Virgo

August 22 – September 21

The pleasures of lovers, children, creative pursuits, and spiritual liberation are emphasized for Virgos during this Venus retrograde. You may even be one of the really lucky Virgos who get to experience too much of a good thing. This astrologer agrees with Mae West: “Too much of a good thing can be wonderful.” 

Enjoy it, Virgo, as you’ve had a very hard slog with the Saturn-Uranus square piling work and domestic responsibilities on you. These two planets are the co-rulers of Aquarius, which is associated with your sector of employment. An employer or older family member may have been very demanding in 2021, or they blocked you in some way. You have been feeling squashed and prevented from doing creative work. If you remained your usual dutiful self and gracefully managed it all, you now get your sunny beach vacation to relax and bask in your rewards. But if you’ve resorted to unhealthy habits to cope, or you got demanding and nasty with people (especially in August 2021), too much may bring a physical breakdown. 

The word “youth” is the keyword for your Venus retrograde experience. You may be interacting with young people more now. This interaction could be teaching, or success with a communications venture that is targeted to young people or students. Or perhaps you return to a university setting that puts you in a younger social circle.

Some Virgos will actually be more youthful, as the combination of Venus and Pluto portends a spiritual and physical transformation. The Saturn-Uranus square underlies this: you have persisted with techniques to transform yourself for some time, including rejuvenation of your body. You have felt blocked in reaching mastery, or finding the key to making these techniques really work. You may have a breakthrough now. These are the Virgos for whom everything changes, and who can now access tremendous creative, transformative power. 

If you are one of the Virgos who became a parent in the past year or so, or are pregnant now, your child is your primary focus during the Venus retrograde. Your little one may be precocious, but this delights you, as you see their sharp intelligence and unique perspective behind their behavior. It can be fun, or it can be frustrating. Much depends on your material circumstances: if you are too stressed by financial worries, it could devolve into a psychological drama between the two of you; if you are financially comfortable, it’s a time of creative bonding and exploration. 

Some Virgos may find themselves involved in an intense love affair. This may involve someone from your past, or the relationship reminds you of one in your past. Some of you may throw yourselves into this wholeheartedly, and the relationship progresses quickly – perhaps too quickly for you to see signs of dubious behavior in your partner. Be sure to come up for air, catch your breath, and survey the relationship from a detached point of view. If you are still convinced that this is true love, you may make a serious commitment in late February or early March 2022.

This affair may have begun in July 2021, under the Venus-Mars conjunction in Leo. If so, this relationship may be turning out to be a more of a challenge to maintain your independence than a deeply intimate sharing of souls. 

Perhaps your partner is beginning to show signs of a domineering personality. Or, a financial arrangement with a partner or an organization is becoming too binding for you, and you feel your creativity isn’t valued as much as you want it to be. In either case, this Venus retrograde period will be your chance to voice your concerns and insist on a change of course. 

Your first step is to partially disentangle yourself, which may not be easy at this point. You may feel that every discussion is a power play. 

The other person – whether a romantic partner or someone with whom you have made financial agreement – may hold a strange fascination for you, as Neptune in Pisces is moving through your partnership house. They may have convinced you that they are the one who should be leading this association forward. 

But with Saturn in your sixth house of daily work, responsibilities, and work relationships, you hold power in any situation where you desire change; the issue is for you to view yourself as powerful and worthy, and negotiate from that position of power. Of course, with Uranus still squaring Saturn, you will encounter pushback by your partner, but observing how willing they are to accept you as an equal, and how willing they are to change their attitude and position, will tell you all you need to know to make a decision about moving forward with them.

Higher education or spiritual studies are strongly impacted by this Venus retrograde. Anything you’ve been pursuing that involves exploration and expansion, either intellectual or spiritual, will have a profound chapter unfold at this time. 

There is a hidden test in this situation, though. It’s exhilarating to feel you’ve found a person or group that’s on your wavelength with this. But maintain your discerning Virgoan eye. Be detached and let others prove themselves as worthy of your trust. (Remember what happened under the last three Venus retrogrades?) Those whom you see as so knowledgeable and advanced at first may later disappoint you as they change their stripes and their domineering, brutish streak emerges.

You know you tend to attract some unseemly types, Virgo, as they mistake your quiet nature as timidness, and your politeness as subservience. Don’t let it happen to you again. Apply your own test to them. 

As long as your new comrades can pass the test, this situation can open a new life direction for you, a path dedicated to spiritual unfoldment. Pluto bearing down on Venus could mean a final renunciation of many petty desires centered on physical existence. 

You’re ready for another way to live.