On October 27, both Mercury and Venus enter the sign of Libra. The two planetary events are literally happening within minutes, at 9:34 PM ET and 9:41 PM ET. These transits put the spotlight on compromise and healthy relating, and invite us to reassess the ways we think and communicate, how we interact with other people and their values, how we perceive ourselves, the world around us, and interface with it.
Mercury will be in the sign of the Scales until November 10 and go back until 25° Libra before stationing direct on November 3. Its retrograde phase will help us understand the best way to communicate our experience of reality to others. The retrograde is a phase of reflection, introspection, and reviewing of our perception, our way of thinking, and our mental processes. Our minds are likely to feel clearer as Mercury stations direct: we will have new ideas around how to move forward and the direction we want to take.
Venus will be in Libra until November 21. During the transit of Venus in Libra, we learn about our personal values through comparison with other people and their values. We define ourselves through contrast with those around us, we often understand our needs by becoming aware of what we don’t want and what we don’t need.
Mercury Retrograde in Libra: Reviewing our Thought Processes
Mercury is all about details: it rules our everyday lives, the things and tasks we do every day, how we think, the words we use, how we gather information and data, how we learn, how we communicate what’s on our mind, and how we perceive what others are trying to tell us.
Mercury entered Scorpio on September 27 and stationed retrograde on October 13. The planet ruling the left brain, communication, and logic is now coming back to Libra to make sure we learned our lessons before entering the deep Scorpionic waters again on November 10.
This transit is likely to bring us back to September and to the themes and issues that first showed up then. Before Mercury goes back to Scorpio, there is something unresolved we need to take care of. This retrograde phase through Libra is about making sure that we have created a balanced foundation for our relationships, that the way we communicate with others is open, honest, and clear.
Mercury retrograde in Libra offers us huge opportunities for our personal growth and for the evolution of our relationships. The retrograde internalizes Mercurial functions: we will think more deeply and thoroughly about how we show up in our love and family life, in our friendships and business partnerships. We will reassess and review how we communicate our needs, how we listen, and how we perceive others.
Mercury Retrograde in Libra: Generating Harmony in Our Minds
The purpose of Mercury in Libra is to help us come up with solutions that make everyone happy, that generate harmony and balance both in our minds and in the world around us. The fact that Mercury is now in retrograde motion emphasizes the fact that we need to restructure, reassess, and revisit the way we deal with something: we have the opportunity to improve and make meaningful changes in how we express all mercurial functions.
As the Libra archetype is involved, this process includes our everyday relationships. We will feel drawn to reflect on how we show up in all our social interactions, how we seek a balance between what we give and what we take, how we communicate our needs and desires to others, how we create equal energy exchanges, how we negotiate, compromise, and try to generate conditions of fairness and harmony.
This transit has the potential to help us reconnect with ourselves and with our truth: the Mercury retrograde cycle through Scorpio was all about uncovering and exposing lies, secrets, and unconscious patterns of behavior. Its influence can allow us to reflect upon whether we are totally honest with ourselves and others, and, if we are not, to understand the reason why.
Mercury coming back to Libra permits us to apply the insights we gained while Mercury was in Scorpio, encouraging us to introduce new patterns of behavior in our lives, and to rebalance our mental state according to that information.
Venus in Libra: Knowing Ourselves Through Others
On October 27, Venus too is entering Libra, one of her home signs. The planet named after the Greek Goddess of Love represents the relating function and the ways we relate with both ourselves and others. Libra is the archetype related to the Yang side of Venus, energetically oriented towards the external world, towards our love and social life.
Venus in Libra is naturally elegant and graceful. Social manners, tact, and kindness become emphasized during this transit: we want role equality, balance, and fairness in all our interactions. However, we need to be careful of not being afraid to say ‘no’. During this transit, we have to avoid doing something that we don’t feel like doing, that drains our energy, or makes us feel uncomfortable, just for the sake of being accepted by others or of making someone else happy.
The purpose of Venus in Libra is to help us discover our sense of self through our interactions with a variety of people. By relating with others, learning their preferences and taste, we understand what we enjoy and what we don’t enjoy, what we value and what we desire, how much energy and attention we can give, and how much energy and attention we need to receive. During this transit, we need to remember to show up for ourselves and to assert our necessities healthily and honestly.
Venus in Libra: Reclaiming our Needs
Throughout the journey of Venus in Libra, we need to be careful of not losing our sense of self, of not losing ourselves in the other. Venus in Libra reminds us to find a balance between our needs and desires and others’ needs and desires. However, we need to be mindful of not forgetting our individuality, our needs, desires, and passions in order to be accepted, approved, or loved.
Venus is also the planet related to money, to material resources, and to values, in a broader sense. One of the risks of this transit is to value ourselves only to the extent that other people value us. We should not forget that we are inherently worthy, no matter what we do, that our feelings are valid, and we deserve to be happy.
On November 15, 16, and 19, Venus will square Pluto, Jupiter, and Saturn in Capricorn. These squares can inspire us to find a deeper sense of self-worth that is independent of what other people think about us, of what they believe we should be, should say, or should do. These alignments will remind us to value and love ourselves for who we inherently are, even if we don’t meet the cultural and social expectations, someone else’s expectations, or their standard of ‘success’ as it has been defined.
Mercury and Venus in Libra: Exploring Negotiation and Conscious Relating
During the transit of Venus and Mercury in Libra, we can be so attuned to other people’s realities that we can easily become overwhelmed by their experience, their needs, and their desires. We may struggle to distinguish between their necessities and ours to the point where we lose touch with our own reality and perspective of the world.
This energy may drive us to extremes: Libra is not an inherently balanced sign but rather it is trying to learn balance. During these days, we may find ourselves alternating between too much social interaction and too much isolation. The phase of excessive interaction includes the time we spend on our phone, on the internet, and on social media. We need to find the right balance, a balance that works for us, that may not be the same balance that works for the other people in our lives.
The deeper purpose of the transits of Mercury and Venus in Libra is to help us shift our perspective of reality and realign with our true values. Harnessing their energies can bring us back to an inner state of peace and harmony: only after finding peace and harmony within we can find balance, fairness, and equality in all our interactions with other people.
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