Astro-Weirding Courtesy Of Retrograde Venus
[ 16 April 2009 ]
Some of you may have noticed that the past little while has been… well, WEIRD, for lack of a better word. Especially in the romance universe. Mixed messages, insanely indecipherable behaviour & strange incompatibilities are all rife. It’s maddening. Why? Because Venus has been in retrograde, & has been since the 6th of March. This could explain a few things, hmm?! When planets retrograde, we often feel stuck or confused & unable to move forward. While this is extremely frustrating, it’s a great time to learn & reflect on our old patterns so we can change them & surge onwards to a bright new dawn.
Venus is the planet of love & creativity. It also rules beauty, aesthetics, friendships, marriages & pleasure, so when it goes retrograde, it can affect us in various ways. Arguments, misunderstandings & epic miscommunications are everywhere you turn, romances hit rocky territory, artists lose their mojo & writers feel uninspired. Ordinarily outgoing people want to hide in their houses, & even shopping for clothing or furniture can become a frustrating trial. Ex-boyfriends might start emailing you out of the blue — sentimental thoughts are higher than usual. You might be re-evaluating all your past relationships, as we often find ourselves being forced to deal with old issues during this time, & we could be drawn to more unconventional relationships (or people!) than would normally appeal to us. Yes, it can be a trying time. To see what Venus retrograde has really struck for you, this page from Cafe Astrology outlines what particular areas have been affected for each sign.
The good news is that Venus is going direct again this Friday/Saturday depending on where you are on the planet (see below). Even better, at the time it goes direct, Mercury trines Saturn, meaning mental powers are heightened & we all feel super-conscious & lucid.
Venus goes direct again at…
12.25pm Friday 17th April in Los Angeles
15.25pm Friday 17th April in New York
20.25pm Friday 17th April in London
5.25am Saturday 18th April in Sydney
7.25am Saturday 18th April in Wellington
(If your city isn’t listed, this time zone converter should do the trick!)
Hallelujah!
Mystic Medusa sent out a great message on her mailing list the other day with a couple of ideas of rituals you could do to usher in Venus going direct, & as I read it & thought ‘What a great idea!’, it occurred to me that there were a lot of other ways you could do this that were less pagan/squiffy/“new age” in nature. We are not all comfortable lighting a candle & waving around a stick of incense, right?
Firstly, though, why would anyone want to do a ritual just because the planets are changing? Well, really what it’s about is making a conscious decision to end a chapter in your life & start on a fresh new course. So often people say, “Okay, time for a change!” but it never comes to fruition. There are a multitude of reasons for this, but when you decide to do something, it can be really helpful to make a dedication to it through your actions. You can write a list of goals, you can restructure your time, etc., but you can also kick it all off with a ritual to get you on the right track. Plus… rituals can be really fun, always a good reason to do anything!
In this case, Venus going direct is a time to commit to what it is you want in the areas of love, friendship, creativity & pleasure. We create our own lives, after all — this is just another way of making that happen.
When you do a ritual of any kind that is intended to bring about change, really what you want to do is focus on what it is that you want while performing an action which helps crystallise your thoughts. Visualising is an awesome way to manifest things, but at the same time, it’s very “up there”, which means that a lot of people feel like they’re not really doing it right. Visualising while moving your body with intent is a great way to bring manifesting into the here & now & make it more concrete. (Ah yes, all that dabbling in wicca at age 14 — despite the fact that it concerned my parents a LOT — had its uses!)
Visualise can be a scary, new agey word to a lot of people but I’ll let you in on a secret — it’s really just a fancy way of saying “imagine”!
Here are a selection of ways that you can unite body & mind. Just remember to keep your intention in your head as you do them! Think about what it is you want to create in your own life, specifically in the realm of love, friendship & creativity. Maybe you want to patch things up with your boyfriend, heal old relationship issues, make new friends or start writing a book. Whatever it is, just fantasize about it as you do one of the following, or something of your own creation — I’d love to hear what you come up with!
Re-examine your creative space. Clear it out. Take down all the old pictures, fortunes, trinkets, clean them off & then add in some new things which fire you up in fresh ways.
Make a list of all of the beautiful things you can think of — then come up with a bunch of ways to celebrate them when Venus goes direct.
Write a letter to your ex. Be as angry as you like. Spew total filth. Throw blame around, feel the fury, wallow in it. Then read it aloud, & BURN IT. As you burn it, allow those problems to disappear with it.
Write down all the ways you can be a love letter to the universe, & choose a few to action!
Glue heart-shaped crystals to your face & go out dancing.
Write a letter to yourself, explaining why you’re so fabulous & what you are thankful for.
Hold hands with a friend & recite affirmations together.
Conjure up images of all your ex-lovers in your head, & instead of seeing them as the person who caused this or that, choose to see them as a flawed person who did their best to love you.
Similarly, think of the people who surround you currently & decide to focus on their best & most positive qualities. No point dwelling on what could be different!
Buy a corkboard & pin up a bunch of pictures which symbolise what it is you want to attract into your life. Put on fun music, go mad with scissors, enjoy yourself! (Corkboards are good for making vision boards because while you want to see them regularly, sometimes you don’t want other people to see them… So you can always put them in a closet or under the bed when you have company!)
Make a little speech as you dedicate yourself to beauty & integrity.
Go through old love letters & throw them out — just ditch that cobwebby energy — OR pick the best ones, & frame them as an example of what it is you’re seeking. Just remember not to attach to the person who wrote them, unless of course you want them back!
Create a playlist of your favourite music, grab your hula hoop & headphones, go out & dance in the sunshine & revel in the wonder of the everyday.
Invite your lover — or someone you’re having issues with — & tell them that you both have fifteen minutes to get past garbage off your chests. You can make notes in preparation if you want. You have fifteen minutes to say your piece, & when the clock strikes half past, you have to both let it go & make up. Use your imagination!
Repot old plants & see them as a symbol of change, growth & evolution.
Meditate.
Dress in pink & throw yourself a belated Valentine’s Day-esque party.
Journal. Ask yourself questions, & answer them. What could you let go of to bring more positivity into your life? What fears are holding you back from doing that? In which areas are you willing to make change?
Think of an old conversation you had — one that is affecting you to this day (most of us have hundreds we can draw upon in a heartbeat) — & recite it as accurately as you can. Then recite it again, but this time, imagine it went a different way — a way that would have left you feeling good. Visualise this actually happening as clearly as possible. Then let it go.
Think about the ways you can take action in your life to change what has been bothering you for the past couple of months. Venus retrograde is really about observing & becoming aware of problems, not necessarily taking any concrete steps towards change, so consider what you could do now to shake things up.
Write notes to your friends outlining why you love them & what you appreciate about them.
Clear out the space in which you typically “get busy” — whether that’s your bedroom, kitchen (oh!), or the back seat of your Jeep… Get rid of dying plants or flowers (bad feng shui!), bring in some colour, vacuum, make it somewhere you really want to be!
Dispose of all the old energy following you around by getting a bit OCD on it. Clean everything. Change your bedding, wash your clothes, take off all the jewellery you wear regularly & clean it, dust, mop, etc.
The most powerful time of the transit is the hour that Venus goes direct — so the half hour on either side of the times stated above. So if you’re in London, kick off at about 8pm, & see if you can draw it out until 9.
Best of luck!
Extra For Experts:
If you want to come up with your own way of celebrating or ritualising Venus going direct, these resources might help you!
How to Create a Ritual or Ceremony from Spiritual Integrity.
New Moon Manifestation Ritual from About.com. This is new moon specific but still useful.
Ritual & Ceremony by Zan Benham.
Dance as ritual & transformation from The Hindu newspaper.
A Self Love Ceremony from About.com.
Love letters & feather headdresses,
Tags: astrology,
how to,
inspiration,
life,
productivity Add Gala on Twitter!
I’m definitely trying some of these. Thank you! I love you, Galaaaa c:
I have actually been wondering why everything is so, for lack of a better word, weird..
Thanks again, Gala. I, too, have been wondering why everything is so weird and strained. Maybe things can get back to normal now…as normal as life can be, considering.
I know that pretty much everything relating to love & creativity has been NUTS since the start of March! Totally incomprehensible. I’m so excited about Venus going direct again, hee, yay!
great, great article! it’s amazing how much influence planets can have, indeed. xo
omg gala that’s so weird i have just been thinking about the VERY SAME THINGGGGGG awesome article. i used to be into wicca when i was little too, after seeing the craft haha xx
Immie — The Craft has a LOT TO ANSWER FOR, I’m not even kidding!
I’m a Taurus & Venus is our ruling planet, so my world has been pretty upside down lately. I even had a dream about my ex the night before Easter, which hadn’t happened in forever. I was fighting with his new girlfriend (my former friend) and woke up wondering where that came from. I’d forgotten about the Venus retrograde so I’ll be glad to see that go tomorrow! Anyway, thanks for the excellent article. :)
thank you dear :)
Hell yes, Gala- this was so helpful! Thanks so much for laying all that out- this whole Venus retrograde spell has been sooo trying, and I am incredibly excited and relieved about tomorrow! I love all the ideas here, and will definitely be implementing some of them.. Mwah! xoxo A.
AW! it feels like valentine’s day all over again, this post :)
Haha, I kind of hate to be the nitpicky person…buttt speaking as one, a lot of pagans don’t appreciate being lumped in with “new agey” types (I have no idea what squiffy means? although Urban Dictionary gives me “Awkward, wrong, lopsided, ruffled or strangely different. “ which I don’t THINK you would say about a very large groups’ religious beliefs ;) ). It’s not a huge deal since it’s something that’s kind of an “in the scene” annoyance, but paganism =/= New Age. And yeah, the Craft is not a good source of information either LOL.
Anyways, I really like some of your ideas here and I lurve all of the photos. The heart sunglasses make me happy. I should have known something weird was going on – I’ve been terribly uninspired the last month and a half or so, and can just now feel myself starting to kick out of it!
Michelle — Ah, I wondered if anyone would be upset by that! It’s really not meant to be a criticism at all, what I really mean is anyone who comes from a Christian or otherwise “normal” (?!?!) background can find all this stuff a bit “weird”. You know what I mean? & I am totally aware paganism & new age madness are totally different things, it was just for ease of understanding for the majority of the audience! Hope you can accept my apologies, I love your pagan ass! xo
You reminded me that I really need to vacuum my room! Thank the planets for realigning just into time for finals! Amen.
Just this morning someone was asking me how it was going, and of course my answer was not very well! Whether this is ‘true’ or not, it’s just what I need. Big hugs!
AAAH!!! This explains everything and I do mean everything. I love your astro-articles.
No problem Gala! I wasn’t offended at all, I live in the Bible Belt (for counts 45 more days until we move to Austin SO EXCITED cough) so believe me my dear, I’ve heard much worse! Although it’s cool that you knew the difference, and it makes sense that you were covering the “non-normal” bases – didn’t think of it that way ;) Don’t worry – ILY too!
Geez..this explain soooooo much. I’m a Taurus and I have seriously been worried about myself. My creative mind has been a ROCK. I’n the lat month I have purchased 3 creative self help books to try to get back to normal…among a million other things in my world that have been unexplainably off. Thank heavens things will be normal soon and man am I ever glad to have an explanation!
Love ya Gala!
you’re a life saver! i love when you do astrological posts.
As a time of mixed messages and blind-sighted love, I’m hoping that my boyfriends confessions of love don’t wind up to be a product of the venus retrograde. :\
My pass few weeks seem to be the opposite of this though haha. Creative juices have been flowing and love all around. :3
You totally would have delighted in this little old lady I met at the post office yesterday. There would be discussions of intuitively reading people’s signs and also, killer outfits of the immaculately tailored, hot pink accented variety.
That said, between you, Tina Su, Steve Pavlina & Cynthia Silvestri, this week you guys have all the tips for getting out of any creative funk, ever. So amazing.
My tips: strike up conversation with anyone who sparks a positive reaction in you, create a step-by-step bound & hardcover guide for others to learn from your pet projects, code months-old articles from the depths of the hard drive, find a class on something you’ve always wanted to be better at, tell estranged friends what you think of them in a way that compliments them but also puts old thoughts to peace. They worked for me!
These are all great ideas regardless of what the planets are doing, but particularly welcome at the moment, I must admit, there have been some odd things going on in my love life recently and my creativity has been at a bit of a low too. It’s only just starting to turn around.
Thanks for this Gala!
I usually don’t take much stock in anything concerning astrology- but my love life HAS been out-of-whack and I’ve been uninspired and unmotivated in other aspects.. these are good practices for moving forward and making positive changes, whatever the cause of the problems may be.
Now I understand why I’ve been making bad decisions and fucking up my love life for the past couple of months. It’s bad behaviour, but it’s very good at the same time. Need to get myself in check though, otherwise things are really going to go awry. I thought this coming week would be a great time for that (holiday, getting away from temptation) and it seems like I was right! Super.
Intresting, intresting so thats whats going on..pfffee i have to admit especially the past few days everything has been an emotional train & i realized a lot of things about me, the past & the future.
Wow, this explains a lot :o
I’m a Libra and apparantly this retrograde has REALLY affected me. I’ve definitely felt stuck and unable to move forward and seriously uncreative most of that time. The last couple of days have started to get better though.
I love all those ideas! I think I’ll try some of them later today. Thanks for this great article :)
HOLY SH*T! I started 2 think I was going insane.
I’m a scorpio-i just read my horoscope on that sit; shiiiit it was right… I’ve been thinking of past reltionships..I got dumped 2 days ago and WOAH! The desire to be with someone..who I TRUELY desire! Omgomgomgomg. Kiki’s having a party tomorrow, to celebrate this.I set my alarm for 5.25 am. I’ve written an evil letter and im going to burn it. I know what ii want in future now- POSITIVE CHANGE..HERE I COME!
Gala, I love you! Haha! X x x x x
P.s- Anika- I’ve been dreamin of my ex too! Weird!
Oooh, this explains A LOT! I’m not usually hard into astrology but I can relate to this so much! My love life has been SO WEIRD these past few weeks, it’s been driving me insane – I actually met this particular boy during the retrograde and I’ve been confused from the very beginning. So keen for Venus to go direct! I live in NZ but I’m fully getting up before 7:25am just so I can be awake for it. And I’m moving house tomorrow morning – perfect timing! :D
The ritual ideas are so cute, too, I’m definitely going to be trying some of them out. Thanks for letting us know about this, Gala, I feel so relieved!
Well that explains it. I fell out with a dear friend more than 5 years ago, and re-ignited my quest to track her down and apologize mid-March. And know what? I found her two weeks ago. AND she forgives me!
My ex-boyfriend DID completely email me after not speaking for a year after a very nasty breakup (that put me into therapy, thank you). Being very mushy and ‘I’m so sorry baby, you’re beautiful and don’t deserve this’ crap. It was so out of character that I assumed he was drunk! And for the past few weeks I have been running into my childhood romance all over the place – found his old pictures, pictures come up randomly on the Internet, and dreaming about him at least three times this week. It’s also his birthday next week!
Man I cannot wait for Venus to direct today ;-;
This past week and a bit has been so weird! Major mixed messages from a boy and I felt really unsettled. But last night my friend called me up and we were talking and laughing and I started crying. Out of nowhere. And I was laughing and crying and I couldn’t stop. This explains it all!
We’re going to the Sydney Dance Company today for ABSOLUTE beginners ballet! Woohoo Leotards!
Everything since the start of the month has been sooo good for me. I’m Scorpio, but my mum is Virgo & I swear I go by the Virgo horoscope over Scorpio. & This retrograde hasn’t affected me at all, if anything it’s made my life better. But My mum is really nuts & going psycho.. It’s is probably why… & she was so happy that it was the Virgo moon the other day… She’s all Virgo power & everything.
I don’t know if they’re is any similarities between Virgo & Scorpio, but there are so many between me & my mum that I swear there are…
(I’m sorry if that made no sense… to many Vodkas tonight…)
I love this – so many great tips! Thanks for the suggestions :]
thanks gala! i’ve been wondering why things are so icky lately. i broke up with my boyfriend (wah!) because things suddenly went south in march… now i know (one of the reasons!) why! i’ve been feeling all clean-freak and ready to refresh my feng shui lately… again, now i know why! phew~
Wow, that is so weird, it just suddenly came to me today how I should do a cleansing ritual to get rid of all my negative crap from past relationships!! I was considering doing it around May 1st (Beltane; I’m Pagan) but hey, doing it sooner wouldn’t be too shabby either! This has definitely confirmed my random inspiration (funny how the universe works that way, huh?), so thanks very much for bringing this to readers’ attention!
Oh, and Venus went direct on opening night of the play I’m in, which is so appropriate given its rulership over the arts. I think it helped us to do such a kickass first performance :)
Hmmmmm….That explains a thing or too.