Though Venus may have been out of sight since she slipped back across the border into Pisces, her retrograde influence has been working steadily below ground. In the darkest recesses of our hearts and its deepest hidden chambers, tendrils like acrid smoke seeping into the locked boxes stacked behind the thumping.

Something missing from your night sky, love?That would be Venus, taking her leave from the world and the chaotic revelation her retrograde is delivering. In cahoots with eclipse season, in conjunction with Merc's batshit rx, as a cauterising force for irreversible no going back change.

Venus withdraws to contemplate, revise and thus reinvigorate all that tickles and tugs at our hearts this us about far more than avoiding the ex files or changing your lewk. Venus rules those areas of our life that bring us pleasure - or her counterbalance, pain - and which reflect our values, desires, taste and attractions. Her retrograde is part of a far larger revolutionary agenda marked by two lifeshifting eclipses, another retrograde as Merc shifts perception, and the move of our blue planet to this same fire sign.

Today Venus passes through the sun in Aries, her cazimi a total eclipse of the heart. This is an initiation into a new relationship with your generative centrepoint and too an ignition point designed to set your heart aflame. Beyond who we love and why, Venus has much to do with what we love and how.

Venus cazimi dances behind the sun and out of sight until she rises again as the evening star in May. Her superior conjunction announces her departure and disappearing act from our skies into the dark beyond. Welcome repose in the heart's sacred underworld that holds all of our stories holy. Venus' seven week journey back into our night sight can initiate us into the next season of our lives.

Venus in her twin skin arrives at a crucial juncture in her retrograde today. Our lady of love is reborn through the heart of the sun in Gemini as our collective shadows finally catch the light. So may we eclipse our old ways and means in tandem with our lady of love as she transitions from evening star to morning star, bringing her significant blessing to new dawns everywhere.

Venus at the station signals her impending re-emergence as she prepares to turn direct before the next night passes. She has arrived, in every sense. Of the whole rollercoaster Venusian retrograde, the stationing point is the giant corkscrew at the end of the ride. The one that lurches and rattles before you hurtle above ground, glittering eyes adjusting to the new platform.

Not attracting the hullabaloo of her mercurial neighbour, it is easier to overlook the obvious, significant effect of Venus Retrograde on our lives and loves. Our Lady Venus has been in retreat since early March - following a scented heads up late January - and mid April sees her official re-emergence.

If there is one thing you can bet the gingerbread house on during a Venus retrograde, it is a return of your exes.

Our Lady of Love's annual retreat has begun as she withdraws to contemplate, revise and thus reinvigorate all that tickles and tugs at our hummingbird hearts. Venus rules those areas of our life that bring us pleasure - or her counterbalance, pain - and which reflect our values, desires, taste and attractions.