VENUS turns retrograde on July 22nd until September 3rd, but its themes are active all month, as its pre-shadow period begins on June 19th and extends to October 7th.
During this time, we are being asked to examine and update our habitual ways of relating. As different flavors of presence shine through us, our relational solar system gets shaken and re-constellated.
Everyone is included, mind you. We are simply surrendering to the relational Tao by noticing, This is the form and distance from which I can most naturally and purely love you.
A great time to ask, What is the larger purpose of relationship? How can this useful illusion (self and other) be more steadily prized and intelligently navigated?
During Venus retro love can temporarily “cool.” No worries. It’s not for lack of caring. It’s simply Venus wanting a wider, more panoramic, perspective from which to devise a more God-given bond.
Three Questions
Here’s three questions that a spiritually alive Venus might ask:
1.What happens when I give up on bridging (and, thereby, affirming) the gap between egos and, instead, address each imaginary “other” as a soul-mirror: a miraculous, God-given catalyst designed to evoke and cleanse me of egoic posturing?
2. How do relationships unfold when I treat them as “practice grounds” in which to turn down the thumpy, stupefying music of mind, tune into the Shepherding Presence and allow my flesh to be incandesced with the Merciful Witness?
3. What happens when I give up on “like and dislike” and allow honest, alive, truth-in-the-moment self-inquiry to decide the form of my relationships?
There is a self-inquiry coach in all of us. Venus Retrograde in Leo has the power to polish it and make it shine.
Venus retro wants us to love wisely. In support of this, spontaneous expressions of love are sometimes paused- replaced by a contemplative reimaginings of how love might flow more smoothly. No one needs to change, mind you. We are simply exploring how to optimize the atmosphere and agreements of love. Think of it as a playful renegotiation between two eternally spiraling souls.
Pulling your partner into your sloppy self-realization process? Stop. Venus Retro will bite you in the but.
Our True Power: Energy Moving
July opens with the Full Moon in Capricorn on the 3rd. Harmoniously aspected with Jupiter and Saturn, this Moon reveals the steps we need to take to manifest a new vision. To stay steady on our soul mission, we need to periodically course correct. The two weeks between this Full Moon in Capricorn and the New Moon in Cancer on the 17th are fertile ground to inquire into how to pay the bills in ways that naturally nourish our soul.
This is shrewd Capricorn power: committing to a service that we’re so organically invested in that the sense of doer-ship dissolves and ego turns into “energy moving.”
July 17th New Moon in Cancer: The Opposition-Free “Yes”
Opposed Pluto, this New Moon signals a need to build deeper trust with others before challenging, confronting or even openly loving them. Trine Neptune, this trust-building happens in exact proportion to how sincerely we honor the intelligence of other’s defenses and invulnerability. There is no hurry to connect or harmonize. The season of mutual empathy will arrive in divine timing. Here’s a meditative prod to relax you into this opposition-free “yes” to others as they are:
There are no people. Just the Great I AM dressed up as avatars. Who can endure such sublime loneliness?
The Pluto Squares
The latter half of July is packed with Pluto squares, making the “right use of power” a major theme this month. In addition, Mars travels close to Venus whilst being squared by Uranus. Passion and creative energy can be harnessed now, providing we don’t slip into empathic failure.
From the 22nd to the 28th, the Sun (and the nodes) are opposed by Pluto, as Mercury squares Uranus. During this blustery, impatient week, beware. If you are prone to power struggle, best to delay action until the 28th when Mercury enters the more modest, discriminating sign of Virgo.
Added to this, is a Mars/Saturn opposition on the 20th challenging us to persevere in the face of set-backs.
Relax. Doors will open and direction will become clear when Venus goes direct on September 3rd, crescendoing during the first five days of October when Saturn trines Mars, and Venus trines the north node in Aries: the perfect time to take a bold, realistic step that moves us closer to what we love.
Hunter Reynolds
astrodharma.org
Transits for July 2023
Jul 3rd- Full Moon in Capricorn
Jul 9th- Last Quarter Moon in Aries
Jul 10th- Mars enters Virgo
Jul 11th- Mercury enters Leo
Jul 17th- New Moon in Cancer
Jul 22nd- Venus Retrograde
Jul 22nd – Sun enters Leo
Jul 23rd- Chiron Retrograde in Aries
Jul 25th- First Quarter Moon in Scorpio
Jul 28th- Pluto square True Node
Jul 28th- Mercury enters Virgo
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