Horoscopes by ILANA KOZLOV
Today Venus stations retrograde in Scorpio, beginning a review of the things the planet governs: desire, relationships, money, pleasure, beauty, and whatever we decide is worth holding onto. Scorpio isn’t interested in keeping things pretty: It digs. It wants to feel the underside of desire, to know what intimacy costs, and to find the attachments that have become so entangled with us that we can no longer tell where they end and we begin.
There is something appropriately subterranean about this particular retrograde. As Venus moves backward through Scorpio, it disappears from the evening sky and meets the sun before eventually returning as a morning star. Things go out of sight before they take a new form. Maybe an old feeling comes back. Maybe the problem is money, a friendship, your job, your family, or a version of yourself you’re still clinging to. Whatever comes up, the point isn’t necessarily to get rid of it. First, you have to look at it.
On Oct. 25, Venus slips back into Libra, where the story shifts toward balance and reciprocity. Until then, here are your horoscopes for the next three weeks of retrograde.
Aries Rising
There are all kinds of ways dependencies can go. They can be sticky and tar-like even after thousands of showers. They can be so stubbornly cemented that nothing else can be imagined. Or they can be profoundly synergistic. A bank loan can help pay for school, and the loved one you cared for is there the next time your head hurts. None of this is promised, but as Venus in Scorpio retrogrades through your eighth house you learn that dependencies aren’t always fifty-fifty. Ask yourself which ratios in your agreements are viable. Do debts need to get settled? Do lines need to be drawn? Or do you simply need to walk away?
Taurus Rising
Something buried comes into your line of sight. With Venus retrograding in your seventh house of relationships and agreements, you may feel this more than most. Scorpio digs through poisoned soil fearlessly, and there’s no unseeing what it retrieves. This may feel like the climax you’ve been waiting for, or a turning point full of unknowns. Relationships are where we stage our biggest projections, the place our deepest feelings about ourselves get rehearsed. As you wash this emotional artifact in the river, vagueness will fall away from your personal dynamics.
Gemini Rising
Venus isn’t known for getting its hands dirty; in fact, it’s more interested in taking things easy. But moving backward through your sixth house of work and obligations, it asks you to pay attention to where most of your effort goes. What kinds of problems do you find yourself solving? What are the things that eat up your time? Some duties are unavoidable, but sometimes we use what we believe we have to do to avoid doing what we desire. Desire is the language of Venus. If you put effort into what you really want, spiritual stakes get raised. That can be a little scary. But if you only do what you’re “supposed” to do, a part of your imagination slowly dies.
Cancer Rising
This month sounds like a party, but with Venus moving backward through your fifth house of fun, romance, and creativity, you’ve probably overdone it. This isn’t a peachy, easygoing sign, and your indulgences are likely masking something serious. The fifth house is where energy gets spent, so what are you left with at the end of the night on your walk home? Perhaps there’s a feeling that it’s never quiet enough to feel. Something salient erupts! Excess won’t actually get you…more. Your lipstick may be smeared, but you’re having a once-in-a-lifetime breakthrough!
Leo Rising
Scorpio likes to lay low and the fourth house of family, home, and privacy is like the cool, murky underside of a rock. There’s not a lot of noise there, not a lot of color, yet it’s not a viscerally empty room. Our privacy has gravity; it protects us, but it can also bear an invisible load. There are no grand acts this retrograde season. You are getting rid of old weight. If the task is too great, start with something literal, like an old, caved-in couch. To the outside world, you will appear the same, but you will know just how much was let go of.
Virgo Rising
The third house is confusing. It’s about the comforting and familiar: magic talismans and coffee shops and cars and diaries. With Venus retrograde here, Scorpio brings anything that’s been buried up to the surface for keen examination. The day-to-day humdrum that the third house enjoys is suddenly arrested by unnerving intensity. Our rituals and communities reinforce beliefs. Does something need to change—and what if, instead of it being really big, it’s actually a collection of small, seemingly inconsequential things?
Libra Rising
Mystery completely envelops us, whether it’s the thing behind the door we’ll never see or questions about God we’ll never get answered. This retrograde, in your second house of money and resources, leaves an ominous but life-changing key on your path. It will help you see the way you survive more clearly. Do you survive scarcity by denying yourself pleasure? Do you survive stress by overspending? Do you survive shame by downplaying what you have? Money occupies a very vulnerable part of our psyche, and dealing with any mystery around it can change your foundation.
Scorpio Rising
Venus in Scorpio retrogrades through your first house of self and vitality. Scorpio likes the dark, but darkness is often misunderstood. We’re scared of what we can’t see, or we think the dark excludes information. But black is the most vulnerable color because it absorbs everything. Vulnerability is beautiful because it is inclusive. As Venus purges something old from your identity, think of the darkness as a space that’s being made to include more of you. When you are more integrated, how does the world respond? Take note.
Sagittarius Rising
It can be puzzling to address something invisible…there’s no information. But that’s the territory of your twelfth house, where Venus is retrograde now. I’m sure you know what it’s like to want to forget something. The thing at the front moves to the back, and once it’s there, many tactics keep it there. You may be holding feelings back, keeping secrets, even playing pretend. This retrograde gives you an opportunity to confront what you’ve managed to escape. Invisible things control our imaginations, and facing our fears can restore the control we’ve been handing away.
Capricorn Rising
A sharp, strategic creature sitting in a broad, luck-stricken house can provoke some skepticism. Venus is retrograde in your eleventh house of friendships, gains, and allies, so trust and expectations may narrow. Our hopes are so precious, sometimes we scan viciously for a Trojan horse that isn’t there. Paranoia or sixth sense? You may be tempted to let go of friendships that can no longer support what you hope for. Friendships that you can’t imagine your future self in. This means that you have changed significantly, and now your groups are this strange mirror where you keep meeting what your past self used to accept.
Aquarius Rising
Sometimes your roles in life change and you have to grieve for an old version of yourself. Sometimes the uniform you put on every day can start to feel like a Halloween costume or some ill-fitting thing a distant cousin got you. Either way, with Venus retrograde in your tenth house of career, reputation and authority, you’re experiencing some growing pains. You may be asked to cultivate authority over a new part of life, while releasing power in another. Scorpio is about death, and the thing that comes after death is new life. You’re the seed in the compost. It’s a bit stinky, but soon you will sprout, and much later you’ll be a big tree.
Pisces Rising
I know a lot of people who felt lost after they graduated college. How do you ask for what you’ve learned to take up space in the world? How do you survive outside a reinforced bubble? With Venus moving backwards through your ninth house of education, prophecies and travel, the retrograde may challenge your dearly held philosophies. The intangible scaffolding that defines how you move through the world is actually profoundly vulnerable. This can include what you learned in school, or what religion (or lack thereof) you were raised in. Your worldview has already gone through so many changes, now it’s time to dig into the things you forgot still influence you.