Blues Traveler is one of my memories from college in the ‘90s. Their approachable music, fast moving lyrics and harmonica-wielding joy was felt by all at their concerts. I saw them at least once and I enjoyed them with the rest of the crowd. Some were on a different planet due to their type of recreation, but all felt the rhythm of the beat and sang along: “And the hook brings you baaack, I ain’t tellin’ you no lie!” The hook is the heart of a song and so our hearts do bring us back and help us find joy as we move in a collective moment. Venus retrograde is a collective turning backwards and we find ourselves in that moment right now. Traveling without moving is definitely a retrograde experience that Jamiriquoi knows all about it, but we also travel backward in our minds and sing the blues in our hearts, making Blues Traveler the right band for the moment.
The Venus retrograde cycle, or the time when Venus appears to move backwards, happens every 18 months and lasts about a month. It’s common and therefore part of our collective cycle, but we experience it individually as well. Retrogrades are about time and usually reveal memories to find a new perspective. This time Venus dances backward with the season, making us consider the mystery of what it represents. All through October we turned backward in our perspective to find within our hearts a better understanding of who we are individually and collectively. Turning inward to find the truth is part of it, making the path easier, but for some there might be a goblin up ahead, keeping you from what you’re trying to accomplish. For some it’s about style of partnership, for others it’s finances, while still others it’s creativity. For me, the last retrograde lined up with my son leaving for college and this time it brings me back to my childhood.
The retrograde cycle moves in rhythm and time and brings about change through contemplating the past. Our hearts bring us back to understand why we are hurt and how we can move forward through healing. It is not a long process but the overlapping cycles can create a feeling of being dragged down. If you have not relieved yourself of hurt from the past, your heart will let you know during this cycle. Sometimes we go dark, disappear into the void, even while going about our daily routines. And this is right and true for how we live in the 21st century. Going backwards can feel redactive, like being canceled out. But we know through our creative process that sometimes we have to go backward to go forward or at least look back to find a new path.
The retrograde movement takes on a new timbre when we are feeling low. The time to look within is never easy and we find ourselves cringing at past behaviors that make us feel stuck. But the low parts of life mean we are learning from the past and help us understand that those behaviors are no longer part of our world view. Understanding this from a systems perspective helps, like the stock market, which is a money institution with highs and lows.
Venus is known as both the evening and morning star and has its own mysterious cycle. The ancient people of Mesopotamia named Venus Ishtar and gave it the symbol of an 8-pointed star. Ishtar was a goddess and the femaleness of this planet never changes. Ishtar was considered the goddess of both love and war, making our modern idiom about this topic a sad commentary on our hearts. When in war, our hearts can’t find peace so the extraction energy of disregard makes it difficult to believe in ourselves. When we tell each other to get out, our hearts only see the dark side of the moon or have a complete blackout of love. Before Ishtar, she was known as the Sumerian goddess Inanna, one of two sisters who was dragged into the Underworld and resurrected, showing that we all journey into dark places but can find light through our own creative cycle.
We know Venus is a planet that orbits the sun like we do. It disappears and reappears as it orbits, like the moon, but follows a different pattern because of its retrograde cycle. As it moves through its 8-year cycle it creates a pentagram, or five-pedaled flower, aligning it with witches, or the wisdom of women. It is called the planet of love and apparently all women are born there while all men are born on Mars, making them all martians, I guess. We all have emotions related to this gorgeous planet and knowing how it intersects with our own cycles is worth a look. But as a star, Ishtar traces our joy and helps us dream at night.
Now we are in November and Venus is set to go direct this week. It has stopped in the sky and is getting ready to move back over the time it covered. As we move forward, our hearts and minds are now aligned as Mercury also moves direct the same day. This is quite a moment as we all are set to change our thinking about our lives and the people in them. We may decide it’s time to travel on and find a new path. We might also discover that our hearts need a new heart-warming message from someone unexpected. Whatever the case, find belief in knowing that who we are wishing on a star for is probably waiting.