By Judith Gayle | Political Waves

UTILITARIAN VIRGO is a difficult placement for lush, lusty Venus. With Venus in Virgo turned retrograde and sailing backwards through the small details that make life tidy, ordered and, often, neurotic, our attention has probably turned to examine the frayed ends of our relationships. If our partner's imperfections seem more apparent than usual, that's our current Venus pulling at the threads that are hanging; best to remember that if it's a critical thread, the whole garment will unravel. Also a good idea to understand the temporary energy of this retro and use it to our advantage.

Those closest to you, whether partner or children or parents, may work your nerves now -- Venus is where we're comfortable, and if any of these people are messing with your comfort zone you may need to fight the urge to lop off their head. I'd advise you to think of the mess that would make on the carpet. Particularly with the "beloved," we may find ourselves biting our tongues...or not. The badly squeezed toothpaste tube, the screwed-up checkbook or abandoned mess in the kitchen, the annoying habits of the day may not be enough to make you rethink your relationship with your partner, but it might add significantly to any unresolved tensions between you. The tensions themselves are the bigger picture -- and the critical focus on details can bring that into sharp relief now. Unless you want a new carpet -- and maybe a new relationship -- beware of psychic bloodletting.

The Virgo preoccupation with detail can produce a blindsiding effect, often heavy-handed -- think Adolf Eichmann, the über-organized Nazi bureaucrat, poring over maps and crunching numbers to move Jews out of the Fatherland and into extermination camps, obsessed with the logistics of the project but not its moral implications. After he was caught and tried, his defense was that he was simply being the best administrator he could be, an efficient workman toiling for his government. Eichmann wasn't a Virgo, but his personal style shows us the dangers of disconnecting from the larger reality. Micromanaging the details doesn't always give you the bigger picture -- and may not earn you any sympathy when it all goes awry. Letting the details point us to flaws in the larger value system is the better part of critical thinking.

Virgo is an earth sign, practical in its application. It's a cool energy -- and oddly idealistic. As with all the Mutables, it has its own push/pull between what is earthly and what is not, what is pragmatic and what is visionary. The sign of the Virgin has a hard row to hoe, carrying the energy of the uninitiated, pregnant with possibility -- or perhaps the possibility of pregnancy -- and the desire for purity. Perfection is not of this world, yet Virgo strives for it. Finding it in someone else is a lost cause; finding it in self is a constant search for self-esteem and understanding. Perhaps that's why Virgo natives are often gentle and moderate, shy and humble, caught in a loop of their own self-analysis. And that is a saving grace -- the mote in our own eye is far more dependable a barometer for growth and mature relationship than pointing out the flaws in others. Consider:

The greatest gift you can give to somebody is your own personal development. I used to say, "If you take care of me, I will take care of you." Now I say, "I will take care of me for you, if you will take care of you for me."
                                                                                                                                                       --Jim Rohn

A critical eye, of itself, is not unwelcome, these days. There's certainly plenty of which to be critical, starting with government. The recent Full Moon in Aquarius, representing an altruistic public vision, faced off against the Leo Sun in her individual reality and culminated in an avalanche of outcry against the manipulative Bush administration and its dark secrets. Public pressure for accountability, and focused on Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, has resulted in the release of information that informs us of an even larger domestic spying effort than previously understood.

Impeachment has become a topic discussed at the dinner table, as dissatisfaction with most all government agencies ripens into a frustrated sense of revolution. Perhaps that Aquarian outrage finally tipped the balance to prompt the welcome news that the UN will send peacekeepers into Darfur, at long last, and after a staggering amount of death that can only be called genocide.

Our dissatisfaction -- I think of it as divine discontent -- has brought us some movement toward corrections. Caught in the larger energies of our current global change, what has proven unsatisfactory in our lives is a catalyst to urge us into the self-reflection that can provide a solid basis for improvement. Loving, generous Venus will welcome in change for the better as long as it isn't harsh or mean-spirited -- there is nothing stringent or self-denying in her. Examining the details of our lives can be a relief, a focal point, in a world gone overblown and overwhelming, but it's only a piece of the larger puzzle, one that should be applied to our own behaviors as well as the behavior of those with whom we share relationship.

On August 6, Venus will move back into Leo, and take our self-examination in a different direction. Until then, remember that "relationship" is not only applicable to intimates or people; we are in relationship with everything. The attitudes we hold about security define our relationship with money, for instance. Our patterns with authority color our relationship with employment, church and government. We have an opportunity to reassess what no longer serves us, what we have outgrown in all these relationships, and it is important to apply that with a wide brush. The question may well be, "Who's wrong with me," rather than "what" -- but the internal growth that allows us to come to grips with a wrong choice in partner must point us back at our own decisions to select them in the first place. 

All the transient energies come to us as a gift for self-discovery; Venus in Virgo may not be a comfortable period, but it has the ability to inform us of our dissatisfactions and apply them to our vision for the future. What we want must be built out of what we have -- it isn't possible to remodel without a thorough understanding of the blueprint that produced the original structure. This retrograde Venus is a potent pill to swallow, but it's timely, even necessary. And, I'd add, being gentle with self and others...as best you can...will allow you some satisfaction on the other side of the ride. A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down, they say -- and keeps the blood off the carpet.


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