Do You Think You're Better Off Alone?

Spring's Venus Retrograde in Aries & Pisces

There’s a reason why most break-ups happen during Winter…

Especially around Xmas and after Valentine’s Day: Our expectations (or that of our lover’s) were not met and it hurt! Likely prior slights, disconnects and maybe even red flags led to a breaking point, confirmed by a failure to show up for the collective custom of sharing love. Even IF these are capitalist calendar markers, they mean something deeper to the lover-hearts. A missed opportunity to show appreciation, the greatest aphrodisiac, would logically lead to feeling disappointed. A lack of said appreciation around these Winter holidays tends to really drive the nail in the coffin!

If you’ve ever had to repeat yourself into a void, begging to be seen or heard or ~worse~ having your wishes used against you in some way, you are probably being devalued. Existing around peripheral whims and trying to stay full on the breadcrumbs is NOT flattering. When someone does the bare minimum to ensure you’ll stay put so they can continue to receive the emotional labor and sex they crave, objectively looking at the discrepancies of a dynamic is vital to decision-making. It’s hard to face you are not a lover’s priority or to be put on a shelf waiting; though this indicates the relationship is likely imbalanced, it is possible to be more direct in our wants/needs.

If your lover(s) repeatedly refuse to take your feelings into account or ~worse~ trivialize, minimize or hurt you, never making up for it or taking accountability, it’s time to face the music. How successful a relationship is depends on wanting to put in the base-level WORK. If effort to understand and appreciate one’s partner lacks, over time the natural conclusion is that the relationship or partner might NOT be right for you. And while it hurts to realize you may not be as important to your partner as they are to you, you will always have options. Venus Retrograde is just the exploratory adventure for forlorn lovers left cracked open with romantic pain and strife.

Venus is Love, Lifestyle, Money but above everything she is VALUE. And we all want to be valued.

Venus Retrograde wants us to be real about what treatment we are willing to accept (Aries) AND explore where we can extend empathy (Pisces).

Re: Venus’ favorite subject of “Love”, when we receive mixed signals, ignore intuition, people-please or avoid accountability ~all past subjects on this Substack~ we are essentially doing the romantic dynamic and ourselves no favors. Venus descending into “dark knowing” urges us to at least return to ourselves again. Accepting deprecation or making ourselves small is never an ideal romantic scenario yet it too easily happens when we are desperate to not lose connection. Venus in Aries is just the bad-ass up to the task of lighting a fire under one’s ass to level-up for the self-love we all deserve. Pisces takes over the tail-end of the Venus Retrograde to smooth any burnt edges that need sweet acceptance or find a final resting ground. Venus Retrograde switching between Aries and Pisces can also assist in objective expectations and challenges around co-dependency.

Another person cannot be your everything, BUT if you have to choose one person, please choose yourself.

Venus Retrograde is the most powerful period to reset not only our romantic desires but our finances and aesthetics. Every 18 months Venus back-spins for about 40 days; it is RARE for Venus to be in one Sign for more than 2-3 weeks UNLESS there is a Venus Rx. During Summer 2023, Venus was in Leo and partially Retrograde for a LONG WHILE, intensely honing in our appetite for lifestyles lavishes and over-the-top attention. While 2024 had NO Venus Rx, the 2023 Venus Rx in Leo put painful focus on respect (or lack thereof) within relationships. I truly believe Leo’s Venus Rx double-doomed 2023’s vampiric Autumn Eclipse Season for a mass of marriage break-downs. The upcoming Venus Rx will mirror that of 2023’s Venus Leo in backspin due to element alone, but every Retrograde is different.

2025’s Venus Retrograde is unique due to many astrological layers at play. And unfortunately this Rx is not going to play nice.

Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus? Nah

If having embraced the ego-flares of Mars Retrograde in Leo for December 2024 and the security strife of Mars Retrograde in Cancer for January and most of February, Martian inner work puts us in a better position to process anger and transform it into positive action. Mars is known to be the “masculine” Planet of Sex and War while Venus is the “feminine” Planet of Love and Lifestyle. Mars Retrograde’s fear and frustration has MORE influence re: choices, actions and conversations that affect our love lives and bank accounts. Right now these Planets are somewhat clashing and hosting Signs that do not do well with their pervasive powers.

We ALL have traits related to Mars AND Venus; our gender identity has NOTHING to do with their relevance as they both contain foundations integral to life as human beings. Early ‘90s pop psych banked on these stereotypes with Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus. However, gender essentialism and polarization are unhelpful to full integration of Self. It is more appropriate in my opinion to identify Venusian (Taurus, Libra) or Martian (Aries, Scorpio) influence in your birth chart instead. Though these planets DO have ties to stereotypical masculine and feminine “motivations”, at the end of the day sex and love, anger and desire, are all connected and overlap.

Though the detrimental Mars Retrograde in Cancer technically ends February 23rd, its post-shadow period tapers off early May 2025. Echoes of Martian conflict avoided this Winter will permeate the upcoming Venus Retrograde. February’s Astrology has been quite lively with the Leo Full Moon squared Uranus in Taurus bringing drama to our door. This shocking square “put us in our place”, revealing our value (or lack thereof) to others and leaving us grappling with what we THOUGHT was real versus the harsh reality of imbalance. Stagnation may no longer feel like an option! Furthermore, with Jupiter in Gemini now direct I’ve felt my own personal energy returning… or was it just Fake Spring? Now that it is cold again I am unsure! And to be honest I am EXHAUSTED from that pre-Valentine’s Full Moon in all its fuckery.

After a year-and-a-half of North Node in Aries and the South Node in Libra, the Me vs. We struggles switch to the spirituality of North Node in Pisces and health-freak of South Node in Virgo. March’s Venus AND Mercury Retrograde in both Aries AND Pisces will give us a chance to duke out resentment remains we may have not tied up during the long Aries-Libra Nodal Cycle. We can work in tandem with North Node, Venus, Mars and Mercury during the next couple of months for reset and/or rebalance. One chance to finalize and move forward will be the Partial Solar Eclipse in Aries on March 29th. 2025’s Much to mull through until then as Venus AND Mercury Retrograde is a double-dose of very opposite Astrological energies, challenging freedom in relationships and our sense of self-worth..

The Aries portion will not necessarily be cute or quiet. The Pisces portion will struggle with boundaries and brooding.

There are some tenants and rituals of Venus Retrograde that generally are wise and assist in alignment. As always, REVIEWING OUR BAD BEHAVIORS IS TOP OF THE LIST, especially when it comes to spending, dating and taking care of ourselves. Venus in Aries can be very reactive and is not afraid to stir the pot, thus an extra dose of consideration and maybe even some strict time-outs will be needed this go. Venus in Pisces is a glutton for shiny distractions, easy to let their guard down and loosen their standards a little too low so to not receive the respect deserved. Ignoring the hard facts around our own Venusian leanings is not advised. When Venus goes direct, you just might be left with a shit ton of burnt-up baggage to deal with. When we work with Venus instead of fight against her, our lives level up dramatically.

Very excited that Venus Magick will be the 2025 Astrology zine feature, arriving in Libra Season.

(If ya’ll have not checked out the Mercury Retrograde version, it’s info-rich and retro-tastically designed to help prepare for the backspin boogie.)

VENUS IN ARIES