The Fog is Lifting
Slowly, but surely bbs.
I could feel the shift on Sunday morning. Venus went direct on Saturday at 9pm, the last of the retrograde planets to finally shift. As I was sitting with everything that I’ve been navigating in the last few months, I realized this is the first week without a personal planet retrograde since November!!! 😮💨
If you include Mars’ shadow, this has been going on since last October and doesn’t clear until May 16th. Our endurance is being TESTED. Venus is the last to leave it’s shadow in the middle of May, so we still have a way to travel friends.
Retrogrades are shit-stirrers, especially for personal planets (Mercury, Venus and Mars). They are times when business as usual gets disrupted to dig up what needs to be dealt with. The pre-retrograde shadow gets us ready for what needs to be revisited and sorted through, then the retrograde takes us deep into the underneath of what we need to work through.
The final leg of the retrograde period (the one we are in for each of those personal planets) is the post-retrograde period.
It’s confusing because we want to move forward as soon as the energy goes direct, but it’s too soon. When a planet changes direction (for example Venus right now), it’s energy is wobbly. It’s in transition. Then, it still has to traverse the tender area that it just retrograded through.
On the flip side, the post-retrograde shadow is a really potent time to integrate. Don’t miss the opportunity to garner the incredible wisdom of these retrogrades by rushing away from the lessons that they brought up.
One of my favorite transformational practices that I’ve used for the last several years is to sit with the hard during post-retrograde shadows. The lessons are so clear in that moment right when the tension lifts. The solutions are not readily available quite yet, so it’s not a time to take action. It’s a time of integration. It’s a time of preparation.
These past SEVEN months have brought up a lot of HARD.
One of the ways supremacy delusion persists is because we have lost the capacity to sit with the hard. We have internalized it. We believe that whatever is hard is because of a failure on our part.
What if that’s not true? What if it’s hard because it’s just hard? What if it didn’t work out because it just wasn’t meant to work out?
The idea that life is meant to just work for you or your doing it wrong is a LIE we have been sold because it looks cute and is “preferable”. I don’t know about you, but a truth that I don’t like feels a lot better than a lie that I am bumping up against over and over.
Proceed with caution right now bbs. We are in retrograde shadows until May 16th. Always always use your strategy and authority to figure out what is ready to be acted on, and what needs some reflection first.
The full moon this past weekend was a really tender one. She was conjunct chiron (the wounded healer), who is the archetype of the wound that never full heals, but you do the shit anyway. Many of us are feeling like “damn, can I catch a break”, including myself! The things that haven’t been working are so fucking glaring right now.
Breathe into the tension.
Trust.
Soothe your inner child.
Refocus.
What needs to shift? What have you learned?
What IS working?
For me, it’s clients that are having huge breakthroughs and working through some of the hardest life choices: career pivots, school changes, friend breakups, ill family members, mental health scares, business partner challenges, and more.
The privilege of walking beside you through the hardest parts of your life is one thing I will never take for granted. It is the honor of my life.
I love this image of Venus’ path through the sky. The idea of Venus painting flowers through the sky as we are propelled through space is so soothing and inspiring. Isn’t that what we are here for? To make our art?
I can’t wait to hear what has come up for you through this retrograde marathon of marathons. One thing is for sure, we are stronger than we ever realized. With the number of planetary changes this year and next, on top of the shifts we know are coming in 2027 - we need to be doubled down on building our capacity for discomfort in the name of what’s right and just.
Every single one of us has a role in moving our collective forward to a more loving and equitable existence.