People born with Venus as a morning star are said to rush headlong into love affairs and are very passionate. Venus as an evening star has more of the receptive, traditional venus retrograde meaning, this phase is called Hesperus. The retrograde period describes very well the transition between the two modes of Venus and her descent into the underworld before she resurrects as the wildly passionate, but occasionally treacherous morning star.
So what is the Venus retrograde meaning generally? Commonly it is advised one does not start a love affair or buy luxury goods during this time because you might end up paying more than you bargained for. During these forty days, you may have to resist the seductive Lucifer side of Venus and her charms just like Jesus did in the desert. Temptations could be an illicit affair or the lure of luxury goods. We can find significance in this journey of Venus if we regard her movements like the ancient sky-watchers did.
What Does Venus Retrograde Mean For Your Zodiac Sign?
Venus In 1st House For Leo
Venus retrograde takes place in your sign, so this transit will be powerful for you. You have the opportunity to reinvent yourself. On the most basic level, this transit can prompt a makeover. Changing the style of your clothes, going blonde or starting a fitness routine that alters your body’s appearance on the outside are all possibilities. But it goes deeper than that. Your packaging is a symbol of internal changes too. You may revisit a past dressing style with the psychological effect of making you feel younger and vital again. You could be drawn to retro fashion at this time. Any changes in appearance might worry loved ones as this might be pretty unusual for you. If you are in a relationship, they might even suspect you of having an affair!
It doesn’t help that at this time, you are contradictory with the images you are projecting. In the first half of this period, from Jul 23 to Aug 12, you will be casting Venus in her loving, receptive, but quite virginal phase. During the second half, from Aug 13 to Sep 3, you become the very opposite, a Luciferian seducer! Your appearance will reflect these two sides of Venus very starkly. For example, wearing flowing, pastel-coloured robes at first, but then transiting to tight-fitting black or hot-coloured vestments later on. The relationships you attract at this time can be confusing for you and them. Contrary images you are projecting can mislead possible partners as you try to find the real you. Therefore it will be hard to make one stick until Venus has gone direct and you have settled into your love ‘style.’
Venus In 2nd House For Cancer
With luxury lifestyles flaunted around you, it is very tempting to keep up with the Jones’s. Venus is the planet of money and values, and here she will be activating a review of your spending and what you value. She will do this by using her extraordinary powers of attraction to pull abundance and money your way. With your pockets bulging, you have the opportunity to be quite lavish with your spending. Beautiful clothes, jewellery, and rich food are paraded before your eyes, so you can easily find yourself lured into spending more than usual. The problem is, you don’t know if this windfall will last beyond the retrograde period.
Generally, you could make a lot of money at this time or equally loose a lot! It all depends on how well you gamble and can defer gratification. Financial opportunities should come your way, and your ability to make magic from pentacles is strong. The worst that could happen is that you could be seduced by a gold digger, especially during the second stage of this period. Be wary of anything that looks a little too shiny and too good to be true if you want to hang onto your gains. Reflect on your feelings of self-worth and how it relates to your income. If you have been working on your self-esteem issues, you could now see the fruits of that inner-work blossom externally. During the first half of this period, from Jul 23 to Aug 12, Venus is more sensible and prudent. She will want you to wisely invest her money or save it, while during the second half from Aug 13 to Sep 3, she becomes the very opposite, the Luciferian temptress who wants to spend, spend, spend on her.
Venus In 3rd House For Gemini
Venus retrograde in your neighbourhood zone causes you to review how harmonious your immediate surroundings are with how you feel inside. It is of the utmost importance for some people to live somewhere atheistically pleasing to the eye. For others, they need to feel like they resonate with the general vibe. So at this time, some event could occur that makes you question whether you are genuinely in tune with the local area. Maybe it has changed over the years so that it is pretty unrecognizable to the place you once fell in love with. You might consider whether you move to somewhere where you feel more connected to the locals. While Venus is retrograde is also a perfect time to go and check out possible places you might like to move away to and see if you fit in there. If you have not spent time with your siblings lately, this can also be an excellent time to reconnect.
Starting an art course or something that re-ignites your creativity would be very beneficial. It may rekindle talents you had as a child. Learning a craft can be very therapeutic and will also massage those rusty brain cells back into action. Making things with our hands helps raise intelligence in other areas, and learning new skills is a sure way to keep your mind young and your memory fresh. Learn a musical instrument! Studies have shown this helps to raise IQ. The theme at this time is using beauty and harmony to help heal the mind. What you take in visually is felt acutely in the synapses. You might revisit a place where you used to live or felt very happy. Taking scenic walks, and admiring the view from your favourite cafe feeds your head with natural happy pills. So then, during the first half of this period from Jul 23 to Aug 12, Venus, in her more sensible and prudent phase, will want to learn a new skill. During the second half, from Aug 13 to Sep 3, she will be more likely to want to go wild with artistic expression. Watch out for low-flying paint!
Venus In 4th House For Taurus
Retrogrades work best when you do stuff prefixed by ‘Re’! 2020 This is a fantastic period for redecorating your home. Venus can make you quite lazy here, though, and you might want to relax rather than be up a ladder. If you can afford it, get someone else to do the legwork so you can spend happy hours browsing through wallpaper samples and soft furnishings. Otherwise, simple efforts to brighten up a room with cushions and new curtains will suffice. The feeling of wanting to retreat into the sanctuary of your home will be strong at this time, so get hold of items that will support this. Candles, incense and colours that please the eye and help you feel relaxed are important. As always during a retrograde, there will always be the tendency to have a few events that prompt you to ask yourself, ‘Is this domestic arrangement really one that supports me?’ Do I feed ‘at home’ in my home? There may well be the odd altercation with those you live with, even if it’s with an over-friendly stray cat.
Venus retrograde through the bowels of your chart is quite a sedate affair. The only problem may be too much indulgence because you don’t feel much like parting from your comfy cocoon. Curled up like a cat on the sofa with a bag of munchies doesn’t burn many calories, so you could easily put on some weight during this time. One of the nicest ways to enjoy this period is to have a romantic time with a partner, however, which could burn some calories…. Holding dinner parties with other couples will be great fun, especially if it involves reconnecting with them after a long time. Reunions with very old friends or classmates at your home would be perfect too. The relationship with your parents might be up for review. It could be a lovely warm time of family bond renewal, or it could equally revive old childhood wounds. During the first half of this period, from Jul 23 to Aug 12, Venus is in her prudent phase and will want to make peace with her roots, while during the second half from Aug 13 to Sep 3, Lucifer Venus gets restless with the urge to furnish the living room with glitzy gold paisley wallpaper. Do get a second opinion!
Venus In 5th House For Aries
Enjoy returning to the places of your misspent youth while Venus lingers in your house of fun. During this enjoyable period, you can be utterly hedonistic. The only significant danger here is having a silly accident while over-indulging. So get someone responsible to be your eyes and ears for the next few weeks. You will be acting like a teenager, so don’t operate any heavy machinery or drive while under the influence. Most days, you will feel like cotton candy has invaded your brain and are seeing life through rose-tinted spectacles. Even if you don’t like pink, everything seems to have fluffy edging. Yes, this is the most sensual position for Venus and just perfect for falling in love. However, you may easily fall quite heavily for a fantasy person. Hopefully, this unrequited love will only last until Venus is direct on Sep 3, so until then, use this person as a muse to create art, music or poetry. If you are not creative yourself, then you will enjoy the artistic works of others at the theatre, cinema or in art galleries.
If you begin a relationship under this transit, bear in mind that there could be a change of heart when Venus goes direct. The romance got the better of you both, but then a harsh reality ends it. For example; The long-distance won’t work, or one of you is married. Another possibility is flirting madly with someone online, only to find there is no chemistry in real life. It’s not all about romance, though. It’s a fantastic time for having a holiday that focuses totally on your children, like going to a theme park. Make the most of this extra-long period of Venus in such a fantastic position. During the first half of this period, from Jul 23 to Aug 12, Venus is in her prudent phase and will be more likely to gain pleasure watching others horsing around, while during the second half, from Aug 13 to Sep 3, Lucifer Venus will want to play the fool herself. A silly sexual faux pas could happen. Dark Cupid alert!
Venus In 6th House For Pisces
The Venus retrograde will force you to deal with the practicalities of the real world and not romantic fluff. I’m afraid you will have to set aside your more frivolous urges for the time being and concentrate on making relationships work with co-workers and business partners. Venus here is just incompatible with indulgence and pleasure, so this will be a test of how well you can resist temptations away from your daily duties. If you do not have a steady job, you must stick to your routines. You could easily fall into lazy habits, which will be hard to knock later on. Venus Rx in the 6th is the transit of slacking off and trying to cut corners; again, this is not recommended. You will still have to make up for time lost when Venus goes direct, and then you will feel even less like doing the work twice over.
On the plus side, you should benefit from a friendly rapport with your peers at this time. You will work very well as a team, but it wouldn’t be ethical to ride on their hard work. Your colleagues are enjoying your charming company too much to reprimand you for not pulling your weight. But if you carry on taking advantage, they could turn on you once Venus goes direct. Your health should be pretty good at this time, so much so that you feel you can indulge in rich foods to reward yourself. You may well put on some extra weight during this time but at the same time have the energy to burn it off at the gym afterwards. It all balances out! During the first half of this period, from Jul 23 to Aug 12, Venus is in her harmonious phase, which brings ease to work relationships, while during the second half from Aug 13 to Sep 3, Lucifer Venus will want to play the office clown, try not to take advantage of your popularity. It could cause resentment later on.
Venus As Evening Or Morning Star
Venus Retrograde is Hesperus from Jul 23 to Aug 12
Sun conjunction Venus at 20º Leo on Aug 13
Venus Retrograde is Lucifer from Aug 13 to Sep 3
Venus Retrograde Hesperus
During the first phase of the Venus retrograde she is still Hesperus. By now she is below the horizon technically and descending, she is still the evening star. Weakening but still loving, reflective and receptive. Venus here is quite pure and virginal too and possibly a little insecure. During this time we might feel like we need more love, but are extra shy about going out and finding a new lover.
Instead, we might cling to a past relationship, which is why this period can bring the return of old flames and karmic connections. Better the devil you know hey? It might make you mournful of a love lost and very defensive if anyone new tries to step on the ghost of your beloved ex. During this time it might be good to bring closure to any long-dead relationship with a reflective post-mortem. After that, when Venus becomes invisible, give that bad romance a good funeral!
Venus Retrograde Lucifer
For the last two weeks of the Venus retrograde period, Venus is Lucifer the morning star. This is the time when you are most likely to get involved in a ‘Dark Cupid’ or narcissistic affair. You will most definitely be thinking with your reproductive organs and not your brain, so do try to resist the sex if you can.
So what have we learned with this Venus retrograde meaning exploration? You may get a series of red flags but still ignore them. A one night stand might during this time might seem harmless and disposable, but on a spiritual level, this goes far deeper. Your body is your temple so don’t give into the Luciferian psychic vampires. You might find yourself drained for many months afterwards. It’s simply not worth it.
A dark cupid affair
Aphrodite’s bad points are often overlooked. She had a reputation for jealousy, revenge, possessiveness, and infidelity. The stress and misery caused by this behavior can attract unwanted hyper-dimensional entities which feed of the drama.
Sometimes we think we need a sexual fling because it has been a while, we just want to have fun and we feel we can take it or leave it. But with Venus retrograde, we might develop an obsessive attachment to the so-called “friend with benefits”, which we hadn’t bargained for. We could find we are kept in a very unpleasant psychic, sexual bondage.
So I would say proceed with caution with any new relationships. However Venus Retrograde doesn’t have to play out like ‘50 Shades’ of cringe, for like Mercury retrograde, Venus turned inward has its uses.
Lyn Koiner says it “is an excellent time for buying antiques, flea market items and secondhand goods wherein you know the real worth and value of the item but the seller does not.” It’s also good for selling your own unwanted items. Venus Retrograde would be an ideal time for creativity that explores your inner world. Make music, art or poetry just for yourself and not for the public.
Lucifer Morning Star
During Venus Retrograde we might feel like retreating from socializing or from a relationship, so this can be a very valuable time for learning how to love ourselves. As for the dangerous Lucifer period, I would to go with the Babylonians on this one and suggest singletons stay celibate for the last 20 days of it! I think that Venus retrograde could also function like Eris, since if we go back to the Babylonian/Sumerian myths we see that Innana was certainly an early incarnation of Venus.
In a chapter of the myth of Gilgamesh, Inanna went down into the Underworld and had to remove all her material glamours on her way to re-unite with her sister Ereshkigal. This reflects the planet Venus’s descent below the horizon and its inferior conjunction with the Sun where she is actually also combust.
Then we have her resurrection as the morning star Lucifer after she has experienced the torture of been hung for death on meat hooks by her vengeful sister. This is a time of reflection (Venus’s symbol is the mirror) which may show us our shadow, self-sabotaging sister-self. With Venus, visuals will reflect back to us our deep psyche through paintings, visions, omens, dreams…
Synodic Cycles
The shadow period of Venus retrograde means that Venus will spend a lot longer in a sector of your chart than usual, and work like an outer planet. (I think Neptune!) The effects mentioned in this article will be felt much stronger if you have natal planets in Venus’s path. If you are in a relationship, any unresolved gripes might come to a head at the actual retrograde when Venus hits the planet a second time, but they should be resolved by the time the Venus Direct reaches the post-shadow degree.
What is also very important is Venus’s synodic cycle which forms a pentagram in the sky. Every 8 years Venus will make another point of this magical 5 pointed star so it is worth keeping a record of what happened at the Venus retrograde of 8 years ago and see if there is a pattern. If you were born during a Venus retrograde then your birth synodic cycle should also reveal some valuable information to you.
I hope to add more to this post about Venus’s synodic cycle because it is worth looking into deeply if you are born with Venus retrograde. Until then, there are a couple of great articles on the web that explain it further. Venus Synodic Cycle by Khaldea. And Nick Dagan-Best (On Holes To Heaven ) has a done some great research using celebrity examples and their synodic cycles too. And for those who want to watch Venus against the constellations; Naked Eye Planets ~ Venus
