Venus rules our personal ethics, the values we use to determine what is beautiful and what is intolerable. In retrograde her focus is on identifying the areas of life in which we have strayed from our own alignment, choosing instead to align with other people’s values or common social values in defiance of what is actually right for us. Since Venus is one of the inner (or “personal”) planets, we resonate with her consciously, and in turn she feels attached to us and protective over our happiness.
This transit is a major energetic signature of the current Venus retrograde; Venus will pass through it three times. She went through the first iteration on 15 September during the pre-retrograde shadow. Now she is moving through the square again backwards. On 9 December she will progress forward through the square one last time during the post-retrograde shadow, bringing the arc to what we may hope will be a neat and tidy close.
A quick recap of how retrograde works: while Venus is moving backwards, she is noticing and identifying mistakes, pointing them out to us, and noting down what she wants to adjust. The retrograde is not when she herself is making corrections, though! Her corrections don’t start happening until the post-retrograde shadow, after she stations direct again.
That’s not to say that you shouldn’t be making corrections on the spot when you have little revelations about your problems during the retrograde. Remember, deities can only work with us through things we cannot change through self-effort. Divine intervention has nothing to catch onto unless you’re doing your own hard work at baseline.
On the other end of the transit we have Pluto, who is the furthest of the outer planets and the least likely to be easily accessible to the average person. He famously travels around wearing a helmet that makes him invisible to true sight and undetectable by magic, so that he doesn’t have to talk to us like many of the Old Gods often want to. When he does need to intervene with our lives, he normally channels his influence indirectly by working with Persephone over the duration of each Solar Cycle, though this is not often discussed in astrology.
Pluto’s domain is more abstract than Venus’ cut and dry influence over our personal ethics. He rules the consequences of how we choose to exert our intrinsic power and influence. Do we use our agency ? Do we choose to emotionally mature and heal? Do we own the consequences of our major life choices? Is our methodology clean? What is our net influence on the Collective?
Unlike Venus, Pluto isn’t usually much for getting people to act the way he thinks they should. Instead he’s more of an observer. Based on the way our personalities and actions unfold over a lifetime, Pluto moves around big picture fate things to make sure we get what’s coming to us. He doesn’t much care whether we like the experience.
Last week he stationed direct, so since the last iteration of this square, his energy has changed from editorial to expository. That means he can be present in a different way than he was previously. This is especially constructive – it means that between the three instances of this square, all three different potential combinations of the two planets’ retrograde and direct energies will have had their say. By mid-December we will have had a really complete experience of these two powers.
So what about the signs that are activated? Square happens when two energies are at odds with each other. It is an aspect of challenge between signs of similar modality, but different elemental energy. Often square aspects pressure us to choose between two polarized options. Though it feels unnatural, the best way to remediate this energy is actually to find harmony between the two apparent opposites.
This particular square, though, may not be a difficult energy in practice. That’s partly because Venus is currently in Scorpio, the sign that Pluto rules. This basically means she’s currently immersed in his energy; we can imagine this makes it easier for her to see things from his perspective. Perhaps it gives his opinion more weight during their conversations.
Scorpio is the fixed water sign, which represents the deepest parts of the ocean, where darkness reigns and strange beings live secret lives. Some people fear and repress these depths of their water element. Accessing the dark and heavy places in our psyche often subjects us to extreme emotional pressure, and that can be challenging. But getting comfortable in that space is necessary to live a full and healthy life.
Meanwhile Pluto himself is in Aquarius, Uranus’ sign, the fixed modality of the air element which represents the vacuum and infinite potential of outer space itself, the ultimate primordial vessel and creative medium. This is a pretty far out sign at the best of times, although the strongest and most mature Aquarians are firmly rooted in reality and all its material limitations.
As an archetype for Pluto to express his domain through, it is not intensely and darkly emotional like Scorpio. This is perhaps for the best; Pluto does tend to feel everything rather intensely (we have to get to know the Gods as people as well as seeing them in their powers) and at times this does appear to be detrimental to his better judgment. Aquarius helps him hang onto a kind of emotional sobriety.
A productive, collaborative square between Scorpio and Aquarius could have us examining the darker parts of our personality with greater detachment and logic. The close timing with Sun opposite Chiron a day later creates a window of opportunity for using the energy toward the healing of deeper, longer-lasting, more fated wounds. We can get more out of the shadow work opportunity by setting out with an intention to explore the darkness, rather than simply letting the day happen naturally.
