Venus Retrograde 2017. Part Two.
Money
Some astrologers do not believe Venus rules money. Whether it rules the dollar or rupee or not, money is a tangible (Taurus/2nd house) representation of value. Here in North America, it is very difficult to meet essential needs without it.
For some money may feel like a Core Value, but the root leads to what money provides a Core Value is a form of Security.
Reflection on our relationship to money, can tell us a lot about ourselves. Money patterns in our families condition us. Abundance versus Lack can be a Venus lesson from the perspective of value and self-worth.
Venus Retrogrades are closely watched by financial astrologers like Ray Merriman, who writes a yearly financial forecast book and has a free weekly financial newsletter available.
In Merriman’s Forecast 2017 book, he notes this Retrograde Cycle includes two Venus/Saturn squares, which span from April 8-21 and just as Saturn is Retrograde. Venus=Money. Saturn=Control. In the U.S. Income taxes are filed 15 April, in Canada 30 April. What kinds of rules are subject to change? In our personal lives, this first quarter square suggests some tension and decision making around finances.
Also, from Forecast 2017, in the last Venus in Aries Retrograde in 2009, the U.S. Stock Market had a record low on the day Venus went retrograde on 6 March, 2009.
Wellness
Venus reflects areas of beauty in the body and what presents well. The Venus Glyph is linked to Copper. Certain natal aspects to Venus can symbolize possibilities of natural Copper deficiencies (or imbalances) which can result in nutritional imbalances, including B12 deficiency. If Venus retrogrades through your 6th, 12th or 1st house, and there are others reasons for you to pay attention to deficiencies, she may gently remind you of the value of health and wellness.
Love & Social Affairs
Venus also rules Libra and the 7th house. This side of Venus is more outgoing and includes our interpersonal relationships.
Projection is when we reflect something of ourselves onto another person. ‘Something’ might be a value we hold dear. “Oh, we have so much in common,” one might say to a new love or connection who is enthusiastically willing to go to an art museum with us. He may truly love art or just want to know us better. We might hold the value of ‘art appreciation’ so dear that we project this same value onto our infatuation, who may never have been exposed to art.
Bonding is a natural energy that comes from Venus. Venus, the Yin to Mars’ Yang, has sensitivity and taste. Venus seeks connection. By bonding with another, Venus becomes more than it is. Love grows. We feel supported with another by our side. Venus as the 2nd house ruler is about loving ourselves. As the 7th house ruler it involves our receptivity to others.
During Venus Retrograde, one or more former loves or connections may reappear. Years ago, someone who I did not know previously in this life, a true Innocent, came up to me during a Venus Retrograde time and looked deeply into my eyes wanting to make a connection. “I know you, I know you” he repeated until his caretakers came for him. Venus was traveling in my 12th house at the time. We had met in another life and he was checking in with me. For me this was both a spiritual moment and a reminder of compassion.
If someone comes up and says, “Hey, did we go to school together?” maybe you did— in another School of Life, in another time and place. If an ex re-appears, maybe it is just for this retrograde cycle, to be reminded of Venus and relationship matters. Would a reappearance mean a reconnection? Maybe, or maybe not. Keep the enjoyment factor of Venus alive during reconnection. Don’t attach to outcome.
Venus in Aries.
Aries relates to energy. Physical, extroverted, fiery.Venus is Yin, internal and receptive. There is some awkwardness whenever synthesizing these two energies. Aries is necessarily interested in Self. Venus is self-focused, too (2nd house), and is also sensitive to others (7th house). One might think of Venus’ pleasures as coming more ‘spur-of-the-moment’ in Aries. There is a love of independence or courageousness.
Venus in Pisces
Pisces, the last sign in the zodiac, is most empathetic. As a Water sign, there is an idyllic, emotional connection to ‘All that Is” Boundaries are thin. Self can be illusive. People born with Venus in Pisces, may constantly be trying on roles, putting on costumes, trying to figure out what they want and how to relate to others. At its best, Venus in Pisces, holds compassion that is as large as the Universe and beyond.
While reflecting on beautiful Venus and what she means to you, consider keeping a beautiful touchstone present.
2017 Venus Retrograde: 4 March – 15 April
Venus Retrogrades every 584 days, so about 19.2 months. Every 8th year a Venus retrograde will be in the same sign. The last Venus Retrograde in Aries was in March of 2009.
On 4 March, the moon is Void of Course in Taurus. 17th century, horary astrologer, William Lilly, wrote that during Void of Course times, matters decided upon will not happen out as expected or pan out at all. Void of Course Moon is when the Moon makes no more ptolemaic aspects to another planet before moving into the next sign. All planets can have Void of Course periods when they travel the last degrees of a sign.
Saturn in Sagittarius conjoins with the Galactic Center (about 26 Sagittarius). Research by Ray Merriman and his team have noted significant changes in Stock Markets with this alignment. Two famous ones were September 1929, and October 1987. I heard a talk on this last year, but don’t remember the other financial astrologer who concurred with the probability of corrections.
Jupiter in sweet, ever-looking-for-equilibrium Libra opposes innovative, active Uranus in Aries for the second time since December. Oppositions correlate to both separation and fullness. You can’t get any further apart or any more complete than with a Full Moon or a Full Jupiter/Uranus. Decisions comes from this aspect and transit.
Though seeking balance and harmony is desirable, these two visionary, future oriented planets may suggest too much of a good thing. What follows may be imbalance, chaos as a result of abrupt decisions. Merriman calls Uranus to Jupiter and/or Venus’ ‘hard’ connections, bankruptcy transits. As always, we can’t make personal speculation without knowing the fuller picture in a birth chart and a person’s previous choices. Now let’s all adapt the best that we can to this Venus Retrograde Period.