Venus: pinball

Venus is a planet that's sometimes decisive and sometimes not: it depends on what sign it's in and what aspects it's making. It's the planet of love, desire, money, and one of the main indicators of how social we are, though not the only one. Venus in your birth chart has a lot to say about these items. Transiting Venus has some say, but considerably less, it's just when it's acting up, a lot of people get all weird and confused. We've hit one of those critical points of Venus acting up: it just entered Aries and is losing speed (relative to earth) precipitously, which actually means that it's passing earth, so it appears to move backwards, and it's closer to earth than usual. It switches from being the evening star (it's pretty bright in the sky right now after dusk) to being the morning star, so in late spring it'll be pretty bright in the sky at dawn. Happens every Venus retrograde. Neat!

Here's what Venus is up to and to make this more fun for myself, I will use Hulk-smash terminology to describe the Venusian atmospheres:

• Venus stops in Aries (Venus angry! Venus decisive!) February 24

• Conjuncts Mercury (Angry! Telling everyone! Maybe should not!) March 10 - 13, March 24 - April 14*

• Retrogrades into Pisces (Venus confused) March 28

• Conjuncts Neptune (Venus REALLY confused) March 28 - April 1

• Conjuncts Saturn (Venus depressed; confused) April 1

• Stays conjunct with Saturn for a month (Sad Venus! Venus poor) April 1 - May 7

• Venus retrograde ends (but confusion persist!) April 13

• Conjuncts Neptune** (Venus hopeful! Venus still confused!) April 26 - May 11

• Re-enters Aries (Venus has new lease on life! Maybe angry again!) May 1

I only listed the conjunctions here, but Venus makes other aspects, and things remain REALLY confusing throughout this time. Please imagine I am an annoying lady who claps while talking: no. major. life. decisions.

This is so confusing and for so long, I wound up making a video about it, so you can see what I’m talking about week by week.

The no list:

• drastic hair cuts (you haven't had before)

• starting new romantic relationships

• home redecoration

• getting an entirely new wardrobe

• buying houses

• getting married

• abruptly ending relationships: if it's overdue, that's one thing, but if you suddenly decide you want out, give yourself a time-out til May 1

• exes

"But Josie." Specific people say. "I really want to ___" (fill in the blank from something on the list). Do you want me to tell you about the time a friend of mine knowingly flouted the Venus retrograde rules and turned into an obsessive basket case when the guy lost interest? (We're not friends anymore, partially because I was a bonehead and did an "I told you!!" and didn't have enough empathy, which was my bad.) Do you want me to tell you about done-deal house contracts that disintegrated during Venus retrogrades? Want me to tell you about me sitting on a beautiful beach watching people get married and muttering "bad idea!" under my breath? Actually, I shouldn't tell you about that. I was in a bad place emotionally and it was mean-spirited. Actually, are you catching the vibe that I say stupid shit when Venus is retrograde to make people not like me? Last Venus retrograde I told someone they looked good for their age and this reminded them of their age and then a cascading series of other bad things happened.

"Maybe I am the exception to the rule" people tell themselves. "Maybe it's okay if *I* do the thing on the 'no' list. I'm sure it'll be fine." That's called rationalizing bad decisions. People really, really want to be the exception to the rule with retrogrades, and then afterwards there's so, so much regret. I'll remind you that our ancestors thought Venus moving backwards in the sky portended war, because they noticed the correlation of Venus retrograde and people not getting along.

Things you might do instead of the things on the "no" list:

• watch old movies/revisit music you used to love, etc.

• go antiquing

• go look at art reconnect with old FRIENDS (no lovers!)

• rethink your finances/investments but don't take action

• rethink the wardrobe/interior design, but again, no action (try on old clothes to see if they still fit--you might find some forgotten items you like)

• same with relationships: rethink priorities but no action

• think about how you can help your neighborhood or community (especially during the Pisces part)

• think about activities you'd like to resume doing that you haven't done lately (Aries part)

*Venus stays conjunct with Mercury, but then also conjuncts Neptune and then Saturn, leading to a LOT of weird thinking and speaking. Get a journal or tell a trusted friend but otherwise keep your mouth shut!!! And do not even dream of texting your ex.

**We will talk about Neptune in Aries later. One thing at a time.