How Venus Retrograde in Leo Will Impact You Personally

This is part of a series about Venus Retrograde in Leo.

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A review of history shows that Venus’ retrogrades often have cultural impact: they tend to mark pivots in consensus around key social issues, fashion trends, standards of beauty, and what’s popular in art, music, and film.

You can also expect that you’ll feel the impacts of Venus retrograde in your personal life; after all, Venus is a personal planet. Although many pop-culture articles talk about old flames returning to your life, the impact of Venus extends beyond relationships.

Where and How Venus Retrograde in Leo Will Impact You

If you want to know what’s coming, you need to know where to look. To know exactly what parts of your life might be impacts by Venus retrograde in Leo, it will be helpful to have your natal chart.

Pre-Work: Get Your Natal Chart

Your natal chart is the map of the sky when you were born. It shows were all the planets were. If you know your exact time of birth, you can also see what sign of the zodiac was on the horizon at the time you were born. This will tell you how each sign lines up with the 12 houses, or the areas of life.

To pull a copy of your natal chart you can use a site like Astro-Seek.

You’ll need to know your birthdate, time of birth, and location.

You’ll have a choice of which “house system” to select. I use Whole Sign houses, as it makes most intuitive sense to me. Under Whole Sign houses, the rising sign is the 1st house, and the houses flow from there in counter-clockwise direction.

Once you have your chart (or if you already know it), here’s where to look to determine how Venus Retrograde in Leo might impact you.

(1) The part of your chart that contains Leo

Obviously, the part of your chart that contains Leo is relevant because this is the sign through which Venus will be retrograding. Even if you don’t have planets in Leo, the area of your life that falls in Leo will be impacted.

(2) The parts of your chart that contain Taurus and Libra

Venus is the planetary ruler of both Taurus and Libra, so whatever areas of your life fall in these signs will be impacted by this retrograde. Again, this is regardless of whether you have planets in those signs.

The above categories apply to everyone, regardless of where you have planets.

The next categories apply to certain groups of people who may be more impacted.

(3) If you have your ascendant in Taurus or Libra

The ascendant is not a planet; it is the point that was on the horizon when you were born. The ascendant falls within a sign. This is called your “rising sign.”

Your rising sign is a pivotal point of your chart. It often is the mask you wear in public; how people see you at first glance.

The planet that rules your rising sign is an important planet for you. As astrologer Chani Nicholas explains, it is the planet that “steers the ship” of your life. Whatever that planet does will impact you more than people who don’t have that rising sign.

Venus rules both Taurus and Libra, so if you have Taurus rising or Libra rising, any Venus transits, and especially this retrograde, may land bigger for you.

*Tip*: Horoscopes are generally written from the perspective of the rising sign, so when you read horoscopes, always read the one for your rising sign in addition to your sun sign.

Next, look at where your planets are.

(4) If you have planets in the fixed signs

Signs come in one of three modalities:

Cardinal signs initiate a season: Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn
Fixed signs anchor a season: Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, and Aquarius
Mutable signs transition from one season to the next: Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, Pisces

This retrograde will specifically impact any planets you have between 12º and 28º of the fixed signs: Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, and Aquarius.

Here’s how the impact will play out.

*Leo*: any planets you have in your natal chart between 12–28º of Leo will come into a conjunction with Venus. This means that Venus’ energy merges with those planets. Conjunctions are like new moons; they indicate new beginnings.

*Aquarius*: If you look at any map of the zodiac, you will see that Leo sits directly across from Aquarius. This relationship is called an opposition. Venus will oppose any planets you have between 12º and 28º of Aquarius. Oppositions are like full moons: they highlight tension and polarity that we must mediate.

*Taurus and Scorpio*: Notice that these signs sit opposite each other, and each of those sits at an exact right angle from Leo and Aquarius. If you draw a line from Leo to Aquarius and another from Taurus to Scorpio you’ll get a “plus” sign or a cross. This right angle is called a square. Squares are relationships of friction. This isn’t “bad” — especially not with Venus. Rather, it indicates some area of growth opportunity. A challenge that we must learn to navigate and overcome.

How to see what’s coming:

This impact has already happened once, as Venus traveled from 12 to 28º of Leo, from June 19 through July 22, before it stationed retrograde.

It will happen twice more: first as Venus travels backward to from 28º to 12º of Leo, between July 22 and September 3, and again after the retrograde as Venus travels from 12º to 28º, from September 3 through October 4.

This means that what ordinarily might have been a brief impact of a Venus transit to the planet in your natal chart is stretched out over time. You’ll experience that impact a total of three times.

(5) If you have planets in Aries, Gemini, Libra, or Sagittarius

Any planets you have between 12º and 28º of Gemini or Libra will be impacted by a sextile aspect from Venus retrograde in Leo.

Planets you have between 12º and 28º of Aries or Sagittarius will be impacted by a trine aspect from Venus retrograde in Leo.

Sextiles and trines are generally considered more supportive aspects, and often less intense than conjunctions, oppositions, and squares.

How Venus Retrograde in Leo Will Impact You Personally