Retracing the Steps of Venus
Make friends with the angels, who though invisible are always with you… Often invoke them, constantly praise them, and make good use of their help and assistance in all your temporal and spiritual affairs.
Saint Francis de Sales
There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.
Albert Einstein
We forget to pray for the Angels and the Angels forget to pray for us.
Leonard Cohen
There's a lot going on in the sky during these recent times; the Saturn-Neptune opposition, Mercury recently retrograde, Pluto conjuncting the Galactic Center (which is said to be 'the mind of God'), Saturn set to go into Virgo and many other planetary configurations that are causing our minds and hearts to make adjustments, throw things out or move into new ways of being.
The upcoming period of Venus retrograde, which gets into full swing on July 27, is another major planetary event that is influencing us and is adding some flavor and spice to the cosmic soup that we're swimming in and it's promising to be an interesting experience. As long as we have our life jackets on and our belief in the goodness of life by our side, we'll emerge wiser and happier, although it could be a bit of a bumpy ride. This is a major heads up around our relationships with others and we would do well to be paying attention.
Venus, the planet of beauty, grace and charm rules the principles of harmony, balance, the feelings, the urge to sympathize and unite with others, the desire for pleasure, sensuality, personal possessions, comfort and ease. It rules romantic relations, marriage, business partnerships, sex, money and finances, our sense of values, the arts, fashion and the social life.
Venus is the ruling planet of Taurus and Libra. In Roman mythology Venus was the goddess of love and beauty, famous for the passions she could stir among the gods. In the same way, the calm, beautiful exterior surface that Venus presents to us hides the planet's hot, dense atmosphere and intense volcanic activity!
Venus can be hot alright. Many assign to Venus the wonderful attributes above without considering that she can be a very demanding goddess; she can want the world and want it now and not be really worried about how she's going to get it. People generally attribute Mars as being the 'god of war', but without Venus, Mars would just be some mindless foot soldier, spear in hand, off wandering around in circles. It is Venus that sends Mars off to war, not Mars itself. Venus is the archetype that plots and plans the ownership and the taking control of things. Often, Venus wants not only love and affection and all things beautiful, she wants possessions, land, a high place in society, to be adored, to not be spurned, to be noticed, appreciated and desired.
Of course, it's not that the attributes above are necessarily always negative, but if Venus' desires get out of hand, all hell can break loose and there can be a lot of rubble produced as a result. Venus can be chatty, sociable and charming, but it can also be catty, spiteful, gossipy and downright hurtful. Naturally, it can help to remember that every one of us (indeed every single thing) on the planet has both Venus and Mars in their chart. It just so happens that in women the Venus factor is usually (but by no means always) the stronger force.
Happening every 20 months or so, Venus appears in the sky to be going backwards - retrograde -which often brings up the need to reexamine our Venusian issues. Are we happy, fulfilled, loved, rewarded, at home in our physical body, happy with our sex life, happy with who we are? Do we do the types of work we want to be doing? Are we getting a buzz out of what we do? The way we make money? The possessions we own? The people around us? Do we truly communicate with loved ones on a heart level?
These types of questions emerge particularly during the periods that Venus is retrograde. Venus is retrograde for 40 days (and nights), bringing to mind the image of wandering lost in the wilderness like Jesus fasting in the wilderness, as he was said to do for 40 days. Also the rains fell for 40 days in Noah's flood and Moses was on the mountain for 40 days.
Being a little lost in the wilderness does seem to be a theme for Venus retrograde. Although we have the small annoyances of Mercury going retrograde on a more regular basis which brings up it's own brand of redoing, refocusing and rethinking, we generally want life to progress forward in an orderly fashion without the need for taking much time for retracing our steps. However, with Venus retrograde it seems that taking the time to go back over things is not only useful, it is productive and imperative.
Venus is right now on the stationary point of Virgo 3 - the Sabian Symbol of which is Two Guardian Angels Bringing Protection - a lovely degree of hope and redemption and help and the belief in things turning out not only well, but with Venus here, often with a tinge of ambitions, hopes, beliefs and our needs being met. I feel a sense of gratitude that Venus is stationing on this degree as it will be inhabiting this degree for 14 days during the beginning of the retrograde phase - from July 21 to August 3 and will also be on this degree for 2-3 days in October (October 11 and 12) when we'll be needing the Angel's beneficence again, particularly as the Sun during those days will be on the Sabian Symbols of Libra 18: Two Men Placed Under Arrest and Libra 19: A Gang of Robbers in Hiding.
Venus by then will be well and truly in direct motion again, but Mercury then goes retrograde and on a very important relationship degree: Scorpio 10: A Fellowship Supper Reunites Old Comrades. Relationships that feel fated or karmic are likely to be in high focus at this point.
These two Libran degrees that the Sun will be traversing as Venus returns to the Guardian Angel degree can play havoc in relationships, for sure, but with some self examination and a sense of give and take, we can learn how to free ourselves from relationships that bind us but don't work, that hold us in stasis but don't reward us, those that rob us of our freedoms in mind, heart and body, and those that should be rewarding but aren't because of our sense of limitations, psychological problems or issues from the past that just serve to get in the way.
Further, this particular Venus retrograde is likely to be teaching us some valuable lessons as it transits backwards over Saturn from the 12th to the 15th August. We are being asked to sort out the wheat from the chaff when it comes to issues to do with Venus. Most notably, many people will be questioning their relationships, their commitments to their values, what they are prepared to have in their lives and what they won't. Some big decisions can be made during this period, decisions that could feel rather final but usually come back up for reconsideration once Venus really picks up pace forward motion again in mid-October. Although decisions (sometimes life changing ones at that) are very likely to be made on the spur of the moment, really giving some time, thought and energy to what is the true desired outcome and waiting until October can be a safer bet than diving headfirst into situations that one could come to regret later.
It is clear that our relationship dynamics are going to be stretched and tested. In early July, Venus conjuncted Saturn, bringing up issues to do with boundaries, limits and more red lights than green. Some will have driven through some of those red lights only to find that others in their lives did indeed stop and obey the traffic laws (relationship wise, of course).
I want to say more, but I feel I'm getting ahead of myself (and everyone else!) here. Pulling back more to the here and now...
It seems to me that we often could do with being reminded of our guardian angels being there for us. Here's a few definitions of angels:
* An Angel is a force of light, many different types, all working for a higher power
* An Angel is a celestial being that acts as an intermediary between heaven and earth
* Angels are messengers of deities, which link God and man
Quoting this degree from my book 360 Degrees of Wisdom: Charting Your Destiny With the Sabian Oracle published by Penguin NY and published by Lynda Hill under the title The Sabian Symbols as an Oracle:
Virgo 3: TWO GUARDIAN ANGELS BRINGING PROTECTION
Commentary: ‘Two Guardian Angels Bringing Protection’ is a beautiful Symbol that brings to mind images of salvation, release and protection. Being there for us, ‘Guardian Angels’ are believed to look out for our best interests, especially when we most need them. This is particularly true when we feel we are about to stumble or fall in some way. Our ‘Guardian Angels’ are with us even if we don’t have a conscious awareness of their existence or presence, although if we do consciously evoke them, they are likely to be more “present” or obvious to us, in whatever form.
Oracle: This Symbol reminds us that no matter what we do, where we are, how difficult our struggles or how successful our activities, our ‘Angels’ are always with us. ‘Guardian Angels’ appear in many forms – as strangers, friends, family members, even as events, etc. They can come to us in moments of deep despair, when all seems lost and we feel abandoned and alone. Their messages and actions can signal a turning point, a feeling that life is well worth the struggles and torments we have to sometimes endure. With this Symbol, there is reassurance that you are not alone, lost or forgotten in a situation, at least not for very long. There is a strong sense that protection, guidance and direction are around. Hold a feeling close to your mind and heart; the belief that invisible, or visible, help is coming. This will ensure that help and relief will, indeed, become available. Remember that friends and family can often help, especially in the role of acting as sounding boards or counselors. Once things are back on track, it is likely you will find the true path that you must follow. Feeling good about your direction and being protected builds a sense of inner strength. You are never alone when you draw this Symbol. Open up to the ‘Protection’ being offered to you, don’t resist it.
Keywords: Connection with a sense of inner guidance. Visible or invisible protection. People appearing when they’re needed. Being saved in the nick of time. Creative solutions to problems that seemed hopeless and lost. Counseling and guidance. Angels. Security systems. Salvation. Social workers.
The Caution: Feeling lost and alone without help. Losing faith in the goodness of life. Expecting that fate, or others, will pick up the pieces without putting in any effort. Resisting help in order to hang onto your “wounds”. Too much reliance on outside forces. Not acting to change things. Victim status.
Venus will be on the Guardian Angels degree until the 4th August, when it moves backwards onto Virgo 2: A Large White Cross Dominating the Landscape. We may feel pressured by relationship dynamics to the point where we feel like we're sacrificing our needs for something, like our 'angels have deserted us'.
With the Large White Cross Dominating the Landscape, we need to ensure that we're not putting our own needs aside too much, not isolating ourselves, not forsaking our sense of fun, joy, love, life, recreation for some cause that serves things other than our needs. It's fine to be giving and sacrificing and loving and there for whoever needs us all the time, but there has to come a point where we realise that continuing to do it can lead to our own needs not being met. However, it can be that our faith and belief in the goodness of life can lead to a resurrection of these ideals.
Something interesting to do is to examine what was going on for you 8 years ago when Venus last went retrograde in Virgo around these degrees. This was in late July 1999. You're very likely to be dealing with or finishing up some issue that came up around that time.
Want to know how Venus will affect you during this retrograde period? Lynda can help you make sense of it all. Check out my Readings With Lynda page on www.sabiansymbols.com
I think that those guardian angels will be with us if we invoke them and this will probably prove to be a very interesting Venus retrograde period!
July 26, 2007
Read Lynda's explanation of the Sabian Symbols here
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