Bold Moves and Plenty of Friction in Relationships with Venus and Mars in Mutual Reception May 2 - 28

Love, value, and relationship planet Venus entered warrior sign Aries, the sign of its detriment, on May 2, where it will remain until May 28.

With Venus transiting the first sign of the zodiac, it's time to move, it's time to go, it's time to surge into stronger and fresher relational territory. We fight to move relationships into new territory now, beyond the reach of old patterns, or we watch them wither.

Radical and unpredictable Uranus is very influential over our relationships and money concerns this month. Uranus heavily colours the transit of Venus through Aries, with an exact conjunction May 15, indicating a break from the old with some social shake-ups involved.

New relationships are emerging, rattling some cages and changing some established social orders. Ongoing relationships are going to the next level or splitting apart. With Venus conjunct Uranus in Aries, we are not looking to continue the same toxic relational patterns that have been dogging us for years, decades, and generations. We are looking to move into new territory here with stronger degrees of individuality and personal freedom built right into our relationship constructs.  

Venus in Aries is now forming a mutual reception with Mars retrograde in Libra that will be active until Venus enters Taurus May 28. Venus is transiting the sign ruled by Mars, and Mars is transiting the sign ruled by Venus, creating an intense burst of action in relationship and money matters designed to move us into new position.

Our instincts, our anger, our courage, our desire to move out of stagnant territory, our willingness to exert ourselves, our willingness to take risks - all these are guides this month.

Both Venus and Mars are transiting the signs of their detriment within this mutual reception, and neither is loving the other's territory all that much. We have a double dose of "love + war" energy going on here, and this is creating some friction and heated moments as we fight and squeeze our way into new relational territory.

Things are up and down, hot and cold, uncertain, unstable, likely to change. And this makes for some discomfort as far as knowing where we stand in either relationships or money matters this month.

We aren't comfortable with where we are at the moment - this will likely improve with Venus in Taurus and Mars direct at the end of the month - but this discomfort keeps us "hungry," compelled to keep trying for something that suits us better. This discomfort provides the courage to try a new direction or a different tack with relationship issues.

So there is action going on in relationships and money matters this month. With Venus in Aries activating the cardinal Grand Cross formation (May 11 - 15), things are moving. But with Mars slow in Libra all month (stationing direct May 19 at 7:31 p.m. CST), we can't count our relationships (or our dollars) before they've hatched.

Reversals are probable.

People's stated desires and goals can change on a dime under these conditions.

Actions are pressured, tricky, or thwarted.

A person's word can prove unreliable.

We can be moving passionately in one direction one day. The next, we are just as passionately moving in an opposite direction.

The better you know yourself and your own truth, the better able you will be to navigate these wishy-washy, off-and-on, "do I or don't I?" energies

Allow enough time and space for people and circumstances to re-balance themselves this month. Allow enough time and space to maintain your own balance.  

Circumstances are changing rapidly under the effects of the cardinal Grand Cross formations. In many cases, our feet are not on solid ground, and we must blaze a trail and keep on blazing in order to get to more stable territory.

This month, it's time to make some bold moves in relationships, with money, and with aesthetic. It's time to follow our instincts into something that has more life, excitement, and energy. But we have to make these bold moves under a socially acceptable cloak (North Node in Libra). We are moving with grace to get what we want without stepping on anyone's toes.

Certain relationships will be coming to the surface now, emerging, peeking out, ready to be seen and recognized in the broader community. There is a stronger "couple identity" possible here- in personal or professional relationships. People will be strongly identified with those they associate with now, so make sure you are with the right people.

With Venus transiting Aries in Grand Cross formation, first steps are being taken in new partnerships of all kinds, while ongoing relationships are moving to the next level (or splitting apart). There may be a feisty or resistant attitude prevalent this month in reaction to this relationship movement. Each new relationship coming to the forefront changes a whole network of relations, a whole web of social power dynamics. It shifts the established social wisdom. It has ripple effects. There will be some resistance to this, and we will have to fight on certain points that are important to us.

Venus in Aries will re-activate the cardinal Grand Cross formation May 11 - 15, forming an opposition to Mars Rx in Libra (May 11 at 3:27 a.m.), a square to Pluto in Capricorn (May 14 at 11:50 a.m.) and a conjunction to Uranus (May 15 at 5:54 p.m.). Feisty times.

This configuration creates a big push forward in relationships, a big structural shift. We are taking on new social leadership, forging into new territory while shedding or side-stepping old relationship patterns and pitfalls.

Break-ups can be expected, especially around the May 11 - 15 configuration, though it might be surprising which partnerships come apart at the seams or go down in flames.

Relationships are not all that simple or easy this May. Things are a wee bit spicy, a wee bit heated, a wee bit hotheaded and frictional. But also exciting. Refreshing. Moving forward.

Until Venus enters home sweet home Taurus on May 28, relations have a bit of an edge. (Watch the passive aggressive barbs that will be flying around this month.) We are battling for full rights in relationships. We are battling to have our full identities considered. There are also some potential powder keg dynamics in store, with the friction of both relationship planets in the signs of their detriment indicating some battles of will on the social stage.

In any case, we will be in different relational position by the end of May than we were at the start. Go after what you really need, even as that changes with the circumstances...