Venus retrograde natal suggests you have some difficulty in giving and receiving love and affection. You may experience sadness in love or have to endure hardship or delay. Lack of self-love, social anxiety, shyness, and even financial hardship are also possible.

Often these challenges are a result of past life relationship issues. Due to the laws of karma, if you caused suffering or hardship to a lover in an earlier life, you shall experience something similar yourself during this life. Natal Venus retrograde acts like Mars so perhaps you hurt someone you loved. Maybe you had an affair, walked out when they needed you most, or physically injured them.

Whatever happened in past romances, you come into this life with those bad memories etched in your soul. You probably don’t recognize them as memories but as déjà vu or unexplained guilt. Especially when young, there can be a repeating theme of challenging events related to your past.

Sadness and disappointment may come from unrequited love, forced marriage, sexual abuse, mental illness, or physical disability. Learning to love yourself is critical in working through your Venus in retrograde issues. Other signs of natal Venus retrograde are poor personal hygiene and not caring about how you look.

Self-love can start with beautifying your physical appearance. Using fashion, cosmetics, and beauty treatments can greatly improve your self-love, therefore making you more lovable. However, natal Venus in retrograde can also show as excessive use of makeup and jewelry or even disfigurement from cosmetic surgery.

The aim of Venus retrograde in your natal chart is to perfect those areas of your love life which once let you down. As your relationship skills improve with experience, your karmic debt will be repaid and you start to enjoy more loving relationships.