I am finishing this on Sunday morning after a heck of a couple days.
October is such a complicated month! And it started right out of the gate. Tensions run high. WORDS HAVE CONSEQUENCES. This is not a weekend to try to prove your point/pick a fight or add to the drama. Please take this seriously.
We talked about October HERE. We talked about Venus retrograde first in Part I HERE. Let's dive back into Venus (because she is extremely consequential here) and then we will get into Mars in Leo.
Venus stationed retrograde YESTERDAY. 40 days and 40 nights back and forth through Scorpio and Libra and the story actually started around the middle of August and doesn't totally clear up until December. Old situations, relationships, repeating circumstances, financial entanglements are highlighted/back on the table. Those envelopes we left unopened/calls left unanswered/dangling situations - life conspires for us to deal with them. We are going to see what is really underneath all this stuff we have stuffed. Secrets. Debts. Karma. Dharma. The stuff we have stuffed. The stuff that has been hidden - by us and from us.
40 DAYS AND 40 NIGHTS.
WEEK 1 (Oct 3rd-9th) - THE DEEP DIVE
Venus stations retrograde at 8-degrees Scorpio, and within days she meets Mercury. Words, secrets and old information start to surface and may have already surfaced. What have we been avoiding saying, signing or opening? Notice what comes up. Old conversations may return. Information we didn't have before may change the meaning of something we thought we understood. Slow down. Listen more than talk.
WEEK 2 (Oct 10th-16th) - WHAT'S FAIR?
The New Moon in Libra is the same day Venus squares Mars in Leo. Tension/frustration. Boys vs girls. Desire and pride vs fairness. Where is the other person in all of this? What do we want and what are we willing to compromise to get it? Is this actually unfair, or is it just not giving us what we want? This is the week to ask whether something can be negotiated/re-negotiated or needs to be unwound gracefully.
WEEK 3 (Oct 17th-23rd) - WHO HAS POWER OVER US? BIG THEME OF THIS RETRO
Pluto turns direct in mid-October, then Venus squares him on the 19th-20th. Control, leverage, debt, obsession and jealousy are all on the table. And this can still be in play from the Mars/Pluto earlier in the month! Then on the 23rd Venus meets the Sun/the heart of the retrograde. She's in the underworld, in the light. What dies here? What gets reborn? And what have we been calling alive just because we were afraid to let it go? Or calling it dead because we have been afraid to admit we need it?
WEEK 4 (Oct 24th-30th) - THREE THINGS AT ONCE.
Mercury goes retrograde in Scorpio on the 24th. Venus backs into Libra on the 25th. The Taurus Full Moon follows on the 26th, with the Sun in Scorpio opposite. What is mine, and what is ours? What do we own, and what do we owe? AND WHAT DO WE ACTUALLY HAVE THAT WE CAN COUNT ON AND HOW DO WE SECURE THAT. Then on the 28th Venus opposes Chiron, and we meet the wound in the mirror of the other person. Think about what actually preserves your security and be honest about what you're clinging to for the wrong reasons. What are we protecting because it is valuable and what are we protecting because losing it would hurt? For some, health situations are in play or uncovered.
WEEKS 5 AND 6 (Oct 31st-Nov 12th) - WE CATCH A BREAK. Venus sextiles Jupiter on Nov 4th and Mars on Nov 10th, so there's help here. Opportunities. Let the dust settle. No final decisions yet, but some action is needed. Let Venus, who is back home in Libra now, do her job.
NOVEMBER 13: WE KNOW WHAT WE KNOW and are moving on
Venus and Mercury both station direct. The same day. It's all out in the open. No more backtracking. We know what we know. What have we learned? What still holds/what no longer does?
It won't really be until December 15th when Venus returns to 8-degrees Scorpio that we start walking a totally new road. This gift, which has maybe been disguised as a sh*tshow, will be in our rearview mirror. What's left will be what we can build on. And what didn't survive?
Let it go with a little grace. It was never going to make it onto the ark.
How to work with a Venus retrograde in Scorpio - 50% of the time PROCESS PRIVATELY - Venus retrograde is internal work 1. Journal/take notes before we communicate. And, like, actually write this stuff down. Don't just say it in your head or to your dog a couple times like I usually do. And our brain makes better connections when our hands are more actively/intimately involved than they can be with a keyboard. Get a notebook. And a pen. Take a breath if triggered. We will write it out before we send the text, make the call, confront someone or make the impulse purchase. Venus rules beauty, so NO BEAUTY MAKEOVERS. We have to GIVE OURSELVES the gift of enough time to figure out whether we're responding to the present situation or something much older. 2. Follow the discomfort. Some of this might suck. Jealousy, resentment, FEAR, anger and possessiveness are information and not instructions to do something or say something. 3. Open the envelope. Literally. Metaphorically. Look at the bill. Read the contract. Check the account. Find the old email. Check the phone. Revisit the conversation. Look at the thing you've been avoiding. Scorpio is much less frightening when we stop imagining what's hiding. 4. Separate the facts from the bullsh*t. Write down - what you know, what you suspect, what you fear, what you want to be true, what you actually need to know. Especially useful once Mercury turns retrograde. 5. Look at the exchange/part of this is happening in Libra. Where am I giving? Where am I receiving? Where am I over-functioning? Where am I keeping score? What do I owe? What do they owe me? What have I agreed to that I no longer actually agree with? 6. Notice where power is flowing/who has it. Who gets to decide? Who has leverage? What are you afraid will happen if you say no? What are you afraid will happen if you say yes? WHO/WHAT HAS THE POWER OVER US - THIS WILL BE A HUGE PART OF THIS RETRO as Venus makes multiple contacts with Pluto. One has already happened.
30% OF THE TIME - COMMUNICATE DELIBERATELY - 1. Don't communicate from the peak of emotion. We don't have to suppress the feeling, but we don't have to act on it immediately either. Feel it/write it/SLEEP ON IT/then decide whether it needs to be said. And if it does, it does. Mars is in Leo, we have COURAGE. 2. LET'S TRY TO ASK BETTER QUESTIONS. Scorpio rules therapy. Instead of “Why did you do this to me?" try "Can you help me understand what happened?" Instead of “This isn't fair.” try "How can we make this fair to both of us?" That is very Libra meeting Scorpio. Then we take what we learned from the conversation and we SIT WITH IT. 3. Put important things in writing. Especially around money, contracts, shared expenses, commitments, boundaries and agreements. Scorpio is fixed energy and likes clarity and Mercury retrograde is not the time to rely on everyone's memory being the same. 4. And this one is uber important. Let's not demand an answer just because we finally asked the question. We can have the conversation without forcing the conclusion. 4. Give yourself permission to say, "I need to think about that." That might be the best sentence of this entire retrograde!
20% OF THE TIME - OBSERVE WHAT HAPPENS WITHOUT FORCING ANYTHING AT ALL. Life is conspiring for "Venus to sort the living from the dead for us". We don't have to conduct an autopsy right now. Just watch what comes back/watch what doesn't. Watch who shows up. Watch what becomes easier when we stop forcing it. See what thing naturally follows another thing. We find something out - we ask the next question, etc. Watch what repeatedly creates the same problems. Watch what actually survives an honest conversation. Watch what we still value after we've had time to question whether we value it.
0% - IMPULSIVE DECISIONS - Think of the retrograde itself as INFORMATION. Don't jump the gun - and we start with a Mars/Pluto opposition so will really, really want to! Something can feel incredibly urgent and still need six weeks to reveal what it actually means.
Let's take a look by sign and house. Check your Rising and your Sun and know Aries is the collective influence, too.
FORECAST BY SIGN - this totally plays out from late August until mid-December, but probably most strongly from early October until mid-November. Probably :)
ARIES | Aries Rising - 8th house to 7th house back to 8th house
THIS IS ALSO THE COLLECTIVE STORYLINE/applies to everyone.
Venus is moving through your 8th house of shared money, intimacy, debt, power, inheritance, taxes, secrets, sex and the things that become complicated when two people become one. What is yours? What is theirs? What is ours? And have those lines gotten blurry?
This can bring attention to joint accounts, debts, investments, inheritances, taxes, sexual relationships, emotional entanglements or any situation where you have given someone else access to your resources or they have given you access to theirs.
Then Venus backs into your 7th house of partnership. Suddenly this isn't just about the money.
It's about the relationship. What is each person bringing to the table? Who is carrying more? Who is making the decisions? Is the arrangement actually reciprocal?
And then Venus returns to your 8th carrying what she learned/worked through in your 7th. Now you have to decide what you are actually willing to share.
This is a powerful retrograde for figuring out where intimacy has become obligation, where obligation has become resentment or where genuine trust has been replaced by control.
TAURUS | Taurus Rising - 7th house to 6th house and back to 7th house
Venus is your ruler, so you're likely to feel this one strongly. She starts in your 7th house of partnership. And Venus in Scorpio doesn't do casual.
She's asking what is underneath the relationship. What isn't being said? What are you afraid to lose? Where are you compromising because you want to keep the peace and where are you compromising because you're afraid of what happens if you don't?
Then Venus backs into your 6th house. Now we get very practical. Who is doing the work? Who remembers the appointments? Who makes the money? Who handles the bills? Who cleans up the mess? Who takes care of everyone else? Love is lovely. But somebody still has to take out the garbage.
The retrograde may show you where the everyday exchange between two people has become unequal. Pluto will force honesty. If you think you do everything, this may be the time you find out whether that's true. It could also turn out to be less about how much you carry and more about why you're so hard to share the load with :)
Then Venus returns to your 7th house, and you get to look at the relationship again with better information. Is this partnership actually reciprocal? And if it isn't, what are you willing to do about it?
GEMINI | Gemini Rising - 6th house to 5th house back to 6th house
Venus begins in your 6th house of work, health, routines and the daily things that keep your life humming along. Here Scorpio has Venus pulling up - what is costing us more than we realize? Where are you spending your time, energy, money or attention? What are you doing because you genuinely value it and what are you doing because you feel obligated? You may also discover that something you've been tolerating in your daily life is no longer tolerable. Health situations can get re-worked.
Then Venus backs into your 5th house. Ah. What happened to fun/pleasure? Creativity. Romance. Children. Play. Sex. Art. The things you do because they make you feel alive. Perhaps you've been so busy managing the machinery of your life that you've forgotten why you built the machinery in the first place.
Then Venus returns to the 6th. And now the question becomes - how do I build a daily life that actually supports what I love?
CANCER | Cancer Rising - 5th house to 4th house and back to 5th house
Venus begins in your 5th house of creativity, romance, children, pleasure, play and self-expression. Scorpio can make all of these things more complicated, but you are used to that! What happens when something you love becomes something you are afraid to lose? What happens when creativity becomes entangled with validation? What happens when love becomes possession?
Then Venus backs into your 4th house. Home. Family. Mother. Roots. The emotional history underneath everything. Some of what is happening in your romantic or creative life may have deeper roots than you realized. Old family patterns can show up in present relationships. Old ideas about who you are allowed to be can show up in your creativity.
Then Venus returns to your 5th house. And maybe the question becomes as simple (?!) as - what do I love because I love it and not because it proves something about me?
LEO | Leo Rising - 4th house to 3rd house and back to 4th house
Venus starts in your 4th house of home, family, mother/mothering, roots and private life. This can be a deep excavation. What did you inherit? Not just money or property, but values. Appearance. A royal storyline that is hard to shake. A way to get attention. Ideas about relationships. Ideas about security. Ideas about what a family is supposed to look like. Ideas about what you owe other people.
Then Venus backs into your 3rd house and the old conversations begin. Something said years ago may suddenly mean something different. Something you never said may need to be said. A sibling relationship, neighborhood situation or communication pattern may come under review. Your voice changes.
And then Venus returns to the 4th. What do you want to carry forward - and what ends with you. BIG time for Leos with Jupiter and the South Node in your sign.
VIRGO | Virgo Rising - 3rd house to 2nd house back to 3rd house
Venus begins in your 3rd house of communication, siblings, neighbors, learning and the immediate environment around you. Scorpio wants to know what is really being said. And not the pink-paint version - the real version. Old conversations can return. Information can surface that changes things. Something you thought you understood may turn out to be more complicated.
Then Venus backs into your 2nd house of money, possessions, income and self-worth.
And suddenly the conversation becomes all about the benjamins. What is this worth? What is your time worth? Your work? Your attention? Your relationship? Your own peace?
Then Venus returns to the 3rd. And you may find yourself communicating differently because you finally understand the value of what you're communicating about. Words have value, too.
LIBRA | Libra Rising - 2nd house to 1st house back to 2nd house
This is a big one because Venus is your ruler. She begins in your 2nd house of money, resources, possessions, income and self-worth. What do you value? What have you been valuing because other people told you it was valuable? Money can bring this into very literal focus, but self-worth is part of the equation, too.
Then Venus backs into your 1st house. Now the question gets personal. Who are you when you stop performing your value for someone else? What do you actually want? How have you changed? What image of yourself have you outgrown?
Then Venus returns to the 2nd house. And you get to decide what this new version of you is actually worth.
SCORPIO | Scorpio Rising - 1st house to 12th house back to 1st house
Well. This one's yours. Venus begins her retrograde in your 1st house. YOU are the territory being examined. Your appearance. Your identity. Your desires. Your relationships. Your values. The way you present yourself to the world.
What if the person you've become isn't exactly the person you thought you were?
And then Venus backs into your 12th house. Behind the curtain we go. Old loves. Old desires. Old grief. Old patterns. Old debts. Old skills. Old storyline from earlier in this life and past-lives/ancestral. The things you thought you were over. The things you didn't even realize were still running the show.
This is not necessarily about doing something dramatic. It may be about finally understanding why you keep doing something you already know doesn't work.
And then Venus returns to your 1st house. You come back out of the underworld. Not quite the same person who went in. We had this same retrograde almost to the degree 8YEARS AGO and then 8 years before that, too - what did you have going on then?
SAGITTARIUS | Sag Rising - 12th house to 11th house back to 12th house
Venus begins in your 12th house. This is the hidden room. The private room. The place where we keep things we don't necessarily want everyone else to see. Old relationships, secret desires, unresolved grief, unconscious patterns. This can be a strangely nostalgic Venus retrograde for you. It can also bring up past life/ancestral dangling cords and be complicated, if not impossible, to understand. We don't have to.
Something from the past may return not necessarily because it belongs in your future, but maybe because it still has something to teach you.
Then Venus backs into your 11th house. Friends. Groups. Community. The people who are supposed to be your people. Who actually is? Where have you been giving more than you're receiving or taking more than your fair share? Where have you stayed connected to something simply because you've been connected to it for a long time?
Then Venus returns to the 12th. And you may finally understand what needs to be released/held even if you never know (in this lifetime) exactly why.
CAPRICORN | Cappy Rising - 11th house to 10th house back to 11th house
Venus starts in your 11th house of friends, community, groups, networks and your hopes for the future. Scorpio asks - who actually has your back? And whose backs are you holding up? Who benefits from the relationship? Where is there genuine reciprocity and where is there leverage? This can also be about the Scorpion excavation happening to you through your friends/through their stories/through what is happening to them.
Then Venus backs into your 10th house. Now we're talking about reputation, career, authority, reputation and your public life. How much of your public identity is actually yours? How much has been built around what other people expect? And what happens when your private values no longer match your public role? You could return to an old way of showing up in the world/old career or be releasing one.
Then Venus returns to the 11th. Who/what do you want beside you as you move into the future?
AQUARIUS | Aqua Rising - 10th house to 9th house back to 10th house
Venus begins in your 10th house. Career. Reputation. Authority. The life other people can see. Scorpio asks what is happening behind the public face. Are you doing work you value? Are you being valued for the work you do? Where have ambition and self-worth become tangled? Is something happening behind your back?
Then Venus backs into your 9th house. Beliefs. Education. Travel. Publishing. Meaning. The worldview underneath your ambitions. Sometimes we don't change our career because we need a new job. Sometimes we change because we no longer believe in the story that made us want the job in the first place.
Then Venus returns to the 10th. And you get to rebuild - the same or different public life - from a different set of values.
PISCES | Pisces Rising - 9th house to 8th house back to 9th house
Venus begins in your 9th house of belief, meaning, travel, education, publishing and the larger story you tell yourself about your life. In Scorpio she asks - do you actually believe what you say you believe? And what happens when life gives you an experience that challenges the worldview you've been using to make sense of everything?
Then Venus backs into your 8th house. Now we're in the deep end. Shared money. Debt. Sex. Trust. Power. Loss. Intimacy. The things we cannot understand from a safe distance. Something may force you to reconsider what you believe about trust, attachment, control or surrender.
And then Venus returns to the 9th. What do you believe now that you've actually lived through it?
Keep in mind this is just one set of eyes looking at the patterns and archetypes and nothing more.
xo all
(check the signs around your sign, too if you don't know your degrees - we start at 8 Scorpio and end at 22 Libra or vice versa really ....)
And keep in mind wherever Venus is retrograding in your chart, don't assume the goal is to get rid of something. Sometimes the retrograde shows us what has to go. BUT sometimes it shows us what we almost lost. Sometimes it reveals something we have been undervaluing. Sometimes it brings back something from the past so we can see it with completely different eyes. And sometimes it just puts the envelope on the table.
We don't have to open it immediately. But Venus is going to keep walking back and forth across the room until we do.
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