Venus enters Leo
Venus enters Leo
5th PDT 6:47 / 5th AEST 23:47
Venus enters fixed fire sign Leo today, following hot on the heels of Mars. In fact, as the love-planet makes its ingress, it will apply the same opposition to Pluto and square to Jupiter which Mars made between May 20-22. Whereas the former aspects stimulated clashes of will, competition, and conflict, the current dynamic can complicate our romantic relationships by highlighting power imbalances and fatal attractions. Maintaining our self-respect in the face of temptation will leave us feeling more confident in our ability to overcome karmic hurdles. Yet this is just the FIRST in a series of tests Venus is lining up for us over the next 18 weeks!
Venus’ passage through theatrical Leo typically inspires flirtations, grand gestures, and PDA. And yet, it’s “pursuit” of Mars in the days ahead is a little too on the nose. In the skies, the planet of desire trails the planet of satisfaction, which remains just out of reach. Our experiences on the ground mirror this dance. The two will come within three degrees of each other by early July, but then Venus starts to lose steam, slowing down in prep to station retrograde. And finally Mars pulls ahead into Virgo, leaving Venus standing on the precipice of mutable earth, watching the gulf between them steadily expand.
On July 22/23, as if accepting the game has been lost, Venus turns around, signaling the beginning of a reassessment of our wants and needs. What have we gained from the chase? Are we giving our hearts to the right people, or running after something which is fundamentally unattainable? Are we seeking inspiration, or ego gratification?
Venus’ retrograde may re-introduce a cast of characters from our past, ones who long ago made a dramatic exit. Yet, because Leo is all about creativity and self-expression, the appearance of old flames, friends, and collaborators isn’t to rehash old plot-lines – or even to rekindle sparks, but to remind us of how we operated in the presence of those who, at one point or another, made us feel most alive. We are not being called to REPLICATE these relationships, but to realize that the people who we once assumed were our gateways to love, were just reflections of our own capacity for it. Love has been WITHIN us all along. These encounters are invitations to give OURSELVES the love that we deserve, love which we may have denied ourselves in the hope that another would see our value and "rescue" us from anonymity. After all, it is only when we affirm our worth that we will stop selling ourselves short.
Written by Nyssa Grazda
