♀ Venus’s cycles
Venus comes back to the same place against the Sun every 584 days. For about 263 days it shines in the west after sunset as the evening star, swinging out to about 46° from the Sun. Then it slows, stops and runs backwards for about six weeks—a retrograde—passing between the Earth and the Sun at the inferior conjunction and reappearing in the east before dawn as the morning star, for about 263 days more, before slipping behind the Sun to begin again. Five of these cycles take almost exactly eight years, so its retrogrades come back to nearly the same five places in the zodiac, tracing a pentagram.
Why it runs backward
The retrograde is a trick of perspective—Venus, on its smaller, faster orbit, is passing between the Earth and the Sun and overtaking us. For those six weeks it seems to slide backwards against the stars.
The pentagram
Each retrograde’s inferior conjunction, joined to the next: five in eight years, each about 216° on around the zodiac from the last, drawing a star.
Every eight years
A row for each eight years and a column for each point of the star. Down a column, Venus turns retrograde in almost the same place, about 2½° further back each time.
| 2004 | ♊︎ 17° | ♑︎ 23° | ♌︎ 24° | ♈︎ 7° | ♏︎ 5° |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | ♊︎ 15° | ♑︎ 21° | ♌︎ 22° | ♈︎ 4° | ♏︎ 3° |
| 2020 | ♊︎ 13° | ♑︎ 18° | ♌︎ 20° | ♈︎ 2° | ♏︎ 0° |
| 2028 | ♊︎ 11° | ♑︎ 16° | ♌︎ 18° | ♈︎ 0° | ♎︎ 28° |
| 2036 | ♊︎ 9° | ♑︎ 13° | ♌︎ 16° | ♓︎ 28° | ♎︎ 26° |
| 2044 | ♊︎ 7° | ♑︎ 11° | ♌︎ 13° | ♓︎ 25° | ♎︎ 23° |