Venus Retrograde Dates

Venus turns retrograde about once every year and a half and stays retrograde for about six weeks. During the retrograde it passes between the Earth and the Sun, disappears from the evening sky and reappears as the morning star. Jyotish calls the state vakra, and reads a retrograde Venus as a strong Venus whose desires turn inward.

Parashara's shadbala gives a retrograde graha full chesta bala, and the tradition treats a retrograde benefic as a giver of more good. Venus is the graha of desire, marriage, art, comfort and wealth. When it is strong and reviewing its own domain, love and money both get reconsidered.

Old relationships come back during the retrograde, either to be completed or to be released. Marriages arranged in the period tend to be revisited later, which is why the tradition avoids fixing a wedding under a retrograde or combust Venus. Purchases of luxury goods, vehicles and jewellery are best delayed.

Art made now is sincere and often the best of the year.

The field is the house Venus retrogrades through, counted from the Moon and from the lagna. Phaladeepika lists the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, eighth, ninth, eleventh and twelfth as Venus's favourable transit houses, and a retrograde in one of them deepens a pleasure already there. In the sixth, seventh or tenth it calls for restraint in partnership and spending.

The six weeks show what was wanted for its own sake and what was wanted for show. They are well spent on art, on a relationship, and on what one already has.

The remedies are Lakshmi worship and the mantra Om Shukraya Namah. Parashara's dana for Venus is white cloth, rice, curd and silver, given on Friday. Postpone the wedding and the large purchase.