Venus Backtracks ~ 7 October 2010

Before dealing with the topic of the week, here’s some input on a few stories making astronomical headlines. Some astronomers are 100% convinced that the planet Gliese 581g is habitable and can support life as we know it. Not a bad determination about a star 20 light years away. The position for Gliese 581 is 19 Scorpio 31 according to NASA figures. However, if you plug right ascension and declination into astrological software, you’ll get a slightly different result: 19 Scorpio 40, plus or minus.


There’s also a green comet (103P/Hartley 2) making a showing for itself. As typically happens with the apparition of a comet, this is likely to be called the fulfillment of the Blue Star Prophecy, which should be a positive indicator of a peaceful run for humankind. However, this is not the Blue Star. It is a comet - one of many short period comets - and it is green, with no known history of causing mayhem on planet Earth. We’ve dealt with this guy before: Starting in 1985, its discovery year, and again in 1991 and other apparitions every 6.46 years, none of which brought the end of humanity or the creation of a thousand years of peace.


The Blue Star, by the way, was more likely the supernova explosion in February 1987. This is when an actual blue star blew up, which constitutes an unusual astronomical event; even more unusual, the explosion was documented. Sadly, if this supernova event intended to mark an evolution toward peacefulness and understanding on planet Earth, it is hard to locate widespread influences of this.


The big news presently, is the upcoming retrogradation interval of Venus. Venus is the least likely of our planets to be found in the relative reverse motion, maintaining a svelte retrograde time window of slightly more than 7% of the time. A notable effect during any retrograde is when the body makes an alignment between the Earth and the Sun. In this window, an acute conscious sense of what issues a planet represents can be achieved, and with effort, a positive real world impact can be conjured/constructed/created on the day of the alignment. For this next Venus retrograde, this occurs on October 29th at 01:05 GMT.


Ironically, such clarity in matters of Venus (and Mercury, too) occurs during her inferior conjunction (in between the Earth and the Sun) and one of two times when she offers no visible presence. Her other time of invisibility occurs when she takes a position on the opposite side of the Sun from Earth - the superior conjunction. How curious that in these instances, Venus requires a blind faith - as in she cannot be seen - attitude regarding her presence and influence. No doubt, the clearer, conscious realization of matters relating to Venus, creates commitment to cause, conviction and inspires definitive action to support the concerns that one seeks to fulfill in order to bring a larger sense of satisfaction and contentment to life on Earth.


Often the classic conflicts of Venus as delineated in the mundane realm break down to matters of need vs. want or need vs. desire. For those of fundamental persuasions, this often occurs within a framework of a need being positive in nature and anything “more” or want-oriented being negative. An alternative view comes within the suggestion that if a person can shift the desires of life into qualities that strengthen their destiny approach, virtuous transformation is at hand. Are venial vindications possible? Can vitriolic tendencies victoriously melt into compassion? Is voracious a bad thing or should it be construed as exceptional edacious enthusiasm? Is too much of a good thing really wonderful, or should that be moderated? As is said of Venus, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. So, with Venus retrograding, perhaps it’s time to (re)assess mundane need and want factors to make sure living the good life remains perfectly aligned within personal views of social, professional, spiritual and global standards.


Maybe with Venus retrograding, if a person concluded positive things about her/his inner value, creativity, intrinsic worth, the social networking craze could move away from “do you like it?” into something far less frantic, moving as far away from that frenzied culture rage as possible. Just a thought. When Facebook crashed a short while ago for three hours, how did social acceptance manage to continue? Where did people turn? Venus suggests: turn inward, which is a direction away from excessive and repeated mouse clicking of the refresh function.


Over the past year, as many of you may know from following the Galactic Times, I have been actively submitting my writing to festivals, fellowships and competitions, specific to the film industry. During this past year I have had several screenplays achieve awards and many others reach the finalist rounds. Sometimes you get to the top round and winning bracket, sometimes you don’t, entering the exact same screenplay. But here’s what I’ve come to realize (and having read a number of other winning screenplays in these same fests), once you get to the finals, you’ve got something good going and you know what you’re doing. At this point of judging and advancement, a small overlooked detail or plot point not paid off may be the bumping factor, but more likely than not, it becomes a matter of personal taste of the person reading and judging the wares. All the finalist scripts are good. It’s subjective at this point and often comes down to personal taste. Some folks like Colombian coffee blends; some like Kona. There are those who don’t like coffee at all and prefer Earl Grey tea. Some tea drinkers want nothing to do with caffeine, going toward herbal brews. Is one better than another? It’s about taste.


With Venus and her retrogradation, if you submitted your latest app idea to the leading app phone company out there and they said “no,” does it make your app a bad idea? No. Maybe they didn’t see the merit of it or didn’t like it. Perhaps one of the fledgling app phone companies will pick it up and make you and them a boatload of bucket fulls of money. The intrinsic worth of the app stands, whether recognized or not.


Keeping the subjectivity of taste in mind during a Venus retrograde era, does help reset bumps, rejects, unfriendings, job firings, passes with your greatest screenplay or the corporate board laughing your latest proposal out of the meeting. Part of Venus’ influence works with a person to cultivate an exquisite personal niche. Some folks will “dig it” and bump it up in reader rankings, others will diss it. The intrinsic merit remains the same. Venus demands that one reclaim her/his intrinsic value from the buffets of life and build a strong destiny supporting attribute to each quality of the self that one values, regardless of what others value. While she’s retrograde, it is an amazing time to comply with her demands.


How amazing and ironic that Venus, a.k.a. Aphrodite, and the winner of the Golden Apple in the Eris’ (who hated snubbing and exclusion) ultimate “fairest of them all” festival during the wedding of the century, comes up with a plan for immunity from the pangs and detours on the roadways of social acceptance, professional advancement and other concerns one may hold about things that create a personally noteworthy life.


Finally, sometimes during Venus retrograde, grant submissions, loan applications, petitions for paid internships and the like may reach receptive reviewers, despite the number of times previously rejected.


Retreat, review, regroup and resurge. It’s the Venus retrograde thing to do.