Venus retrograde in Scorpio: what are you still protecting?

Venus has been retrograde in Scorpio since 3 October. I recorded this video the day before it stationed, because there was more to say than I fit into my first Venus retrograde video.

In that first video I gave you three questions. Try them again, and you're not allowed to give the same answer as the first time. It's a very powerful experience.

The relating function

Let me start with Venus. Venus correlates to our relationship principle, the relating function.

It speaks about two polarities and the vibration that exists between them. You are one pole, and whatever you are in relationship with is the other.

The other pole can be anything. I have a relationship to the calmness in nature where I live.

What you preserve

On your side of that polarity sits a preservation principle. It's a baseline pattern that decides how you interact with the world, and that baseline is what this Venus retrograde is all about.

The archetype that carries preservation is Taurus. Take the trees where I live. If there's no rain for a long time, or you remove the earth from underneath them, their survival is affected.

So this isn't exclusive to human beings. Preservation is built into everything that is organic and alive. To be alive is to be in a state of preservation.

Scorpio and the threat

Scorpio sits opposite Taurus, and it's saying, hey, just so you know, there are things in your environment that could threaten what you're preserving. The thing that's sacred.

What is sacred forms the preservation principle. And nothing needs preservation unless there's a threat to its survival.

Take a rhino foundation. It exists because there are poachers. In this polarity the poachers are the Scorpio energy, the threat to the sacredness of that animal, so the foundation steps in to preserve it.

This is the underlying architecture of these transits, and it's universal. Me, you, everybody. Your personal reality is the overlay that sits on top of it.

The architecture

So here is how it builds. The sacred drives preservation. Preservation drives value. Value gets decided and prioritized.

Ask yourself why you're preserving a relationship and you'll notice, oh, these are my values. Then you put them on a ladder, the most important at the top, and you keep preserving that relationship.

Then your environment responds. It stays the same, it reorganizes, or the relationship disappears completely, depending on what you still want to preserve.

That's the renewal in this retrograde, and renewal is deeply connected to Scorpio. Something sacred is up for renewal.

Mars as the signal

Mars is involved in this process too. In the first video I talked about vitality. Where do I feel my life force wanting to be preserved, and where do I notice it dwindling?

Mars gives a very clear signal. It can feel like anger, frustration or irritation, like I had with that first video.

The wind where I live was terrible. I recorded it three times in three different spots, and every time I played it back, it hadn't worked. The irritation kept on building.

To me that irritation was a signal, and I didn't need to hyperfixate on it. It was revealing how much I love sitting and talking astrology with you, and how deeply I want to keep doing it.

Betraying the sacred

So, for you. Say you answered the question "who am I?" and came to some clarity about yourself. Then you go through your day and notice you betray it.

This transit wants you to see how you feel about that, and whether you want to make a change. That's the renewal I'm talking about.

Say you realize the sacred for you is time and freedom. You don't need to go further than that. You need to build a preservation choice around it.

So the next time someone invites you somewhere and you feel that internal pressure to say yes, because you don't want them to feel rejected, intercept that moment consciously. Say to yourself, "I'm choosing to honor the sacred in me."

Then finish the sentence. Mine is, I'm choosing to preserve the calmness here. This space is unbelievably calming to my nervous system, and I'm going to preserve that at all costs.

Two things can be true

You can honor saying no as a way to preserve what's sacred. Today doesn't work for me.

And you don't need to justify it. Very important. I'm talking to you, Pluto Libras.

At the same time, you can offer something. I'd still like to help you out, is there another day we can schedule? You've honored your preservation, and you've signaled that you do want to show up for this person.

Where this is going

Venus squares Pluto for the second time on 20 October. Mercury turns retrograde on 24 October, and the next day Venus moves back into Libra, where it turns direct on 14 November.

When it does, you'll see a reconfiguration in the relational field.

You're working towards knowing you can make a different choice and stay emotionally safe in yourself. Towards realizing you have the power to protect something sacred without thinking it could be taken away from you.