Venus stations direct, Mars comes into focus
Dear Friend and Reader:

The December monthly horoscope will be ready one week from now, right after the Sun has ingressed Sagittarius. Today, I'm here to share my closing thoughts on Venus retrograde.

This week, Venus stations direct in Libra, ending a six-week retrograde that has carried Venus back from mid-Scorpio, past conjunctions with many planets (including Mars and Vesta) and into late Libra. The station direct happens Thursday, but a couple days' advance notice is a good amount of time to consider the shift in energy and prepare to get your Venus momentum moving forward.

Eric Francis.

Retrogrades of Venus and Mars are distinctly personal, but they also have an influence on the news. I'm not sure I can see direct correlations, except possibly for events that bring people together. Let's see -- there were the Chilean miners being rescued; that was just over a month ago, though it seems like years. Here in the States we went through the peak of a frantic election cycle, in which the Republicans and the Tea Party swiped back the majority of the House of Representatives and a bunch of Senate seats. Candidates seemed to be taking advice from The Onion's analysis of "no values voters" who elect candidates based on how mean they are.

Stephen Colbert and/or Jon Stewart had their Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear, elevating comedians from the stature of newscasters to that of civil rights leaders. There was that wacky situation where packages around the world were intercepted in the FedEx and UPS parcel streams, which were allegedly directed at addresses of synagogues in Chicago. There were some incredible labor demonstrations and riots in France, protesting the proposed raising of the retirement age in a country where many people live for retirement -- if you can imagine such a thing. Consider: you're sitting there working in La Poste, thinking: just 27 more years to go! And then somebody tells you it might be 29.

As for those who voted in the Tea Party by storm: unfortunately, they may be in for a cold bath. The promises they were making are much harder to achieve than even something like health care industry reform. The thing is that once you're in government, you figure out the job of government is to spend money. As Venus stations, the values presented to voters will be reassessed; the stated goal of incoming representatives and senators was to shrink the debt and the deficit; they will vote to raise the debt ceiling in January, because they have to if they want to keep drawing paychecks.

I'm curious how this transit has manifested in your personal life. Have old friends or lovers turned up in your Facebook or voicemail? That is fairly typical of a Venus retrograde cycle. What have you re-evaluated? What decisions are you close to making, with this week as the focal point for actually firming up your resolve and putting the decision into action (same thing)?

While the external world has raged with a values crisis disguised as politics, I've been proposing that the inner-plane expression of this Venus retrograde consists of erotic reality and our relationship experiences morphing into one another. Vesta's presence in Scorpio during much of Venus retrograde has helped me focus the theme, into an inwardly directed version of sexuality (the kind you rarely hear about, but the one most of us live, most of the time). Earlier in the retrograde, I presented this in an article called The Sacred Space of Self.

Here is a bit from that article:

In Scorpio, Venus represents the powerful female desire nature, which some astrologers have associated with manipulation (a likely reference to the power aspect of Scorpio). In a sense, Venus is out of place expressing desire directly; that is more the realm of Mars. Of course, this is in the opinion of the Holy See. If we want to know what sex was like before the Christians got hold of it and took over the topic completely, we need to study the bonobos. So far, no missionary has converted a single one. They are natural people. (You can read more about them, and what their lives say about humans, in an excellent new book called Sex At Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality.)

So, that's a peek backwards. This week, concurrent with Venus stationing direct, Mars comes under focus in Sagittarius. That's because planets are aligning with and around Mars in that sign, close to an intergalactic point called the Great Attractor. The alignment includes Mercury, Mars, Pallas, Pholus, Hylonome and Ixion: a couple of planets, an asteroid, two centaurs and a trans-Neptunian point; a motley crew, gathering around a huge amplification device.

Alignment at Venus stationing direct on Thursday. In case you're curious, here is a glyph key.

I am not quite sure what to make of this alignment; it could mean something significant happens in the 'news world' around us -- as if something significant isn't happening every day in terms of all that is not quite getting done that needs attention. Since we have the great benefit of not being a sold-out senator or congressman (it's stressful), this energy is available for creative purposes.

Sagittarius offers determination and the ability to focus on a single goal. There is a warrior quality that offers a feeling distinct from any other sign, blending the passionate quality of fire with the intuitive and mystical quality of water (Sagittarius is a mutable fire sign, which gives it a watery quality sometimes). Sagittarius points toward home; the whole sign functions as a spiritual homing signal and, since that is geographically true (Sagittarius is the home of the center of our galaxy) we can consider the practical side.

Now that we're getting near done internalizing all of this Venus energy, what do we want to accomplish, achieve or create in the world around us?

Here is how I put it in Friday's Sagittarius horoscope:

Planets are gathering in your sign, in a configuration that releases its power as Venus stations direct next week. The alignment is so potent I suggest you touch everything and everyone in your life as though your fingers have lasers on the tips. That includes the words you use, and it includes the feelings you feel and the thoughts that you think. Consider yourself a transmitting station that broadcasts on every frequency. Therefore, the most helpful way to proceed is to hold everyone in a space of love and appreciation. Find what to appreciate even about the people you don't like so much. Practice guiding your mind in a wholly positive direction. You have so much influence that you are highly likely to manifest what you think and feel in tangible form; what witches call the threefold law is in full operation: it all comes back to you with three times the intensity you put out.

Note that we have a week with both Venus and Mars in focus. That amps up our male-female kind of mojo. This is an excellent week to set aside some of that Nancy Reagan and Tipper Gore stuff about "just saying no" to anything vaguely fun, and do what your soul is calling you to do.

It is indeed calling -- if you're listening.

Don't miss Wednesday's podcast on our main blog, and see you Friday with a regular edition.

Yours & truly,