Astrodharma Transit Report: October 2018

WHEN LOVE TURNS INTO OPTIMAL DISTANCE

Every 18 months, for about 40 days, Venus retrograde (Oct 6- Nov 16) elbows us to update our relationship values and come into deeper integrity with the souls we claim to know and love. How? By asking,

Who am I becoming by virtue of standing in this soul-mirror? How do I see myself through their eyes? Do they empower my light and help me reckon with my dark? And, most importantly, What am I reflecting back to them- and thus turning them into?

These are not things that the personality-fascinated mind has the power to assess, so Venus plunges us into a soul-reckoning interpersonal winter, followed by a Spring-like rebirth of the heart.

Sturdy, time-tested relationships may appear unaffected. More tenuous unions may need some recalibrating distance. But in both cases, deep inside, a subtle part of everyone retreats, to stare at the crackling fire of the heart and ponder:

From what distance do I most optimally appreciate the beauty of this soul?

Optimal Distance Practice

When you’re navigating a Venus Retrograde period, it’s never about “love or not-love;” it’s about “optimal distance.” Remember this term! It’s the essence of Venus retrograde’s teaching.

If you love someone, you are obedient to the relationship’s subtle seasons. You abandon preconceived pictures of what closeness looks like and allow Doctor Venus to prescribe the precise, moment-to-moment “optimal distance” from which your view of each other stays pure and free of mental static. No matter how loyally you’ve loved someone, you are not truly loving them -in this moment- unless you approach them with beginner’s mind and are humbly obedient to the commandments of Venus: master of measured merging.

In this sense, love is a spiritual practice and it is precisely this optimal distance practice that Venus Retro longs to impart.

Invisible Current

Call it “the Tao,” the “Shepherding Presence,” or simply, “the desire to stay humble and sensitive;” there is, within everyone, a invisible current tugging, longing to rip us from the banks of identity and preconception so awareness can spill ego back into the ocean of the unborn, undying fullness of Being that we truly are.

Where does the bulk of this clinging and letting go happen? You guessed it. In the mirror of Venusian relationship. Awakening, it turns out, is nothing, if not sensitivity, and obedience to, the changing seasons of human love.

This is not just about lovers. Venus retro wants us to feel into the shifting energies of every interaction and notice the otherworldly egg timer ticking in the background, determining the exact length of every hand shake, hug and eye gaze. Suddenly, we see it: We do not start relationships or end them; She does. We do not save marriages or divorce; we are pawns in the drama of an omnipotent match-maker, and match-killer.

Venus Retro in Scorpio

In the sign of Scorpio, Venus retro swings between confess and couldn’t-care-less. Of course, no soul is at home with this kind of reactive role play. Dramatic breakups, hook-ups and all manifestations of Plutonic craving and aversion are, upon reflection, merely insecure, ego-hardening identity grabs. Venus retro in Scorpio is the season for treacherous, taboo levels of self-inquiry, not heel-digging positionality. Vexed by a dysfunctional longterm relationship dynamic? Itching for some dramatic, no-turning-back final solution? What’s the rush? If your decision is truly guided by your soul, it will still be true after November 16th when Venus goes direct. In the mean time, keep practicing the art of assessing the optimal, love-preserving distance you need between yourself and your beloved. This will not be easy. Why? Because there’s a deeper, more existential reason you want to usurp equanimity with egoic passion.

Seen from a silent, retrospective place, the excruciatingly predictable unwindings of each human encounter are too surreal to grab at or push away. The result: “wanting mind” gets unemployed. It’s like watching some speedy time lapse footage of a patch of forest defoliating and refoliating through the years. The only way to digest this manic display of coming and going is to ground into what stays the same (the timeless presence staring through us). Uh oh. Suddenly, personal love looks like a giddy dodge from “awareness in love with itself,” and our partner/friends may or may not be interested in joining us there. Surely, you can guess what death-stinky Venus  has to say about that.

The Four Seasons of Relating

What do come-and-go eyes see when beholding come-and-go interactions?  Accelerated cycles of budding and defoliation. Perhaps this playful template will help mature your season-sensing abilities.

Spring
Aha! What one-of-a-kind flavour of divine presence do we have here, and what robotic habits of mind will this fizzy interpersonal chemistry flush up to the surface to be mercifully loved away?

Summer
How blessed am I to bask in the ego-melting presence of this being, trading truths that awaken us both from the dream of separation!

Fall
The window of awakening in this particular soul-mirror is beginning to close; time to start transitioning into a grateful goodbye.

Winter
At peace with God’s come-and-go dream, the absence of this soul is so obviously untrue. We are eternal subconscious companions!

Love Timing for October

Harmonious Dates:

Oct 15- Venus conjunct Mercury
Oct 24-26- Venus sextile Saturn/conjunct Sun

Challenging Dates:

October 10th- Venus square Mars
Oct 30/31- Venus opposition Uranus (Yes, that’s Halloween)

Venus Retro Dates

Sept 3rd- Venus enters shadow phase
Oct 5/6- Venus goes retrograde in Scorpio
Nov 1st- Venus re-enters Libra
Nov 16th- Venus goes direct in Libra
Nov 17th- Venus clears final shadow phase

Transits for October 2018

(Please post subtitles on your calendar!)

Oct 5- Venus stations Retrograde in Scorpio
A standstill. Confusion. Don’t say much.
Oct 8- New Moon in Libra
With or without partner, begin optimal distance practice in earnest.
Oct 9- Mercury enters Scorpio
Oct 23- Sun enters Scorpio
Oct 24- Full Moon in Taurus conjunct Uranus
Discuss grounded changes that will enliven relationship
Oct 26- Venus conjunct Sun
Love re-energizes
Oct 31- Mercury enters Sagittarius
Oct 31- Venus Retrograde enters Libra
Samsara: a Drunk Halloween!

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