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LOVE YOU!

A couple days after I get home from traveling, a postcard arrives, reminding me of my trip. I send it to myself, not just as a low-cost memento, but also for a hoot. “Hey, You! Having an awesome time [insert place] [doing this or that], etc. … Love you! Hugs, Me”

This habit came to mind as I pondered Venus Retrograde in Leo (July 22–September 3). Here is what I think its message is: LOVE YOU! Not in an egotistical or egocentric way, more in a healthy ego way. Be your own cheerleader as well as honest critic, forgiving yourself for your mistakes and accepting your foibles. Thank yourself for becoming the person you are. Remember your shining moments. Soothe yourself for your saddest times. Write yourself a script, “Today is the first day of the rest of my life,” and play pretend, like you used to as a kid. What do you want to happen next? Ultimately? Tell yourself you deserve to have that dream come true and live happily ever after.

Because its retrograde takes place entirely in Leo, Venus is in this sign for a long time: June 5–October 8. This is a ideal chance to be creative and embrace your inner child. If there’s a passion you’ve always wanted to pursue, try it. Has it been a while since you enjoyed a favorite hobby? What benefit did it provide? Would you like that again now? You might reconnect with children or people you knew when you were a child. A former romance could be rekindled or an old friend comes back into your life again.

Venus is the main indicator of attraction, affection and assessing worth. When it appears to travel in reverse, it drives its power home, to oneself, rather than its usual outward expression when it’s moving forward. The retrograde period prompts self-evaluation, perhaps leading to improvements or maybe forgiveness.

In addition to its association with romance and relationships, Venus is affiliated with money, finances and valuables. A Venus retrograde period is useful for taking an inventory, getting appraisals, making (or revising) a financial plan or investment strategy, and selling unneeded possessions. Take a look at your relationship with money. Do you have any negative notions, possibly inherited from your upbringing, that you’d like to put in the past where they belong. Now is the time.

When you love and value yourself, believing you deserve affection and abundance, you attract more of both into your life. You don’t have to travel to write yourself a love note.

What is Venus Retrograde?

Venus comes between earth and the sun roughly every year-and-a-half. Since we’re in motion as well, an optical illusion results where Venus appears to move backward through the zodiac (called retrograde motion). This lasts for forty days as Venus shifts from being an evening star to a morning star. It traverses through a range of degrees going forward, backward, forward, thus repeating any connections it makes to a natal chart three times. The first and third “hits” occur during forward motion (and are usually not as difficult). The second, while Venus moves backward, calls for an adjustment.

When retrograde, Venus spends more time in one area of the zodiac (usually one sign) than when in straightforward motion. It’s typical to pay more attention to the traits and functions associated with the sign where Venus backtracks. And the sign where it zigzags repeats after eight years. Some people notice they have related experiences or circumstances cropping up eight years apart.

In the 2023 retrograde cycle, Venus marches up to 28º36’ Leo on July 22 and then backtracks to 12º12’ on September 3. It enters its zigzag range of degrees on June 19 and exits it on October 7. If you have natal planets or important parts of your chart (such as the Ascendant, Midheaven, Vertex, Part of Fortune or Lunar Nodes) between 12º12’ and 28º36’, they will receive the three-part visitation. If they’re in Leo, they receive a conjunction; in Aquarius, an opposition; in Taurus or Scorpio, a square. These are all strong motivators to take action. In another Fire sign (Aries or Sagittarius), they get a smooth trine; in an Air sign (Gemini or Libra), they get a sextile and when you put in a little effort, you get a good result. The first hit awakens you to the need or circumstance requiring attention. If you do something then or at the second hit, you’ll see the outcome by the third pass. If you do nothing at the first or second visit, the third one will usually force you to do something. Work with the planets and they’ll work with you.

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Overlapping Mercury and Venus Retrogrades

For half of January 2022, Mercury will be retrograde at the same time as Venus is. Mercury is retrograde for 21 days, about half the duration of Venus’s 41-day retrograde. Such an overlap doesn’t happen every year. In fact, looking back to 2000, there were no such incidences through 2016. Beginning in 2017, it has happened 9 times in 14 years. So we can’t say this is rare but it’s also not something to which we’re accustomed.

We have a hard enough time when one or the other of these ordinarily quick planets backtracks and spends an extra long time in one small part of the zodiac. It’s doubly difficult when retrograde simultaneously. The information and communication mix-ups for which Mercury Retrograde is famous bleed into the arena of finances and relationships, which come under the purview of Venus. Are you getting the idea that January is not going to be a month where we charge ahead and make great progress?

Venus is retrograde 12/19/21 until 1/29/22. Mercury is retrograde 1/14 – 2/3/22. The two weeks they are both in reverse are from 1/14 – 1/29. And not only do their time frames overlap, the degrees where they zigzag also overlap, barely. Venus marched from 12º to 26º Capricorn before turning retrograde to repeat those degrees. Mercury descends from 10º Aquarius to 24º Capricorn before ascending through those degrees again. So that little 2-degree slice, 24º-26º Capricorn, has both Mercury and Venus passing through it three times.

This just happens to be in the neighborhood where Pluto is travelling at 25º-27º Capricorn. Both Venus and Mercury pass by Pluto three times. Venus joins Pluto on 12/11/21, 12/25/21 and 3/3/22 (this last time, Mars teams up with Venus and Pluto). Mercury gets together with Pluto on 12/30/21, 1/28/22 and 2/11/22. Pluto throws an additional monkey wrench into the works. As the planet related to banking, investments, insurance, taxes, the economy and all joint financial and shared monetary matters (while Venus relates to individual finances). With all three in Capricorn, the sign of rules, organizations, business and government, you can see the potential for big problems.

Add to this, Pluto isn’t finished with its 90º abrasion (“square” aspect in astrological lingo) with Eris, the dwarf planet of chaos and battles, known as a trouble-maker. Eris is S-L-O-W and spends a long time in any one degree. Currently, Eris is moving between 23º and 24º Aries. Pluto, which is associated with viruses and death, hit 24º Capricorn five times in 2020-2021 and its five squares with Eris correlated rather closely with waves of COVID-19. Apparently, we’re not done yet. Even though there won’t be another exact occurrence, their positions relative to one another are not far off that 90º mark and the bottom line is about the same. From early August through early November, Pluto is less than 2º from an exact square with Eris. And at the 10/25 Solar Eclipse, Mercury at 22-1/2º Libra forms a T-square with Pluto at 26º Capricorn and Eris at 24º Aries. Mercury rules the respiratory system and Libra is sign of the Air element, so the possibility exists that we might still be dealing with airborne viruses well into the fall of 2022.

Venus is square Eris 3 times, on 12/7/21, 12/30/21 and 2/26/22. These are points where partners could have disagreements or mistakes may be made in personal finances. In the midst of this, Mercury and Venus are conjunct on 12/29/21, a time around which we are reminded of our most important values and when we have a stronger chance of being tactful about any harsh realities we need to communicate.

The Venus-Eris square on 12/30/21 occurs close enough to the New Moon on 1/2/22 that it still is powerful then and impacts the following four-week lunar cycle. At the next New Moon on 2/1, Mercury sits at the 24º spot, 2 degrees from Pluto and square Eris by one degree, again a dicey indicator that affects the following four weeks. The New Moon on 3/2 finds Venus, Mars and Pluto around 27º Capricorn and all three square Eris with a leeway of 3-plus degrees from exact, still pretty darn close. Again, the following four weeks fall under their sway. So there go the first three months of the new year, a tough time for finances and relationships, and all forms of communication.

If you have planets in your chart in the range of 23º-28º of any sign, they’re being shaken up. In fact, the degree range of 24-26º has eleven key planetary phenomena happening in 2022, including the Lunar Eclipse on 5/16. Fasten your seat belt! Whatever your planet(s) indicate in your life is apt to get a lot of your attention and go through major changes this year.

You can find the dates of Venus’s and Mercury’s “stations” (turning points) and the exact degrees where they go retrograde and return to direct motion on 2022 On a Page, a free downloadable PDF at AstrologyBooth.com. You’ll also see those other occurrences at 24º-26º (be sure to read the note at the bottom about Eris).

Even though the dates when phenomena discussed are precise and are the most potent times, these influences are still strong for days before and after these dates. So stay on your toes!

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LIVING WITH MERCURY RETROGRADE

Sooner or later, everyone has to deal with Mercury Retrograde (explained in detail in my article Mercury Retrograde). The general recommendation is to keep your wits about you and be willing to revise or redo.

Every three months or so, the “trickster” planet Mercury appears to move backward through the zodiac for about three weeks. Since it’s the planet of communication and local transportation – key matters in our everyday lives – it can have a strong impact! Sometimes, you’ll hardly notice its effects, but when the range of degrees where it backtracks connects to your chart strongly, you’ll definitely feel its influence. The most intense effect occurs at the degree where Mercury appears to stop to change direction, called the “station.” For about a week centering on the date of the directional change, Mercury remains nearly motionless in that degree. [Check if any Mercury station degrees hit your chart using the Janet’s Plan-its “On a Page” bar graphs.]

The time frame for Mercury’s discombobulating effects is not just during the three weeks it’s actually moving in reverse. It also includes a period of about 2-1/2 weeks before and afterward as Mercury moves forward through the range of degrees of its retrograde. These are known as the entry and exit “shadow” periods. Actions undertaken in the shadow before the retrograde (entry shadow) often require revision or modification in the retrograde back-up period and in the shadow following the backtrack (exit shadow). When Mercury links to your chart, it makes three “hits” – one before the retrograde, one during and one after. So the overall time frame lasts for about two months altogether, with about two months free and clear between bouts.

Things that occur during a Mercury Retrograde can have a long-lasting impact. One important example that comes to mind is the US presidential election of 2000, which occurred as Mercury stood still ending a Retrograde backtrack. The recount mess during the exit shadow resulted in a Supreme Court ruling decided by one vote that resulted in denying Al Gore his victory. Think of how different our world would be now if we had had an environmentally friendly president at the start of this millennium!

When we take into account the weeks and months before and after a person’s birth, long-term experiences of Mercury Retrograde come into play. The astrological technique called “progressions” correlates the consecutive days after one’s birth with the consecutive years of one’s life, on a day-for-a-year basis. (See “Making Progress – Astrologically” in the Study Booth Articles.) With this forecasting system, if you are both during a Mercury Retrograde, sometime in your first 22 years, you move past its strongest effects, but it still takes another decade-plus to get out of its “shadow.” You could be live through decades when your progressed Mercury goes through the entire cycle of entry shadow, retrograde and exit shadow. If you’re born just after an exit shadow, in your later life you enter a shadow. The only people who avoid any extended period of Mercury Retrograde or its shadows by progression are those born after an exit shadow and who die before the next entry shadow. So chances are, you’ll have to live a while with some influence from a Mercury Retrograde.

The extended, progressed version of the Mercury Retrograde cycle is not easily observable on a day-to-day basis. Long-term trends or projects are where we see it at work. Since it’s an influence inclining us to re-do or go back to something, the progressed Mercury Retrograde is a period to undertake an activity or project you wanted to do before but didn’t get around to, or to complete something that was unfinished. Mercury is associated with the hands, so the Retrograde is a good time to learn something new that’s done with the hands, such as a craft or playing an instrument.

I can say for myself that I have progressed Mercury Retrograde from 2002 to 2022. I always wanted to be a writer and during this time, I created my Janet’s Plan-its calendars and they grew to be quite a detailed and involved annual book. Since they became a lot of work that is only meaningful for a brief period of time (a year), before I finish my retrograde I want to complete a book that won’t “expire.” This is a key reason I decided to forego writing more calendars and focus on other writing and other means of communication. Another thing I attribute to my progressed Mercury Retrograde period is that for the past few years, I’ve noticed I frequently, unconsciously hold my lips closed and retract them inward. For someone who’s been pretty “big-mouthed” most of my life, this is an interesting change!

If you want to learn about your natal and progressed Mercury, you can look in an ephemeris to see what was going on in the months before and after your birth and compare Mercury Retrograde station degrees to your natal chart. In a full general reading, I always look at that for a client, or it can easily be covered in a mini-reading with me. (Contact me and we’ll set something up.) We’ll discuss how you can “live with Mercury Retrograde.”

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