Latest / Astrology Hub Podcast / [HOROSCOPE HIGHLIGHTS] Tips and Tricks for Surviving the Venus Retrograde w/ Astrologer Christopher Renstrom

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[HOROSCOPE HIGHLIGHTS] Tips and Tricks for Surviving the Venus Retrograde w/ Astrologer Christopher Renstrom · Astrology Hub Podcast

1:00
Hi there, and welcome.
1:01
This is Amanda, the founder of Astrology Hub, and you're listening to our Week Ahead Snapshot with world class astrologer, historian, and author of the Cosmic Calendar, Christopher Renstrom.
1:13
This show is designed to give you a quick overview of the week ahead, enabling you the gift of choice in how you navigate and weave these energies into your daily life.
1:23
Enjoy! this podcast episode is sponsored by Astrology Hubs Academy.
1:48
Wherever you are on your astrology journey, we have a class that will help you get to the next level.
1:54
Hello, my name is Christopher Renstrom, and I'm your weekly horoscope columnist here on Astrology Hub.
2:01
And this week I'd like to talk to you about Venus turning retrograde in the Zodiac sign of Leo on July 22nd.
2:10
Retrogrades.
2:12
What are retrogrades?
2:14
Retrogrades are the period of time when it looks like a planet is moving backwards in the sky.
2:19
Usually planets proceed, forward normally in a typical orbit, but there are certain times of the year when a planet will appear to be moving backwards in the sky.
2:29
And this is called a retrograde now.
2:32
Planets don't really move backwards in the sky.
2:35
If they did, we'd all be in a lot of trouble.
2:38
But what it really refers to is an optical illusion based on the fact of the earth moving perhaps a bit faster than the planet in the sky is.
2:47
And so that's what creates the illusion or the appearance of the planet moving backwards in the sky.
2:54
But for astrologers, The spirit of time when planets moved backwards in the sky.
2:59
This period of time was looked at with some measure of consternation, some measure of anxiety because there was a feeling that the planets were up to no good, or perhaps even mischief now, that they were not acting in accordance to their true nature as determined by their forward movement, by their orbit.
3:21
So, The general rule for, retrograde planet and all planets turn retrograde with the exception of the luminaries.
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The sun doesn't turn retrograde and the moon doesn't turn retrograde.
3:34
They just eclipse each other.
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But the other planets, mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and even the modern ones, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto they all can turn and will turn retrograde.
3:47
So during this period of time when a planet is retrograde, it is said to, have done an about face, okay?
3:54
It was moving forward in it's orbit, and now it's moving backward in it's orbit.
3:58
So what the planet does is that it shows its reverse face, it shows its other side.
4:05
I think we're all pretty familiar with, a Mercury retrograde, right?
4:08
Mercury in astrology is a planet that's often associated to transactions to buying and selling, which makes perfect sense because the Latin root of Mercury is Merck.
4:19
And Merck is where we get our words, merchant and merchandise.
4:24
So the idea of buying and selling, of communicating, of jotting down receipts and showing, copies of sale orders, these are all things that are ruled by Mercury.
4:35
And so when Mercury is moving forward in the sky, these are things that we expect to go swimmingly.
4:40
We expect to be able to buy and sell with ease and without having to worry about things like defects or problems with the merchandise so when Mercury is said to be, Retrograde.
4:52
We're often told by astrologers not to sign anything, not to purchase anything, particularly anything dealing with transportation or technology it's almost as if they're saying that during a mercury retrograde you don't know if that car you're looking at or, or if that computer or phone that you're thinking of buying, came from.
5:11
Off the back of the truck.com.
5:13
Okay.
5:14
So where Mercury is basically the patron planet of, shop owners, when it's moving direct of people who provide us with our goods, our produce, the things that we want to purchase, mercury then becomes the, patron planet of shoplifters when it's retro to grade.
5:31
You have to look out for what you're buying, check under the hood to make sure that the car is as functional as is being said.
5:38
And that is basically why astrologers often warn you not to purchase or buy or sell things during a Mercury retrograde.
5:45
So, Now we're dealing with Venus Retrograde.
5:50
So, so what does Venus retrograde mean?
5:53
Well, we know that Venus was named after the Roman goddess of love and beauty.
5:58
We also know that in addition to love and beauty and culture and pleasures and delights, which Venus is responsible for, we also know that Venus is responsible for.
6:10
Betrothal, uh, which is, the pledge that a couple makes to be with one another.
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And Betrothal, uh, comes from the middle English.
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Be true, be truth.
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Truth was true.
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So to be true, I will be true to you.
6:25
And then the other idea is truces and treaties.
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Contracts.
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These are things that are ruled by Venus because Venus brings the.
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Harmony and harmony brings peace, and peace is beautiful.
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It's something that we all value, peace, which shows off the ic quality of Venus Peace, during peace time, it's often a time of prosperity.
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That societies, are happiest and produce most when they are at peace.
6:55
And that is not the case when they are at war.
6:59
In recent centuries, what we've come to learn is that war is very expensive.
7:02
Why is it expensive?
7:04
Well, it's not only expensive in terms of the human cost and um, the armaments and things like that, that, that go about, to make a war that are called upon to make a war.
7:15
But whoever wins the war has then the price of upkeep that they have to attend to.
7:22
In other words, how do you take care of all that property that's been wiped out of all those people that have been disenfranchised?
7:29
So war comes with great cost, not only a moral and a spiritual cost, but a tremendous financial cost as we are now seeing in the case of the, uh, war that's going on in the Ukraine and we see how much that that has upset things like trading and buying and selling and the displacement of people's and the awful, awful degree of violence that's takes place.
7:53
So this is why Wars connected to Mars, which is a malefic and peace and prosperity, and.
8:00
Profit, is connected to Venus.
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Okay?
8:03
These are things that Venus brings.
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So when Venus turns retrograde, we're kind of expecting Venus to show her opposite side, her opposite face.
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So if Venus is retrograde, that's when things get ugly.
8:16
Okay.
8:16
So, uh, we might think, think that, oh wow, things are really gonna get ugly now that Venus is turning retrograde.
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Um, or things that were, beautiful or things that we're now loving have now become.
8:28
Malicious or hateful or, were plagued by mean girls or, envious people, who wanna stab us in the back and cause us all kinds of malice and mischief in our lives.
8:37
These must be things that are associated to Venus retrograde, and, in some regard, they are, but, There's also more going on with a venous retrograde than just those simple, assumptions.
8:52
The simple assumptions that there will be many breakups and divorces and, broken hearts during a venous retrograde, But there's a little bit more, uh, to it than just that.
9:02
So Venus is the planet of what I like in astrology.
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Okay?
9:08
It is the planet that rules over the law of attraction, and Venus is.
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Job in your astrological chart.
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It's kind of like venus's job on your Instagram account or Facebook page or TikTok reel.
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It's to get you as many likes as possible.
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People who see things the same way that you do or laugh at the same jokes, and who are just wonderful company or people that make you.
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Feel attractive and beautiful, and that you in turn make feel attractive and beautiful too.
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When Venus turns retrograde, she, changes her face.
9:40
From the planet of what I like, to the planet of what I don't like.
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And so the law of attraction reverses itself.
9:47
So instead of attracting the things that you like, Venus, retrograde by transit will begin to attract all the things you don't like, like unholy bores or X's you never wanted to see again, people that you never got along with in the workplace that you're forced to, uh, work with again.
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So it's.
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The things that you don't like and of course, Venus retrograde in a natal horoscope often does show up.
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With a past or a history of being bullied or targeted, in some sort of way.
10:17
So again, it can be, an attraction of things that you don't like, which is why if you have venous retrograde in your natal chart, it's very important to find a way to redirect that energy.
10:27
It's not going to be that doing all of that, uh, in terms of your life.
10:31
But oftentimes if you have venous retrograde in your chart and you've been the target of bullying or difficulty in your life, uh, what it's really about is getting away from that.
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Maybe it's your neighborhood, maybe it's your culture, maybe it's your country, and finding the people who are.
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Like you and chances are they may be outside of what would be your typical, stomping grounds.
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And, and those are some of the lessons of, of redirection that one works with during a period of time when Venus is retrograde or if it's retrograde in your natal horoscope.
11:05
The other, um, idea that I want to introduce into today's discussion, uh, that I've seen happen as well is that the planet is, Withdraws its governance when it turns retrograde in the sky.
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So in other words, uh, it, it's almost like the planet withdraws its seal of approval.
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Okay?
11:28
So if, uh, Mercury's job is to make sure that transactions buying and selling go off without a hitch, uh, during the period of time that it's retrograde.
11:37
It can also be seen in regards that it is withdrawn, its governance, it's withdrawn, its, assurance that this transaction is going to be a good, uh, transaction.
11:48
And so it opens up what can happen when mercury is not governing, that part of the sky, that it's moving direct through.
11:58
The same thing can happen with Venus.
12:00
Um, Venus removes.
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Her love.
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Venus removes her beauty.
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Venus removes the seal of approval that can come with a betrothal, the seal of approval that can come with a truce or with a treaty.
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Ultimately Venus is going to be, uh, associated to things like protocol and, poly tests, even politics.
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And so Venus removes those agreements.
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A simple way of thinking of it is if you sit down at, at a dinner party, there's, you know, a Venus Direct would be like, oh, would you mind passing me the salt?
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You know, whereas Venus Retrograde would be like, salt over here, please.
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Okay.
12:41
So it's the difference between being polite and rude, but then let's put that on a larger scale.
12:47
Now arguably, Venus is one of the most powerful deities in the ancient Greek pantheon.
12:54
And in my opinion, Venus is one of the most powerful planets you can have in an astrological chart.
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I think it's amusing the way that she's put in charge of like Romance Mans and TE Tote and getting together for tea parties or, you know, getting together for, uh, uh, uh, some fun afternoon.
13:12
Um, you know, that she's put in charge of those things, but Venus's power in mythology.
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Venus' power in mythology was the power of sexual.
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Desire.
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She is the only deity, that I know of.
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Definitely.
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She's the only deity in the Greek pantheon who is born from an orgasm.
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And so Venus is in charge of love.
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She's in charge of romance, but she's also the governess of sex and sexuality, and of course orgasms.
13:41
Okay.
13:41
So that's where she gets her pleasure principle side.
13:45
Okay, so, so Venus rules all of this.
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And the more that I've worked with her, the more that I've really come to see that sex and sexuality isn't really ruled that much by Mars.
13:56
It's much more Venus.
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All right?
13:59
Uh, so she's the one who's in charge of that department and, um, and, and she's very powerful.
14:05
So Venus's ability to inspire desire, longing, lust, possessiveness, uh, a more troubadour poetry, great art, music and inspiration.
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This is the power that she brings to a horoscope.
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And this is the power that she brings to a heart.
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And this is the power that she brings to a psyche.
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So Venus can have a very beautiful, lovely, fantastic side, and Venus can have a very, uh, cruel and harsh.
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especially if she's indifferent, a very, heartbreaking side as well.
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So when we think about.
14:40
Venus, we're going to think about beauty and, and I would like to ask you to think about beauty.
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When we think about Venus, um, the love that she rules is not, um, a familial love.
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It's not the love for instance of mother and child.
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It's not the love that you've, that you feel for a sibling or a family member.
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Venus is interested in everything going on outside the household.
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So beauty, beauty is the thing that we desire to make the world a more perfect place.
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Beauty is something that we're attracted to.
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We find in inspiring, we find moving.
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We find desirable, we find uplifting.
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You know, beauty makes everything.
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Good.
15:23
So beauty obviously is also going to be, responsible for feelings that are not so positive and that are not so lovely.
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For instance, to be the object of beauty.
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On one hand, you might like, walk into the room.
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You're the object of beauty.
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Everyone wants a selfie with you, you know, and they like, want, want to, uh, genuflect at the altar of your fabulousness and you know, they just want to bask in the aura and be in your, your halo.
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Beauty might get you special privileges.
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Special favor.
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People pay a lot of money for something that is beautiful, but beauty is also the root cause of darker emotions.
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Beauty is the root cause of lust.
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Beauty can be the root cause of possessiveness.
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You know, I have to have that.
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I can't live without it.
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And beauty can be the root cause of envy, you know?
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So, uh, ask anyone who's beautiful and they will tell you about all the difficulties they've had, being beautiful, how things get ascribed to them, how, how prejudices get projected onto them, how assumptions are made, and really how difficult it can.
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B.
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All right.
16:34
So, you know, when we think of the reversal of Venus, the breaking of troves, the breaking of truces, the breaking of treaties, and we think that by Venus removing her.
16:48
Positive governance when she's retrograde.
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So, so a venous retrograde, for instance, might be the, um, cause of lust, it might be the cause of possessiveness, it may be the cause of envy.
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And you can recognize very quickly in that the seeds of war and other harmful and potentially violent acts.
17:08
There's one word that I want to.
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Talk about just a little bit here, um, about with Venus that becomes amplified when Venus is retrograde.
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So, in other words, Venus can always inspire things like, um, lust and possessiveness and, and envy, but it becomes amplified more unruly without.
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The reins controlling the horse or the chariot, when it is retrograde.
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Okay.
17:36
But another word that I want to add is covet.
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Covet means to desire or wish for inordinately or without regard for the rights of others.
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Okay?
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And this is very, Venus, if you think about it, I'm gonna repeat it.
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Does desire or wish for inordinately without ordinance, without control?
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When you covet, you desire or wish for something without control, without moderation, and you de you desire or wish for something inordinately without regard for the rights of others regarding the rights of others.
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Venu.
18:15
Okay.
18:16
This is, this is something sh that she absolutely brings to her horoscope.
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Not something we're used to thinking of when we think of her, like in a, a tor context.
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here, you can obviously see the Liran context of this Venus side.
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Venus rules the two Zodiac signs of Taurus and Libra.
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And so regarding the rights of others we could almost see as a liran expression.
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And it's very important for, for Venus.
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Venus is in insistence that the rights of others are regarded.
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So, so covered is to desire or wish without regard for the rights of others.
18:51
It comes from the Latin word, kupita.
18:54
Kupita.
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That is the Latin word.
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The Latin root for the word covet.
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Covet, uh, it's capitas and if you hear it kupita, you can hear in K.
19:10
Toss.
19:10
Okay.
19:11
Cup toss.
19:12
You can hear the word cupid.
19:14
Okay.
19:16
Kupita Cupid.
19:17
Okay.
19:17
And that is where we get the English word cupidity.
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And cupidity was regarded as a vice because it meant.
19:26
Covetousness, it meant coveting something that somebody else had.
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And Covet.
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Covetousness is so dangerous that it's listed twice in the 10 Commandments.
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Thou shalt not covet.
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Thy neighbor's wife and thou sh shall not covet thy neighbor's property.
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And if you think about that, you can hear.
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Taurus, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's property.
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And Libra thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife.
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Okay, so you see the two aspects of, Venus in those two of the 10 10 Commandments, which actually shows you the prominence.
20:01
Um, and how important this idea is.
20:03
So, capitas, cupidity, Cupid, we all know Cupid, right?
20:08
We all know Cupid from Valentine's Day.
20:10
All right.
20:11
Uh, Cupid is the blindfolded, uh, puty, little angelic figure, which is blindfolded and shoots arrows on the arrows, go into your heart and, and infect you with a love sickness.
20:22
Okay, so that's, That's what Cupid does.
20:25
Uh, love is blind.
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The darts that it shoots can enter into your heart and you can fall in love with a beautiful person.
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You don't know what, what the love feeling is going to do to you.
20:35
This is how powerful Venus is.
20:37
Venus had the power to bring Zeus king of all the gods to her knees, she could infect Zeus with a love and a desire, and he would sleep around with anything and, and, and so she had power over him or.
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Her girdle, she would lend to Hera Zeus's wife who was being ignored at home.
20:56
Well, when she put on Venus's golden girdle, she was irresistible.
21:00
And Zeus had to have her, and she had to have Zeus.
21:02
And so, you know, she was made more romantic and sexual and glamorous when she wore Venus's girdle.
21:09
The dangers of covetousness.
21:11
Of cups of cupidity, the dangers of covetousness, so dangerous.
21:16
It had to be named twice in the 10 Commandments.
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This danger was well known to the Spartan King.
21:23
10 Darius.
21:24
Who was the father of Helen, who was the most beautiful woman in the world.
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Now, tin Darius wasn't the true father of Helen.
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Helen was actually, uh, her father is Zeus, who disguised himself as a swan who slept with Tin Darius's wife.
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But, nevertheless, tin Darius being a sporting fellow, agreed to adopt and raise Helen as his own, uh, sporting, uh, The other way of seeing that is Tin Darius wasn't going to get into, uh, into a fight with Zeus or get on the bad side of the king of the God.
21:59
So he is like, sure, I'll raise her as my own.
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So he does.
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And Helen is, uh, therefore a princess of Sparta.
22:07
And this is very interesting, because Venus retrogrades, as you know, is the revoking of peace of treaties int truss.
22:15
This is interesting because Venus retrograde does have a reputation of being associated with war, and here we see Helen, right?
22:24
The most beautiful woman in the ancient world is a princess of Sparta.
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Sparta.
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Sparta was the most successful warrior Kingdom in the ancient world.
22:37
Sparta had the most magnificent army.
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Everyone feared Sparta.
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No one wanted to get on the bad side of Sparta.
22:46
Children were separated from their families and put into bootcamp, you know, by the age of six or seven, and were raised as soldiers.
22:55
This is myth.
22:55
This is indeed fact that were raised as soldiers and to combat and fight, uh, in Sparta.
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And the most important relationship that you had, if you were a man, being raised in Sparta, was your bunk mate.
23:10
In this military bootcamp that you went to, and actually, uh, many, if not all of them were lovers.
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Uh, it was believed, that a man would.
23:20
Fight most ferociously and sacrifice anything.
23:24
If he was fighting beside his lover on the battlefield, this was actually a Spartan credo.
23:30
Um, because if their lover was slain, they would go into berserk or fury or if they, you know, showed a cowardly, like, I don't know if I want to get involved in that, their lover would be like, I am so ashamed of you.
23:41
I'm breaking up with you.
23:42
Okay.
23:43
So Spartan Army was a force to be reckoned with.
23:46
And so the women weren't exactly given a very high rank in Sparta.
23:51
Women in the ancient Greek world often weren't given a very high rank, but in Sparta it was men with men and women in order to, um, have children.
24:01
And then that was it.
24:02
And the men would go back to war.
24:04
So, This is the environment that Helen is raised in.
24:08
Okay?
24:09
And it's, and, and, and Helen is, uh, basically blessed by the ics.
24:14
She is a daughter of Zeus, and she is the prize of Aphrodite, who awards her to Paris, in the judgment of Paris.
24:24
Paris has to decide which of the three goddesses, Aphrodite.
24:28
Athena or Hera will get the golden apple.
24:32
And, Athena promises, you know, military prowess, Hera promises rule over governments and kingdoms and Aphrodite just gets naked and Paris is like, oh, the apple is yours.
24:43
Okay?
24:43
So Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty, believes that when the going gets tough, the tough get naked.
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And that's what she did.
24:50
And she gets awarded the apple.
24:51
So.
24:52
In, in, in response to this, Aphrodite says, well, you can't have me, but you can have the next best thing.
24:58
And that's Helen of Troy, the most beautiful woman in the world, and I will give you to her as your lover.
25:06
You know?
25:06
And Paris is like, yes, yes.
25:08
You know?
25:08
And of course, what do you want from Paris?
25:10
He's, he's, He's the, he's who, the city of Paris, the city of Lights is named after.
25:16
Okay.
25:16
So of course, love affair will win out.
25:19
So, so Paris is awarded Helen of Troy, and of course all the difficulty that comes with that because she also happens to be married already at the time that he awards the Apple to, uh, Aphrodite.
25:32
But let's get on back here.
25:33
Let's roll it back a little bit.
25:35
The Spartan King Tin Darius knows that, his daughter Helen, and he first comes to this realization.
25:42
I mean, she's always been a beautiful, lovely child and things like that, but it's when Helen is around maybe 12 or 13, the way that she's maturing.
25:51
He can see how beautiful a woman she is going to be.
25:56
And he, he trembles with fear, because.
26:00
By being the most beautiful woman in the world, which had been rumored she was going to be, but now he sees for himself, she really is going to become the most beautiful woman in, in, in the world.
26:14
And by the way, at this time, this Helen is kidnapped twice.
26:18
Okay.
26:19
Uh, the first time she's kidnapped by Theseus.
26:21
Okay.
26:21
And, and her brothers Castor and Pollocks, the twins, uh, go and bring her back.
26:26
So, so there's already been trouble and now, uh, 10 Darius is like, I've gotta do something about this trouble.
26:31
She's too, she's too beautiful and I can't just put a burka on her because she's so beautiful that everyone would know it was Helen anyway, underneath the burka.
26:40
So what do I do with Helen?
26:42
I don't wanna become, a target of hostility or warring princes, uh, who are going to invade, you know, Sparta to try to get Helen.
26:53
I mean, this is Sparta and we can kick their butts and everything, but constant warfare all the time.
26:58
You know, let's not go and look for conflict when we don't have to have it.
27:02
So, um, what Tinius does is that he resolves to Mary Helen, who's about 13 at this time.
27:08
He, he resolves to marry her office soon as possible.
27:12
And so, tinders is going to be proactive.
27:15
I'm not gonna wait around for, you know, people to wage war on my kingdom.
27:18
I'm going to, she's marriageable age, she's 13.
27:21
He has 13, was marriageable age in ancient Greece.
27:24
Um, she's marriageable age, and what I'm gonna do is be proactive and I'm going to send out a call.
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To all the youthful heirs of all the kingdoms in Greece, uh, to all the youthful heirs and princes and ler kings.
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I'm going to send out a call to all of them and they will assemble in my palace to await Helen's, uh, decision.
27:45
Helen, I'm going to let Helen choose who she wants to marry.
27:50
Um, but Tinder is knowing that.
27:53
That could get a little still iffy.
27:55
He consults with his nephew, Odysseus, uh, who, who, uh, who you might know is Ulysses, and you might know from the Odyssey.
28:02
He consults with Odysseus, um, who actually happens to be one of the suitors of Helen at this time.
28:08
Um, and Odysseus says to Tinius, um, what you wanna do?
28:13
Is bring all these, um, suitors together, all right?
28:17
And they're going to, uh, and, and, and, and, and, and to have a contest, you know, to do a, uh, an Olympics, you know, to do athletic contests and things like that, to show off their prowess For Helen.
28:31
And whoever emerges out of this as victorious, you know, will obviously be some someone that Helen is drawn to and attracted to.
28:39
Uh, you could already tell Helen doesn't really get to choose, uh, the person, uh, who the person will be.
28:44
It's going to be done for her by whoever wins this contest.
28:48
Uh, whoever wins this contest, uh, becomes the husband of Helen.
28:53
And at that moment, all of the other Greek kingdoms have to pledge allegiance to him.
28:59
Right.
29:00
And so, uh, if they, uh, pledge allegiance to him, they're pledging allegiance to his marriage, to Helen, to protect and to defend the man who is the husband of Helen.
29:11
And Derius is like, that's brilliant, ESUs.
29:14
So that means when they pledge allegiance to whoever the husband is, and to the marriage and the sanctity of the marriage and the protection of the marriage, they will not try to assassinate the husband.
29:26
They will not try to break up this marriage.
29:28
Everyone in Greece has to bow a knee to, uh, has to bend a knee to this marriage.
29:34
And so that's going to take care of conflict.
29:36
That's going to take care of it.
29:38
Oh, at Desus, I love you.
29:39
I hope you win because you're so smart.
29:41
You'd make a great husband.
29:42
But, um, let's go at it.
29:44
Let's, let's call the princes and the heirs and the bachelor kings to an event.
29:50
And, and whoever wins this event will become the husband of Helen.
29:53
And so the call goes out and all the men show up.
29:56
And this is Greek, you know, mythology in ancient Greece.
30:00
And so immediately the men show up and they're very athletic with their.
30:04
They, they're muscles and they immediately stripp down to loincloths and oil themselves up and get behind chariots and ride them and ferocious races.
30:14
And the person who wins at all of these contests is, um, a Greek.
30:19
Named Manlays.
30:21
Manlays wins.
30:22
Everyone's like, za Manlays approval.
30:26
Let's celebrate you.
30:27
Uh, you have Helen's hand in marriage and Helen is like, Hello, manlays.
30:32
Good to see you.
30:32
I'm I'm, I'm your wife.
30:34
You know, I mean, Helen doesn't really much care.
30:36
She's the most beautiful woman in the world and actually men are kind of like a pain in the ass as far as Helen is concerned.
30:44
And so she's married to Manlays, and she's married to Manlays at the age of 13, and he is much older than she is, and that's, The thing about, um, Greece, uh, ancient Greece is that if you were at the age of 13 or 14, you could be married off.
31:03
But the men on the other hand, the men could be anywhere from 27 to 34.
31:07
All right?
31:08
So, uh, women were literally children in ancient Greek, Greek society.
31:15
And, and husbands treated their wives like children because that's what they were.
31:21
And women basically had no rights.
31:24
Women also had a shorter life expectancy because many often died in childbirth.
31:29
Um, as a quick note, rape in ancient Greece was punishable by a fine.
31:37
To be paid to the husband or the woman's male guardian.
31:41
Uh, if it happened to be a woman who wasn't married and adultery, uh, meant that the husband was free to take the life of the lover to free, to take the life of the person who had seduced his wife, uh, without fear of a trial jury, they could just go out and kill him.
31:59
All right, so, Here, Helen is married to men, LAIs, and, um, she sees her future in front of her.
32:09
And, what happens, what she doesn't see is Paris showing up.
32:12
Okay?
32:13
Venus has, you know, is going to, uh, fulfill her promise to Paris that he will be lovers with.
32:20
The, um, most beautiful woman in the world.
32:23
And so, um, Helen, who's not particularly drawn to Manlays, uh, meets Paris, who happens to be visiting her in Sparta.
32:32
And she falls in love with him.
32:34
I mean, he's beautiful.
32:36
He's, he's hairless and smooth and all those Trojan guys are gorgeous.
32:41
I mean, the gods fall in love with the Trojans.
32:43
People fall in love with Trojans.
32:45
If you were Trojan, you were absolutely like, Beautiful.
32:48
All right.
32:49
So, so, so Paris shows up and she's like, Paris, and, and, and Paris is like, Helen, you, you really are the most beautiful woman in the world, you know?
32:57
And she's like, take me away with you.
32:59
And Paris is like, yes, I will.
33:01
We're going to run away tonight.
33:02
And they do.
33:03
And they run away to Troy and you can tell what the next moment's going to be.
33:08
So Paris is a Trojan.
33:09
He runs away to Troy with Helen.
33:12
And Helen, as you all probably know, has, has the beauty, has the face that launched a thousand ships.
33:20
But what is important to note here is that it's not just.
33:27
That Manlays has been embarrassed, okay.
33:31
By Helen running off with, with Paris and, and going off to Troy and, and, and, and living a love and fabulous life.
33:39
It's, it's not just that.
33:40
Remember that Venus is connected to Truces.
33:44
Venus is connected to contracts.
33:46
Venus is connected to treaties.
33:49
So all of those men, Who pledged allegiance to the suitor who would win Helen's hand and become her husband, and all of those Greek kingdoms who pledged allegiance to defend this marriage.
34:05
All right.
34:06
Manlays immediately calls them all down on that and says, Paris has run off to Troy with Helen, and you have to fulfill your treaty.
34:17
You have to fulfill your oath to me, and you have to follow me to Troy, and we're going to get my wife back.
34:27
So this is.
34:29
Not the typical way that we understand or are familiar with the Trojan War, um, because by itself she's the most beautiful woman in the world and is he has guns with someone who's beautiful.
34:42
The Trojans themselves were like, We're going to war over a woman.
34:48
I mean, this is how, uh, misogynistic ancient society could be.
34:53
But, but the Trojans themselves were like, I could understand if we were gr going to war because someone invaded our kingdom.
35:00
Uh, I could understand if we were going to war because people were sacking our colonies.
35:05
I could understand if we were going to war because people were, uh, interrupting trade or, or, or had surrounded our kingdom or something like that.
35:13
But, Paris, are you really going to tell me that we're going to go to war because you ran off with another man's wife?
35:21
That's why we're fighting this war.
35:24
Um, and, and it is not necessarily because of the shame or there was the shame.
35:32
I mean, manlays was very much in a position to say, okay.
35:36
So what about Helen?
35:37
I'll just marry somebody else.
35:39
I mean, he was totally in a position to do that, and many Greek kings had done that, but it was Helen, but it was the treaties and the truces.
35:48
And because the men had pledge allegiance to men, LAIs, he was then on the spot.
35:53
Okay.
35:53
He was on the spot.
35:55
He had been, um, cucked, um, and, and shamed, but he had to be the man in the room, okay.
36:00
And so it's calling in the contracts and the treaties that send them off to war.
36:06
And that is, I, I think I happen to think a very intriguing way of reading a Venus retrograde.
36:13
The good intention, uh, that Addis comes up with, of staving off.
36:21
Wars and battles and people trying to invade Sparta because they have desire for Helen.
36:27
Okay.
36:28
No one had thought of this outside of the Greek world.
36:32
Okay.
36:32
Or, or the, the, the world of the Greek islands.
36:35
No one had thought of it outside that they weren't anticipating a foreigner.
36:40
A Trojan, you know, coming on and, and, and running away.
36:44
So, Disease's original plan, which was to forestall or, or to head off.
36:50
Any kind of competition or rivalry among the kingdoms actually makes it worse because now all the kingdoms, because they are allied by this promise.
37:01
Now whether they wanted to or not, all of these kingdoms now have to go to war with Troy.
37:09
And it's, it's again, the covetousness, you know, but in this regard, it's also the honoring of a contract.
37:16
And so this is actually where roal and treaties, no matter how well intentioned they are, can also be a cause for war.
37:29
It's something to think about, during this time that Venus is retrograde, reflect on the period of time that led up to the retrograde.
37:37
In other words, reflect on the period of time when Venus first entered Leo up until when she turns retrograde.
37:43
The treaties you made, the truces, you made the agreements, you made, the relationships that you formed, the, the loves that you pursued.
37:52
How has that been flipped inside out or upside down?
37:57
These are things that I want you to reflect upon during the period of time that Venus will be retrograde, which is from July 22nd until September 3rd,