When: March 1st – April 12th, 2025
What: Venus retrograde in Aries and Pisces
Takeaway: For roughly 40 days, the planet of love, unions, art, and aesthetics makes an underworld journey. During Venus’ subterranean descent, our relationship to beauty and pleasure comes up for review. It’s time to be discerning about the connections that amplify your courage and those that diminish your vitality. Instead of seeking approval from others, be bold about claiming your desires.
What is a Venus retrograde?
When Venus stations retrograde, it appears to change direction and loop backward in the sky. This reversal is actually an optical illusion, caused by the different speeds at which Venus and the Earth orbit the Sun. (Think: the experience of being in a moving vehicle that’s overtaken by a faster one.) Yet this phenomenon still heralds a review period in our lives.
Every 18 months, when the planet of love, creativity, and beauty seems to slow down and make a U-turn, we’re asked to pause our own frolicking and flirting and get reflective. Our attention is temporarily pulled away from dating apps and online shopping carts and redirected toward ourselves. Although we may be more inwardly focused during these retrograde periods, the urge for connection, sensory sweetness, and fun may swell from a subtle itch to an all-consuming yearning. But this isn’t a moment for acting on unchecked impulses; it’s for gathering the essential lessons and insights that will help us actualize our passions. The introspective quality of this time supports us in gleaning key realizations about our relationships and gradually building up our self-love.
Venus also rules pleasure, and whenever this planet stations retrograde, our pastimes and romantic pursuits might lose some of their luster. If so, have no fear — occasional disenchantment is what pushes us to mix things up. If we never get bored with the current status quo, we won’t be motivated to try anything new. When your muses descend underground into the shadows, grab your lanterns and embrace a spirit of discovery. Instead of overanalyzing why your roller derby meetups, jewelry-making projects, or favorite restaurants are no longer doing it for you, get curious about what pleases you right now.
Venus retrograde in Aries dares you to shine boldly
From March 1st to March 27th, Venus retrograde in Aries will have us reclaiming our boldness, courage, and sense of initiative. While Venus typically craves a lush fainting couch, some indulgent bonbons, and a poetry-reciting companion, Aries is ruled by energetic and combative Mars, which relishes competition and seeks the thrill of the chase. Because of this temperamental clash, Venus is traditionally thought to be in detriment in this spitfire sign, meaning it can struggle to manifest its highest potential. But this friction can strike sparks that generate innovative, surprising solutions to familiar problems.
When Venus is in Aries, it acts first and thinks later. As soon as a crush develops, a confession is en route. It can also steer our style and aesthetics toward the tough and the brash. Think: the only person wearing pink cowboy boots at the library, or the person whose piercings and tattoos announce themselves before they’re halfway through the front door. In this placement, Venus is fond of taking risks and anticipating the rush of probable victory, which makes it uniquely poised to seize the moment and get what it wants — tact and decorum be darned. And a Venus retrograde in Aries is a potent period for examining the fears that have prevented us from going after our desires. Identifying where we could use an influx of bravery is the prerequisite for making bigger moves in our revelries and our relationships.
A word of caution: Because Aries is a Mars-ruled sign, Venus has a feisty side in this placement. It can get easily hot under the collar and confuse quarreling with flirting. Pay attention to any aggressive impulses that emerge in your unions, your artistry, or your self-presentation. Whether you’re hoping to rein in your rage or to self-advocate more forcefully, get curious about the role that anger plays in all your creative and romantic endeavors.
But once Venus Rx enters Pisces, you’ll be tasked with re-examining your daydreams
Venus backstrokes into dreamy Pisces on March 27th, when this retrograde period takes a turn toward the swoony. While Venus struggles in Aries, it’s considered to be exalted in Pisces. In other words, when the planet of beauty is in this mutable water sign, it loves to love. Pisces enjoys everything romantic, from lush dates to candlelit bubble baths, and it’s enthralled by mysterious creative muses.
But this sign also tends to perceive the world through rose-colored glasses. Use this portion of Venus’ retrograde to examine the illusions or delusions you fall for in your connections with others. If you put potential paramours on unreasonably high pedestals, martyr yourself to support others’ causes, or let distractions invade your art studio, it’s time to get realistic. Your sensitivity requires healthy boundaries in order to thrive. And if you haven’t yet fully let go of an ex who keeps promising to change someday or you’ve avoided being honest with yourself about a novel manuscript that’s not working, cut the cord. Releasing the old during a Venus retrograde will make room for new pleasures to flow in.
Key dates for this Venus retrograde in Aries and Pisces
- Venus stations retrograde in Aries on March 1st, 2025, at 4:36 pm PT
- The Sun conjoins Venus Rx in Aries on March 22nd, 2025, at 6:07 pm PT
- Venus Rx re-enters Pisces on March 27th, 2025, at 1:40 am PT
- Venus Rx conjoins Neptune in Pisces on March 27th, 2025, at 6:13 am PT
- Venus Rx conjoins the North Node in Pisces on April 1st, 2025, at 1:38 am PT
- Venus stations direct in Pisces on April 12th, 2025, at 6:02 pm PT
This retrograde period won’t come without hot spots, revelations, and intrigue. On March 22nd, Venus makes a conjunction with the Sun, forming an auspicious cazimi. This halfway point in Venus’ retrograde cycle will give us a boost of audacity and help us seed new intentions for love, relationships, and style. Set goals that thrill you and push you to be a touch braver.
Shortly after Venus swan-dives into Pisces on March 27th, it synchronizes its swimming with idealistic Neptune, the planet of fantasies, delusions, and imagination. When it rolls with Venus, Neptune heightens our desire for the good, the true, and the beautiful. Take this opportunity to expand your belief in what’s possible for your unions, aesthetics, and artistry. Daydream away, but also remember that not every craving you experience in this moment is necessarily realistic. Record your intuitive bursts in your journal, and re-evaluate them on a day when you feel more grounded.
By April 1st, clarity comes back online. When Venus meets up with the ravenous North Node, it sheds light on the directions we want to take in our connections and creative projects. Pay attention to what you hunger for around this time — and tell your sense of urgency to take a catnap if it’s stressing you out. Whenever you feel like you have to get back on the dating scene, make a big declaration, or get a dramatic haircut ASAP, pace yourself. There’s no need to rush pleasure or to treat it as a scarce resource. Follow your inner compass, and allow things to fall into place on their own timeline.
By the time Venus stations direct in Pisces on April 12th, we’ll be better equipped to work with both our sauciness and our sensitivity. Our rough edges, intense passions, secret hopes, and far-fetched dreams all deserve a sacred space in our bonds. Honor these gifts on your own, and you’ll be more prepared to share them with others.
Your Venus retrograde survival guide
Do…
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- Explore your worries regarding relationships, artistry, or pleasure. Journal about the ways you hold back from sharing your truth or advocating for what you desire. When you gently interrogate the beliefs at the root of your hesitations, you can more easily heal them.
- Reality-check your bonds. If you’ve been holding on to an unsupportive situationship or putting others on a pedestal, bring your unions back down to earth. Practice being honest with yourself, which will allow you to make more mindful and informed choices.
- Underschedule yourself and carve out time to process any emotions that surface in your flirtations, commitments, pastimes, or creative projects.
- Tidy up your art supplies, organize your wardrobe, or adorn your desk with fresh flowers. A little imaginative housekeeping can set the stage for unexpected inspirations to flood in.
- Check the Transits tab of the CHANI app to discover if and how Venus’ movements are impacting your natal placements. You can also read your free Current Sky horoscopes for Venus in Aries and Venus in Pisces to learn how your rising sign will be affected during this time.
- Dream-board the friendships, partnerships, muses, and pleasures you’d pursue if you were infinitely brave. Doing so will stoke your courage to go after what you want.
- Be your own best friend, muse, and cheerleader. Offer yourself the gentleness, care, adoration, and attunement that you deserve in all your connections.
- Read about your Venus placement in the CHANI app or with our online chart tool. If you have any other placements in Aries or Pisces, those planets will play a part in this story too.
- Accept roadblocks, boredom, disenchantment, and do-overs as evidence that you’re evolving.
- Challenge any subconscious, shadowy fears that lead you to question your worthiness of nurturance, affection, and recognition.
- Reflect on what was happening for you eight years ago, between March 4th and April 15th, 2017, the last time Venus was retrograde in Aries and Pisces. Sift through old diaries, emails, calendars, and text threads from that period, and acknowledge what you learned from those experiences. Then let those lessons sink in once more.
Don’t…
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- Make any drastic relationship decisions — romantic or platonic — while Venus is retrograde. Instead, take this opportunity to reaffirm your own values. Write out all your red, green, and beige flags in your favorite ink, and laminate them for good measure.
- Fear Venus retrograde. It can be daunting when your sense of fun and delight is under review, but in the end, you’ll emerge with a deeper well of self-love that will elevate all your bonds.
- Plan any major renovations, tattoos, performances, exhibitions, or leisure trips during Venus retrograde, if you can — unless you time them for the Venus cazimi on March 22nd. (That said, you may still want to work with an astrologer to pinpoint the most fruitful moment possible.)
- Rush the process. This retrograde will help you compost the patterns, habits, and narratives that no longer serve the next chapter in your story. This work takes patience — and it’s well worth the wait.
Looking for more intel? Read your daily horoscope:
Aries | Taurus | Gemini | Cancer | Leo | Virgo | Libra
Scorpio | Sagittarius | Capricorn | Aquarius | Pisces
Then download the CHANI app on iOS or Android for additional horoscopes, meditations, affirmations, readings for the current Moon phase and sign, and more.