This weekend, Venus squares Chiron for the third time in as many months. It is unusual for that particular aspect to repeat more than twice annually. Behind the unconventionally rapid series of squares is a Venus retrograde cycle oscillating in the core of Gemini, combined with Chiron’s apparent reversal through Pisces. In direct motion once again since June 27, Venus is now gradually accelerating into the same arc already twice traced, revisiting shadows of the recent past. With a concluding square to Chiron, Venus implies how those shadows may yet persist uncomfortably inside all of us, waiting for each of us to resolve them, providing an opportunity for growth.
Square aspects frequently correspond to tension created and felt within. The protocol for resolving inner tension can be summarized in three words: awareness, attitude and action. Serendipitously, the current series of Venus-Chiron squares symbolizes that process.
Venus entered the first shadow (or ‘echo’) phase of its Gemini retrograde cycle in direct motion on April 11, passing the point where it would eventually pivot into reverse. The very next day, Venus made the first of three successive squares to Chiron, symbolizing the first step in addressing inner tension: awareness. The echo phase that precedes any retrograde is an opportunity to become aware. The first step is corresponding appearance to reality. No planet actually changes direction. Retrograde movement just looks that way from our perspective, which appears to be fixed. In fact, we are in orbit around the Sun just like all the other planets.
Different sized orbits mean that planets will occasionally catch up with and pass one another on the solar system’s big track. When we are involved in such passages, the planet we are passing, or one which is passing us, appears to slow down and go backwards. In the case of Venus, its retrograde has corresponded to its passage between Earth and Sun, something which was plainly visible during its rare solar transit on June 5.