Oh, beautiful bright Venus! She presently adorns the evening sky, drawing our attention to what we love, value and desire. Venus builds bridges: she seeks harmony, softens division, and connective understanding. Her relational connective tissue can knit together what has been divided, but this energy must be consciously wielded.
When Venus entered the intensity of Scorpio back on Sept 11, her drive to connect became a challenging task. Scorpio is the night domain of Mars, he who loves to sever and inflame. Imagine trying to heal a wound that keeps splitting open or getting infected; a simple bandage won’t do the trick. When in Scorpio, Venus must look beyond the surface wound, scrutinizing then cut away damage to enable a cleaner, more honest healing. It’s painful and messy work, but Venus in Scorpio finds profound fulfilment in repair that is real.
Venus slows before turning retrograde on 3 October, drawing toward her embrace with the Sun later that month. This is time of inwards descent: a period of revisiting your values, relationships, and self-presentation before Venus re-emerges with a changed understanding of what you value and desire. Old patterns and past relationships can surface now, not always to be revived, but to highlight the importance of present choices. In Scorpio, the sign of death and rebirth, the symbolism could hardly be more apt.
Scorpio and Sacred Wetlands
With the world spinning faster as the fire and air dominance holds sway, Venus stilling in the deep waters of Scorpio brings the pause you may have been praying for. Now the Universe is beckoning us into our subliminal emotional world. Scorpio’s waters are linked to mystical, enigmatic wetland: dark, slow, fertile, and difficult to map. Here, decay and filtration sustain life beyond the wetland’s edges; what appears stagnant is quietly performing essential work. Such terrain asks for patience, soft strength, and the courage to move without full visibility.
My meditation teacher recently shared this Lao Tzu quote, which fits so well for the upcoming Venus Retrograde in this mysterious sign:
“Do you have the patience to wait
Till your mud settles and the water is clear?
Can you remain unmoving
Till the right action arises by itself?”
― Lao tzu
When Venus retrogrades, her bright light vanishes from the evening sky and is swallowed by the Sun’s brightness, only to be reseen again in the morning sky 40 days later. The ancient Babylonians identified Venus with the goddess Inanna, and her disappearance from the evening sky was understood through the story of her descent into the underworld. In the ancient poem, Inanna passes through seven gates, surrendering the adornments of wealth and authority until she stands naked before Ereshkigal, her sister and underworld counterpart. There she dies, leaving behind the fake and shallow.
Her return is made possible through the devotion of her loyal advisor Ninshubur and the compassion of Enki, god of water and wisdom. As Inanna rises, she encounters those who mourned her absence and stood by her when she was powerless. Finally, she finds her husband, Dumuzi, seated in splendour, dressed in finery rather than grief. Inanna returns to her realm more discerning: able to recognise the difference between love that is spoken and love that is shown.
From 3 October, follow this cosmic invitation to undertake similar journey of shedding and rebirth, with Scorpio’s honest perception on where you can reconcile and what is beyond repair. Venus square Pluto on 19-10 Oct may unearth information for true reckoning, letting new information guide powerful choices for change. Venus eventually returns to Libra (25/26 Oct), carrying the insights gained in Scorpio into her realm of balance and repair. Her supportive connection with Jupiter in Leo, and her direct station near Spica, suggest that great efforts of this period can lead to greater wisdom, clarity and trust in your relationships. The promise is not a quick fix, but a more grounded beginning, especially when guided by your heart’s wisdom. Once Venus stations direct and glides over where she descended, the fruits of your labour will bear fruit (14 Nov – 16 Dec).
Look back to November 2018: what relationship themes, values, or unfinished emotional material from that period are asking to be understood differently now?
Some ideas for how to work with this include:
- Plucking up the courage to have the hard conversations while committing to stay compassionate and curious with the other,
- Step back from connections that feel murky, confusing, or unhealthy. Let the mud settle before deciding what comes next.
- Unpick the underlying stories you each bring to conflict by reflecting privately on what drive your feelings of separation. Journalling, drawing, or therapy all offer discovery avenues you can then share from to find a way out of constant battles,
- Take this time to delve into obstacles or an area of frustration; use this energy to find blockages, then purge and purify so new energy can flow.
If you wish to be work deeply with this energy, I am once again offering a unique Venus Retrograde Guide to support a rebirth in your relationship with yourself, and your loved ones. From 3 Oct, you’ll receive six weekly journal prompts along with accompanying meditations or contemplations to support you to shed old patterns and find reconnection to self or those around you. There is also a guide to this period by rising sign, and even a playlist of Venus in Scorpio music you may wish to enjoy.