Solstices and The Travelling Faces: The Queen of Wounded Hearts
Introduction
When a door closes, sometimes the only way forward is to turn back. The exhaustion of the Mars retrograde had created a vacuum, and into that space came the call of Venus, the Queen of Wounded Hearts. This part of the story is about her descent into the underworld—a journey not just into a current transit, but deep into the echoes of the past. For me, the dynamic between Venus and Mars is especially crucial; with them in opposition in my natal chart, they exist in a perpetual full moon relationship where one sets as the other rises. This section explores their tense dance through the language of profection years, examining a multi-year narrative of severance, independence, and healing. It is an attempt to understand how a planet of love finds her strength on a battlefield, armed with the tools of a hesitant, wounded Mars, and what it means to build a new foundation from the ground up.
A Turning Point
Why am I going back so far? My solar return doesn’t start until the end of March. Well, we can see that these transits have been hitting key placements in both mine and my sister’s chart. They’re also part of a larger sequence of events. Following the burnout, exhaustion, and the inversion of my core and direction of the Mars retrograde we usher into the Venus-Mercury Rx saga of the second quarter of 2025.
This Venus and Mercury Rx were essentially travelling from my Jupiter at 8° of Aries, over my Sun at 1° Aries, her Sun at 29° Pisces, and my Mercury Rx and her Venus at 26° Pisces. And I was pondering over the imagery that has been brought in by Chris Brennan, Demetra George, and Nick Dagan Best on The Astrology Podcast; Venus travelling backwards, getting consumed by the Sun’s rays being literally invisible to us in the sky symbolising her descent into the underworld and then reemerging on the other side, but she emerges by Saturn and the North Node. She is experienced and tattered, she has gone through war and come out compassionate, not because she just has an unlimited amount of love, but because she knows what suffering is and chooses to love despite it all.
Both Venus and Mercury stationed retrograde in Venus’ bound in Aries and they stationed direct in Mars’ bound in Pisces. This paints a very interesting narrative as we start in Venus’ detriment sign, and finish in Venus’ exaltation and Mercury’s fall. By looking at the tools that were at their disposal we can see what tools were bracketing the retrograde periods: “In Aries we find ourselves on a battlefield of sorts, but in Venus’ term we are able to take on the qualities of the compassionate nurse or the encouraging comrade... placements here will approach martial environments with Venus’ tools, bringing love into hostile situations and approaching conflict through compromise.”
“The difference between Mars’ bound of Sagittarius and Mars’ bound of Pisces is that placements here will tend to adopt a less direct and aggressive approach when fighting for the causes that they believe in. They tend to favor a non-violent approach, preaching peace in the face of injustice.”
Looking back at when she entered 24 degrees of Pisces for the first time, entering her pre-shadow period, we see Venus being in some of the most Martian places in the zodiac, she in the decan double ruled by Mars, as well as in the terms of Mars, but this is still Venus’ exaltation sign, and at this point Mars was still retrograde in his fall in Cancer. Venus is meant to be exalted and yet her storyline and tools to use are brought by a hesitant, reactive, and still backwards moving Mars. Venus is asking Mars for direction and tools and Mars himself tries to catch up with the Moon and is getting emotionally charged by the uncertainty of where his resources are going to come from next. Venus here being disposited by a detriment Jupiter and being directed so much by a retrograde and fallen Mars, this is a moment where the queen of love has her court filled with war-torn mothers trying to grapple with the pain of the past, Jupiter representing the courtroom that keeps changing layout and what utilities we should use. The thing here however is that it also felt like a strongly protective energy; it was a time of reflection, contemplation, and gathering of resources, people, and stories. However, despite the queen being a queen of wounded hearts, she is allies with the traumatised mothers as the direct station happened as she formed a trine to Mars.
Mars
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Venus
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Mercury
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Mars 〰️ Venus 〰️ Mercury 〰️
This paints a very interesting narrative for these planets. We see the lover and messenger being sent to the battlefield with words of peace and healing but they must navigate turmoil, war, and they must display dedication to achieve their cause. They descend into the underworld and are gone… before they reemerge as the queen of war and justice, and the poet who can only preach in riddles of injustice of the past.
What is particularly interesting about this realm is that Venus, despite being in her sign of exaltation, is adhering to Mars so much here. She is in the decan of Mars according to both the decanic traditions in BOTH Aries and Pisces. According to both decanic traditions from 20 degrees of Pisces up to 10 degrees of Aries is ruled entirely by Mars by decan.
While Venus spends more time in Aries I, she manages to make it all the way to Aries II where she stationed retrograde which is ruled by the Sun according to both decanic traditions. At the time of the Venus station she was in the decan of the Sun and her own bounds, this tells a compelling story of a queen who has just entered her kingdom finally surrounded by her own tools of compassion, love, art, and grace; she stops and has to turn back to the battlefield. What is interesting is that, what Ryberg writes, is that in Aries II we manifest and create a world from our minds and intentions, as opposed to Aries I which is double ruled by Mars, where we forge a new world from the ashes, out of the blood and fire from our battles. But with the goddess of love and arts, we see her reversing her steps, almost saying the old saying “desperate times call for desperate measures”.
Echoes of the Past
Something that is worth noting is that whenever a planet is activated through annual profection, it is commonly said that the other house said planet rules will get activated as well filtered through the house that is being activated. In 2022 I was in my 12th house profection year, ruled by Venus. While Venus set the stage with themes of relationship, values, and painful contracts, it was the simultaneous Mars retrograde of 2022-23 that acted as the agent of chaos, transiting my Moon at 10 degrees Gemini in my 8th house and wrecking havoc. It was during this time that I broke contact with my family—one of the most difficult things I have done in my life, especially feeling the disappointment and hurt it caused my younger siblings, but I felt like I had to for my own wellbeing. Even writing this now feels painful, like someone is twisting a dagger that has been lodged in your chest for so long.
Demetra George speaks of the 8th house in her book Ancient Astrology In Theory And Practice: A Manual of Traditional Techniques, Volume Two, that the 8th house can show how we may surrender to the inevitable turmoils and deaths in our lives. Mars retrograde in Gemini showed me that I had to overcome my fear and anxieties of the grip my past and family had over my wellbeing, thus being able to move forward again. George speaks to how, only once you do the surrendering of what must be left behind you will be able to deal with the “crisis and catharsis of catastrophic loss, grief, betrayal, addiction, and fears which obstruct growth”.
To paint a complete narrative I think it is important to take into account my 1st house profection year ruled by Mars Rx in my 1st house. During this year, there was no Mars retrograde period so it did feel like I was moving into the right direction. This year was also when I had completed another Venus and Jupiter cycle where they returned to the same place they were at on the day I was born. This year I started working out a lot, I had lots of graphic design commissions, I went travelling, and I was finally feeling like I had a voice, like I was holding the pen that was writing my life's story. I have always felt like I have a lot of agency over my fate but this is where I felt like I was finally starting to break free from the shackles of my past.
These Martian themes were screaming loudly in my face, particularly through my relationship dynamics. Living with a Libra Sun as your partner, you get a very clear picture of what the Aries/Libra-axis is trying to teach you; they are signs of justice and fairness but for very different reasons and they use very different methods. Aries and Libra not only have opposing domicile rulers, but they have opposing exaltation rulers; Sun and Saturn. Aries is ruled by Mars and the Sun finds his exaltation in Aries, Ryberg says in her lecture about the exaltation lords of the signs, that the Mars and Sun speak to a sign concerned with authenticity, fairness , illumination of what is real, being able to withstand "the heat of conflict and criticism" this is interesting especially seeing that Venus finds her detriment and Saturn finds their fall in Aries, what does this say? Well, Mars is about severing, authenticity and drive, the Sun is about illumination, visibility, and vitality, but in that Venus, the planet of unity, love, and beauty finds her detriment, and Saturn, the planet of discipline, structure, boundaries, and rules finds their fall. Aries is a sign of great resilience, but also a place where sometimes the greatest obstacle to your own growth is yourself where instead of setting boundaries you leave and simply move forward (the Sun never goes retrograde), where instead of compassion for the other's view point you have learned to be resilient through the disrespect of your own so you learn to let go instead of mend trust broken.
In Libra however we see Venus finding her domicile, Saturn their exaltation, Mars his detriment, and the Sun his fall. Libra represents the rules and boundaries of strong relationships, Ryberg outlines that the relationship between Venus and Saturn shows the dedication to ones artistic craft, that long-term relationships require time and efforts. Libra is symbolised by the scales, she is eternally trying to weight her options, considering the best and most altruistic option forward... that's the name of the game though, "forward", the Sun being the most consistent planet in the sky finds his fall in Libra where there despite being discipline and a care for the best outcome for most people, there is a lack of personal consistency where you take 1 new step every day. Mars finds his detriment in Libra, telling a story of a sign that despite being dedicated to the craft and has the capability to be disciplined in creating something beautiful, the drive to get it done and to forge forward regardless of life's turmoil. Where Aries lacks perserverence, he has resilience and consistency. Where Libra lacks resilience, she has dedication and perserverence. Aries has consistency in himself, Libra has consistency in her connections. Aries is a sign that negates and illuminates. Libra is a sign that affirms and limits. They are both concerned with justice and with what's right but their motivations are of opposite measures. This became very clear to me during my 1st house profection year. I suppose having gone from a Venus ruled 12th house year to a Mars ruled 1st house year does that, especially when you have both of those planets angular in opposition to each other.
This set the stage for Jupiter's mending. The following year, I entered my 2nd house year, and the great benefic himself, Jupiter, became my time lord. It's no surprise that as Jupiter's transit in Gemini arrived to 'clean up' the very same 8th-house degree on my Moon that Mars had severed, I found myself in CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) for my ADHD, actively working to mend those fears of feeling like a burden to other people and of the loss of my family.
This to me very much signals what I have been feeling, I have been battling this feeling of inadequacy and demotivation from trying to break into the creative industries, and with that I feel like the queen. Venus retrograded back from my 6th house of work, routine, health, and routines, to my 5th house of joy, art, sports, love and sex. You can see that I had to take steps back from my daily work on creative skills as they proved little fruit, but that Mars was being as supportive as he could from the 9th house of teachers, experience, religion, professors, pilgrimage, foreign people, law, judges, and higher learning. What is important to note is that I have my Ascendant in Scorpio with Mars Rx in my 1st house, so not only did I feel this transit, I FELT IT. It is compelling to see that the creative burnout was brought tools that were that of the Martian variety but placed in the 9th house. You can also see these significations as my time lord, Saturn was in those same terms and decan when Venus stationed direct.
In a way I felt forced to move quicker in my progress as well once Mars and Venus both stationed direct. Not only for money, not only for stability, but as a kid to an Iraqi immigrant family, I felt like I had to prove to everyone back home that I was capable of taking care of myself before I could come back. I felt like I couldn’t see them without something to show for it, however my partner was there to help me realise that… I stabilised myself, I worked on my mental health, I worked on my physical health, my gut, I built a new foundation for myself to build a life up from. I felt like the Venus travelling back.
Summary
The long winter of stagnation brought on by the Mars retrograde had left a void. Victory had lost its meaning, the creative well felt dry, and the path forward was shrouded in darkness. It was a landscape stripped of color and purpose. In response, the Venus retrograde forced a journey inward, a necessary descent to confront the echoes of the past—old family wounds, the pain of severance, and the deep-seated fears that had been dictating my choices. This was a deep re-evaluation of what it means to create and to love when both have become sources of pain. It was a period of building a new foundation from the ground up, brick by painful brick, of stabilizing the self after years of turmoil and learning to hear my own voice again, not as a whisper, but as a clear and steady guide. But an internal foundation, no matter how strong, cannot exist in a vacuum. It must be tested by the world. As Venus prepared to station direct and move forward, a new storm was gathering on the horizon—one that would test this newfound stability against a crucible of external crises, pulling life, love, and career in multiple directions at once.