Venus enters Leo on 5th June and will spend an unusually long time in the sign because she goes retrograde in July. Venus normally spends a couple of weeks to a month in each sign as she’s never more than two signs away from the Sun. This year, Venus will be in Leo for about 4 months from 5th June – 9th October 2023 and it could be an entertaining time, with a few warnings.

Venus in Leo is warm-hearted, generous and courageous, with a love of romance, drama and having fun and generally enjoying life. She’s affectionate and warm, fiercely loyal to those she loves, as well as passionate, joyful and proud. She loves grand gestures in romance and being the centre of attention because she needs to feel special and admired. She is a queen and expects her subjects to behave accordingly.

Her regal pride is fine as long as she’s feeling magnanimous but it can tip over into vanity and arrogance. And her childlike glee is endearing but she can also be naïve and prone to temper tantrums if she doesn’t get her way.

Obviously, we’re not all going to turn into preening drama queens over the next few months, although a few of us might! 😂

This transit is a good time to explore the Leo area of your chart by focusing on creativity, children, romance and having fun. You could start a creative project or find a new hobby that’s enjoyable and allows you to show off and shine your light on the world.

Creativity can be expressed in many ways, not just through art, music, writing, and so on. You could get creative with your appearance, have fun dressing up and being glamourous, redecorate your house or invest in beautiful objects and art, or indulge in whatever makes you feel more alive and brings you joy.

Your relationships could become more passionate and exciting and you may be able to express love in a more dramatic or exuberant way. Now is the time to wine and dine and entertain or have a party designed to impress. You can become a queen at the centre of your world and reclaim your crown, as Wim Hof says:

“We have been led by directors and presidents and kings and queens for a long time, but the crowns belong to us. We are all kings and queens, and we should behave like it. We should be proud. Your kingdom, of course, is you yourself. There’s no castle. You are the castle. The universe is contained within you, and you are capable of doing extraordinary things.”

The danger with all these kings and queens wandering about is that everybody wants attention and some may go overboard trying to get it. This usually happens when you feel wounded or insecure and lacking a healthy ego, and it manifests as self-centred, childish and demanding behaviour. It’s good to let your inner child play and explore but you do need to have some boundaries and sense of decorum.

However, with Venus in Leo and Jupiter in Taurus you may lack the self-discipline to stop yourself going overboard. Both of these have a love of luxury and indulgence so you could easily spend too much and overdo the feasting, drinking, partying and carousing. It may be fun but you could also get yourself into a pickle financially or in your relationships with lots of drama, slamming of doors and flouncing about. And it’s not usually a good idea to eat ALL the chocolates! 🤢

This is especially important because Mars is also in Leo during this transit, adding heat to your passion and desire for excitement, as well as impatience. Mars entered Leo on 20th May so Venus is slightly behind him. They slowly move closer together through June and into July but never quite form an exact conjunction because Venus slows down to station retrograde.

The Venus Mars conjunction only gets as close as a 3-degree orb by the end of June but it remains within 8 degrees from 8th June to 21st July, after which Venus goes retrograde and Mars pulls away into Virgo. More on Venus Mars conjunctions here.

Mars in Leo has a strong will and desire for success and admiration, but he can also be proud and bombastic, making you more bossy, argumentative and demanding. These tendencies will be amplified by an opposition from Pluto and a square from Jupiter that forms a tense Grand Cross configuration with the nodes. The Mars Pluto opposition is in an 8-degree orb from 7th May to 3rd June, while the Mars Jupiter square is in an 8-degree orb from 29th April to 14th June.

During these periods, impatience and anger could lead to accidents or you may be more likely to take risks or get into loud disagreements. When Mars in Leo gets angry, he can really fly off the handle in self-righteous fury and Pluto could create serious fireworks if you’re not careful. Ideally, you want to channel all this amped up energy into self-transformation and creativity.

Venus also plugs into the Grand Cross when she enters Leo and opposes Pluto on 5th June and squares Jupiter on 11th June. Pluto intensifies feelings and pushes things to an extreme, while Jupiter expands and exaggerates making the negative manifestations of Venus in Leo more likely. There could be power struggles, jealousy and dark emotions but also the potential for intense and transformative encounters.

The Venus Pluto opposition is in an 8-degree orb from 28th May to 14th June, while the square to Jupiter is in an 8-degree orb from 31st May to 24th June. Here’s the configuration on the day that Venus enters Leo – you can see that Mars is no longer opposite Pluto but he is square Jupiter and the nodes:

Venus enters her retrograde shadow on 19th June 2023 and stations retrograde on 23rd July, the same day that the Sun enters Leo while opposite Pluto in another Grand Cross configuration with the nodes. It’s an intense moment that could provoke powerful feelings and insights into your relationships, revealing areas that need healing or transformation.

When Venus goes retrograde it provides an opportunity to evaluate your relationships, business partnerships, finances, creative projects, values and feelings of self-worth in the Leo part of your chart. Venus last went retrograde in Leo eight years ago in 2015 so you might like to check what you were doing then because similar themes could come up again this time.

Here are the key dates for the Venus retrograde cycle:

• 19 June 2023: enters retrograde shadow at 12° Leo
• 23 July 2023: stations retrograde at 28° Leo
• 13 August 2023: inferior conjunction with the Sun at 20° Leo
• 4 September 2023: stations direct at 12° Leo
• 7 October 2023: leaves retrograde shadow at 28° Leo
• 4 June 2024: superior conjunction with the Sun at 14° Gemini

When Venus stations retrograde her energies turn inward and descend into the underworld in search of renewal. This is when you can begin to reassess your feelings about the things and people that you value so you can realign your ideals with your instincts. You can find out what you really feel about everything in your life and how you feel about yourself.

Take the time to look at your relationships and values to see if you’re living in harmony with your deepest soul values. Pay attention to your dreams, feelings and intuitions to see what your soul really needs. There may be things in your life that no longer reflect how you see or value yourself, but don’t take anything for granted because your feelings could change again once Venus goes direct in September.

For more on how Venus retrograde works, read: A Guide to Stealing Fire during Venus Retrograde

Next time, we’ll continue the Planet Myths series with a look at Venus Myths…

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