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Retrograde Planets in a Natal Chart · Astrology for Beginners

0:03
SPEAKER_00: Hello everyone, welcome back to the Astrology for Beginners podcast.
0:07
SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Stephanie Kate Boucher, and I am so happy to have you here.
0:12
SPEAKER_00: This is the podcast for you if you have ever wanted to learn how to read a natal
0:17
SPEAKER_00: chart or were kind of interested in astrology and wished that you understood more
0:22
SPEAKER_00: about it but didn't know where to begin or it seemed too complicated and you didn't
0:27
SPEAKER_00: have the time or the resources to invest in learning it.
0:32
SPEAKER_00: My goal is to break things down for you episode by episode in the most simplified
0:37
SPEAKER_00: way that I can so that you can learn to speak the language of the stars.
0:42
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for learning astrology with me.
0:47
SPEAKER_00: Welcome, my astrology friends.
0:50
SPEAKER_00: I am going to do something a little bit different today.
0:54
SPEAKER_00: I have had some questions coming in lately from some of you.
1:00
SPEAKER_00: and I am going to address one of them in this week's episode.
1:05
SPEAKER_00: Recently, one of you wrote in to ask what it means when you have retrograde planets in your natal chart.
1:13
SPEAKER_00: This person had several by the sounds of it,
1:16
SPEAKER_00: as I'm sure many of you do also,
1:19
SPEAKER_00: because most of us probably have at least one.
1:23
SPEAKER_00: I sure do.
1:23
SPEAKER_00: I have a few, actually.
1:25
SPEAKER_00: And this person wanted to know
1:28
SPEAKER_00: If that meant something, should she be paying attention to that?
1:32
SPEAKER_00: And if so, what does it mean?
1:35
SPEAKER_00: I was so excited to get that question because Retrograde Planets was definitely on
1:42
SPEAKER_00: my list of things to cover.
1:44
SPEAKER_00: I was thinking of doing it probably a few weeks from now, and I've been really excited to get there.
1:49
SPEAKER_00: And so when this question came in,
1:52
SPEAKER_00: I decided that it was a perfect opportunity to move it on up to the front of the line.
1:57
SPEAKER_00: So here we are.
1:58
SPEAKER_00: And yes, let's absolutely talk about that.
2:01
SPEAKER_00: Here's how we'll do that.
2:03
SPEAKER_00: First, I want to talk about what it means when a planet is retrograde.
2:08
SPEAKER_00: Because while I'm guessing that most of you listening have at least heard of planets being retrograde,
2:15
SPEAKER_00: We hear about mercury being retrograde three to four times per year,
2:19
SPEAKER_00: for example,
2:20
SPEAKER_00: and everyone makes a big fuss and says not to make major purchases or sign
2:24
SPEAKER_00: contracts or plan big trips and,
2:27
SPEAKER_00: you know,
2:27
SPEAKER_00: whoa,
2:28
SPEAKER_00: watch out for your electronics because something's going to break,
2:31
SPEAKER_00: right?
2:32
SPEAKER_00: We hear that a lot.
2:33
SPEAKER_00: But beyond that...
2:35
SPEAKER_00: Some people may not have a clear understanding of what that means astrologically.
2:41
SPEAKER_00: So let's talk about what it means for a planet to be retrograde and how we all
2:47
SPEAKER_00: collectively experience a planet that is currently retrograde.
2:52
SPEAKER_00: And then we'll talk after that about what it means when there is a planet retrograde in your natal chart.
2:58
SPEAKER_00: It's a bit different.
3:01
SPEAKER_00: From an astrological perspective,
3:04
SPEAKER_00: a retrograde planet simply means that from our vantage point here on Earth,
3:11
SPEAKER_00: a planet appears to be moving backward in the sky.
3:16
SPEAKER_00: Now, planets, of course, never actually move backwards.
3:20
SPEAKER_00: The planets are always moving forward along their path in reality,
3:24
SPEAKER_00: but they can look like they're moving backwards to us.
3:28
SPEAKER_00: It's an optical illusion,
3:29
SPEAKER_00: but nonetheless,
3:30
SPEAKER_00: it does impact the way that we receive and use that planet's energy.
3:36
SPEAKER_00: So imagine a car driving around a racetrack.
3:41
SPEAKER_00: That's the planet moving along its path around the sun.
3:45
SPEAKER_00: And it's speeding along, maybe fast, maybe slow, depending on which planet we're talking about here.
3:51
SPEAKER_00: But it's moving along, and every so often that car starts to slow down.
3:57
SPEAKER_00: And it goes slower and slower until it comes to a full stop.
4:01
SPEAKER_00: It just stops on the track.
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SPEAKER_00: That's the moment.
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SPEAKER_00: The stopping is what we call stationing retrograde.
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SPEAKER_00: It's getting ready to go backwards on its path.
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SPEAKER_00: It stations direct, meaning it appears to have stopped moving.
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SPEAKER_00: The planet appears to have stopped moving, even though it actually hasn't.
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SPEAKER_00: And shifts into reverse.
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SPEAKER_00: and then starts moving backwards along the racetrack slowly at first because it's
4:29
SPEAKER_00: not going to immediately go from zero to 60 in a second right it's going to take a
4:34
SPEAKER_00: bit to build up its speed it will go backward a bit retracing parts of the track
4:39
SPEAKER_00: that it's already just passed
4:41
SPEAKER_00: Until eventually,
4:43
SPEAKER_00: after a few weeks or several months,
4:45
SPEAKER_00: again,
4:45
SPEAKER_00: depending on the planet we're talking about,
4:48
SPEAKER_00: it's going to slow down again in its backward motion and come to another stop.
4:55
SPEAKER_00: This is the moment we'd say that the planet has stationed direct.
5:00
SPEAKER_00: It's no longer going backwards and it's preparing to move forward again, which it does.
5:07
SPEAKER_00: It starts eking forward and
5:10
SPEAKER_00: and it's going to take a bit of time to speed up again.
5:13
SPEAKER_00: So it's not fully operational again yet like it normally would be,
5:18
SPEAKER_00: but it is moving forward and it will pick up its normal speed and soon it will be
5:24
SPEAKER_00: humming along in its forward moving direction once again.
5:27
SPEAKER_00: That's kind of the mechanics of how retrogrades work.
5:32
SPEAKER_00: What a retrograde means energetically is obviously different.
5:38
SPEAKER_00: Energetically,
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SPEAKER_00: it simply means that the parts of your life or the parts of life,
5:45
SPEAKER_00: generally speaking,
5:47
SPEAKER_00: that fall under the rulership of the planet that is retrograde is going to be up
5:52
SPEAKER_00: for review.
5:54
SPEAKER_00: So, for example, Mercury rules things like communication, information, commerce, things like that.
6:03
SPEAKER_00: And Venus rules our relationships and our values and our self-esteem.
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SPEAKER_00: Those are things that would be up for review, respectively, with one of those planets going retrograde.
6:17
SPEAKER_00: So typically, new opportunities in the part of your life that are ruled by that planet
6:23
SPEAKER_00: are going to slow down.
6:24
SPEAKER_00: This is not a time to start new things.
6:26
SPEAKER_00: You don't typically go out and start new projects or make big changes or have big
6:31
SPEAKER_00: new endeavors when the planet that rules that thing is in a retrograde motion.
6:37
SPEAKER_00: And what you already have going on there
6:41
SPEAKER_00: in your life, in that part of your life, is going to ask to be examined and adjusted as necessary.
6:48
SPEAKER_00: That can look like problems coming up that suddenly need your attention.
6:53
SPEAKER_00: You know,
6:54
SPEAKER_00: these problems can be relatively minor and handled pretty quickly,
6:58
SPEAKER_00: or they can be much bigger and take a while to solve.
7:03
SPEAKER_00: So it can mean something unraveling and needing to be either discarded or repaired or put back together.
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SPEAKER_00: Perhaps put back together in a way,
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SPEAKER_00: hopefully put back together in a way that's better and stronger than it was before.
7:19
SPEAKER_00: Now,
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SPEAKER_00: retrogrades tend to get a bad rap,
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SPEAKER_00: and that's understandable because,
7:26
SPEAKER_00: of course,
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SPEAKER_00: we as humans prefer it when it's easy to get things done or make the changes we
7:32
SPEAKER_00: want to make or move ahead with our plans unimpeded.
7:36
SPEAKER_00: We like it when we can accomplish things quickly.
7:41
SPEAKER_00: But if we did that all the time,
7:44
SPEAKER_00: if we just barreled straight ahead all the time,
7:47
SPEAKER_00: eventually things would fall apart because we wouldn't notice when something wasn't
7:52
SPEAKER_00: right or when it wasn't working well or it was in need of repair or we needed to
7:58
SPEAKER_00: make adjustments and find a better way.
8:01
SPEAKER_00: We'd fall off the proverbial cliff if we did that.
8:04
SPEAKER_00: Not to mention that too much progress too quickly can actually really fail.
8:10
SPEAKER_00: freak people out because it feels destabilizing for things to be changing,
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SPEAKER_00: changing,
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SPEAKER_00: changing all the time without a break.
8:19
SPEAKER_00: So these retrogrades are built into the system for our benefit because they allow
8:26
SPEAKER_00: us to slow things down a bit,
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SPEAKER_00: slow the pace of change,
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SPEAKER_00: even if we think we don't want that,
8:32
SPEAKER_00: but slow the pace of change so that we can catch our breath and stabilize ourselves
8:39
SPEAKER_00: and then take stock of what we've been doing in the parts of our life that the
8:44
SPEAKER_00: retrograde planet represents and
8:47
SPEAKER_00: And think about what could be better,
8:50
SPEAKER_00: what would be more effective,
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SPEAKER_00: and ultimately what might make us happier or more fulfilled.
8:57
SPEAKER_00: And then make the adjustments.
9:00
SPEAKER_00: It also gives us a chance to stop and think about whether or not where we thought
9:07
SPEAKER_00: we were headed is still in fact where we want to go.
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SPEAKER_00: Or perhaps do we want to change our direction completely now?
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SPEAKER_00: Maybe we don't even want that thing that we thought we wanted anymore.
9:19
SPEAKER_00: Now,
9:19
SPEAKER_00: another thing that is important to know about retrogrades is that they don't cause
9:25
SPEAKER_00: anything to unravel that didn't already need fixing.
9:29
SPEAKER_00: I know people kind of associate them with just all sorts of problems and
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SPEAKER_00: frustrations coming up,
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SPEAKER_00: but they're not going to typically just
9:37
SPEAKER_00: you know,
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SPEAKER_00: wreck anything that was going exceedingly well for you and was deeply functional or fulfilling.
9:44
SPEAKER_00: This isn't that.
9:45
SPEAKER_00: This is an energy that says,
9:48
SPEAKER_00: hey,
9:49
SPEAKER_00: you know,
9:49
SPEAKER_00: you've been ignoring this problem over here for too long and you really need to
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SPEAKER_00: buckle down and take a look and fix it.
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SPEAKER_00: Now's the time.
9:58
SPEAKER_00: Now's the time to do that.
10:00
SPEAKER_00: Or,
10:01
SPEAKER_00: hey,
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SPEAKER_00: you know,
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SPEAKER_00: this thing in your life is kind of okay,
10:05
SPEAKER_00: but really,
10:06
SPEAKER_00: you could be doing something that's much better for you.
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SPEAKER_00: And, hey, you just haven't gotten up the nerve to do something different.
10:13
SPEAKER_00: That's understandable.
10:14
SPEAKER_00: That's kind of scary to make changes.
10:15
SPEAKER_00: But we're just going to give you a little nudge so you can start moving in another direction now.
10:22
SPEAKER_00: Let's get things going, shall we?
10:24
SPEAKER_00: That's what retrograde energy does.
10:27
SPEAKER_00: So that is the blessing of retrogrades.
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SPEAKER_00: That is how they are meant to serve us rather than simply just making life feel frustrating.
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SPEAKER_00: They ultimately are there to work for you and not against you.
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SPEAKER_00: So if you're someone who likes to follow the current skyscape,
10:46
SPEAKER_00: anytime that you hear about a planet being retrograde,
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SPEAKER_00: you can simply think about all of the things that that particular planet represents
10:56
SPEAKER_00: and start making some educated guesses about what's going to be slowing down,
11:02
SPEAKER_00: where you're going to find more resistance in life than you might usually,
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SPEAKER_00: and where you may be asked to make some adjustments.
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SPEAKER_00: Now,
11:12
SPEAKER_00: of course,
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SPEAKER_00: you'll also want to check your natal chart when this happens or pull up a transit
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SPEAKER_00: chart to see what house of your chart that transiting planet will be retrograding in,
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SPEAKER_00: because that will give you even more clues about what might be coming up for you
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SPEAKER_00: during that time.
11:29
SPEAKER_00: But let's address our friend's original question now about what it means when there
11:34
SPEAKER_00: are planets in your natal chart that are retrograde.
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SPEAKER_00: What does it mean if certain planets were retrograde when you were born?
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SPEAKER_00: Is there meaning to that?
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SPEAKER_00: And if so, what is it?
11:47
SPEAKER_00: And the answer is yes, there is meaning to that.
11:50
SPEAKER_00: First of all,
11:51
SPEAKER_00: though,
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SPEAKER_00: I do want to say that having at least a planet or some planets be in retrograde is very,
11:58
SPEAKER_00: very common.
12:00
SPEAKER_00: Most people are going to have at least one planet in their chart that was
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SPEAKER_00: retrograde when they were born,
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SPEAKER_00: and in quite a lot of cases,
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SPEAKER_00: more than one,
12:09
SPEAKER_00: maybe a handful for many people.
12:11
SPEAKER_00: And that's because at any given time,
12:14
SPEAKER_00: on any given day of the year,
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SPEAKER_00: there's usually some planet or another that's
12:20
SPEAKER_00: That's retrograde.
12:21
SPEAKER_00: It's actually more rare that every planet is direct all at the same time.
12:28
SPEAKER_00: That's actually called all planets direct.
12:30
SPEAKER_00: And that's a rarer chart to have, I think, than having something be retrograde.
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SPEAKER_00: We typically only get relatively shorter windows of the time with all planets direct.
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SPEAKER_00: We actually just had a window like that back near the beginning of this year.
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SPEAKER_00: in February and March.
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SPEAKER_00: It was about a two-month long window with All Planets Direct.
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SPEAKER_00: And we won't have another time like that for the rest of this year,
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SPEAKER_00: or even during the early part of next year.
13:00
SPEAKER_00: So that's kind of a special thing to have when that happens.
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SPEAKER_00: And typically,
13:07
SPEAKER_00: when we have All Planets Direct,
13:09
SPEAKER_00: what that is,
13:10
SPEAKER_00: is a really good opportunity to make progress,
13:14
SPEAKER_00: big progress sometimes,
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SPEAKER_00: in
13:16
SPEAKER_00: in any or all of the various areas of your life.
13:20
SPEAKER_00: None of the planets are forcing you to slow down and take stock or review the way
13:24
SPEAKER_00: you're doing things or address unresolved issues from the past or anything like that.
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SPEAKER_00: Instead,
13:31
SPEAKER_00: it's full steam ahead on all fronts and you can really make things happen a lot
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SPEAKER_00: more easily than maybe you could at other times when some of the energies are more
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SPEAKER_00: sluggish or up for review.
13:44
SPEAKER_00: When you have a planet in your natal chart that is retrograde,
13:48
SPEAKER_00: though,
13:50
SPEAKER_00: in my opinion,
13:51
SPEAKER_00: it simply means that you are going to be putting more attention toward the
13:57
SPEAKER_00: development of the traits and characteristics and parts of your life that are
14:03
SPEAKER_00: associated with that planet than you would otherwise.
14:08
SPEAKER_00: If you think for a moment about what a retrograde means and what we just talked about,
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SPEAKER_00: it's a review and a time to give more consideration to things,
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SPEAKER_00: to ponder things,
14:20
SPEAKER_00: and importantly,
14:21
SPEAKER_00: to refine things.
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SPEAKER_00: Refining something is a very important part of what the retrogrades offer us.
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SPEAKER_00: And if you think about that, then having a retrograde planet in your birth chart is
14:33
SPEAKER_00: Signals that you want to spend more time than the average person reflecting on the
14:40
SPEAKER_00: qualities that that planet has and really figuring that planet out.
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SPEAKER_00: That was actually something you wanted to do across the whole span of your life.
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SPEAKER_00: You wanted to examine what that planet is all about and really take it all in.
14:54
SPEAKER_00: and try to integrate that planetary energy into yourself.
14:58
SPEAKER_00: So it can provide you with a very reflective kind of introspective nature when it
15:07
SPEAKER_00: comes to that particular planet because you're paying a lot of attention there.
15:13
SPEAKER_00: You're paying a lot of attention to it and you want to refine it.
15:17
SPEAKER_00: It could be that you want to refine it because you had some trouble expressing that
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SPEAKER_00: planet's energy early in life and that mattered to you.
15:27
SPEAKER_00: And so now you're in a continual state of improvement.
15:31
SPEAKER_00: Like if Mercury is retrograde in your chart,
15:33
SPEAKER_00: which it is for almost a quarter of the people on the planet,
15:38
SPEAKER_00: and you had a hard time with verbal expression or something as a kid,
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SPEAKER_00: maybe you weren't very articulate as a young person.
15:47
SPEAKER_00: Or you had trouble with writing or reading because that can be a very mercurial thing also.
15:53
SPEAKER_00: Or you felt misunderstood a lot of the time.
15:56
SPEAKER_00: And that didn't sit well with you.
15:58
SPEAKER_00: So you integrated that experience into your personality and then perhaps put a lot
16:03
SPEAKER_00: of effort into self-expression.
16:05
SPEAKER_00: And over time, you learned to communicate with a lot of precision.
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SPEAKER_00: And maybe it even became an important part of what you do in life.
16:16
SPEAKER_00: Or the other possibility is that maybe you didn't have a ton of trouble with it,
16:20
SPEAKER_00: but you just came into the life wanting to get really good at it and you wanted to
16:26
SPEAKER_00: explore all the different facets of it and look at all the different angles of that
16:30
SPEAKER_00: planet together.
16:31
SPEAKER_00: You know, either of those things I think could be true and it will vary from person to person.
16:37
SPEAKER_00: But having that planet be in retrograde and having that tendency to really reflect
16:43
SPEAKER_00: on that energy all the time is going to help you really learn a lot about that
16:48
SPEAKER_00: planet and what you can do with it.
16:50
SPEAKER_00: So you introspect around that planet more when you have it in retrograde.
16:55
SPEAKER_00: which could end up being a real gift,
16:58
SPEAKER_00: even though you might feel like you have to work harder at it at times than other
17:03
SPEAKER_00: people might.
17:05
SPEAKER_00: It can also indicate that you're someone who can use the energy of that planet in a
17:11
SPEAKER_00: way that's slightly different or off the beaten path.
17:16
SPEAKER_00: You might be a trailblazer there because you can see this energy from a different
17:22
SPEAKER_00: vantage point than most other people do.
17:25
SPEAKER_00: So it can also be about uniqueness or finding alternate ways of doing things.
17:33
SPEAKER_00: Now,
17:33
SPEAKER_00: I just want to describe very quickly what the effect of each planet being
17:39
SPEAKER_00: retrograde means and how often they're in retrograde.
17:43
SPEAKER_00: But before I do that, there are a couple of exceptions that are important to point out.
17:49
SPEAKER_00: Exceptions to this entire discussion about retrogrades are the sun, the moon, and the lunar nodes.
17:58
SPEAKER_00: The sun and the moon are never retrograde.
18:01
SPEAKER_00: They are always direct.
18:03
SPEAKER_00: So retrogrades do not apply to the luminaries.
18:08
SPEAKER_00: And because the lunar nodes have to do with the moon,
18:12
SPEAKER_00: the lunar nodes are also an exception,
18:15
SPEAKER_00: except that they are always retrograde.
18:19
SPEAKER_00: The lunar nodes are unlike everything else in an astrology chart because everything
18:24
SPEAKER_00: else moves counterclockwise around the chart wheel.
18:28
SPEAKER_00: The nodes do not.
18:29
SPEAKER_00: They move clockwise around the wheel.
18:32
SPEAKER_00: They move backwards.
18:33
SPEAKER_00: And they move backwards all the time.
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SPEAKER_00: They never go direct.
18:37
SPEAKER_00: So every person,
18:40
SPEAKER_00: every single person on the planet has their lunar nodes retrograde in their natal
18:45
SPEAKER_00: chart because they're always moving in a retrograde fashion.
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SPEAKER_00: So right now, for example, the north node is currently in the sign of Aries.
18:55
SPEAKER_00: And because the nodes move backward,
18:58
SPEAKER_00: The next sign it will move into will be Pisces rather than Taurus,
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SPEAKER_00: which is where every other thing would go after Aries.
19:07
SPEAKER_00: So there is no meaning attributed to having your nodes be retrograde in your chart
19:12
SPEAKER_00: because everyone has that.
19:14
SPEAKER_00: Other than these exceptions, though, the other planets all go retrograde in cycles.
19:20
SPEAKER_00: And I should point out that if you have a planet retrograde in your chart,
19:25
SPEAKER_00: look at your natal chart,
19:27
SPEAKER_00: check out all your planets,
19:29
SPEAKER_00: and the ones that were retrograde when you were born will have a little R,
19:34
SPEAKER_00: the letter R,
19:36
SPEAKER_00: next to the glyph representing that planet.
19:39
SPEAKER_00: If you look at the planetary glyphs that are in the wheel and you don't see that
19:44
SPEAKER_00: little R next to any of them,
19:46
SPEAKER_00: then you likely don't have any retrograde planets.
19:50
SPEAKER_00: Pay attention anyway,
19:51
SPEAKER_00: though,
19:51
SPEAKER_00: to the descriptions I'm about to give you because some of your loved ones probably do.
19:57
SPEAKER_00: Mercury,
19:57
SPEAKER_00: the fastest moving planet,
20:00
SPEAKER_00: goes retrograde the most often and it's,
20:04
SPEAKER_00: or I should say with the most frequency.
20:07
SPEAKER_00: And it's the one that we hear about all the time.
20:09
SPEAKER_00: It goes retrograde about every three to four months and lasts for about three and a
20:15
SPEAKER_00: half weeks or so at a time.
20:18
SPEAKER_00: That's roughly 25% of the year when you add them all up.
20:24
SPEAKER_00: Now,
20:25
SPEAKER_00: Mercury rules things like communication,
20:27
SPEAKER_00: thinking,
20:28
SPEAKER_00: travel,
20:29
SPEAKER_00: and transportation,
20:31
SPEAKER_00: electronics,
20:32
SPEAKER_00: and commerce and business.
20:34
SPEAKER_00: So when Mercury is retrograde,
20:38
SPEAKER_00: we can experience problems and have problems that arise with all of these types of things.
20:44
SPEAKER_00: Your email shuts down or you send the wrong email to the wrong person or your car
20:51
SPEAKER_00: breaks down or your travel plans get rearranged and all of these types of things.
20:56
SPEAKER_00: That feels like frustration, and it feels like chaos, frankly.
21:02
SPEAKER_00: That's why people tend to frown upon Mercury retrograde periods.
21:06
SPEAKER_00: If you have Mercury retrograde in your natal chart, however...
21:11
SPEAKER_00: You don't necessarily get all of the chaos that comes with the Mercury retrograde transit,
21:18
SPEAKER_00: but as I touched on before,
21:20
SPEAKER_00: you will likely spend your lifetime refining mercurial issues like communication or learning,
21:28
SPEAKER_00: for example.
21:30
SPEAKER_00: And you'll work on refining it or coming up with new and different ways of using that energy.
21:36
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're really an out-of-the-box thinker or something and your thinking style is more unique.
21:43
SPEAKER_00: It may also mean that you're someone who
21:46
SPEAKER_00: needs or prefers to take a bit more time to think things through.
21:52
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're very careful in your thought processes or careful in your decision
21:57
SPEAKER_00: making and you really want to make sure that you take in all the information you
22:01
SPEAKER_00: can and really consider everything and formulate all the details before you make a
22:08
SPEAKER_00: decision and start moving forward on something.
22:11
SPEAKER_00: And that could be karmic even.
22:13
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps there were other times in certain cases where a person was far too hasty
22:18
SPEAKER_00: and moved through life too recklessly.
22:21
SPEAKER_00: And so this lifetime is about reining that tendency in and doing things differently,
22:27
SPEAKER_00: being more cautious,
22:28
SPEAKER_00: thinking things through.
22:30
SPEAKER_00: If you have Venus retrograde in your chart, it's the same kind of idea.
22:35
SPEAKER_00: except that you are trying to look at and refine Venusian themes like relationships
22:42
SPEAKER_00: and the way you love and connect with other people or your values,
22:46
SPEAKER_00: your self-esteem.
22:48
SPEAKER_00: Self-love is part of this too, absolutely.
22:50
SPEAKER_00: Also beauty.
22:52
SPEAKER_00: So this natal retrograde could be about spending a lifetime closely examining your
22:58
SPEAKER_00: sense of self-worth first and foremost because all love starts there.
23:02
SPEAKER_00: And
23:03
SPEAKER_00: and then how you connect with others.
23:06
SPEAKER_00: And what that journey looks like will vary a lot from person to person,
23:11
SPEAKER_00: but it's about looking deeply at those things.
23:15
SPEAKER_00: It could also be the case that you're interested in unique types of relationships
23:20
SPEAKER_00: or non-traditional people.
23:22
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you have lots of friends who are kind of off the beaten path.
23:26
SPEAKER_00: as well as having a unique or slightly more unusual sense of what's beautiful.
23:32
SPEAKER_00: So maybe a unique or even eccentric sense of style is possible here.
23:38
SPEAKER_00: Venus, by the way, goes retrograde about every year and a half, and it lasts about six weeks.
23:46
SPEAKER_00: So longer than Mercury retrograde, but it doesn't happen as often.
23:51
SPEAKER_00: We actually had...
23:54
SPEAKER_00: Venus retrograde last summer in the sign of Leo.
23:57
SPEAKER_00: So Venus was in the sign of Leo for a very long time.
24:00
SPEAKER_00: And if you were following astrology at that time, you probably heard all about it.
24:05
SPEAKER_00: Mars retrograde in transit can be kind of a beast.
24:10
SPEAKER_00: It makes us quite literally slow down.
24:15
SPEAKER_00: Mars is where we get our initiative and our energy.
24:19
SPEAKER_00: It makes us get up off the couch and do things.
24:22
SPEAKER_00: So when it's retrograde,
24:24
SPEAKER_00: we're meant to examine the way we're doing things and how we go after what we want.
24:30
SPEAKER_00: But what that often feels like,
24:32
SPEAKER_00: that review process,
24:33
SPEAKER_00: what it feels like is simply not having enough energy or feeling like you can't get
24:39
SPEAKER_00: anything done.
24:40
SPEAKER_00: It can be a tough one.
24:43
SPEAKER_00: Fortunately, though, it only happens every two years.
24:48
SPEAKER_00: But when it does, it lasts a while.
24:50
SPEAKER_00: It lasts between two and three months.
24:54
SPEAKER_00: The other thing that can happen when Mars is retrograde is you can experience conflicts.
25:00
SPEAKER_00: You can experience more than an average number of conflicts with the people in your
25:04
SPEAKER_00: life or with people you meet out in the world because Mars can also be about conflict.
25:10
SPEAKER_00: And that might be something.
25:11
SPEAKER_00: that comes up for you to look at.
25:14
SPEAKER_00: Now,
25:14
SPEAKER_00: when Mars retrograde is part of your chart,
25:17
SPEAKER_00: it doesn't mean that you're not going to have any energy ever,
25:22
SPEAKER_00: or that you can't be productive or anything like that.
25:24
SPEAKER_00: It's not quite the same.
25:26
SPEAKER_00: But it may be
25:28
SPEAKER_00: that you are really examining in this lifetime,
25:32
SPEAKER_00: how you assert yourself or how you initiate things,
25:37
SPEAKER_00: or if you initiate when and how you think you should,
25:41
SPEAKER_00: what could you refine there?
25:43
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you wanted to examine some lessons around ambition or
25:49
SPEAKER_00: or autonomy and individuality, or leadership.
25:53
SPEAKER_00: And you might be a late bloomer around some of these things.
25:58
SPEAKER_00: You might spend some time looking at these ideas from one perspective when you're young,
26:04
SPEAKER_00: learn quite a few things,
26:07
SPEAKER_00: and then move on over to the set of lessons on the other side of that spectrum
26:12
SPEAKER_00: later when you become more assured.
26:15
SPEAKER_00: Again, this could all be karmic.
26:17
SPEAKER_00: All of the retrograde planets could be a bit karmic and could indicate that a
26:22
SPEAKER_00: course correction was needed from a prior lifetime.
26:26
SPEAKER_00: After Mars, we start getting into the social planets and the outer planets.
26:32
SPEAKER_00: And these retrogrades typically won't
26:35
SPEAKER_00: affect our personalities as deeply, they're a bit more collective.
26:40
SPEAKER_00: And they also spend a lot more time retrograde.
26:45
SPEAKER_00: Some of them are retrograde close to half the time or around half the time.
26:50
SPEAKER_00: So lots and lots of people will have these outer planets retrograde in their chart.
26:56
SPEAKER_00: It's not unusual at all.
26:58
SPEAKER_00: Jupiter, for instance, is retrograde for 17 weeks straight every year.
27:06
SPEAKER_00: And this can be about creating a belief system that comes from inside yourself
27:13
SPEAKER_00: rather than relying on whatever belief systems are imposed on you by society and culture.
27:21
SPEAKER_00: You're probably not going to be someone who likes dogma,
27:26
SPEAKER_00: for instance,
27:26
SPEAKER_00: or maybe you struggled with dogma early in your life and you have to learn how to,
27:32
SPEAKER_00: you know,
27:32
SPEAKER_00: reflect and figure out what you really believe.
27:35
SPEAKER_00: Right.
27:36
SPEAKER_00: It also could mean that.
27:39
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're not as blindly optimistic as some people in the world are.
27:44
SPEAKER_00: You might not have an innate trust that everything's just going to work out just
27:49
SPEAKER_00: fine and everything will be okay and it'll all happen.
27:53
SPEAKER_00: Don't worry.
27:53
SPEAKER_00: You might not have that with this planet retrograde in your chart,
27:57
SPEAKER_00: which could result in you putting a lot more effort into things in your life
28:03
SPEAKER_00: because you believe instead that you need to make things happen.
28:08
SPEAKER_00: which is not a bad thing at all.
28:09
SPEAKER_00: That could take you pretty far.
28:11
SPEAKER_00: Now, Saturn retrograde.
28:13
SPEAKER_00: Saturn is retrograde for 20 weeks a year.
28:17
SPEAKER_00: So with this, we're inching toward just a little less than half of the people having this one.
28:24
SPEAKER_00: And this is really about examining Saturnian life themes like maturity,
28:33
SPEAKER_00: responsibility,
28:34
SPEAKER_00: stability,
28:36
SPEAKER_00: rules...
28:37
SPEAKER_00: and also success.
28:39
SPEAKER_00: So you may attract a lot of experiences that ask you to look at one or more of
28:47
SPEAKER_00: those things from a variety of different angles.
28:50
SPEAKER_00: It may also be,
28:51
SPEAKER_00: though,
28:52
SPEAKER_00: that you're being asked to overcome some real challenges around one or more of
28:58
SPEAKER_00: these themes.
28:59
SPEAKER_00: And that's really because of the nature of Saturn itself.
29:04
SPEAKER_00: Saturn is the strict teacher and the disciplinarian that teaches us to step up and
29:11
SPEAKER_00: grow up and improve ourselves by working hard to overcome the challenges that come
29:17
SPEAKER_00: our way.
29:19
SPEAKER_00: Moving on to Uranus, retrograde Uranus can be about learning to accept change with less resistance
29:30
SPEAKER_00: Uranus is the planet of change that shakes us out of our comfort zones.
29:34
SPEAKER_00: So a retrograde with this planet could be about maybe not being all that
29:40
SPEAKER_00: comfortable with change initially or not comfortable with change at your core,
29:45
SPEAKER_00: but learning how to get more comfortable with it.
29:49
SPEAKER_00: It's also a very eccentric planet,
29:51
SPEAKER_00: so it can bring up lessons about learning to embrace those eccentric parts of
29:57
SPEAKER_00: yourself without shame or judgment of ourselves.
30:02
SPEAKER_00: So someone like this might spend a fair amount of time in life looking at how to do
30:06
SPEAKER_00: that and reflecting on that.
30:09
SPEAKER_00: And that's another one that Uranus is another one that roughly half the population
30:15
SPEAKER_00: has in their natal chart.
30:17
SPEAKER_00: Uranus stays retrograde for about 22 weeks at a time or close to five months or so.
30:24
SPEAKER_00: So really, it's a lot of the year.
30:27
SPEAKER_00: Retrograde Neptune lasts about the same time as Uranus.
30:32
SPEAKER_00: So close to half the population also has that one in their chart.
30:36
SPEAKER_00: And this is about spending a lot of time looking at your spirituality and what that means to you.
30:44
SPEAKER_00: It's about looking at your divine connection and trying to find it and figure out how you find it.
30:52
SPEAKER_00: You might also be examining lessons around compassion or unconditional love,
30:58
SPEAKER_00: because those are both Neptunian themes.
31:01
SPEAKER_00: And this stuff may or may not come easily for you at first.
31:07
SPEAKER_00: But either way, whether it does or it doesn't, there's going to be some kind of journey that
31:12
SPEAKER_00: to reflect closely on throughout your life.
31:16
SPEAKER_00: And Pluto, finally, Pluto retrograde.
31:19
SPEAKER_00: This lasts for a whopping 27 weeks or so out of every year.
31:25
SPEAKER_00: It stays direct for six months at a time.
31:29
SPEAKER_00: then moves backward or appears to for the next six months.
31:33
SPEAKER_00: So again, half of us have this.
31:36
SPEAKER_00: This planet being retrograde allows us to really look at Plutonian themes like
31:40
SPEAKER_00: power dynamics,
31:42
SPEAKER_00: not necessarily from one side or the other.
31:45
SPEAKER_00: I think that really depends on the person and the circumstances in the situation.
31:50
SPEAKER_00: But it's likely to be something that
31:53
SPEAKER_00: is of interest to you at some point and that you look at from one place or the other.
31:58
SPEAKER_00: It may also be about working through fears or learning to face fears and transform yourself through them.
32:06
SPEAKER_00: Pluto always indicates those things,
32:09
SPEAKER_00: but there's just,
32:10
SPEAKER_00: again,
32:10
SPEAKER_00: a bit more introspection around it when it's retrograde.
32:14
SPEAKER_00: Having this one retrograde is going to add depth to your life experience and
32:20
SPEAKER_00: ultimately to your way of thinking and being.
32:23
SPEAKER_00: And finally,
32:24
SPEAKER_00: I'll touch on Chiron because that's another one that so many people have,
32:30
SPEAKER_00: even though it's not,
32:31
SPEAKER_00: it doesn't have full planetary status,
32:32
SPEAKER_00: but
32:33
SPEAKER_00: A Chiron retrograde lasts for about five months annually.
32:38
SPEAKER_00: And when the wounded healer is retrograde in your chart,
32:42
SPEAKER_00: doing your healing work,
32:44
SPEAKER_00: healing whatever your Chiron wound is,
32:47
SPEAKER_00: is going to be extra emphasized and extra important.
32:51
SPEAKER_00: This is about doing a lot of that internal healing work and really assimilating the
32:59
SPEAKER_00: lessons around it so that you can become the healer as Chiron hopes that you will,
33:06
SPEAKER_00: right?
33:07
SPEAKER_00: It can be really a profound thing if this is used well.
33:12
SPEAKER_00: If ignored though or brushed aside with this placement,
33:16
SPEAKER_00: a person can become afraid of their wound and try to bury it.
33:21
SPEAKER_00: which of course can cause problems for oneself and the people close to them.
33:25
SPEAKER_00: But the healing work can be especially profound here.
33:31
SPEAKER_00: Okay, that wraps up today's discussion.
33:35
SPEAKER_00: Remember, this topic came from a listener question.
33:38
SPEAKER_00: So if you have one, drop me a note if you want to.
33:42
SPEAKER_00: I'd love to know what you're interested in and what you'd like to talk about.
33:48
SPEAKER_00: If you want to talk about something or you have a lingering question,
33:51
SPEAKER_00: chances are someone else probably has that question too.
33:55
SPEAKER_00: So don't be afraid to drop me a note.
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34:04
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34:09
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34:16
SPEAKER_00: That's all for now, everyone.
34:17
SPEAKER_00: Have a great week and I'll see you next time.