Getting On With the Rest of Our Year

5.11.17


Our past few months have been dominated astrologically by Venus's retrograde (which I wrote about here and here)… and, more recently, a concurrent Mercury retrograde strongly influenced by this Venus-rx.

As both these fast-moving planets now wrap up their final re-steps through their post-retrograde shadows, we're at last getting ready to decidedly advance toward whatever life-circumstances our Venus-rx reconsiderations inspired us to choose and/or reaffirm.

To review, Venus first entered its pre-retrograde shadow on Jan 30… and, since then, many of us have been caught up in reexamining where our most sincere interests, affections, and advantages reside. Recent developments in our interpersonal relationships, financial matters, and/or artistic activities (i.e., Venus-ruled topics) prodded us to check in with ourselves about what we really value, and whether or how our own evolution has caused that to change over time. Our reflections may have vacillated between 'nostalgic appreciation of fond connectedness' and 'radical embrace of self-centering newness', due to Venus-rx's position across the Pisces-Aries cusp (i.e., the 'end-and-beginning' of the zodiac-cycle).

By this point, we have reaped the pertinent information available to us regarding our most up-to-date Venus-related preferences and inclinations. Now, we should be integrating any last bits of this knowledge into our intentional vision, having made sure this is what we want. We're standing at the gate to the rest of our '17, nearly ready to leave this first big chunk behind.

Next week, both Venus and Mercury will move beyond their post-retrograde shadows (on May 18 and May 20, respectively) and head onto their first new ground in some time. This signals the beginning of a palpable astro-energetic shift which will unfold over the successive couple weeks.

By the following week, Venus proceeds into the second half of Aries, where it finally forms exact aspects to the two main outer-planet configurations—namely, (1) the Jupiter-Uranus-Pluto t-square and (2) the Saturn-Uranus trine—which currently characterize our overriding big-picture astrological backdrop. On its way to conjoining Uranus on Jun 3, Venus will first oppose Jupiter (May 19), then square Pluto (May 25) and trine Saturn (Jun 1). This set of aspects delivers the definitive pressure to actualize any departure, discontinuity, and/or next-step rejuvenation that's now unmistakably called for, as a direct result of what's gone on these past few months. This is the moment we've been building towards throughout Venus's retrograde; there's no turning back. (For more insight into this moment's greater significance, review the two articles I linked to earlier in this paragraph.)

One especially ripe theme during this time: recognizing the inescapable problems which arise from leaving things open, playing both sides, and/or refusing to choose. As Venus approaches its Uranus conjunction in Aries, it simultaneously opposes Jupiter in Libra… an aspect which, if we're not careful, can leave us attempting to gloss over the disruptive ramifications of a self-serving relational judgment-call, using rhetoric that claims for us a fairer or more harmonious outlook than our actual desire dictates. We won't help smooth out these inevitable bumps by pretending they're not so bumpy, or disingenuously acting like the changes we're enacting for ourselves won't impact others that much.

Mars-in-Gemini's opposition to Saturn in Sagittarius (on May 28) further highlights the importance of mindfully reinforcing which direction in life we seek to head—and, as an essential part of the process, halting ourselves from continuing with involvements that won't lead us there. Distractions, special exceptions, and other competing attention-draws do add up, siphoning energy away from what's allegedly most important to us, making it that much harder to meet our longer-range Saturn goals. We can't have what's behind Curtain Number Three and Door Number Four, not both at once. So, which is it?

This energetic transition will become undeniably overt once Venus and Mercury simultaneously change signs on Jun 6… particularly because they'll each be headed into signs they rule, granting them both more masterful expression of their symbolic purpose. Venus will arrive to earthy Taurus, a back-to-basics grounding influence that'll emphasize the concrete payoffs (such as sensual pleasure, material security, and interpersonal loyalty) which we can reap from the affiliations and investments we've opted to prioritize. Meanwhile, Mercury lands in mentally-agile Gemini, fueling both a proliferation of new curiosities and the heightened communicative capacity for interactively exploring them. A couple days earlier (Jun 4), Mars will also enter a new sign, leaving behind the frenetic multi-tasking hyperactivity of Gemini for a more nonverbal, emotion-driven approach to self-assertion in Cancer.

The astrological scene should feel quite different by that second week of June. These intervening weeks, then, are ideal for arranging our game-pieces in whatever natural order Venus's retrograde happenings have revealed best suits us… in preparation for another 'next round'.