Proceed With Caution During the Venus Retrograde

As news circulates that Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce will take an intentional break from the spotlight, we can’t help but feel relieved for the Eras Tour megastar and her NFL boyfriend. As they’ve traveled from Singapore to the Super Bowl to cheer each other on, we’re both wired and tired thinking about the miles they’ve logged.

Astrologically, their plan to hunker down is well-timed. As Venus, the planet of love and romance, prepares for a six-week retrograde from March 1 to April 12, couples everywhere would be smart to create more blank space in their shared calendars for each other. Yes, before busy schedules and lack of quality time create bad blood.

If you’re single and searching, you might consider taking a short pause to do some self-reflection in March and the first half of April. It’s not that you need to avoid dating during Venus retrograde. But you should proceed with caution, knowing that you may have a tendency to overlook red flags or go harder than usual with projecting qualities onto people that aren’t really there.

What happens when Venus turns retrograde is actually pretty fascinating. Every 18 months, the hottest planet in the solar system switches from an “evening star” that twinkles in the sky at dusk to a “morning star” that appears in the sky just before dawn. The ancient Greeks even once believed that Venus was two separate entities.

Though no one has ever said, “We love retrogrades,” if you approach this Venus cycle metaphorically, it’s rich with opportunity. As the evening star phase winds down—this year from March 1 to 23—what old stories and habits surrounding love do you need to put to bed? Once Venus becomes a morning star in the second three weeks of the retrograde, what new beliefs and approaches do you want to wake up in your life?

For example, if you keep hitting a wall or attracting a type with the same toxic trait, this is your chance to look under the hood of your own psyche. Learn more about your attachment style; reconfigure your boundaries so you don’t wind up feeling resentful; or recognize the root cause of your attraction to that perpetually ghosting f-boy.

Just like Mercury, Venus retrogrades can bring back people from your past. If you have a “one that got away” in your dating history, the retrograde can cast a spell that gives you a chance at a 2.0. But be warned! Advance slowly and cautiously.

Couples could find themselves relitigating an old argument or hitting a wall that stymied you in the past. The difference now? Venus retrograde can provide an opportunity to really dig below the surface and get to the roots that you didn’t quite reach the last time you tried to resolve this problem. Expect some hard conversations and challenging emotions to arise, but if you can sit through them (maybe with the help of a couples’ therapist), there’s a solid chance you’ll emerge feeling closer.

Watch for these temperamental emotions to flare for most of March.”

The zodiac signs that Venus turns retrograde in also shape the way this cycle could play out. This time around, the love planet takes a reverse commute through autonomous Aries from March 1 to 27, then compassionate Pisces from March 27 to April 12. As the first sign of the zodiac, Aries energy can be brash, impatient, and feisty—not exactly a trifecta of qualities that foster understanding. Watch for these temperamental emotions to flare for most of March. It might be wise to implement some sort of time-out policy if you’re planning on having conversations that can get heated.

From March 27 to April 12, Venus slips back into Pisces, the sign of sacrifice. It will be too easy to drown in emotions or catch feelings for the wounded bird types who swear you’re the only one who understands them. If you already know that you’re prone to codependent behaviors like being the “happy helper” in relationships or putting your needs last, be on high alert for such self-defeating tendencies to appear.

Were you born with Venus in Aries like Millie Bobby Brown or Venus in Pisces like Justin Bieber? (You can calculate that here.) If so, there’s a chance that you’ll feel this retrograde more intensely than others, so the above advice goes double.

Since Venus also rules beauty and style, let Scorpio Pete Davidson, who just spent $200K to have his tattoos removed in a painful laser process, weave a cautionary tale about getting inked in the name of new love. It’s never a great idea, but especially inadvisable during a Venus retrograde. If you want to change your hairstyle, reach for clip-in bangs and extensions instead of the scissors tucked in your bathroom cabinet. The coast will be clear on April 12, and by then, you may be ready for something completely different altogether.