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We're now in the home stretch of Mercury Retrograde. Mercury stations direct early in the morning of August 8.
There plenty of levity to appreciate in today's Aquarius full moon energy, which is much needed after last month's challenging Mars aspects. Just as the moon is full, it will trine Jupiter, which will in turn form a sextile to the sun. The Sun and Mercury will trine Uranus, and even Saturn is feeling friendly with a sweet trine to Venus. If you're reading this, make the most of these positive energies while they're at hand.
Steven caught just enough of a breather between teaching events to write a wonderful bit about Venus in Cancer below. He's just now beginning his annual AP program in Australia. Then he heads home for a short break before the next program which starts September 28 in Calistoga, CA.
If you're reading this, you know that for the most part, we survived the first pass of Uranus square Pluto relatively in tact. I know some of you out there were a little worried... While many headlines last week had a distinctly Uranus square Pluto signature (we'll look at a couple below), it's times like this that remind us that our fears sometimes get the best of us. And also that the world keeps on turning.
There were some dramatic headlines last week. Sadly, the fires in Colorado are being dubbed "the most destructive in state history." The supreme court let out a couple of very Pluto in Capricorn style decisions. And the Egyptian elections carried the flavor of both the Uranus in Aries and Pluto in Capricorn archetypal fields. They elected an Islamist president who pleases the conservatives. But in a surprising (Uranus, anyone?) turn, the new president announced that he'll appoint two vice presidents: a woman, and a Christian! The real-life expression of the planetary energies is always more wonderfully complex than we could have imagined beforehand.
Hello everyone. Steven is winding things down at UAC (the United Astrology Conference) as we speak and preparing for upcoming trips to North Carolina, Maine, and New York. Needless to say, his hands are full so I'm your MC for this month's newsletter. I've written a bit about the current Venus retrograde cycle, as well as some of the other interesting configurations in June.
If any of you made it to UAC and have good stories to share, feel free to drop me a line. I missed my own book release party there! Speaking of which, in some exciting news, I've just been published in an anthology by Flare entitled Astrology: The New Generation. In the book, which is meant to herald the "current astrological revival," I join 13 other astrologers who each contribute a chapter on diverse topics.
Venus turns retrograde on May 15. It makes a station on June 27 and after that will be in direct motion until the end of 2013. None of this is earth-shaking. Venus moves fast and unless you are in diapers and weigh about the same as a Thanksgiving turkey, you’ve been through this kind of Venus event before. Venus’s synodic cycle runs about 584 days and it spends about forty of them in retrograde condition. In other words, Venus is retrograde for a little over a month out of every year and a half or so. An interesting subject, but no big deal.
I’ve been consciously interacting with the current retrograde transit of Mars through Virgo with profound attention, not in small part because I have a large stellium of Virgo planets. Thanks to Steven’s insightful teachings on working intentionally with planetary transits, I now have an experiential understanding of this transit which has unveiled the deeper promise of working consciously with this empowering system of astrological thought.
