On 10 September Venus enters Scorpio. The wish to bond with someone does not change, how deep it has to go does: for a few weeks affection stops settling for the surface and asks for everything or nothing.

What is happening

Scorpio is fixed Water, the eighth sign, the one of death, sex and whatever sits under the surface: still, deep water that ferments and transforms whatever falls into it. Venus is in detriment here, which means affection loses its light tenderness and its easy continuity: it turns erotic, more intense, less interested in comfort and good manners.

Mars is at home in the same sign, with a strong Plutonian imprint: the sexual and creative charge does not switch off, but it becomes harder to tame. Mercury is exalted, giving you an instinct for what is really going on beneath the words of the people close to you. Jupiter is in fall: these days carefree lightness stays out of reach, and every bond tends to load up with meaning.

How to use it

Use this stretch for affection that can take depth: a conversation that clears up what you actually want from a relationship, a bond that stops circling and goes straight to the point. Venus in Scorpio gives you the intensity to do it, far more than a lighter sign would.

Where it pays to be careful is jealousy and control. These days the need to know everything about someone else can disguise itself as intimacy, but it turns into possession fast. Before you ask for proof of loyalty, ask yourself whether what you actually want is security or power over the other person: those are two different things, and only the first one builds anything.

Where you feel it most

If your Sun, Moon, Ascendant or Venus is in Scorpio, or in one of the other fixed signs (Taurus, Leo, Aquarius), you feel this transit directly: more intense than usual in your affections, more exposed to jealousy when something slips out of your grip. For everyone else, what matters is the house of your birth chart this Venus falls in: that is where you look for a deeper bond over these weeks, for better and at the risk of wanting to control it.

Want to know which house it falls in and what that means for you specifically? Calculate your birth chart: all it takes is your date, time and place of birth.