This article is going to be my own attempt to clarify some thoughts that I have regarding Venus retrogrades. I’ve noticed that, in the last two years or so, Venus retrograde has become commodified similar to the Mercury retrograde.

In the past, people would freak out about Mercury retrograde. Don’t travel, don’t make plans, always expect your plans to fall through. We started mocking all of the memes about Mercury retrograde and we even started to call it Mercury gatorade for a while. Now, I see a lot more content about Venus retrograde. Don’t date, don’t fall in love, don’t trust new relationships…what is this about?

Astrology isn’t a blanket statement about what you should do or not do at any given time. You can always leave your house, even during a Mercury retrograde. You can always mend a relationship or start a new one, even during Venus retrograde.

Let’s take a look at what Venus retrograde is actually doing. I’ll give you some tips about how I usually read this event.

Venus retrogrades every other year

Venus doesn’t retrograde as often as Mercury. Mercury retrogrades approximately three times a year. It also doesn’t retrograde as often as Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn which are called the superior planets because they are further than Earth from the Sun. The superior planets retrograde approximately every year because they retrograde whenever the Sun gets too far from them. They speed up when the Sun draws close, starting from when the Sun trines them.

Since Venus is closer to the Sun than Earth is, Venus is an inferior planet. That means that Venus will look like it’s following the Sun around from the Earth’s vantage point. That also means that Venus can’t get too far from the Sun. However, Venus can get further from the Sun than Mercury can because it’s still not as close to the Sun as Mercury is. That’s why it retrogrades less often.

When Venus retrogrades, Venus actually slows down. It slows down so much that the Sun moves faster. That means that, during Venus retrogrades, the Sun passes Venus.

What is Venus doing during the years when it doesn’t retrograde? Just because Venus isn’t retrograding in any sign in any given year, Venus isn’t just doing nothing. Venus is still doing something that is related to its synodic cycle which is what we call Venus’s dance with the Sun. On the years that Venus doesn’t retrograde, Venus moves forward. It moves from its position of lagging behind the Sun and starts to speed up on past the Sun.

Venus retrograde is just one part of a longer two year cycle. The two moments of this cycle when the Sun and Venus conjunct each other are super important because those conjunctions actually change Venus’s phase. When the Sun passes Venus, Venus becomes a morning star. When Venus passes the Sun, Venus becomes an evening star.

Venus has layers

In most stories about Venus, Venus has this phase of going into an underworld of some sort. Inanna goes into the underworld and strips herself of all of her layers. Psyche goes into the underworld to retrieve a jar of beauty for Aphrodite. Quetzalcoatl goes away and comes back to confront his brother. Barnumbirr emerges from the spirit world to release the dead and Lucifer falls from the sky and into the underworld.

Venus sometimes disappears. After Venus disappears, it reappears. In most Venus myths, Venus is two faced. Why? Because Venus literally has two faces. Venus has a morning star face and an evening star face.

This is why Venus is the planet of ethics. Venus rules over choices. It’s the man at the crossroads, the avenger who walks down under and strips herself down and chooses a martyr in her stead. When Venus goes into the underworld, she removes all of her pretenses. She discerns between what is right for the current moment and what isn’t right. She strengthens her attachments to the dead and she gives Eve the choice of knowledge.

Venus is the planet that offers us choices. It’s the dealer of choices. That means that there are always two Venuses. There is the Venus that gives and the Venus that takes. There is the Venus that binds and the Venus that releases.

How to Read Venus Retrograde

When does Venus enter the underworld? It’s not during a Venus retrograde. During Venus retrograde, Venus actually emerges from the underworld and comes out. That’s Inanna making her choice. Venus enters the underworld during those years when it doesn’t retrograde at all. It becomes an evening star when it is moving faster than the Sun.

This year, Venus will retrograde in Aries during March and April. However, pay attention—March 23rd is the date when Venus is conjunct to the Sun. That means that, around the last week of March, Venus is invisible. It’s literally hidden by the rays of the Sun. When it emerges, it is coming back after a nine month stay in the world of the dead.

When did Venus last enter the underworld? She entered back in June of 2024 in Gemini. That was the moment when Venus passed the Sun by and became an evening star.

Venus is the planet of attachment. When Venus gets to move consistently direct, without much change, that’s when our attachments deepen. We might not even notice it happening. For sure, we don’t talk about Venus changing phases nearly as much as Venus retrogrades. However, Venus becoming an evening star is a significant event because it marks the deepening of the relationships that you already have.

Last June, wherever you have Gemini in your chart, you deepened something there. I have my IC in Gemini. I won’t share too much about what I have deepened but it is related to home and family.

Where is Gemini in your chart? What did you deepen back in June of 2024?

When Venus emerges from the underworld, she comes out at a different place from where she entered. This coming March, when Venus re-emerges into the morning skies, she will do so in Aries. Venus’s re-emergence has to do with her disappearance. If Venus’s evening star phase has to do with deepening, then her morning star phase has to do with deciding. These two phases of Venus have to do with each other.

Aries is my third house. I’m actually getting more comfortable with driving. The third house is the house of short trips. Getting more comfortable with driving has everything to do with wanting to go see my parents. Driving feels like a set of choices that remind me of the agency that I have.

Where is Aries in your chart? What choices are you deliberating on right now?

Venus likes to give us choices. She likes to give us choices that aren’t terribly big but aren’t terribly small either. Her choices take two years. One year is for contemplation and the next year is for making the choice. You wouldn’t be meeting the choices that you are meeting if not for your contemplation. During Venus retrograde, always look back to see when Venus became an evening star. Look at the whole cycle, not just one part of the narrative. A choice doesn’t need to be black and white. A choice might be a simple realization about what you deepened nine months prior, what you’ve been gestating since then.

Venus repeats every eight years

Venus retrogrades tend to be very regular. They happen every two years but they also occur in the same signs every eight years. Again, Venus will retrograde in Aries this coming March and April. It became an evening star last June in Gemini.

Guess when Venus did almost the exact same thing? Yup, that’s right. Venus pulled the same shit back in 2026 and 2017. In June of 2026, Venus passed the Sun and became an evening star in Gemini. In March of 2017, it allowed the Sun to pass by and it re-emerged as a morning star.

Venus is a nocturnal planet. It is nostalgic. It tends to circle around, repeating the same thing over and over again.

Life doesn’t just give you a choice once. Life tends to give you similar choices again and again.

Whenever Venus goes anything at all, think back to eight years prior. Venus is very consistent so it’s one of the more predictable planets. What were you doing? What did you deepen in 2016 and what did you choose in 2017? What crossroads are you meeting again? You’ve been here before. These are the same crossroads as before. You’re a little different but you’ve been here before.