Love Me Beyond What Is Pleasant - Part I đź–¤
✦ A Little Note Before We Begin ✦
Venus retrograde and her interactions with her co-stars on the stage will be one of the most talked-about topics this fall, and many skilled stargazers will have something valuable to say about it. When we share the language of the stars, we also share our own rhythm, our own kind of music that speaks to the unique signature in our blueprint. My words may speak to some souls, while they may pass right by others. We don’t all have the same musical tone, and not every ear is meant to catch the same song.
Venus does not only speak about our love, relationships, and money. She also governs different areas of our lives, and these will be different for each of us depending on our birth chart, her position, and her dialogue with her co-stars, such as the other planets. For some, it may be family or parents. For others, it could be career and the relationship with coworkers or a boss.
She can also speak to the relationships women have with one another, including friendship, closeness, and support.
In a community setting, we can only address the general themes of Venus. (See her themes in my previous article, “Our Hearts and Delights.”)
This will be a two-part series, and I will do my best to break down the timeline and follow Venus through her experience and reworkings in and out of the deep waters of Scorpio. This will be her last Venus Star Point in Scorpio for more than a hundred years.
When the Heart Enters Deep Water đź–¤
As some of us might have felt, new themes of intensity around matters of the heart may be lurking as Venus enters the dark waters of Scorpio on September 10th.
While she is on her journey through this terrain, she will eventually pause and turn backward to retrace her footsteps on October 3rd, checking the pulse of our hearts.
As she travels, she might hear her own whispers: “Love me more, not just what is pleasant and easy to love.”
With this new flavor, our desires might want to be examined, heard, and seen in a different light. When the light is dimmed, we might notice what was hiding in plain sight. Suddenly, those pretty polka-dot and plaid patterns, and the settings in the room, might show a different shade, with new shadows alluring us with some mystery.
Now we ponder, shall we?
Her Flavor Changes in Scorpio
In traditional ancient astrology, Venus is in her exile in Scorpio, outside of her favorite corners. She feels exposed. She cannot rely on charm alone. She might not care to smooth things over, put on a pretty dress, and hope the uncomfortable part goes away. (see my previous article about her nature, “Our Hearts and Delights.”)
She can love fiercely here. Scorpio asks us whether love is true or real.
When love descends into the underworld, she asks us to tell the truth. Not because love is absent, but because the pretty dress, the adornment, and the easy parts are no longer enough. She wants to know what is real underneath it all. What might we find there? And will we like it?
She might even rewrite her deal-breakers and check the box again.
“ Do you love me when I am insecure, obsessive, dramatic, and not making much sense?”
Forty Days and Forty Nights đź–¤
As Venus prepares to turn retrograde, she will spend around forty days revisiting and reworking matters of the heart, money, art, and the many things she governs.
The number forty has carried a strange significance across many different ancient traditions and through different times.
Across different cultures, forty days appear around birth, including 40-day postpartum periods, death, and other important life transitions, as if something needs time to change before we can fully enter what comes next. A little like a waiting room between what was and what comes next.
And then there is marriage. In old traditions and stories, weddings could last forty days and forty nights, as if love needed its own long passage before entering a new life.
So it seems like we have a road to travel. Hopefully, we can make each part meaningful, including asking ourselves some questions outside of the norm as the time comes.
The Heart Has Its Own Audit ( retro motion in Scorpio Oct 3rd)
She has an agenda, wanting to find out how we have learned to love as she decides to sail backward through Scorpio’s alluring terrain on October 3rd.
Down the road, she will have her second engagement with Pluto on October 19/20. This might be her most dramatic yet insightful encounter with Pluto the Great Revealer.
She is sensing every tiny ripple in the water and asking:
“What did we give away to be loved? What did we keep quiet? “
And what was hidden may become undeniable.
During her revision, Scorpio’s passionate, “all or nothing” nature and her friction with Pluto may push her into a confrontation with impatience. It can feel like an existential crisis, a deep desire for proof of love.
“Show me now the depth of your devotion... I need to know. Now.”
And any slight hesitation from others can cause drama, as if love is absent, which may be far from the truth.
But this can show how our environment and the energy we consume and engage with can affect how we feel and eventually show up in our choices. We have free will to be mindful in any storm and to become part of the solution without adding to the storm.
If you are born with a Pluto-Venus aspect in your birth chart, in any sign, this can bring a repetitive story from the underbelly. You may have spent a lifetime meeting these themes again and again, learning how to grow those muscles along the way. Never easy, but over time, you may develop a kind of mastery in navigating power, love, and everything in between.
So, you already know.
Once you know, you can’t unknow.
“There is always some madness in love. But there is always, also, some method in madness.”
— Friedrich Nietzsche
(Play a little detective. I’ll list the dates of her previous cycles at the very end)
Into the Deep Mind: Mercury Retro in Scorpio (October 24–November 13, 2026)
Now, it is not only our heart that desires the truth. Mercury retrograde in Scorpio, with its razor-sharp focus, will move through these deep waters, scanning the mental plane for what lies hidden. Listen deeply and speak what you might normally keep inside, as Mercury retrograde will also bring a need to speak.
As Mercury goes direct on the same day as Venus stations direct around November 13th/14th we may have a chance to bring some of these thoughts and conversations into clearer focus.
She Finds Her Way Back Home: Venus Returns to Libra ( October 25th)
Just before she enters her homeland, she enters the heart of the Sun in Scorpio for her purification and reset, her cazimi moment on October 23rd As the Sun purifies her soul, she gets to dry herself off after all that deep-water excavation. Finally, a little light begins to show.
There is some calm here, with her being in her own element, knowing she has her charm back.
As she is still traveling her steps backward, as she offloads the drama at the front door for a bit, she can take inventory of her confidence, feeling more collected. She feels more rational and secure in her standing after her findings.
She has lovely exchanges with Jupiter on Nov 4 and Nov 28, and especially on November 28, as she is in her direct motion, there is a sense that balance and harmony are getting restored. Connections feel safer. There is support in the system, reminding her that love and wisdom are at work, and that joy and passion can accompany the harmony. She is definitely interested in good times and socializing.
As she gears up to go forward on November 13th, we might all feel some relief getting back to diplomacy and repairing the balance sheet.
Not Quite Done With Scorpio Yet (December 4th )
She enters the Scorpio part of our chart in direct motion, where all the deep work that started on September 10th can now be revisited. We might all recognize this visitation with more knowledge of our deep desires.
She will engage the lord of the underworld, Pluto, for the third time on December 9th.
This time, her desires might be more filtered from the drama and better thought out, with confidence in her power of asking, knowing her deal-breakers, and knowing how much depth is needed for authenticity in relationships, friendships, and more.
This might definitely be different for each of us, as each of us has Libra, Scorpio, and Taurus represented in different parts of our lives, not just relationships, love, and money. That will be more unique to each of our birth charts.
Let’s Not Rush Anything 🖤… See You in Part II, with some tips..
Play a little detective, Scorpio style. 🦂
Check the dates below and see if any of the themes bring back memories. The sky is never exactly the same twice.
What was being reworked in your relationships, friendships, desires, or values?
October–November 2018✨October–November 2010 ✨ October–November 2002
Even though the last Venus retrograde in Scorpio was in October–November 2018, I think October–November 2002 might have more resonating stories. A little technical note for the curious: Jupiter was also in Leo, and each of us had the same profection lord. Since profections repeat in 12-year increments, 2002, 24 years ago, brings us back to the same cycle, minus the eclipses, of course.
Nesli
♾️
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