Venus goes retrograde approximately every 18 months in accordance with its 584-day synodic cycle. Whilst retrogrades are outwardly optical illusions produced by the parallax of interlocking orbits, from a geocentric point of view, Venus appears to stand still, then go backwards, disappearing into the underworld below the horizon.

On a psychological level, this symbolises the processes of evaluation, reflection, introspection, and assessment – of looking deep within to see to discover one’s core values, and to check as to whether one is actually living in accordance with them or not.

By core values, we mean something deeply personal to the self; that instinctive, guttural part of us that has strong, sensual responses to what it like and dislikes; what it finds pleasurable and painful; what is comfortable and uncomfortable; and what it feels is right or wrong on an individual level. This is not a moral system inherited from our…