By Amanda Painter
Venus retrograde has been the keynote astrology of (Northern Hemisphere) summer 2015. If anything astrological has marked or framed this season in any coherent way, Venus retrograde is it. Now it is winding down.
Photo by Amanda Painter.
On Sunday, Sept. 6, at 4:29 am EDT (8:29 UTC), Venus stations direct in mid-Leo, after having been retrograde for the past six weeks.
While ‘Mercury retrograde’ has become a common term even in mainstream discourse, and conjures up images of tech glitches and travel SNAFUs, Venus is retrograde far less often. Its station direct may feel a little mysterious to you.
However, if you know that Venus signifies who and what you value (both intangibly and materially), how you give and receive love (your relationships), and also beauty and aesthetics, you can think back over the last six weeks to see how and when those themes have presented themselves to you. You might glean particular insight from issues, people and relationships from the past that you’ve revisited — or that seem to have revisited you.
A brief trip back through your journal, calendar or old emails may help you connect the dots and see a pattern. What do you feel like you’ve learned, questioned, reassessed or perhaps even distanced yourself from in the last month and a half?
If you have made large purchases or major relationship decisions in recent weeks, pay attention to how they develop and how you feel about them between now and Oct. 9, and beyond. Venus leaves its shadow or ‘echo’ phase on that date; that is, it leaves the degrees of the zodiac where it has been retrograde.
Also remember that Venus began its retrograde in Virgo for the first week, then backed into Leo for the other five weeks. Venus retrograde in Virgo — a sign ruled by Mercury — may have felt very much like a Mercury retrograde (tech or travel glitches, miscommunication, fuzzy thinking, etc.). It may have also included an extra layer of self-criticism, or a reminder of an ‘inner critic’ with regard to your sense of yourself as a creative being. It’s possible the entire six weeks kept that Mercury retrograde-like feel for you.
You also might have noticed that after the shift to Leo, questions around the roles of play, compassion, ego and demonstrativeness may have become more prominent in your relationships and in your self-inquiry. Leo also rules the heart in the body; between that and Venus ruling love, you have some clear guideposts.
Whatever you’ve noticed and discovered, any station direct by a planet indicates a shift. The days around the actual station can feel tense with the sense of energy building but not yet releasing, or like things are getting churned up. Your strategy is to stay loose, present and observational.
Astrologer Dane Rudhyar described the degree of Leo where Venus is stationing direct as, in part, “The more or less sensational release of energies in a form dramatizing the unconscious aspirations…” Sunday might not seem any more dramatic for you than any other Sunday, but watch and listen carefully anyway for “unconscious aspirations” finding expression. (And if you happen to be involved in a theatrical production that day, I’d be curious to hear if you notice anything particular about yourself in that regard.)
Eric has described Mercury stationing direct as often having the quality of “the truth comes out.” When Venus stations direct, see if your heart’s truth comes out. And if it does, then what?
Thank you for this lovely piece, and photo, dear Amanda.
Both Venus and Mars, being so close to one another is bound to add another dimension to the station. And both are pretty close to squaring my Sun, Moon and Mercury. I’ve been feeling rather unmotivated back at work and feeling like my calling is well, calling me! The lovely thing about vacations is that they often reveal a freer state of mind, free from a focused perspective and free from the pattern of daily routine.
Thanks Amanda! And yes, great photo!
Yes, Hugging Scorpio, I agree about Mars being so close! I was originally going to try and write about that, but decided to keep the post simpler.
My thought about it was that Mars may be providing some (pro)creative frisson (not to be confused with “fission,” which is the release of energy when an atom splits — though that has interesting possibilities, too).
Venus is essentially in a grand fire trine with Pallas (planning, strategy, feminine warrior energy) in Sagittarius, and Uranus (sudden release of energy?) and Vesta (devotion to this expression of energy?) in Aries.
I was playing with those ideas in relation to the Sabian symbol keynote by Rudhyar that I quote in the piece. The symbol itself reads, “A pageant, with its spectacular floats, moves along a street crowded with cheering people.” Also, the rest of the keynote I quoted finishes by describing the “unconscious aspirations” as being “of man’s primitive and instinctual nature.” My Thursday blog posts also end up in Chronogram’s weekly email newsletter, so sometimes they get a slightly less “technical” version of the piece (though usually it’s exactly the same, minus the UTC times). Which I why I left out the “primitive and instinctual” part.
Anyway, Rudhyar goes on to describe the emotional excitement, incandescence even, of the crowd of people involved in and watching the pageant — yet notes that the event had to be carefully planned by individual minds seeking expression. That idea of planning seemed to resonate with Pallas, as well as with the Virgo start to the Venus Rx — plus, planning an elaborate self-expression often also calls for a good measure of devotion, both to what is being expressed, and to the process. “Incandescence” made me think of Uranus; I know in the past I (and perhaps also Eric?) have described Uranus as the “cosmic light socket.” Plug in, and light up!
Anyway, like I said: those are some ideas I was mulling, but opted to go for a simpler approach.
And I agree wholeheartedly about the value of vacations; I wish we in American culture got more of them, and more often felt like we could take them. We could all use a little more time to truly unplug and refresh.
I feel it! Great article, thank you.
This resonates with me. During this Venus retrograde my heart has been put through the ringer. It’s sore like a newly worked muscle.
Interesting that you talk about a pageant, and we had the Chinese putting on a spectacular show this week.