When Venus Gets Hot In the Retrograde

Beneath the swirly clouds which cover Venus the planet, it is actually really really hot there with a surface temperature of 863° F. If I didn't know this picture above was of Venus, I would have thought it was Mars. Mars rules Aries and as the god of action and war, a red moltenous surface seems more appropriate for Mars.
Now, as Venus is retrograding in the sign Aries, we get a chance to see whats below the clouds and experience another essence. Venus may be showing her more Mars-like side. The feeling may be that the sexy, gossamer robe has melted. I think we have the chance now to see where our love needs some balance, Libra is lacking balance now and therefore in a sensitized state of high alert.
I spoke to an Aries woman this weekend. Her boyfriend is a Libra. Suddenly Saturday morning when they woke up, he told her he does not want to be in a relationship with her; he is afraid of her rage. She told me her father had rage issues and she remembered being scared as a small girl. To hear now that her boyfriend wants to break up with her, she is motivated to raise her awareness and own her rage and anger. She wants to get the rage out of her body through physical activity. I saw no signs of a break up in her chart, but I saw some hard days ahead as Venus will retrograde past her natal Mercury-Saturn conjunction this week. I encouraged her to work on this immediately and I felt such conviction in her. What a perfect occasion to work through a relationship crisis when Venus is retrograde. This is a way to bring the relationship to the next level to greater intimacy and improved compatibility through awareness. I thought how brave her Libra boyfriend was to own his fears as a man and say he was scared. She was able to hear him and the moment resonated as a sobering truth.
Venus retrogrades for 42 days and today is day 25 of this retrograde, about two-thirds the way through the backwards part of the whole cycle, which I explained in this post and this post.
In the whole larger cycle which spans February 2. May 21, we are just a little past the midpoint. My friend got a wake up in her relationship on March 28. This day was the midpoint of the larger cycle, the day when Venus and Sun were conjunct. The geometry is present: at the midpoint, we got a message from Libra on how to balance. I think many of us may have gotten a whisper in our ear, like a seed was planeted to encourage love to grow and to increase our capacity to love. Surely by now we know which issues, relationships or friendships we are bringing to the next level. Perhaps relationships have really changed. We may miss our lovers or a friends in this new adjustment.
In eight days, Venus will be back in Pisces, put the swishy, gossamer gown back on as she stands and twirls in dreamy 29° Pisces, all seductive and soft in the days around April 17. Until then, we can keep our sensibilities open for more signs from our partners, friends, lovers and other people we cherish regarding how to vent rage and how to increase our awareness around loving fearlessly.

Image of Hot Venus by NASA
Image of Cool Venus by R. Nunes