On the face of it, Venus retrogrades aren’t what we would consider romantic periods in our lives. In fact, when the Goddess of Love spins into reverse, this area of life is generally considered to be on hold.

Yet one facet of Venus retrograde is just dripping romance - the possibility that past loves will return. This is the one thing about Venus retrograde that most people have heard of, and it stands out perhaps because it hold the promise that there will be romance during these 40 day (and we can’t go 40 days without romance, can we?).

Well, it happened to me this retrograde, and my story is more or less what the return of past loves is like during these times...

In middle school, I had a terrible, wonderful, crush on a girl I’ll call Beth. It began towards the end of 7th grade, and it was in full bloom as the last months of 8th grade turned the spring into summer. Alas, girls mature faster than boys, and Beth was ahead of the curve for a girl while I - well, let’s just say if you needed to know something about the Planet of the Apes movies, I was your go-to guy.

Despite the reputation cool kids have for being aloof (generated in part by uncool kids), Beth was always very nice, and that got me thinking I might investigate some of the cool stuff she was into. I got my first Bob Dylan album because she quoted one of the songs one day. My crush went nowhere, but that was the start of my real interest in and love of music.

After middle school, I didn’t see any more of Beth. Maybe she moved away or something - I had no way of knowing. I saw her once, about seven years later, I guess, for just a moment. It was a fast-moving situation, and I had no idea what to say besides, “Hi.”

But Venus retrograde stepped in a few weeks ago. Arriving at my Facebook home page, I saw that I had a friend request, and I scrolled down to find her name. I won’t say that my heart skipped a beat like the time she called my house (she just wanted the homework, but I was thrilled), although it fluttered a little. After all these years! Wow! Really!

So I went to her page and looked at some pictures (including one of her back in middle school days), and read a little about her life. It was nice. I don’t even know that we reconnected - I don’t know how connected we ever were, except for having a common middle school - but I got to reminisce about my 8th grade crush for a few minutes. And that got me thinking about my subsequent crushes on other girls, and my first real girlfriend, my enseignant de l’amore, and so on...

And that is the kind of thing that we mean when we talk about old loves returning during Venus retrogrades.

You can read more about Venus retrograde by clicking here, or watch a video by clicking here.