By Elizabeth Hazel
May 2, 2020
Venus symbolizes wants and desires, the urge toward creativity, beauty, and personal connections. This planet is linked to love, romance, friendships, and children, but her influence can run the gamut from spiritual and intellectual desires to emotional and physical desires.
Each person processes Venusian desires differently. Some may be drawn toward large social circles. Others may take up some artistic or musical skill, dance, or architecture. Some individuals bounce from one relationship to another in search of the perfect romance. Others find their greatest desire can best be expressed through career goals and worldly achievements. Some feel their urges quite desperately and it becomes the spark of motivation needed to manifest the visions to reality. For others, Venus can tend toward excesses that relate to the pleasure centers of the brain – rich foods, alcohol, and other feel-good substances.
Each person processes Venus energies in a unique way and so experience Venus retrogrades differently, too. The retrograde that takes place from May 13 to June 25, 2020 is in Gemini, an air sign. As it begins, Venus is out-of-bounds at +27 declination. Out-of-bounds planets tend toward extremes.
People with natal Venus in air and fire signs are in greater harmony with this retrograde and will be able to use these energies more productively and with less struggle. The challenge will be juggling everything that's happening, retaining one's focus on the main goal in spite of distractions, and adapting to unfolding post-epidemic social conditions. Old friends may return and relationships can rekindle. There may be a strong urge to beautify and improve your home, office, or garden.
People with natal Venus in water and earth signs may have to work harder to channel these energies effectively. People with Venus and other planets in Virgo and Pisces must strive to balance the different aspects of their lives. Perhaps there are too many personal demands that conflict with work; or perhaps the needs of one person or group are in conflict with the needs of another. Other peoples' behavior could be extreme, or there could be a gap between family and friends who are doing well and others who are in crash-and-burn phases. The tug-and-pull effect will be stronger and more personalized. Maintaining healthy boundaries in relationships and determining a reasonable [not overwhelming] level of self-sacrifice may be challenging.
Venus goes retrograde at 21 Gemini 50 between Bellatrix (alpha Orion) and Capella (alpha Auriga). Bellatrix is the Female Warrior star: dynamic, driven, ambitious, and noisy. It's a blue white giant Mag 1 star. Bellatrix focuses on achievements and gaining rewards for long-term efforts. Capella is the Nanny Goat Star or the Horn of Plenty. It's one of the northern-most Mag 1 stars and exceptionally fortunate. It offers honors, wealth, fame and aid from friends.
Both Bellatrix and Capella emphasize doing the work that it takes to succeed. These are champion stars. Some individuals may complete and release major projects at this time, or reveal substantial plans for the future. But the Venus Rx is square Neptune. There's a slippery slide or a banana peel hiding somewhere! Things may not work as planned. Hidden problems could arise to bedevil situations. And what could be more hidden than a virus? This Venus-Neptune square promotes hyper-vigilance toward invisible threats. As late May rolls around, states will be implementing a variety of new social protocols, especially as businesses re-open. People will be shuffled around from old jobs to new jobs.
Late May and early June will see waves of social and employment changes. The changes may be bad for some and good for others – Gemini is a split or double-bodied sign, so retrogrades in this sign usually reflect multiplicity and parallel situations. Mercury is also in Gemini and this gives Venus the helpful support from the sign's ruler.
Venus backs through the stars that mark Orion's torso. As the Sun creeps closer and Venus is swallowed in the Sun's beams in early June, these planets and Mars in Pisces activate the Wild Child-Wild Ride star square between Rigel and Achernar. Early June brings a massive surge of movement on roads, highways, rivers and oceans. Getting the economy re-started will be a struggle on multiple levels. Uncertainty is hard on families and relationships, too. The desire for a better situation – a better job, a better dwelling place, a better relationship – becomes feverish. Neptune remains in close context as Mars applies to make a conjunction to the foggy planet. It may not yet be clear how to manifest those desires. But the urge for them is at a peak. Venus and Mars pose a basic paradox: whose desires are the most important? Mine or yours? As those desires can be at cross-purposes with the status quo, clashes can erupt over the desire for changes, the means for implementing them, and who gets to choose the goal.
The Rigel-Achernar square is a bumpy cosmic ride down a white-water river with all of society packed into a leaky raft! Everyone is being bounced around. Media and news outlets are overwhelmed with stories to report as history is being made.
Venus slows through mid-June and makes her direct station on June 25, 2020 at 5 Gemini 20. Venus is in the Hyades, the cluster of Weeping Sister stars on the forehead of the Bull. The planet is in close contact to Hyades II (delta Taurus), known as the Hinge Star. The Chinese believed this star was a portal for souls and ghosts. The Sun conjuncts this star around May 25 every year, a date that coincides with Memorial Day and other ancestor worship holidays around the globe.
The direct station of Venus forms a loose trine to Saturn in Aquarius, a stabilizing influence although not a particularly generous one. People will have to accept compromises, perhaps less than was promised during the discussions of the previous six weeks. Mars is at the final degree of Pisces with Scheat, a rowdy Pegasus star. This doubles-down on the theme of bumpy transitions and people struggling to hang on through unpredictable times. Venus's contact to a soul portal star and Saturn highlight funerals, dealing with the culmination of mass global deaths, and working through the grieving process. Saturn imposes order and good time management, but people's emotions may have to be put aside as Saturnian realities take precedence.
More people will go back to work and try to resume the life patterns that were established before the epidemic. This may not be easy! Venus must retrace her steps through tropical Gemini and Orion's stars. New factors arise through late June and early July. The Moon joins Venus at 13-14 Gemini on July 17, reiterating the Sun-Venus cazimi on June 3. People get a more reasonable idea of what expectations and plans can be fulfilled, and what may have to be delayed. Moon-Venus can generate opportunities, too. Reflect on discussions and the possibilities that got tossed around in early June and see if those ideas are ready to implement, or if a slight tweak would improve outcomes.
Venus reaches 21 Gemini on July 28, repeating her third square to Neptune, followed by a series of inconjunctions to Jupiter, Pluto and Saturn in Capricorn from the end of July through August 6, when Venus conjuncts the North Node at 28 Gemini and is inconjunct Saturn. Inconjunctions stress the inequities and imbalances between signs and planets. Venus is intent on pushing forward and striving for the future with the North Node and North Star Polaris. This is a highly intellectual and visionary conjunction with big ideas for the future. The North Star offers a way forward. In contrast, Saturn is retrograde in Capricorn, a sign with limitations, sticky realities, and authority figures that impose limits. Mars is making its first square to Jupiter, too. Small irritations can quickly become big issues as the collective urge toward fulfillment clashes with the inequitable distribution of wealth and resources. Mars-Jupiter signifies a clash in leadership. It could be both noisy and violent. Mars in Aries is an idealistic warrior charging into the fray with righteousness fervor. Jupiter in Capricorn is an elderly king who may be too inept to use resources properly. This series of aspects coincides with the summer's political conventions. Matters could become quite heated as different outlooks for the future and the means for achieving them are subject to intense scrutiny.
All retrograde planets signify a process of action-reflection-re-action. Test ideas for practicality through May and June. Bounce possibilities around in discussions. See what gets wide approval and what falls flat. Write out plans for the future with a list of steps that will be needed to achieve the specific goal. If any of those steps are vague or uncertain, wade in and do the research needed to ascertain the procedures, tasks, or alterations that will open the gate to the next step on the list. Crying “waily, waily!” and waving hands is ineffectual. The people who dig and keep digging, who proceed through their step-by-step To-Do lists and modify steps along the route as necessary, may have substantial achievements by the time mid-August arrives.
The crucial period to watch for is from July 28 to August 6 as Venus travels from Bellatrix, Orion's left shoulder, to Betelgeuze, Orion's right shoulder. The Venus transit between the shoulder stars implies responsibilities are in the process of being transferred: from person to person; from one generation to another; from one part of society to another; from nation to nation. Venus completes her journey from the left to right shoulder and meets up with the North Node, Betelgeuze and Polaris. The impulse to break into a brave new future is highly compelling in early August.