Venus Retrograde in Gemini

On May 13, 2020 at 06:45 UTC, Venus goes retrograde in the sign of Gemini for 42 days, until June 25. You may know Venus as the planet of relationships, but Venus is sooo much more than that! Wherever Venus is in your birth chart gives you the blueprint to attract what you love, especially people. But since money is also one of the things we use to attract what we love, Venus rules our personal finances as well. She also represents the body’s receptors, our five senses: sight, smell, touch, taste, and sound. Venus tells us what feels good and what doesn’t, and the retrograde offers a period of reflection and reevaluation of what these things really are.

The timing of this Venus retrograde could not be more divine. I can’t speak for everyone, but over the last several months, I’ve been spending my days in Venusian heaven: cuddled up at home with my kitty, writing, napping, listening to music and podcasts and audiobooks galore, and trying semi-successfully to hone my cooking skills. However, I’ve also had to confront a lot of uncomfortable and unsettling attitudes toward relationships, like my severe FOMO and tendency to push the people I love away when I feel insecure about myself or my relationships.

Think about the person, or people, you’ve been holed up with for the last 2 months. Have you been finding ways to fall in love with their silly quirks and habits that evade you during the long 40-hour work week? Have you been practicing patience and understanding with them, and yourself? Or are you still seething because HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU TO PUT YOUR DAMN COFFEE MUG IN THE SINK!!! …or something like that.

Humans are social creatures, but we’re not pack animals. We don’t love to be stuck anywhere, let alone with a group of people that has a tendency to get on our nerves (see also: family).

But this Venus retrograde asks us to reflect on these very relationships in all of their glory, and in all of their breaking points. How long does it take before you need your space? How much space do you need exactly, and what does that look like for you? Do you need to lay down in your bed alone, or plug in your headphones and let steam off on a long walk? How many times does your partner have to do “that thing” before you feel like you physically need to throw something?

If you can pay attention to these micro-aggressions, you may be able to avoid some of the dreaded relationship pitfalls that loom ominously over a typical Venus retrograde.

Since Venus is transiting through the sign of Gemini for its entire retrograde, this brings communication and curiosity to the forefront of our relationships. Once you’ve identified your triggers, getting curious about them will give you more insight into why they are there at all. Do you silently weep every time your partner leaves his coffee mug in the living room because your mom kept the house spotless as a child? If so, having a clean and tidy living quarters may simply be a value that you hold dearly. Being able to get to the root of even the smallest triggers can make communicating with your loved ones so SO SOOO much easier! It creates avenues of conversation (i.e. “It bothers me when you <trigger> because <value>”) that will help you both function at your best and highest levels during the remainder of social distancing.

The next six weeks are the perfect time to take stock of your attitudes toward personal relationships – romantic, platonic, business, etc. You can also take this time to revisit your budget from before quarantine… things are likely to look a lot different now that we’ve spent 2 months removed from normal society. Finally, take a deep breath and remember that whatever tension or difficulties you are experiencing right now are only temporary, and like the Venus retrograde will go direct on June 25, our lives will also move forward again, perhaps sooner than you think.