Venus Retrograde Squares Uranus: Liberating the Heart

Hey everyone, this is Adam Elenbaas from Nightlight Astrology. Happy Monday, everybody. Today we are going to talk about Venus in her retrograde through Leo coming back into the square with Uranus. This is something that we have been talking about over the course of the summer in a number of different ways horoscopes we've looked at; we're going to talk today about the liberation of the heart, which is a topic, I think appropriate for Venus retrograde in Leo sign of the Sun and the sign associated with the heart. Venus and Leo can tug at the heartstrings in a lot of different ways.

It can be a very dramatic and sort of romantic placement for Venus in the sign of the Sun, and when Venus hits from that sign of Leo, sign of the heart hits Uranus, the planet of liberation. One of the ways we can talk about this is by talking about different ways in which we may find that our heart is feeling freer, happier, more open, lighter, liberated, healed, refreshed.

So today, I'm going to talk about five different ways that we can work with this energy in order to help the heart feel freer, which is one of the, I think, most beneficial ways of looking at Venus and Leos retrograde as it squares Uranus right now. But there was going to be a few different ways of looking at this. I think we may even do another video on Venus and Uranus this week because there's I got a few different angles that I kind of want to look at this from. So, anyway, this will be a start.

Before we get into it, as always, don't forget to like and subscribe and share your comments in the comment section. I would love to hear from you guys and hear how you're experiencing this transit. If you have a good story to share, use the hashtag #grabbed, tell us the transit Venus square Uranus, and then tell us your story, or if you prefer, you can email it to us at grabbed@nightlightastrology.com.

You can find a transcript of today's talk or any of my talks on the website nightlightastrology.com. When you are there, be sure to check out all of my readings and courses. We will be having a flash sale on my courses coming up between August 14 and the 21st, and I will be promoting that throughout the week because that sale will go live next week on Monday and will be active for a full week. So if you want to save a little bit on some of my upcoming programs this fall or winter, you could do so. If you have any questions about the readings and courses that you find on my website, feel free to email us at info@nightlightastrology.com.

Okay, so let's look at the real-time clock and refresh on this transit that is coming in this week coming in hot I'm really excited about this one. I think one of the reasons I'm excited is that I'm for Christmas; I got Ashley tickets to go see Pink. She really likes Pink, and Pink is going to be here in Minneapolis, so we're going to see Pink this week, and that feels like a very Venus square Uranus tank kind of show to see.

Anyway, so I don't know Pink's music really well my wife does, but I will tell you if my wife's ability to enchant me with her musical interest this summer is any sign of what's to come, then I'm probably going to have a really good time because she's already enchanted me with the Grateful Dead and you know what's to prevent me from becoming a pink head next.

So anyway, here is the real-time clock. Here is Venus is retrograde, coming into the square with Uranus. Now let's take a look at how this unfolds. Today is Monday, August 7. We're going to see that square slowly come through between Tuesday the eighth and Wednesday the ninth, but it stays at that 22nd degree all the way through Thursday, and then it's still within about a degree all the way through Friday, and then we have the cazimi of Venus at the heart of the Sun, which we're also going to talk about this week coming into the weekend and it's still within two degrees of the square to Uranus, and then the Sun hits the square to Uranus early next week.

So I feel like we're in a really interesting kind of sweet spot for this Venus retrograde where a lot of the most exciting Uranian breakthroughs and learning moments that this Venus retrograde in some ways is promised since the beginning is now at hand. With that in mind, today, I want to talk about five ways that we can help we can work with this energy to liberate the heart.

Again I use that because Venus in Leo retrograde can be about healing the heart, mending the heart, changing the heart, shifting in our relationships, especially with a real deep look at what makes our hearts, you know, beat a little harder, a little deeper, a little richer. When that Venus in Leo hits a square to Uranus, the idea is that a liberation or revolution of freeing up of energy around our hearts and in our relationships, or any sphere of life that resembles Venus can take place; whether you're an artist or a lover, you can see a kind of renaissance or an awakening and a freeing up or liberating take place.

So, here are five ways that we can help that along this week; I wrote these down because these are things that I have been noticing, both in my practice with clients since Venus turned retrograde, as well, as you know, in my own life, I'm a native Venus in Leo. So, you know, these are the things that I'm noticing that I'm going through in sort of my own healing journey. We're all on one. Well, within mine, some of these are things that I've been noticing for myself, and some of them have to do with what I've noticed in my clients and what I think we can say about this archetypal combination in general.

Anyway, number one way that we can liberate our heart right now, let's just say in the week ahead, that I could almost put them as like I dare you, I dare you to admit to loving what you love. We can put it more broadly to say this week we can, can we take that daring step, that noble, courageous heart-centered step of saying, I can't help it, I love what I love. This is what I love.

There's so much fear in admitting what we're attracted to, and what we like, because we want to fit in and, you know, I can imagine the ultimate example of a Venus-Uranus, dynamic like this, which I have seen in the lives of many of my clients would be the difficult experience of coming out, maybe coming out to a family that isn't ready, maybe they're super religious, and they're not ready to accept that a son or a daughter has a different sexual or gender orientation or something like that.

Could this also be something that happens when you have to admit that your interests, just your life interests, are going off the beaten trail compared to the way you were raised? It could be something as simple as saying, I want to go to art school, and I know my parents think I should go to business school.

I think that Venus square Uranus, especially in the retrograde where there's a process of death and rebirth happening, is daring us to just say, look, there's nothing wrong with the things that you like, with the things that you like to do, or the things that you like to study or the things that you like to practice or the people that you like to spend your time with, or the person that you love, or the kind of people that you love.

To just admit that there's nothing wrong with love itself, we can return to a kind of heart-centered innocence by just taking that courageous step of even just within ourselves being like; it's okay. It's okay that I like this that I'm attracted to this, that I desire this. A lot of the time, we think to ourselves that the things we love well is we think well, it's okay to love it if it's productive.

You know, for example, one of the things that I've noticed myself battling with is this really intense desire to return to playing my guitar more, and there's a voice inside of me that says, well, you're not going to do anything with that, you know, it's not productive, you're not going to become a musician, you're not going to get in a band, you know, and there's this kind of defiant, rebellious, but also just like courageous voice in me that says, I don't have to do any of those things to just pick up my guitar and find that it's therapeutic and helpful for me that it feels good or that it feels right, that it's okay to just love that right now.

So I think that's been something I've noticed for myself, and I'll try it with a few of these, you know, I'll try to share with you how I've noticed that, but for me, it's been like this voice. It's like it's not productive. It's not practical to, like, spend more time with your guitar, or do you think you're gonna become Jimi Hendrix? You know, it's like, jeez, chill out. It's okay to just love an instrument, and I know that sounds probably to some of you; you're like, geez, you know, like, loosen up, buddy. But I think we all have places like that.

You know, for you, it might be a record collection, or you know, or it might be, I don't know, finger painting chalk on your driveway. I don't know coloring your hair going and getting your hair done or your nails done or something that you love to do, but I feel a little guilty doing it. I think there's always a line, you know, and with Venus transits and Uranus transits have kind of reckless defiance, you know, like, I'm going to spend way too much money or kind of, kind of like Icarus with Uranus, you have to worry about flying too close to the Sun and getting your wings burned off and then falling into the ocean.

So there, you know, there might be some kind of defiant voice in this transit that says it doesn't matter what the consequences are, just love what you love, which is Why Venus Uranus transits will sometimes result in like affairs that devastate you know relationships, because I don't care what anyone says I'm just going to take and do what I want.

I find that almost much more, I would say more regularly when I talk to clients while, say, Uranus is transiting their natal Venus, that what they're really working with is the permission that they need from some, maybe some part of themselves that is skeptical, and untrusting and protective and it says, I don't know, it might be dangerous to love, something that you that you're attracted to, it's a waste of time, or energy or resources or dangerous to love what you love, well, the heart needs a little danger to it needs to take risks and there's a vulnerability, you know, and so just admitting that we love what we love. Now, number two is very similar.

Number two is to allow ourselves to love how we love; I remember when, and maybe you guys can relate, everyone has a different style and mode of loving, right and, you know, they have books, like the five languages of love, or I give gifts, or I tend to be very verbal, or whatever, everyone has a different way of loving.

I remember when I was, you know, first dating, I was really young, probably at high school, you know, and into college, and I remember that I was always trying to, like, modulate how I showed affection, to, like images that I had of what you should do. Don't call this much or, or, you know, all of these, all of these, whatever want to call them like rules that I had in my head for well don't show that much or, you know, be careful here or, you know, like, there was a rule book about how you should love or, or show how you care, and I was very conscientious, you know, earlier in my life that if I did it wrong, that whoever I was dating, like they wouldn't like me.

So one of the things that I have had to learn as I've grown, and especially over the course of marriage with my wife, who's absolutely wonderful, is to just love in the way that's natural to me. Don't you think it's kind of ridiculous that we have such a hard time just loving, whether it's an abstract thing like your guitar, or it's, which has been like I said, a big theme for me? Or it's like, how do you love your kids? Or how do you love your friends or, or you know, whatever.

I remember Ashley could speak to this; I don't want to talk for her so much. But one thing that my wife loves is she brings; I swear to God, wherever we go, she brings a little gift. Like we could be going over to someone's house just to hang out, and she'll like to bring them a little gift, and I remember, you know, early on in our relationship where there was some she had some self-consciousness about that, like, I just love giving gifts, do you think it's bad? Do you think it's weird that I do that? And you know, I think the answer that we're looking at with this, this one in our list here, is no.

Like, if you're a gift giver, just bring your little gift with you because loving in the way that is natural to how you are, if that means you're really affectionate, if that means you write little notes, if that means that you do thoughtful things, you know, I'm thinking of all those love languages. I remember I actually read that book at one point.

If that's how you love, then that's how you love. If you're someone who likes a lot of quality time and you know, you want to be with someone for long stretches of time, and that's what you need, or that's what you like, how liberating is it to just admit to ourselves, I'm someone who needs a lot of cuddles. I'm someone who needs a lot of sex. I'm someone who needs a lot of verbal interaction, or I'm someone who needs like to be in the same room doing creative things with another person at the same time, but we're each doing our own creative thing.

I think that there's it's so simple but so powerful to say this is how I love, and in a relationship, my experience, at least with Ashley and I is that over the years, we've gotten good at recognizing, like, that's how my wife loves, This is how I love and to receive that and to learn how to really receive how other people love and show affection, rather than only being able to receive in the way that you prefer to it's like learning to develop a taste for something that at first you're not sure you like.

For example, earlier in my life. I really wasn't sure I liked coffee. You know, I was like, Oh, this is bitter. You know, I think most kids go through that. I worked at a coffee place. I got to know coffee. Suddenly I was like I developed a palette for it. I think we can develop palettes for the way that our friends and lovers, and family members love and show affection.

Some people don't at all, and that's really challenging because then it's that's a whole different kind of challenge, but we can develop a palate for, like, if you can learn to appreciate coffee, then you can learn to appreciate the way that your best friend shows you love versus the way your mother does, or your sister or your spouse or your kids. You know, developing a taste for how people love, I think if you do that, you'll also develop more of an honesty about the way that you love.

If you love deep and intense, and you know, dramatic, you know, you want people in your life who will say I just love the way you love, and you also, in order to reciprocate, you have to be able to really take in the way that other people love. That's liberating for the heart to do that exercise of receiving the way that other people love and of showing the way you actually love, not modulating to give it only in the way that people want it but giving your real heart.

Number three is to have an honest conversation with the parts that protect. Now, I have to say it's not my own idea. I want to show you guys a book that Ashley and I are reading during our morning prayer and meditation times together. This is called No Bad Parts. It is by Richard C. Schwartz, Ph.D.; the forward is by Alanis Morrisette. So that should really make you want to get it. Just kidding. So healing trauma and restoring wholeness with the internal family systems model.

I'd heard about this, and it's actually very similar to what some psychological astrologers have written about the family of voices and characters that can actually be identified in some ways through the birth chart, which is really cool. I think there's a lot of overlap between this and the way we can look at a birth chart. But I've never really read about internal family systems in depth. So I've been reading about it.

I can't recommend this book highly enough for people who are interested in astrology because, essentially, the omens and symbols of an astrological chart are representative of the cast of characters in our psyche. I think that's a wonderful, totally valid psychological way of looking at a chart. It's not the only way of looking at a chart, but it's a valid way.

One of the things that I've noticed around Venus Uranus because, remember, transiting Uranus is hitting my natal Venus in Leos is a big transit for me right now, and if you've ever had Uranus Square Venus in your chart, or opposite Venus, or you were born with it, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about.

There are parts of what we love, how we love, who we love, our history around love, intimacy, relationships, art, beauty sex that will during a Uranus to Venus transit will need to be freed up. One of the reasons that they tend that parts of ourselves tend to stay stuck, and I would have said this before I read this book, but this book is a wonderful explanation of sort of how this happens and why this happens is that they get stuck because of often because of trauma, right?

So, for example, this has been really cool. One of the things that I've been doing there's exercises in this book where you can get to know the different kind of parts of you and what they have to say, and I've noticed that one of the things that keeps me from loving, not just my wife, but like really everyone and everything in my life is like a suspicious voice.

There's a voice in me, and I don't know if maybe you guys have one that is similar, but I think we all have voices that tried to protect us from getting hurt, especially in relationships with other souls and, you know, when I was younger, there was a, you know, I had a couple of relationships where, you know, I got cheated on, it sucked, I was pretty young. At the same time, there was infidelity in my parents' marriage that eventually led to their divorce, and probably many of you have; this is a story that probably many of you know.

You develop a voice that says people aren't trustworthy, you know, and, and even if you generally have you have friendships, you get in relationships, whatever that voice will pop up, sometimes, especially when things are getting a little bit deeper and a little bit more vulnerable and a little bit more real, and that voice might pop up and say, I don't know if you should trust this, or imagine worst case scenarios or that kind of that, at least for me, the voice comes up and tries to give me some reasons why things should be suspected, especially when things are getting more vulnerable, and really, there's an invitation to become more open and for my heart to become more invested or more involved.

So that voice, according to, you know, the internal family systems theory, and I would say again, like this is something that I feel like I had a sense of kind of intuitively, especially doing a lot of psychedelic work and ayahuasca work over the years that this just makes sense to me. You know, that voice is developed as a way of trying to protect you after some of these kinds of traumatic events, and I think mine were relatively minor compared to what many people go through when their trust is broken by different people in very dramatic ways, right?

So I'm not trying to play up my story like it's such a big deal. But yeah, so we develop parts of ourselves in order to protect the heart, and I think one of the things that I've been enjoying so much is that the Uranus transit to Venus in my chart right now, again, which is the same thing we're experiencing in the sky, which is why I feel like it's a good personal share this one is that I've been noticing that, that some of those protective voices are like, not needed so much anymore.

I'm becoming more aware of the fact that it's time for their role to change, and I get why they've been protecting me right. I get it part of this work that is outlined in this book, which is really beautiful. It's about bringing compassion to the parts and understanding they were just trying to protect you, and how can you appreciate them bring compassion to them, and also help them change their role? So it's more productive? Like, I'm not, to be honest; the same need for a hyper-vigilant suspicious voice is not. It's not needed as much anymore, right?

So how does that voice change? I can't tell you how appropriate this kind of move of liberating the heart from parts of ourselves that have been necessary through trauma to protect us, but that may also be keeping us from loving more deeply or fully or opening our hearts more. So I don't know, it's just something to think about. It's something I've been noticing; I've really been enjoying reading about it.

Ashley and I have been doing a lot of work with our parts, you know, kind of doing these exercises in the book has been really cool. So I'll just put the book up again if you want to read it; it's called No Bad Parts, The Healing Trauma and Restoring Wholeness with the Internal Family Systems Model; I think it's great for people who to work with astrology because we can actually kind of name the parts by looking at the birth chart through this lens.

Number four is to trust that healing can only happen through loving, here's the thing is that I think that certain protective parts of us, and I think this is very common; I see it in my clients all the time; I can see it, I can acknowledge it in myself, you think to yourself, it's self-sufficiency, that will keep me safe, and that it's only through self-sufficiency that I'm truly going to be okay and I think sometimes, you know, we need self-sufficiency, we need to be strong, we need to have a strong self, we need to have self-esteem, self-respect, self-love, kind of sovereignty, all of that.

But at the same time, there's some level of the healing of the heart and the ongoing evolution of the heart and of love in our lives. That can't happen unless we make ourselves more available. More available to loving what we love, how we love to have honest conversations with the parts that protect and see if they can play a different role. Now if they've been, maybe extreme in some way.

But we have to trust that healing can only happen if we are self-sufficient; we can become strong and less capable of being devastated by other people, things places because we've pranayam'd our way to level 10 or whatever. But there's a level at which the healing can only happen if we open ourselves up and make ourselves available to love with other souls. So that's a Venus Uranus kind of liberation to say, You know what, it's risky, but the only thing I can do here is open up, baby.

Alright, number five, to practice vulnerability and courage, and this is bodies, I think, all of them in one. The lion can be an image of strength and pride. But it's funny to me, like as a native Venus and Leo is my ascendant ruler but also working with Leos having Leos in my family, my little daughter and my little five-year-old daughter, my, my five-year-old daughter is a Leo, Leo Sun.

There's such a sweetness, you know, there's a childlike vulnerability under the surface of the lion, and the need that the lion has for love and tenderness is tantamount to the courage it requires to admit that that's what we need and that that's what we want, and that that's what we desire, without becoming so needy for other people's attention and respect that we can't stand within our heart and courage, with a kind of self-respect and pride.

So, there's just something about Leo overall that says, look, ultimately, you have a very tender heart, like a super tender, soft, childlike heart that's at the center of Leo. But in order to live with that, and in order to work with that energy, you have to be courageous. You know, you have to be both vulnerable and sort of firm and strong at the same time.

You can't be so firm and strong that the heart gets hard. You'll give yourself a heart attack. But you can't be so afraid or needy that, you know, courage is required. So vulnerability and courage, and when we find those things, well, Venus in Leo retrograde is square Uranus. I think it feels liberating. I think there's something about it that feels like I love myself, and I love myself enough to let myself love and just see what happens. Take the risk, take the journey, take the adventure.

We said earlier, when I looked at some meditations on the heart earlier in the summer, that the heart gets stronger when it's trampled in that way; we talked a little bit about, I think it was chamomile that we talked about. It's true; it's like it; you have to practice vulnerability, and courage means that you're courageous enough to let your heart potentially get broken to further to be betrayals or hurts, vulnerabilities.

But if you can step out, step toward those things, you'll find that your heart just over and over and over again says, great, we're strong enough to do this. Great. Wait until you find out how amazing you are; there's going to be awesome, and that you're you deserve to be loved, and you will be; you just got to trust the process. Be vulnerable. Be courageous; you can do it. How liberating is that?

So some reflections today on Venus's retrograde square to Uranus and liberation of the heart as a theme. I hope that this was enjoyable for you. I'd love to hear your comments and reflections. It's been really nice to hang out with you guys. Kind of back in a rhythm.

Last week, I was like, really. It was a really hard week for me because I was coming off from this really intense roller-coaster week that included three days of really intense altitude sickness in Colorado and just kind of getting my head back on straight last week. So I can't tell you how good it feels to be sitting here today and to feel like, Oh, I feel good. I feel happy. I feel like, sort of yeah, I feel like I went through a passage of transformation that was really intense, and I'm on the side of it now where I'm like, man, I'm just thankful.

Whatever can be said about how intense the transits are, they always bring me back home to my heart, and that is why I love astrology so much, and I can only say that I think that that's what this is going to be happening for all of us this week with Uranus and Venus. I think it's going to be really exciting. Okay, that's it for today. We will see you guys again tomorrow. Take it easy, everyone. Bye.