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.

Mercury has landed fleet footed in Taurus, the psychopomp arriving to eclipse territory with more than a few tricks up his fluttering sleeve. Here for his longest stretch in decades thanks to an incoming retrograde. Its shadow already dancing at the far end of this week, only adding to its now or neverness.

We are in yet another week of transition as the cosmos rearranges itself once more. The dance of the planets is eternal, its constant choreography an ongoing invitation to explore our outer reaches. The big news this week is the conclusion of Merc's confounding retrograde through the nebulous Piscean smokescape.

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.