by Robert Wilkinson
Venus goes direct at 11:48 pm PDT June 24, 7:48 am BST June 25. This is a threshold from which we move forward in many Venus-ruled areas of our lives. Much that we’ve been reviewing between mid-May and now will be set into motion in March-April 2021.
This indicates we’ve begun a period where Venus will move through its shadow zone in Gemini for the third time, giving us a chance to apply what we have learned during its retrograde period. This offers us the ability to cultivate skill in using our Venusian planetary functions within the lessons indicated by the degree spans it’s transited.
As I've pointed out in previous articles outlining how the retrograde influence works, we first experience the sign lessons when planets cross those spans. Then we get a new look or new experience of those sign lessons when planets retrograde across those spans. Then we get to weave these two approaches or understandings together and apply them when the planets again go direct and cross the span a third time.
What Has Venus Retrograde Brought Us, and Where Is It Going?
In this case, Venus, the planet of love, relationships, values and resources, having begun its retrograde at 22 Gemini, has now moved back to 6 Gemini, where it is going direct. Its time in Gemini gave us insights into old relationships, old values, old desires, and old losses, or gave us insight into past Gemini relationship issues so we could remember why we had to leave some behind by taking a look at what we wanted and why we wanted it. This could also apply to any Venus-ruled area, such as values and/or resources.
As I mention in my book Saturn: Spiritual Master, Spiritual Friend, Venus’ planetary duality is Wisdom/Folly. We are told this part of us is how our subconscious mind responds to our self-conscious perceptions. Venus retrograde has allowed us to review some Gemini elements of this mental relationship to see how past likes and dislikes affect our current subconscious reactions.
If there were reconnections with people and values from the past, we can now can move forward in more thoughtful and natural ways. The reviews, rewinds, and remembrances we’ve experienced the past month and a half have shown us how relationships in the past helped us get a new perspective on others, especially “the law of unintended consequences,” or old conflicts resulting from misunderstandings or perceptions which should have been taken a different way by us or our peers way back when. We now can move forward in the life areas indicated by the houses where we have 6 through 22 Gemini. Obviously it also impacts the houses where we have Taurus and Libra in our chart.
How To Apply This Knowledge In Your Chart
By way of illustration, in my chart the Venus retrograde fell in my 11th house (Equal house had it RX into my 10th). Among other things, I got a Venusian "review" of an issue I suspect is a past life reaction to something which is anti-democratic. I’ve been reviewing my goals and ambitions to get a new look at what I value and why. As our only resources are time, energy, and money, I’ve been doing “mental gymnastics” in seeing how I can reorder these to achieve my goals. And I’ve become very close with a friend who has Moon in Gemini ruling his Ascendant.
As Venus rules my 3rd and 4th houses, I’ve had delays and postponements in factors involving those houses. I’ve been doing a lot of walking in my neighborhood, seen some interesting things about my neighbors, and accomplished a lot of Venusian tasks around the home. As usual with Venus retrograde, I’ve been thinking back on prior homes and moves, and have been reviewing how I came to see things in my early life. It has also led me to an understanding of my need to learn some things as foundation for the goals and ambitions I want to accomplish in the future.
The Sabian Symbol for Venus Stationary Direct
Venus goes direct at 6 Gemini. We are told the symbol for the 6th degree of Gemini is “Drilling for Oil.” In the original notes from the Marc Jones class on the symbols published in The Astrology of Personality,, Rudhyar says this is a degree of “exaggerated activity in pursuit of material wealth,” and “capacity to drive oneself in view of future and speculative gains.”
In The Astrological Mandala he offers that this degree is about "the avidity for that knowledge which ensures wealth and power.” He goes on to state that “this symbol superficially considered can be referred to the insatiable drive of modern man for power and wealth,” elaborating that “drilling for oil may represent the attempt to penetrate to the deep layers of the collective Unconscious and to reawaken the powers of the archaic psyche…”
He then says Gemini is about “insatiable curiosity and avidity for knowledge,” with the twins seeking knowledge and power from the past, as well as a living current source. He closes his comments with “it deals with the emotional … and socially prized reaction of most human beings to the attainment of new forms of knowledge, i.e., ambition.” He states this degree falls in the Span of Zeal, Act of Differentiation, Scene of Discovery on the Emotional-Social level.
Dr. Jones, creator of the Sabian Symbols, says this is a degree of our “indomitable efforts to discover every last resource of the world,” and of our “desire to endow our experience with every possible enhancement “ in material terms. He says this shows our “capacity for penetrating to the uttermost depths of whatever potentiality may be of immediate concern” and “opening new dimensions of being by (our) willingness to undergo every possible risk in pursuing even the most uncertain of objectives.”
He offers the keyword SPECULATION. He states that when operating positively, the degree is “achievement through an exceptional concentration or specialization of effort.”
So this is a degree of learning to mobilize to get the knowledge we need to ensure some sort of “wealth” or “power” in the future. This is a “threshold moment” where we can drill deep (however we define that) to awaken some power deep within us, or find a new ambition to focus our intention. We have now begin a period of finding resources and getting to the heart of any matter to find new dimensions of potential.
From Here Our Venus Areas Move Forward
This sets a platform for Venusian realizations along these lines and the ability to move forward with a sense of opening to new knowledge and perspectives on how to discover what will make us more effective in the future when evaluating the worth of past, present, and future relationships through 2022. Obviously, if Venus makes aspects to your natal planets from 6 Gemini, then by those aspects your planetary functions will be challenged or understood, used productively or become specialized according to the specific aspect Venus makes to your planets. This will impact both the life areas of the houses these occupy, as well as the houses they rule.
So now that Venus is direct in motion, it means the life areas ruled by Taurus and Libra (the houses with those signs on the cusp, or edge of the house) should now show some movement forward after many weeks of being slowed, stopped, or even seeming to go backwards. Venus retrograde has given us all a chance to slow down in our interactions, take a new look at old relations to see what was of value, what was blocked, and if they created insecurity or suspicion in our relationships since then. We’re now done with a period when some Venusian things were on hold and can proceed from here, since we know what to expect now that Venus moves forward in Gemini.
Elaborating on the concept that Venus a background effect for those areas ruled by planets we have in Taurus and Libra, I have Neptune in Libra in the 3rd, spiritual ruler of my 5th and 8th. Venus going direct will affect my Neptune function, and so indirectly my 3rd, 5th, and 8th house. That's definitely looming large in my life!
So from here we move forward in the Taurus and Libra sectors. The interesting thing is that Venus literally makes no aspects with any other planet right now except for a trielftile with the intense Jupiter conjunct Pluto.
This implies we need to make leaps of faith that we can and will find the knowledge we need to navigate the pressure of transformation indicated by that conjunction. So it may be that we’ll a) move forward in relationships which require faith to overcome a duality beyond individual control, and/or b) see the emergence of newer, more dynamic relationships that will be important in testing our faith and skill when confronting dualities which seek to control rather than liberate. This will give us the ability to be more adaptable, open, and in the spirit of discovery when discussing ideas related to power.
Venus has had Mercury as its dispositor during its retrograde phase. Mercury was in Gemini when Venus went SRX, and stayed in that sign until May 28, when it entered Cancer. So when Mercury was in Gemini, it was Venus’ final dispositor; when Mercury entered Cancer, the Moon became its dispositor, so it’s been VERY changeable every two days for the past 3+ weeks. As Venus will be in Gemini through August 7, Mercury will continue to provide a Cancerian backdrop to all Venus related events through August 4, when it enters Leo and gives Venus a little flash at the end of its stay in Gemini.
Planets going from retrograde to direct challenge us to move forward with a view to what we’ve just been through. At least Venus has shown us what is true, good, and valuable in the changes we are considering. Many of these changes will be stable by January 2021 when Jupiter trines this Venus station, followed by Saturn’s trine. This will open up a void which will a) show us the results of our previously held ideals, and/or b) it will show us the need for steady visualization if we want something to manifest.
So as you move forward, open to learning what you need to for greater effectiveness, and follow your curiosity and spirit of discovery to find alternative means of communicating what you need to in forms of personal power. Be alert to changing conditions and unusual opportunities, and see the general trends forming down the road. Be flexible, understand what has greater or lesser value, and tune in on the Life that’s all around you. You just may hear some things from the Garden of your Life!
And of course, Mercury retrograde just began! In 2018, Venus went stationary direct just before Mercury went retrograde. This year the sequence is the inverse of that! The beat goes on and on and on...
© Copyright 2020 Robert Wilkinson
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