This Year’s Venus Retrograde
Venus is retrograde (moving backwards), not direct (moving forwards)
Current Venus Retrograde period:
December 19, 2021 to January 29, 2022
From 26º to 11º Capricorn.
The next one will begin in July of 2023.
Understanding the Venus cycle can help you in all of your relationships,
from romantic to business to family.
Venus is the Lover and Mediator in you.
To learn how to find the right partner for you
and improve all your relationships,
Contact Pandora Astrology for a Lifelong Love reading.
Venus, goddess of Love and Beauty, goes retrograde in our skies about every year and a half. When she does, she takes us into a six-week journey into the past to uncover what may be the hidden or forgotten places in our relationships. Each time Venus goes retrograde I write a post or series of posts about it. At the bottom of this page you can find posts from past years.
What Is Venus Retrograde?
When Venus goes retrograde, she takes our hand and pulls us into the darkness of our relationships. A retrograde period of any planet is a retrospective of that planet’s themes. It’s like going into the deep, dark cave of oneself in whatever area of life is covered by the planet that is retrograde. It will be a time of moving backward, perhaps of going back to pick up pieces lost in the past. It is thus a retrieval, a turning inward, perhaps a letting-go. Since Venus’ domain is relationships, this turning inward happens in that domain.
All humans want love, but how much of yourself are you willing to sacrifice to get it? And how long are you willing to stay in a relationship where you’re not loved in the ways that matter to you? How long can you tolerate not being valued or being taken for granted? And here’s another question: would you rather love or be loved–and does your relationship force you to choose rather than allowing you to have both? This transit can bring these issues to your attention. It’s super-uncomfortable, but in the end you can find tremendous clarity on your genuine relationship needs and on whether they are being fulfilled. And on how to go about doing that.
How Long Does It Last?
The Venus retrograde period usually lasts about six weeks.
The Current Venus Retrograde Period:
In 2021, Venus went retrograde at 26º of Capricorn on December 19 and will travel backwards to 11º Capricorn, finishing on January 29, 2022. This brings up relationship issues which will not fully resolve until Venus again turns direct and also passes the degree of Capricorn where she turned retrograde, which happened on March 1, 2022. On this day she is done retracing old relationship ground and her mission to teach us about relationships was over for the year. Venus is traveling retrograde from 26º to 11º of Capricorn, so if you have anything at all in your chart between 11 and 26º of Capricorn, you will likely feel this transit strongly. And if you have anything in your chart in the same degree span of the other Cardinal signs (Aries, Cancer or Libra), you will also feel this.
The Venus Cycle and Its Milestones
The grand cycle of Venus begins and ends with a day of “Ah-ha!” or epiphany. This happens when Venus conjuncts the Sun while moving forward swiftly and it brings an “Ah-ha!” in our relationships and helps them progress at speed. There are two of them and they act like bookends, forming the beginning and ending of a Venus cycle. I call these Relationship Rapture Days and you can see on the diagram below that the present cycle began with one on March 26, 2021 at 6º Aries and finishes with one on October 22, 2022 at 29º Libra.
There is another kind of epiphany during the Venus cycle—it occurs while Venus is retrograde, on the day she conjuncts the Sun. I call this Relationship Clarity Day, because if your relationship has been going through the wringer, clarity is likely to come on this day. This can lead to a deeper intimacy and authenticity in your relationship. Alternatively, it can also bring the clarity that leads to a breakup or a discussion of irreconcilable differences pointing to a likely breakup. The current cycle’s Relationship Clarity Day is on January 8, 2022, at 18º Capricorn.
And there is a third, very important point in this cycle and that’s the day when Venus once again returns to the place where it first went retrograde (26º Capricorn), this time to pass through and onward. I call this Relationship Resolution Day and it happens on March 1, 2022. On this day the cycle’s themes resolve and complete.
