Venus presides over the summer’s festivities like the queen that she is, and don’t forget it. Venus is nothing less than a proud warrior goddess – a feminine planet in a strong masculine sign. In Leo, she demands allegiance, devotion, and unfailing loyalty. If you can’t manage that, well then get out of court. OK, exaggerating some! But…Venus in the glowing, hot & shining sign of the Sun’s rulership wants adulation which is essentially and simply Love! It craves attention, fealty, as well as fun (lots of it), games, playfulness, laughter, and devil-may-care energies. Think of the pure freedom, laughter and exuberance of a child running through a field of wildflowers on a brilliant sunny summer afternoon. To be remembered - all planets in Leo are ego-centered. We need an ego, or a strong sense of self to navigate life but whether that’s expressed in a positive way or not depends on the evolvement of the individual. Leo has a sense of pride, if it’s earned or deserved from work well done, all good. But purely for selfishness, as it’s said, pride comes before the fall.
Venus entered the fiery sign of Leo on 6/5/23 and won’t leave until 10/8/23. That’s four months of passion, creative investment and surely plenty of drama as well. Venus makes its Retrograde Station on 7/22/23 @ 28 deg. Leo, then retreats over previously passed degrees making its Direct Station (forward again) on 9/9/23 @ 12deg. Leo. Retrograde time for a personal planet like Venus (others being Mercury & Mars) means our individual lives have some hiccups, alongside the collective. Relationships of all kinds, including with ourselves are front and center as we evaluate the balance of work and play and strive for greater freedom of self-expression. If these degrees contact your chart, this cycle is important for you. Contact your astrologer for personal interpretation.
More key moments in the story of summer 2023. Five days before Venus retrogresses (7/17/23), the Moon’s Nodes change signs to North Node 29 Aries, South Node 29 Libra. They remain for 18 months in this sign pair highlighting our social connections, partnerships, and alliances, focused on fairness and justice. A complex grouping of planets forms and leads into 7/22/23, Venus’ technical retrograde station. Venus @ 28 trines/sextiles the Nodes, 29 Aries/Libra, while the Nodes square Pluto @ 29 Capricorn forming a Grand Cross (4 points 90’ apart) and Venus inconjuncts (150’) Pluto. Neptune/Pisces @ 27 also in the picture, sextiles Pluto and inconjuncts Venus (a Yod), making Venus the point planet in our understanding of fairness, balance and justice. Add the New Moon in Cancer opposite Pluto/Cap and you have a potent, tense, and complex mix, which remains active through 8/6/23. Powerful forces are at play, and we need cooler heads and hearts to prevail. We’ll see the patterns described manifest in the world at large, the macrocosm. As individuals, the microcosm, we’ll be equally challenged, yet we have the greater ability to use these energies to create, invent, transform, and restructure our lives by using energetic resources wisely. This is a time to be aware, including self-awareness, of what we want our future to look like and the changes required for successful use of resources of body, mind and spirit. The ingredients are there, the solutions as well, if only we are willing to find and use them consciously.
Mars, Mercury and the Sun in Leo join Venus at various times this summer increasing drama, ego, willpower, boldness, risk-taking, passion, creativity and the potential for some amazing and life enhancing experiences. Make a plan and partner up with this fun-loving summer. Both Venus and Mars are in Leo: 6/5 – 7/10/23, accentuating the spark between the sexes and the drive for love and la dolce vita. Hot, direct, opinionated language/rhetoric is on display when Mercury transits Leo: 7/11-7/28/23. Venus and the Sun are in Leo 7/22- 8/23/23. Note the overlap when Venus, Mercury and Sun are all in Leo: 7/22-28/23! The focus on Leo is meant to show us the contrast of living with heart and passion versus anything else that is life depleting.
Venus makes an inferior conjunction with the Sun @ 20deg. on 8/13/23. Venus rests in the heart of the Sun, marking the midpoint of the retrograde cycle and now Venus becomes more impatient as it begins its upward journey to its direct station, next month.
Venus/Leo makes 3 exact squares to Uranus in earthy Taurus during its 4-month journey through Leo. #1 on 7/2/23 @ 21deg., #2 on 8/9/23 @ 22deg., when Venus is retrograde and #3 on 9/29/23, when Uranus is retrograde. These aspects tend to be disruptive, shaking us up in one way or another to awaken those places where we’ve been asleep. These unexpected surprises are not always pleasant but look beneath the surface to find the messages there for you.
The Venus/Leo Retrograde and the Nodes of the Moon changing signs make for a hot summer in many ways. There are distinct segments as discussed that contain highlighted times and points of exceptional complexity. Beneath all the Leo energy is the desire to be loved, acknowledged, appreciated, and recognized for its life-affirming warmth. The task of Leo is to enliven and bring light and love to all that it meets, courageously but with ego in check.