The Other Side of Romance
Venus' lessons about your love nature

By Elizabeth Summers

There is more to love than just infatuation, dating, and wanting to be with someone special. Love and romance do go hand in hand, but our love natures encompass much more than our romantic lives. We love ourselves, we love our careers, we love our families, and we love our hobbies and activities. When Venus turns retrograde on October 8, 2010, you will discover another side of your love nature, a side that touches on one of these areas of life. Which area that might be depends on the house Venus touches in your solar chart.

Astrologically, when a planet is retrograde, the energy you experience from it alters quite a bit. Venus turning retrograde, something that happens every 18 months, gives you a chance not to pursue love, but to review love, especially as it relates to your love nature. It’s usually not the best time to enter into a marriage or formal commitment, although if you have one scheduled, don’t worry! Venus retrograde doesn’t mean you can’t hold your ceremony; it just means you need to be aware that you may need to deal with delays, and that unscheduled events will occur. Patience needs to be your keyword!

After Venus turns retrograde in Scorpio it will appear to move backward in the sky, and it will not begin to move forward once more until November 18. From the 7th to the 18th of November, while it is moving backward, it will leave passionate Scorpio and backtrack into cool Libra. During this time, you may feel a bit confused about what you want where love is concerned and from whom you want it! But if you’re smart, you can use this time to review the thoughts you had about the things you love while Venus was in Scorpio. In other words, Venus in Scorpio will be at the center of your thinking during whole time.

Take a look at your sign below to see how Venus retrograde will affect you, and you will learn that you have many more (and more varied) love desires than you thought possible. Your love nature extends far beyond reading romance novels or leaving sweet text messages on your beloved’s cell phone!

Aries: Venus will retrograde through your solar 8th house. You are a very forceful and assertive soul, and you know that! You certainly do want to have your way in life, and you have no hesitation in making your wishes known to the people you associate with, and this is especially true when it comes to love. Once Venus begins her backward motion through your house of inner transformation (the 8th), you may realize that you truly love self-knowledge at least as much as knowledge about others. In other words, getting to know yourself is one of your favorite pastimes! After all, you are the most fascinating person you know. But though self-love is a distraction if carried to extremes, it’s the beginning of self-respect, so it’s okay to want to know what makes you tick and why you feel the way you do about yourself. The 8th house is the zone of your psychological needs, so you may begin to read self-help books that allow you to get in touch with your inner needs, wants, and desires. You may consider taking classes that teach psychology at your local adult education center, or at a college or university in your area. During Venus retrograde, you will discover that you have a deep need to evolve spiritually and psychologically, and that your self-growth is one of the most important areas of your life. Making yourself a better person will also make you a better lover and companion, so there are benefits all around!

Taurus: Venus will retrograde through your solar 7th house. You are a very mellow soul, and your need for peace and harmony is a big part of your personality profile. However, you can also be very stubborn, so once you decide on a particular stance or course of action, you usually cannot be moved from your position. As Venus retrogrades through your 7th house (a house which focuses on relationships with others), you will discover that your need to be with people outweighs your need to be right all the time! You are stoic, and you tend to value your privacy. However, you also have a very deep love for your family and friends, and the relationships you have with others sustain you through your challenges and struggles in life. When you are happy, you want to share your good fortune with your loved ones, and when you are sad you rely on your companions to help lift your spirits. So when it comes down to it, privacy and self-sufficiency or not, your love nature is geared toward others. You do need to have down time for yourself. However, your affectionate nature thrives on interaction with others, whether you choose to surround yourself with casual friends and acquaintances, or just want to relate to a few very close associates. By the way, Venus retrograde in your partnership zone may bring a new companion to your life, but if so, the relationship will probably not be an instant attraction, but rather will develop slowly over time

Gemini: Venus will retrograde through your solar 6th house. Once Venus begins to backtrack through your house of daily employment, you may learn that you are more in love with your work than you believed possible! You are a busy soul, and your mind is always clicking away on your latest interest. However, as Venus backtracks, you will begin to notice what your real feelings are more focused on your place of employment, and toward the work you do in general. Translation: your love of the work you do is likely to take precedence over your love of a spouse or a romantic partner, so this is a time when you need to sort out your priorities in that regard. You may discover as the six weeks Venus is retrograde go by that you need to work in an atmosphere of harmony and contentment—less excitement, and more cooperation, in other words. Of course, you can operate in a frenetic environment, with buzzers going off and bells ringing, and you certainly can multitask very quickly. But to be fully at ease with yourself in your working life right now, you need to have a congenial rapport with your coworkers, colleagues, and clients. If you work at home alone, then make sure your workspace is cleaner and less cluttered than usual. A clean environment will help soothe your busy brain and allow you to feel content as you tackle your work duties.

Cancer: Venus will retrograde through your solar 5th house. Venus retrograde moving through your house of children and young people will open your eyes to new information about your deep desire to be nurturing. However, your solar 5th house is also your house of creativity! During Venus’ journey here, you will learn that you have a much greater urge to express yourself creatively than you were aware of. You love to take care of others, and that’s fine. But you are of the Water element, and thus have a lot of deep and sometimes conflicting feelings churning around inside you. A wonderful outlet for those emotions is to channel your sensitive and profound feelings via an artistic medium. Your love of the arts is very profound, and you are able to lose yourself easily in a good book or movie. Listening to music can transport you to another realm. Being a consumer of the arts is fine, but now is the time to open your creative soul and become a producer. Are you shy about expressing your talents? Don’t be, as you may be very surprised at how talented you really are.

Leo: Venus will retrograde through your solar 4th house. Even though you may be oriented to being alone in the spotlight at center stage, family matters to you! You are very fond of your relatives, and if you have children, they are the center of your world. However, now that the love planet is traveling through your house of your family of origin, you may discover that your need to be connected to your relatives extends much further in time and distance than you may have realized. During this time you will come to understand that you need a lot more support and sustenance from your family than you were aware of. Once you begin to reflect on just how much your family means to you, you may make an effort to establish stronger bonds with those closest to you while also trying to forge new bonds with family members you haven’t seen in years. You may decide to initiate a family reunion at your place on a yearly basis, so that you can maintain contact with extended family members who now live far from you. Venus retrograde may also encourage you to take a peek at your family tree, so you could begin to research your ancestry. It’s quite possible that a relative you haven’t seen in a long time will contact you out of the blue during the six weeks Venus is going backwards in your family zone. You may learn a few family secrets once you get together!

Virgo: Venus will retrograde through your solar 3rd house. Since this is the house that identifies your relationship with your neighborhood and your everyday environment, Venus moving backward here may open your eyes to the places and people closest to you. You are filled with bright ideas on how best to live your life, but now you will spin your mental wheels in order to make those ideas a reality. A big part of your life blueprint involves finding the best place to live. You know that you have a very finicky nature, and thus have high standards. You want to eat foods that are of good quality and associate with people who are worthy of your time and attention. Venus retrograde will help you to see just how particular you are about the place you live. You need to truly love your environment in order to feel content when you walk through the door of your house or apartment. Even if you have a very opulent residence, if you don’t like the neighborhood where you live, you will never be happy in your home environment. You need to be able to open your kitchen window and look out on a landscape that pleases you, whether that means you want to be near a busy city street, or living a bucolic country lane.

Libra: Venus will retrograde through your solar 2nd house. You do love money, or at least you love what it can do for you. The planet of both love and money retrograding through your personal finance house will bring you to a new awareness of the fact that you love and enjoy living large, and that spending money on items you need and want is sometimes more important to you than spending on the necessities. However, along with this awareness will come the realization that you need to sort through all of your life priorities from an emotional standpoint. You may discover that you need to satisfy yourself on a very deep level in order to be happy, and that money or “things” alone won’t do it for you. You are certainly extremely astute, so if you take the time to think things through, you can come up with the best options possible for everything from your career to your love life. Venus retrograde will enable you to realize that you need to place an equally high importance on the more intangible aspects in your life, such as finding a suitable companion, and making sure that your spiritual needs are met. You may learn that you need to make life choices with your heart, instead of your mind, in order to experience the joy in life you are seek. Pay particular attention to how you occupy your time and to the friends you chose during Venus’ six-week retrograde period.

Scorpio: Venus will retrograde through your solar 1st house. You are a very complex individual, thanks to your deep and intense nature. You often lose sight of the big picture once you get caught up in your daily struggle to live your life the best way you know how. Venus retrograde through your house of self will enable you to understand just how important it is to have a good opinion of who you are and what you do. You need not only to love yourself, but to respect yourself as well! Self-esteem is crucial to your sense of well-being, and to your ultimate happiness and contentment in life. Venus retrograde though your Sun sign will enable you to realize that you need to put yourself and your own needs first and foremost in your consciousness. It’s important that you help others, but it’s not narcissistic to also concentrate on making yourself happy. You will realize that once you are truly at home in your own skin, you will be in a much better place mentally, emotionally and spiritually. You may decide that you need to learn how to love yourself before you can truly love others, and to make feeling good about yourself your main goal.

Sagittarius: Venus will retrograde through your solar 12th house. You are certainly a very exuberant soul. After all, your zodiac symbol is the galloping Centaur, galloping through the great outdoors. You certainly are focused on your many and varied public activities, but as Venus retrogrades in your house of inner enlightenment, hidden thoughts and feelings will help you to realize just how important it is to spend time alone occasionally. You will discover that as much as you love being outside, and interacting with people, you also love being solitary at times, so you can enjoy your own company. With your philosophical nature, it pleases you to think profoundly about all the questions you have about the universe and your place in life, and for that you need quiet time. You have to be able to concentrate and hear yourself think! Venus retrograde will allow you to see that you have a very deep love of stillness, and of solitude. Since a place where you can contemplate your thoughts in silence while in a spiritual atmosphere could be helpful, you might consider making a retreat in a religious institution, or consider spending a weekend in a monastery or an ashram. Practicing meditation may become your new hobby during the six weeks Venus retrogrades through your zone of mysticism!

Capricorn: Venus will retrograde through your solar 11th house. You are a very practical and pragmatic soul, possessed of loads of common sense. You take a very realistic approach to life, and to yourself, but what you may not realize is just how crucial to your happiness your dreams and aspirations are. Venus retrograde in your house of your hopes and wishes will help you to realize just how deeply you cherish your dreams for yourself and your life. You love to be able to wish on a star when you gaze up at the night sky! In fact, it’s vitally important for you and your inner sense of well-being to be able to believe, in your mind and your heart, in something beyond than your everyday life. When you make a wish, you are opening yourself up to the idea that something, or someone, greater than yourself is at work in your life. You truly need to believe in your heart and in your mind that one day you will be able to achieve all your goals, so remember that fact! Your love nature is often expressed most clearly when you are able to work toward your heart’s desire, no matter how long it might take you to realize your goals.

Aquarius: Venus will retrograde through your solar 10th house. You are certainly a visionary! You have a wonderful ability to visualize your future goals and dreams, and once you have settled on a particular course of action for yourself, you get busy making your up-in-the-air dreams into down-to-earth realities. Due to your humanitarian nature, you often chase after very lofty aspirations, especially where your career is concerned. That’s fine, but now that Venus is backtracking through your house of professional aims and ambitions, you may discover that unless you are working in a career where you are emotionally fulfilled and satisfied, you will never be happy. It is important that you devote your time and attention to worthy causes, so you tend to prefer occupational fields in which you can help others. One of your best qualities is your desire to make a difference in the lives of the people who share the planet you live on. However, Venus retrograde will show you that you have many other needs and desires in your professional realm. Being successful and winning accolades for yourself is not everything. You may begin to understand that your career choices are a mixture of many components. You can help others by being a volunteer, true, but you can do the same as an attorney or neurosurgeon. Think outside that box!

Pisces: Venus will retrograde through your solar 9th house. With your dualistic nature, restlessness is a big part of your basic personality. Venus retrograde through your house of travel may encourage you to pack your bags and take a vacation to a locale you have already visited in the past. Traveling is great because it brings a change of scenery, but if a particular place tugs at your heartstrings, it’s time for another visit. Venus retrograde may help you to discover that your deep love for travel comes from more than just wanting to be on the move. You have a very sincere desire to make contact with others, and to be able to truly experience cultures that are foreign to your own. Your need to travel springs from an urge much deeper than simply wanting to regale your friends with tales of your trips to far-flung corners of the world. You have a very empathetic nature, and you truly can walk in another person's shoes, so when you visit new locales, you absorb the sights, sounds and aromas of the place, and you very quickly began to add new sensations to your repertoire of feelings and emotions. You thrive on being able to absorb new feelings. Venus retrograde will show you just how deeply you need to have new experiences to draw on in your emotional life.