Capricorn

December 21 – January 19

You are definitely alluring under this Venus retrograde, Capricorn, and everyone will notice. Your sexual attraction is off the charts. The object of your desire will struggle to contain themselves. But you know exactly how to entice them. The issue is: are you or they truly available? Are you both able to pay the price? – for Saturn is passing through your sector of financial and personal assets, and Saturn always demands payment.

You could convince your sweetheart that a committed union between the two of you would be the heaven they’ve been searching for. You could convince yourself of the same thing. But this is Venus retrograde, Capricorn, and relationships begun during a Venus retrograde period have a nasty tendency to not last, with one party backing away from the relationship. 

Do you really want to get yourself into this sticky situation? If one or both of you aren’t truly available, it could end with heavy resentment and copious tears. Yes, it’s intense, maybe unlike anything you’ve ever felt before. But you’re tired of practicing restraint and projecting a conservative demeanor. You figure that some wild intrigue in the back room would do you good, and that you can control the situation. 

Sadly, you can’t control the other person’s feelings, which may become inflamed, and they demand more of you, or you of them. If you choose to commit, then the millstone of perpetual responsibility will loop around your neck, and your lover’s neck also, and ruin all the fun with reality. Be especially wary of this possibility in mid-January 2022, when there is a turning point in another’s attitude. You may notice this in subtle comments they make. The severity of the situation will become apparent as Venus returns to direct motion on January 29 and the Sun conjoins Saturn on February 4 (and Mercury goes direct). 

If you are the one wanting to charge ahead with plans – and that is likely, as Mars moves through your sign from January 24 to March 5, 2022 – you may capture your heart’s desire. You may encounter sticking points from March 16 to March 23. It is tempting to don rose-colored glasses and perceive the situation as you want, due to the Mercury-Neptune conjunction on March 23. You are trying to propel events according to your own imagined trajectory. 

You could be easily misled at this time, due to the upcoming Jupiter-Neptune conjunction; this is due more to your own wishful thinking rather than another’s deception. Then again, as this conjunction occurs in your communication sector, you may be sending mixed signals, as you now would like to exit the relationship.

As Saturn is moving into a T-square with the Nodes (exact on April 21, 2022), reality is creeping up on you. You may be trying to let the other person down gently, or they’re trying to do that to you. One of you doesn’t want to let go.  

Better to face reality squarely at every moment of this Venus retrograde, rather than engage in magical thinking. There are indications that your lover isn’t truly available. And their partner is in a strong position to make demands; namely, that the affair come to an abrupt end. In that scenario, you are the one most at risk with a romantic indiscretion. 

Whether the object of your desire is available or not, the balance of power rests with them. If you become involved with them, you may find that the situation then changes, and you must engage in a power struggle with them, resisting their attempts to remake you. 

So think very carefully before moving forward with any romance in the period from August 2021 through April 2022. You are known as cautious and strategic, but this Venus retrograde could inspire you to toss off all your clothes and get rug burns on your buns. 

Take a cold shower, Capricorn! Then check your financial statements. Can you really afford to indulge in this dalliance you’re dreaming of? Probably not.

Venus retrograde hits Capricorn in the wallet. If you haven’t been strategic with your finances, especially with savings, investment, and debt, you will discover that you must do so now. You seem to be losing your grip on your financial position, and the Venus-Pluto conjunction, backed by the Saturn-Uranus square, is a wake-up call. Perhaps you’ve been ignoring reality for some time, and now an abrupt turnaround by someone or some situation that has supported you in the past leaves you scrambling. 

But the Venus-Pluto conjunction in your sector of personal action makes you very resourceful, as only a Capricorn can be, plowing ahead to demolish obstacles. Hone your horns, Sea Goat, as you have a lot of obstacles to plow through.

One of these may be your own stubbornness. Yes, you like to think of this as an asset, as powerful determination. Others don’t experience it that way. You will find that they push back, and push back hard. They may not play by the “rules,” as you see it.

If you have been avoiding the bill collector, or have hidden the extent of your debts from a partner (either an individual or an institution), then you may find yourself in strange, convoluted circumstances that could force you to admit to these debts. 

But admitting to them means you have to start paying them. Don’t try to be cagey about this, Capricorn – but the astrological configurations suggest you will be sorely tempted to run a good line of bull poop to pull yourself out of a tight spot. Venus is retrograde, dear Capricorn, and she wants you to dredge up all the “poop” (she is conjunct Pluto, after all) and clear it away. It’s not her fault that you let this raw sewage sit hidden so it could fester and steam and release its odor to the point someone had to notice the fetid smell emitting from the basement.

This astrologer is not suggesting you’re full of sh-t, Capricorn, but others might reasonably do so. Can you be humble rather than belligerent? It’s advisable to try. Humility will win you points with your creditors; obfuscation and obstinance will not. You’re not calling the shots here, and no amount of bluster and bullying will change that. Try to emulate a Libra: be pleasing, perhaps even appeasing, but be sharp and reveal your cards one by one as you assess the unfolding situation. 

Some Capricorns will experience this drama in their jobs, as Venus rules Libra, the sign of your Midheaven and career. How this plays out depends upon your current position: are you in a supervisory position, or are you in a subordinate position?

Those in a subordinate position will probably emerge from this Venus retrograde as safe and secure, having been an observer to what is happening with the hierarchy around them. You’ve known all along the Achilles’ heel of your boss. You need to keep their secrets, if they’ve revealed any to you. You probably won’t be sought out by others about these matters, but don’t try to influence circumstances by your own intrigue, either on your boss’s behalf or to undermine them further. 

The only risk for Capricorns in a subordinate position under this Venus retrograde is engaging in an affair with your boss, or someone at a higher level than you. (This is also a risk for those in management positions.) This would be unadvisable at any time, but it is especially so for you right now. Don’t allow yourself to feel intimidated or forced into any interaction. With Venus conjunct Pluto, someone higher up the food chain may try to coerce you with their power (or, if you’re the one in the higher position, don’t act on a workplace attraction). 

This is one situation where you can be as blunt and forceful as you wish – just confine it to the perpetrator only. If you go along with the flirtation, it won’t end well for you. So just don’t go there. Again, your stubborn streak could hurt you here, if you insist on pursuing a relationship or a fling with a co-worker. It’s all in where you direct your stubbornness (or strength, if you will): direct it inward to control your own emotions and actions, rather than outward to snare someone. 

But those in a management position will face shake-ups and subterfuge perpetrated by colleagues. Someone whom you trusted may betray your trust by running off at the mouth. But that means you need to restrain your own tendency to express yourself bluntly and rudely in public, or to anyone who might make your comments public, or at least revealing them to those in a higher position than you. So that includes just about everyone, doesn’t it? 

With Neptune floating through your communication sector for many years now and to come, what you say could easily be misconstrued. The best way to reduce this possibility is to say as little as possible, which some Capricorns are famous for doing, but also to stop running a good line of bull with an air of authority, another thing which some Capricorns are famous for doing.