As planet Venus orbits, she appears to move from in front of the Sun to behind the Sun, reaching a maximum of 48 ° to either side of the Sun as seen from earth. Her movements relative to the Sun are reflective of the most ancient global myth of the sacrificed and resurrected God(dess). At her stations, Venus is doing a slow regression through the zodiac; when stationing to turn retrograde in the same sign every eight years, it happens at 2-3 ° earlier in the sign than the previous retrogression. A sequence of retrograde cycles viewed over an 8-year period shows each of the eight stations to be almost exactly 72 ° apart or quintile in relationship. Five stations over eight years trace a perfect pentagram with Earth at the center. This pattern is also found in the Metonic cycle; at every 5 synodic cycles, the relative configuration of Earth and Venus repeats almost exactly. Five 584-day cycles of Venus equals eight 365-day yearly cycles on Earth.

Greatest eastern elongation: Venus is Hesperus the evening star, about two months before she/he turns retrograde, 45 to 48° ahead of the Sun in zodiacal longitude. As evening star, Venus takes on the mantle of wisdom and source for higher cosmic creativity. In both Greek and Mesoamerican mythology, this is also a time when she takes the form of a man or androgyne and walks the Earth.

Inferior conjunction: Venus will now begin to fall behind the Sun in longitudinal degree. This is the midpoint of the retrograde cycle; it marks a new phase of internal process and external action for all beings on earth. Six to seven days later Venus will reach what is called her helical rising, just visible behind the Sun. By the Aztec and Mayan tradition, she is reborn newly female as the Morning Star, however covered with blood and bones from her recent sojourn in the underworld. This was the time when ancient armies were sent into action, blood sacrifices and fertility rites conducted.

Station-Direct: This occurs when Venus is exactly 30 ° behind the Sun in longitude, appearing to resume direct motion in the heavens. In the year of 2009 for example, the station was especially spectacular, as it occurred at 29 ° Pisces and effectively on the Aries Point of the zodiac. Venus lingered at the zodiacal junction between the ultimate dissolution of life (Pisces) and resurrective rebirth into life (Aries). Zero degrees Aries itself is an extremely powerful trigger point, especially in mundane astrology. When this point is activated, Big Breakdowns Happen in the world, right down to the personal level.

Venus retro is not an especially fortunate time to seek out or firm up a new romantic interest. Behavior can be a bit bi-polar, on one end expressing as extremely cool, distant and introvert, as the individual is moved to go within, review the past, drudge up old unfinished business or various unpleasant memories connected with relationship. On the other end we have the violently impulsive and over-the-top reactions, along with those who have hitherto kept certain peculiar urges under wraps, wherein now these must come out and be indulged.

Zapped by the retro Venus ray, the unconscious tends to move in strange and mysterious ways, initiating major changes in behavioral patterning which can then surface as a viable external change up to several months after the retrograde is over. This is just the way Venus likes to do radical work on the psyche, stealthily and delayed in outward manifestation, sort of like its higher octave Neptune. In the last several hundred years we have mostly been rewarded for doing repression to self and others; this is not working so well any more.

The time of retrograde could be put to good use meditating on a certain key piece of conditioned human behavior that in the west arose out of classical Greek, Essene and Levite schools of philosophy. This being that nature and by extension the body and its feelings are irrevocably split from mind, soul and spirit, creating a deep wound that can never, ever be healed. Allegedly, this split had to occur as the price for moving closer to divinity and by extension civilization. See, "they" have us convinced that if certain natural feelings, instincts and needs are allowed to make so much as make a teeny, weeny conscious contact with the thinking side of your brain, you are gonna become a pervert, maybe explode like a hot potato. Or your peers will see who you really are, take you out and do horrible torture until you die (or make you lose your job).

This same God, or human faximile thereof if you allow no inner sensation of Divine Love to permeate everything inside and outside of you, is traditionally not tolerant of any personal tendencies towards "worshipping" images; however visualization is the primary right-brain creative function and the one coupled with feelings, that must come first in normal, healthy inductive or deductive reasoning operations of the brain. But the current human culture worships left-brain, logical-linear Apollonian "reason" as superior to right-brain function which is suspect, especially as can be practically associated with work, money, ownership, the letter of human law or the "right art and music" etc. This switched- around order of processing priority, forced onto a young cranial synapse network might be a key factor in why so many ADHD and autistic children are being born today. For those who have successfully split off their emotional life from reality, the film and gaming industry can create fantasy lives and do feelings for us; we can witness risk-taking behavior and deep emotions without getting directly involved. We are allowed to have lots of feelings about family members but then, what damage is done when one or more of them is simply abusive, controlling or self-absorbed?

One way to penetrate walls of split psyche, creative blockage, denial or fear is to ask directly for divine help. We can ask our spirit guides or angels -or consider the older ways of consulting wwith the intelligent archetypes that guide the ebb and flow of life and are also active in the process of human individuation. For example, there is sky god Saturn (form,authority, karma), celestial Urania (cosmic creativity and wisdom), passionate Dionysus (art and ecstasy), earth mother Gaia (health, fertility, death) and Mercury the messenger who communicates between the worlds. These and countless other gods and goddesses from various systems of worship are actually symbolic eminations of the one supreme Source; the human brain finds it more useful to use familiar images in managing an active relationship with Source; we also can learn to relate to the various levels of formative intelligence that surely do exist between Source and material existence, in addition to more consciously accessing one's own Higher Self. Strange but true, imbuing a particular archetype or divine image with familiar earthly attributes in a form that can be visualized does much to empower the archetype's ability to actively interact with and modify the psyche.

Try a visualization out in nature, ask to meet your guide in a dream, ask for their help, experiment with becoming them. Pick from any system of gods or angels you like, but stick with one in particular that holds personal meaning. Working with inner being and the ten other dimensions that exist concurrent with Divine Mind and the manifested world in this manner can open us out into new levels of self-knowledge, independence and strengthened mental capacity over time. At the least, become aware that Jehovah or Allah formed as a jealous, vengeful, punishing, feminine-contemptuous God is a particularly powerful archetype that has been seeded inside each one of us of the western world for many generations. Even if one no longer attends church, these Gods are still there within. If present in their angry, judging, perfectionist form they will bar the way to the Light of inner sacred union, personal freedom and joyful natural life, because you are never good or pure enough; the psychotic alternative is to become a judge and a punisher.

Nature itself, up close and intimate is generally relegated to the dust bin (no pun intended)except for whatever profit can be extracted from it. Scientists still presume that most animals have little reasoning ability and some clergy will still tell you animals have no soul or real feelings. Nature is still viewed in some circles as an expendable divine mistake or the irrelevant product of matter in complex chemical reaction. It presents as an unruly, smelly and sloppy feminine hygiene problem, is surely the abode of all "lower" impulses (machine-mind and ego couldn't possibly be the culprit); the root of all evil because it is changeable and irritatingly unpredictable. It used to contain predators that cannot under any circumstances be allowed to compete for space or resource with humans. It can be something beautiful to fish in and hike through, as long as one doesn't have to pay much for upkeep. For many it is something that needs to be simplified (so many species appear to have no practical use whatsoever), ordered into tidy rows and fenced.

Do you mainly view nature from afar, through binoculars or by peering at a calender? When out in it do you worry more about bugs, dirt, sunburn or other things you surely could be doing with the time? Do you love being in the wilderness Out There, but separate it carefully from the civilized human In Here? Can you actually water and fertilize a house plant over time, regularly? Are animals something to leave behind, locked in an empty house when the budget gets a little pinched? Must they be de-clawed? Consider that the value, time and the manner in which you connect to nature (be honest here) is the way you relate to your own body, creative impulse, feelings, instinct and intuition. Without a large quantity of nature left to itself in good working order, there will be little to no quality human life left on earth. Why are we so very, very busy mutating, building over and outright poisoning the very thing that makes our existence here possible? By extension, why do we go about blinding, maiming, starving, abusing, fighting, ignoring, disbelieving or selling out vital portions of our own self or those under our care -and believing we must.

Greatest Western Elongation: This is the point at which Venus is officially called Phosphoros the Morning Star, about a month after the planet has reached the degree at which it was in inferior conjunction with the Sun. Venus will always be 41 to 48 ° behind the Sun in zodiacal longitude at this time. In astrology confusion arises because the planets are actually circling in counter-clockwise direction around the Sun; however from the vantage point of Earth they appear to be moving in clock-wise direction from eastern to western horizon. So even though Venus is technically behind the Sun, she appears to rise ahead of the Sun in the morning.

Superior Conjunction: This aspect occurs when Venus is on the other side of the Sun as seen from Earth and reaches the same degree of the Sun in zodiacal longitude. The planet is not visible to us for about 50 days around the conjunction. At this time Venus begins to advance towards her greatest eastern elongation and the cycle begins anew. People born with a superior Venus conjunction to their natal Sun can indeed behave in a superior manner and can believe that they are morally superior. Venus rules values and the Sun rules center of true identity, so these natives may blindly or stubbornly assume that their perspective on life is always accurate.In other words, one can be "blinded by the Sun" so they don't necessarily see their own psychological distortions, nor may they see the reality of other beings in a particularly favorable or compassionate light.

One would think that a Venus-Sun conjunction in a woman's natal chart would represent a very feminine individual who men would find hard to resist; or in a man's chart the combination should represent someone who adores women. Au contraire, these individuals often have a hard time staying in a lasting relationship. An overdeveloped sense of perfection-which the native may believe is objective in scope although staggeringly biased in actuality-can keep them at arms length from the experience of intimacy. Correspondingly, some may project judgments over rejected parts of self onto others; if not attacking perceived faults in others the native can draw the attention or anger of various dysfunctional members of society instead. Others may develop an intense obsession with keeping the body under control at all times with rigorous dieting and exercise; the natural functions and appearance of the body are not pleasing to them. However Jupiter-Pisces/Sagittarius energy also involved with the conjunction can reflect someone who overindulges in food and other pleasures to the point of compromising bodily health. Venus-Jupiter is often prominent in the natal chart of someone who develops diabetes or other blood-sugar disorders, for example.

(1) Retrograde Planets, Traversing the Inner Landscape, by Erin Sullivan, Arkana Penguin Books, Harnmondsworth, Middlesex, England, 1992, Page 92.

(2)"Venus", The NASA Lunar and Planetary Science Website, http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/planets/venuspage.html .