Venus Retrograde and your Wellbeing

Venus retrograde and blood sugar imbalance

In medical astrology, Venus is associated with sugar and sweetness in all forms— most notably, blood sugar. Sugar, aka glucose, isn’t bad on its own– in fact, it’s an essential nutrient that our blood and brains rely on. The question is the form the glucose comes in. Refined sugars cause blood sugar to rise faster than the system can easily cope with. It’s not just sweets and soft drinks that do this. Refined starches and wheat flour do, too. Chips, bread, and breakfast cereals– unfortunately, some of America’s favorite comfort foods.

Notice the impact of sugary and starchy processed foods on your moods. How do you feel about yourself a few hours after you eat junk food? Try keeping a food-mood journal while Venus is in retrograde, to self-reflect and see what you learn. Venus retrograde gives us all an opportunity to look deeply at personal and family patterns relating to love, sweetness, and craving. Eating sweets is a poor substitute for enjoying the sweetness of life. Nevertheless, the brain is often reluctant to let go of these comforts. Why? Because sugar hits the same reward systems in the brain that cigarettes and addictive drugs do! (This is where a nutrition professional can really help!)

Venus commonly associated with the kidneys and adrenal glands.

The kidneys are best known for filtering toxins out of the blood. They also secrete hormones that play major roles in balancing and maintaining blood pressure, regulating fluid, and balancing electrolyte levels.

The adrenal glands are best known for getting us through stressful situations. But another important job of the adrenals is to bring blood sugar up when it crashes. Eating junk food regularly creates a pattern in which there are frequent blood sugar spikes and crashes. Over time, this overworks the adrenals, resulting in gradually increasing fatigue, diminishing resilience to stress, and sex hormone imbalance.

Venus retrograde and dehydration

Headaches, allergy-like symptoms, abnormal heart rate and blood pressure, and painful joints, among many other symptoms, are often at least partly due to dehydration. The kidneys must work harder when you’re dehydrated. We recommend that you drink enough water that your urine is clear or a pale yellow color. For most people, that’s about 2-3 quarts per day. If you drink lots of water but still feel dehydrated, you may need more salt in your diet. (Caution: get advice before adding salt if you are on blood pressure medication.)

Venus retrograde and weight loss

Venus also relates to the thyroid gland, which regulates your metabolic rate. The thyroid responds to a spikey/crashy blood sugar situation by downregulating or decreasing the rate at which the body burns energy. Chronic highs and lows in blood sugar are one reason that low fat and low-calorie dieting results in weight gain over the long term.

(Many of my clients who come to me with weight issues, when I read their food journals, eat too few calories most days.)

This tried-and-true phenomenon received some national attention after the New York Times published this article following up with contestants on the TV show The Biggest Loser in 2016.

Low-calorie dieting may be especially counterproductive, while Venus is weak and under stress due to being retrograde. So eat plenty of calories, and make them good calories. Your body doesn’t just digest food; it also reads food to find out what’s up with the environment. Eating the right amount of good, nutrient-dense calories gives your thyroid the message that all is well in the world, and that it’s ok to crank up your metabolism and burn fat!!

Venus retrograde and the mind-body connection

Retrogrades draw the planet’s energy away from the outside and into the within.

Practice self-validation and self-love during Venus retrograde. Validate yourself, and help others along the path by showing love for the voices and perspectives that you appreciate, too. Why? Because Venus retrograde brings to awareness issues with self-esteem. Validation helps us feel valued, safe, and free to be who we are.