Unforgettable: Venus, Chiron, Pluto
- Jeremy Scott Ballard
- Aug 21
- 5 min read
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The first thing I notice about this painting is the lyre held high, leading the way like a torch through a cave. The Fates in the background, knowing.
Even with the Light -- the lyre -- of harmony, order, beauty, reason, and the inner Sun of consciousness pushing through the dark of the Underworld, we never escape loss, decay, seasons, or often, Fate.
We are Nature, so there’s no choice to be anything but Nature, even though we strive to break free from what was before and move beyond The Wheel.
Nothing that exists is not Nature.
But these are just words. Let’s use more of them and talk astrology.
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Square aspects usually coincide with decisions or outcomes because the angle can signify the arrival of situations when we, or someone else, is motivated to act and move things forward.
On August 22, about 4 hours before the Virgo New Moon, Venus at 26 Cancer squares Chiron retrograde at 26 Aries. More about Chiron here.
As Venus squares Chiron, it’s also quietly applying in opposition to Pluto in Aquarius. That will be exact on August 26. Venus moving from watery Cancer into the fixed fire of Leo will be a noticeable shift.
This sequence of Venus/Chiron/Pluto contacts has been operating for over a year now: first, Venus and Chiron come into hard aspect with one another, then Venus moves on to form a hard aspect with Pluto a few days later.
When Chiron moves into Taurus in 2026, this pattern will start to get tighter. Chiron finally squares Pluto in July 2028 and won’t be clear of it until the early 2030s. Until then, we can expect four echoes per year, perhaps building on and informing each other.
Those of us with late cardinal placements and/or early fixed probably understand what I’m talking about already and have experienced this evolving Venus/Chiron/Pluto dynamic more than others.
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On the Light side, this ongoing pattern between Chiron/Venus/Pluto could signify the gradual development of how we situate ourselves in relationship to others. Attachment styles could undergo transformation, repeatedly. Our relationship to the past and the wounds we’ve accumulated could become untangled and released, no longer able to affect our present or future relationships.
On the more challenging side, there’re stories unfolding with deep wounds at their center revolving around love, communication, and the darker, messier side of attachment. Perhaps themes of betrayal, power, manipulation, abuse, hidden desire, greed, or abandonment are churning under the surface. As the pattern progresses, these issues can be confronted, and hopefully integrated, if possible.
It’s important to highlight these scenarios can involve any type of relationship, not just romantic ones.
The most wounding relationships tend to be familial, and with Venus in Cancer for a few more days, family wounds, regrets, and memories could become louder.
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With Chiron in Aries since early 2019, now retrograde since July 30, themes of self-harm — physical or psychological — self-forgiveness, self worth, and the rumination that comes with them, could become reactivated on some level. An important choice about relationships, possibly a controversial one with long-lasting ramifications for others, could be communicated after the new moon.
Feelings of guilt, regret, shame, or grief related to deep personal connections or entanglements might resurface. Strong emotional bonds could intensify or reach new levels intimacy, providing healing in some way. Our self image, self perception could change again in light of these bonds.
The last time Venus and Chiron squared each other was on November 28 2024 (Thanksgiving Day here in the U.S.) at 19 Aries/Capricorn. But that was the closing square of the previous cycle.
Our current Venus/Chiron cycle renewed June 1 2025 at 25 Aries. Then, June 9, Venus squared Pluto after entering Taurus, finally escaping its long retrograde journey in Pisces and Aries. These two contacts between Venus and Chiron were imbued with malefic undertones, each being ruled by either Mars or Mars/Saturn. However, the Venus/Chiron square August 22 could feel a little softer due to Venus.
Can you recall that time? Was there a situation, event, or conversation regarding the health of the relationships in your life?
What conscious change was made around June 1 involving some kind of severing or wounding in relationship or connection; a loosening of ties or dividing of resources? There could be an echo or new page in that story now.
Venus is in the last degrees of Cancer, ruling Mars in Libra; and even though Mars is in detriment, Mars themes of severing, heat, and conflict are still very active.
But Mercury, ruler of the Virgo New Moon, is in charge now.
There might be communication coming soon (perhaps around the Venus/Pluto opposition August 26) that’s difficult and possibly painful; perhaps related to the on-going nodal themes of release, surrender, and healing promised by the Virgo New Moon.
But this isn't something to fear, it's likely expected and already somewhat emotionally processed. It just needs to come to the surface so it can be dealt with and a new phase of healing can begin.
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Jupiter is in Cancer and recently conjoined Venus August 11. Jupiter’s co-presence with Venus could inflate emotions around whatever the Venus/Chiron square is showing us, for better or worse.
This is made even more possible because Jupiter is squaring Ceres, recently retrograde at 16 Aries. About 13 hours after the Virgo New Moon, this aspect perfects.
Ceres, on the most basic level, is about nourishment, but also loss and grief.
When I saw this Jupiter/Ceres aspect coming up, I couldn’t help but think about the grieving parents of the Camp Mystic flood; and how it and the Venus/Chiron square coincide with kids going back to school here in Texas.
It’s the everyday, taken for granted moments grief digs deepest into.
Jupiter in Cancer will likely increase, expand, and maybe spiritualize family grief, re-opening wounds, but hopefully, at the same time, increasing deep support within the foundations of families experiencing their immeasurable loss.
I empathize/emphasize this because I lost my brother when I was 16, suddenly in a motorcycle accident. I know what the loss of a child can do to a family.
When you learn Death young — sorrow and the dense gravity of loss become embedded in your growth. Life before innocence was lost becomes a hallucination, a dream. You can feel as if Life attacked you, but in reverse; showing you Death before showing what Life might've been, if only.
Jupiter/Ceres can bring this kind of stuff up, as it just did, I guess.
Lean into the healing Venus square Chiron can offer. As counter-intuitive and cliche as it sounds, the suffering we endure is the fire we walk through to be reborn.
This Time could reaffirm for us how the familiarity, vulnerability, and presence Deep Love demands can become, over time, the source of our widest wounds.
But it can also offer us something as simple as a new understanding of how love and time work together to heal us.
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This is a general reading, if you’d like to learn more about how this aspect might affect your chart, please consider booking a reading,
