Planets in the birth chart represent different facets of your character and psyche. Mercury represents your mind, your ideas, mental energy. Venus describes what you value and how you reach out to others in love. Retrograde planets add a little bit of a twist to the story.
A planet in retrograde appears to move backward. It is at its closest approach to Earth.
If there’s a retrograde planet in your birth chart, you experience that planet in a more subjective, internal way. You express that planet’s energies in a unique way, different from the rest of your family. It comes from within, not from without.
With Venus retrograde in your natal chart, your aesthetic tastes and values come from a different place than your family and culture. If Mercury is your retrograde planet, your thinking is different. With Jupiter, the planet of philosophy, your ethics, morality, and religion may differ from your family’s.
There is often a link to the past or concern with the past. Some karmic astrologers believe that retrograde planets show links to a past life.
Outer planets are retrograde roughly five months of the year. Thus they’re often found retrograde in a birth chart.
Usually, the planetary energies flow outward in the pursuit of the various energies represented by the planets. But with retrograde planets, the flow of that planet’s energy turns inward. No longer is the fulfillment of this planetary pursuit “out there” in the world. It comes from within– contrary to what we may observe in others having the same planets direct.
The retrograde effects register on the plane of activity that is represented by the element of the sign that planet is found in (earth air fire water sign). If it’s an earth sign, the physical plane. Air– intelligence, mental activity. Water– emotions. Fire– passion, ideals & motivation.
While retrograde planets do not deny, they do delay events in our lives. When you have a lot of them in your chart, you “go the long way” to find your path. If you have zero retrogrades, your path is closer to a straight line. You know what you are going to be when you grow up in childhood. Then you actually do it.
The Sun & Moon never turn retrograde. The North Node and South Node are always retrograde. The True Node is usually retrograde, but occasionally direct.
Thanks to my first teacher Lance Ferguson, his teacher Dona Shaw, and the many teachers before them who gave us many of these notes on retrograde planets.
Retrograde means that, to us here on Earth, that planet appears to be moving backward. It also appears to be glowing!
Of course, the planets are not really moving backward. It is an optical illusion. Take Mercury for example. Mercury travels around the Sun faster than we do, and every 4 months, Mercury passes us in its orbit. We here on earth witness Mercury appearing to go backward for three weeks.
When you were a kid, did you ever go on long car trips, lie in the back seat, and stick your feet out the window? If you pass a big car or truck, it looks to you like it’s going backward. Retrograde motion is a lot like that.