This article has audio! Right here!

Thanks to everyone who joined in the conference call on Venus retrograde, hosted by Melissa Halsey of Widsomword. I enjoyed the circle and had a good time blabbing about Venus retro, and I hope you enjoyed it as well.

If you couldn’t make the circle, you can still download the recording.

Update: Paula transcribed the conference and sent in her transcription (posted below). Thanks, Paula!

Venus Retrograde Thoughts and concepts

(as taken from a telephone conference with Molly Cliborne and Melissa Halsey)

Venus goes retrograde for approximately 43 days every year and a half or so. It offers us an opportunity to look at love in a different light. Our ideas of beauty, décor, fashion, and love are all in a different place than normal. Keep an open mind and heart to a new way of looking at things, because this is a time of weird opportunities.

Venus rules money, what we value, what is enjoyable, it is the pleasure principle, rules attraction, love, relationships, values.

Money tends to be slightly delayed during Venus retrogrades. It is a great time to look inward on love issues, take a close look at our values and re-evaluate.

Don’t get married during a Venus retrograde period, and don’t get a tattoo during a Venus retrograde period. You may wake up after the retrograde period is over and think, “What did I do?� and you likely won’t see things in the same light at all.

Things don’t function in normal ways, all related to what is above.

There is opportunity to do deep inner work with the July 27 – Sept 8th (11:14 am central time at 16 Leo) Venus retrograde due to the Saturn (work) trine Pluto (transformation) that opens doors of opportunity to accept wisdom, and make changes. Around the 23rd through the 25th, Venus in the sky is opposite Neptune and it will give attunement to art/beauty and be divine attunement for anything Venusian.

Venus retrograde affects connections between people, and those connections are disrupted in general, during this time. People are more seduceable than normal, and the affect is an internal one. It’s a great time for creative endeavors, due to the Leo influence, but relationships may be in a weird place, unless they are already established relationships where the dance of connection is already fairly well established.

Vibes can get really weird during this time, and a lot of people will be freaking out about relationships. Anything formed during Venus retrogrades tends to be temporary, connections tend not to survive. It’s a good time to rework relationships, and do internalized work related to Venusian things. Venus will have more of an intense impact because it is moving slower, being retrograde. Relationships formed during this time are ones we would never in a million years normally get into but somehow they happen during Venus retrograde.

Leo is an idealistic and romantic sign and this Venus retrograde is happening mostly in Leo (starts at 2 degrees Virgo and goes backwards into Leo)

For an artist, creativity, decorating, it’s a great time to finish projects set aside some time back. If owner of a boutique or store, it’s a great time to put out what didn’t sell before.

Best not to do anything really permanent during this time, o.k. to experiment, but avoid things of permanence, not committing to a course of action during this time if possible.

If in resales, great bargain hunting time, sellers often don’t know the value of what they have. Not a good time to buy luxury items that one can’t afford, but people often spend money on such things during this time. Trends will take subtle shifts during this time, and awareness will be weird, different.

It’s hard to connect with the right people during a Venus retrograde.

Romance will be in the air, and a restlessness in current relationships. Good time to clear away any psychological garbage. O.K. to give yourself a pat on the back during this time and not go looking for someone else to do it. Look at our own patterns, re-evaluate what is important to us, look at our values, reconsider.

8/12 through 8/15 will be a time for reviewing work, paying off debts, because it touches the Saturn trine Pluto.

Venus in Leo has people writing a script in their mind. The other person just doesn’t follow your script, so you’ll need to improvise.

This can be a very sexual time, intense, with our aesthetic tastes being contrary to normal patterns. May want to wait for changes, and proceed with caution because when Venus goes direct again, we’ll look at things very differently. Evaluate everything for its intrinsic worth not for the glitz and glamour. Look at the inner worth of bargains. (like finding a solid bookshelf that’s painted a horrid color and is priced cheap)

Being on time and making life easier for others, love as service in action, are good ways to start off the Venus retrograde period.