Mercury and Venus are always read with the Sun, and not independently, because they’re closer to the Sun than Earth. They look like they're following the Sun around from our perspective. You can think of them as talents, or what helps your ego. Mercury, because it gets pulled into the Sun’s gravitational warp, retrogrades easily. Venus is a little more stable and retrogrades once every two years.
Since Mercury is always in the same sign as the Sun, or one sign away, it is the representations and reflections that we have about ourselves personally. In other words, Mercury is all about the poems you write, the posts you make, and the jokes you tell that express you personally.
Venus is a bit further from the Sun and can be up to two signs away. It isn’t so caught up in the Sun’s pull. Venus, then is the representations and reflections that we find about ourselves socially. Venus is whether you see people who look like you on TV, identity politics, and finding people who share your (political) interests in real time. It's also about describing ourselves but it’s a little more socially accountable. It's about the ways we find self acceptance through society.
The Mercury and Venus retrograde actually describes a larger cycle of events. Before retrograde, Mercury and Venus are visible in the sky during the evening. In zodiacal order, they are moving ahead of the Sun. That means, they’re not in the sky until the Sun has already risen in the morning (making them invisible) but they don’t set until the Sun already sets (making them visible).
When Mercury and Venus retrograde, they move past the Sun in an inferior conjunction when they retrograde. In zodiacal order, they’re then located within two signs behind the Sun. This makes them rise slightly before the Sun in the morning, making them visible at dawn, and set before the Sun, and invisible at night. Mercury and Venus are visible in the sky until they pass the Sun again, this time in superior conjunction.
When Mercury and Venus are moving ahead of the Sun, visible as evening stars, they represent afterthought. When they become morning stars after retrograding, they represent forethought. During retrograde, a lot of patterns and habits become broken to make room for a mental change.
When Mercury rises as evening star, we’re fact checking, editing, and developing our ideas to become fuller and deeper. We want things to make sense to us. For things to make sense, they have to align somewhat with the assumptions we already have about the world. Sometimes, maintaining a rational outlook is about affirming our assumptions.
Mercury, as morning star, behaves completely differently. We don’t care so much that things make sense but that they challenge the ways we already know how to approach the world. Mercury retrograde is a good time to debunk prior assumptions. Mercury rising in the morning is a good time to try out and look for new ideas. It can feel good to be confused right now.
Venus, when it’s visible in the evening, represent unchallenged relationships. It's time to learn a deeper trust with the people you already have. It can be harder to make new friends because everyone is hunkering down with their friend groups and relating to the people they already call their own. If you’re frustrated, relationships can feel a little controlling right now. You might feel like you have to conform.
As the morning star, Venus wants us to find new people. It wants us to change our social representations and get some new faces on the TV. We want to make new styles and prove the new ways to be beautiful are just as cool as the old ways. You might feel like you’re sick of an old friend’s mindset and need a small break to find some people that bring you to different social settings where you can express a different part of yourself.
The possible orders of Sun-Mercury-Venus are:
Sun-Mercury-Venus:
Here, both planets are visible in the evening. This is an ideal time for finishing things and sticking to the ways that you know, getting things done in the way that you have been doing. If you were born with this pattern, then look for tradition to provide your personal pattern. Venus is closer to retrograde in this pattern, meaning that your relationships can be more rigid than your ideas. You might be prone to looking for an expert opinion, or becoming an expert yourself, in order to justify your ideas.
Sun-Venus-Mercury:
Both planets are still evening stars, meaning that there is still a reliance on habits. You want to get things done right now. Here, we’re closer to a Mercury retrograde than a Venus one. Relationships challenge our own assumptions right now. We talk before we make up our minds about something and share news before fact checking. If you were born on this pattern, you have to talk to people in order to really think through things.
Mercury-Sun-Venus:
Only Venus is an evening star while Mercury is a morning one. You have a bunch of ideas but you’re not ready to share them with people yet. When you try, they can feel like a load of nonsense. It’s a good time to make time for independent research or daydreaming, apart from the crowd. If you were born with this pattern, you might inspire people but they might not really understand where you’re coming from until you take the time to explain yourself.
Venus-Sun-Mercury:
This time, Venus is visible in the morning but Mercury isn’t visible until later at night, right after sunset. It’s a time when we’re constantly having to negotiate what our friends, bosses, and family expect from us versus what we expect from ourselves. We might feel like people aren't really seeing us when they look at us. If you were born with this pattern, your friends might feel like they can trust you before you are ready for it. They might place more burdens onto you than you like. Communicate.
Mercury-Venus-Sun:
Both planets are morning stars now, meaning that they’re on the lookout for the next new thing. Right now, we’re curious about the world and everything is flexible enough for us to really learn a new thing. We’re sick of the same old things and want something fresh. It’s easier to admit when we don’t know something. If you were born with this pattern, you're a curious person. You’re always looking for new ideas to bring to people and can jump around from one thing to another, getting tired of something when other people show interest in it.
Venus-Mercury-Sun:
People come before ideas right now. The things that people tell us right now, sharing their experiences and stories, might not really hit home until a little later. We’re reacting with empathy first and understanding later. Other people’s stories of how they perceive the world confuse us. This confusion makes us want to know more. If you were born with this pattern, you’re constantly listening to other people. You prioritize people over ideas.
