Relationship Reflections for Venus Retrograde

Between the Cancer New Moon opposite Pluto, Lunar Nodal Shift, and two retrogrades (looking at you Venus and Chiron), this week offers potent planetary portals galore.

Though I mostly have my Astro eye on Venus and Chiron retrograde cycles beginning the same weekend the Sun moves into Leo. Um, also the same weekend the Barbie movie comes out.;)

Astrologer Chris Brennan also pointed out that when Barbie came out in 1959 it was at the same time Venus was in Virgo retrograde moving into Leo. A very astro-attuned pop culture moment!

From July 22 until September 3, Venus moves backward in the sky asking us to reflect on our relationship to intimacy itself.

The feeling of loneliness can be two-fold, a lack of close relationships with others (our mammalian parts need it) and often a lack of connection with ourselves. And Venus can help.

Archetypally, Venus rules the realms of intimacy including friendship, romance, sensuality, pleasure, value, but also transformation and self-intimacy. Venus energy craves affection and feelings of fondness and has much concern with how to add more sweetness to life. In a nutshell — or scallop shell in the case of the goddess’ birth — Venus seeks to love and be loved.

In this way, Venus can reveal our love language, reminding us of the unique combination of factors that lead to satisfaction in our relating. Knowing Venus's placement can also help us understand why we have different ways of interacting with others and appreciate the nuances of our needs and theirs.

Understanding your natal Venus involves digging deeper into the needs of each layer, such as:

• Sign: The basic energies that attract us to friendship and partnership, allowing us to feel connected.
• Aspects: How we work with or can be challenged by our love language or loving nature.
• House: Area of life where we most crave connection or want to apply our gifts of love.

To make things a little easier, here’s a list of possible relationship needs and manifestations of the Venusian vibes that could relate to the sign, aspects, and house in any combination. I included both the positive and potentially negative…