It is one of the most elegant returns of the year. Venus in Libra is Aphrodite on her throne, the gesture of the world finding proportion again. After purification in Virgo, she reappears in cardinal air as pure relational force, the moment when the self recognises the other and the cosmos arranges itself in pairs and accords.
Libra is western point of the wheel, the locus of encounter and surrender. The impulse is the harmony between poles, negotiation between light and shadow. It is her realm of dynamic balance, never passive. Being a cardinal, diurnal and masculine sign, Libra carries initiative and so Venus moves now with momentum. But, nevertheless, the return of Venus to Libra this year is far from serene.
I. The First Steps Into Libra
Venus begins this return to Libra under a demanding balance of benefic and malefic forces. She is the nocturnal benefic, naturally inclined to union and pleasure, but her first steps in her own sign occur within Saturnine bound. Saturn, the diurnal malefic, imposes measure and responsibility on her instinct for ease, with Venus already having just faced an opposition to Saturn retrograde in Pisces just three days ago.
The Moon, ruler of the first decan of Libra and the nocturnal luminary, offers emotional receptivity and repair. Together they nonetheless create a disciplined tenderness during this first stretch in Libra: affection that must mature, beauty that depends on structure. This is a phase for rebuilding rather than indulging, where Venus learns to turn restraint itself into harmony.
II. The Aspects With The Slow Planets
At her entrance into Libra, Venus stands in direct dialogue with the outer powers. The opposition to Neptune retrograde in Aries confronts her with distortion, idealism, forcing discernment between empathy and illusion. The trines to Pluto stationary in Aquarius and Uranus retrograde in Gemini provide conduits of renewal. Through these contacts, the nocturnal benefic becomes an instrument of transmutation: harmony is now moving through a slow turbulent crisis. Venus in Libra is currently the mediator between form and future revelation, anchoring beauty amid the pressure of the collective, transpersonal currents.
After these strong contacts, Venus moves through calmer skies, consolidating what has been purified. On November 2, she will form a square to Jupiter exalted in Cancer, precisely while crossing the Jupiterian decan of Libra. It is a meeting of the two benefics, a clash of cardinal Air and Water, justice and compassion. The tension amplifies both powers: Venus seeks proportion and dialogue, Jupiter seeks expansion and faith. Their square brings growth through adjustment.
III. The Full Moon in Taurus and the Watery Sky
At this moment Venus holds significant influence across the sky. She rules the Sun, which is moving through the final decan of Libra, a position of weakness that now depends on her strength for balance and coherence. Her other domain, the fixed earth of Taurus, remains empty, leaving her energy to flow primarily through her Air throne. But, by day rulership of the Water triplicity, her reach extends beneath the surface. Mercury and Mars in Scorpio, Saturn retrograde in Pisces, and Jupiter exalted in Cancer all respond to her by element, weaving her tone of refinement and relation into the emotional undercurrents of the chart.
From her throne in Libra, Venus will rule the coming Full Moon of November 5, which rises in Taurus, the sign of her nocturnal exaltation. It will take place precisely in the Lunar decan of Taurus, a place of profound fertility and magnetic stillness. It is therefore a meeting of the two nocturnal powers, Aphrodite and Selene. Venus governs from air and the Moon answers from earth, and together they seal the pact between reflection and embodiment. This lunation intensifies a feminine current of the heavens: what is balanced thought under Venus will incarnate in matter through the Moon.
As usual, it is also an ingress especially meaningful for those whose charts depend on Venusian governance. Natives with Venus ruling the Ascendant, the luminaries, or serving as Oikodespotes will feel this passage as a calibration of the entire system. It refines how pleasure, speech, and alliance operate, connecting reason and emotion through a single thread of proportion.
Κύριε ελέησον