ASTROLOGY FOR OCTOBER 2018 - Venus Retrograde

Astrology for October 2018

Sometimes you recognize that you really cannot make this S**t up! This astrology is remarkable and painful to have to report to all of you. But here we go.

Okay, take a breath. Yes, it is going to be crazy and things are going out of bounds whether you like it or not. You cannot control others. You can only have that special backpack to protect you from the emotional avalanche that is going to happen when too many people get on that cornice of snow and start stomping.

But if you have planned well, you will bounce above the ice and snow and hopefully not get buried by the brutality and hurt of others.

We are preparing for that Saturn/Pluto Conjunction on January 12^th, 2020. And right now, Saturn and Pluto are moving forward, pushing us to clear out 35/36 years of garbage that we each have been holding or attempting to assimilate.

This month you recognize that you cannot hold it much longer and you know that this garbage is going to have to go “up and out” or “down and out”. One way or the other. The old toxic truth is now impossible to deny. You have that sick feeling. Like just before your body finally and fully decides to reject something that has become too much and too toxic. While the purging energy is good and often gives a euphoric feeling, it is also very messy, and not pleasant for anyone in the general vicinity. That is why doing your own personal work is going to be essential right now. Others are not any better off than you and they cannot help you, if they are running to their own bathrooms in a rush.

We are further in the underworld than we have ever been before. And while finally hitting the bottom gives a bounce to come back up, you are sitting in the most intense position and time.

The deepest layers of your core are putting you to the test. It is overwhelming, but you cannot allow fear to stop you. You have to go through the shadow of death in order to find out who you really are. You are trying to understand the places that you have denied. In truth, you do not know who you really are. And that is what is making it so frightening. You are beginning to realize that you are not what you told yourself you were. You are beginning to see the meanness that is underlying that “happy face”.

Everyone wants to be identified as a kind and a good person. And within everyone is that archetype.

But you are more than you know.

And you do not discover who you really are until you are pushed up against the wall of your old identity.

You do not know who you really are until you are tested. Until you see the fear collapse you and you go numb because you want to belong to a group more than you want to be true and free.

Until that moment, you do not know how you will respond in a crisis. And the crisis is internal, external, political, personal, transformational, emotional, spiritual, physical, global, and environmental.

And you wonder why you are so stressed?

The big news for this month is the Venus Retrograde that happens Oct 5-Nov 16. Venus in Scorpio will give all of us the full range of this powerfully emotional goddess. As the Temptress, she plans on coaxing and evoking out a myriad of emotional states within you.

So, get ready.

This moment will add to the intensely stressful time in which we find ourselves.

Expect passions to increase, therefore, it is a good idea to learn how to channel such energy constructively. Venus rules love and so you will be focusing on your relationships. All of them.

There is a tense square to Mars that will increase sexual tension that could easily boil over into anger. Typically, you will watch many have a lack of self-control as emotional impulses overrule the mind. Rationality could go right out the window. What you feel becomes paramount and it needs to be expressed to come back to some semblance of Libra-esque balance.

This Venus Retrograde will hit is three phases. The first one is when it is stationary in the sky (which we have already passed in my personal attempt to get this out). Your mind chewed on money issues and the feeling of needing safety.

The second phase begins as it goes retrograde on October 5. In the fixed and certain sign of Scorpio, the desire to leap into love affairs is high. Just remember that Scorpio hides things in the debris and depths. And know that you cannot see what is lurking in the murky waters. So, don’t “fall in love”.

Venus also trines Neptune in a friendly and romantic way. But recognize that we have two very powerful and deep planets and signs invoking you deeper into their clutches. You are being hypnotized to go deeper than you have ever gone before. You know you have to go. Your mind tells you it is un-necessary. But it is wrong. Something lurks deep within and is calling out to you. You cannot resist, and you cannot wait another moment. Time is of the essence.

The Libra New Moon is on Monday, October 8 at 8:47 PM PDT (16 degrees Libra). New Moons are the perfect time for initiating rituals that are about letting go of the old and beginning the new.

No matter what, do not compromise your principles and needs. And do not work towards appeasing others. Enough is enough. If you do not stand up for yourself, no one else will either. I personally plan on doing a ceremony this New Moon because of the power of so many planets impacting. I want to create a start fresh with clear goals and a focus that is constructive in such a destructive and intensely emotional time. Perhaps, you too, will join me and do your own.

Venus is now in her retrograde cycle and brings with it the expression of increased passions in the world. I expect a very bumpy ride for the next few weeks.

While there is also a Venus trine Neptune happening and it is a friendly and romantic influence for some. But (to me) the strongest influence during this Venus retrograde cycle is Venus square Mars.

This is a very challenging aspect, so it is best to understand it before looking at the easier influences. While some things point to this being an important moment to rebalance relationships and ideally, this has the potential to make teammates out of adversaries, I am not going to hold my breath in this particular atmosphere that is happening in the world right now.

I do want to dream of that potential and that some make some shifts, the volatility is so high I am afraid that Mars is going to win (hands down).

While we are in Libra, I completely understand that Libra wants balance. But the pounding drums of the God of War (Mars) with all of this astrology, will drown out the voices of reason. I believe the conflict is going to tilt those scales more and more out of balance rather than put them into balance.

That is my personal opinion. I hope that I am wrong.

There is a “Let go and let god” Pluto tied together with these other planets. However, with the New Moon forming a square to Pluto, you are likely to encounter resistance from others and from within, as your ambitions seem to compete or conflict with your relationship goals. As well, with Venus, (ruler of Libra) now retrograde, you may be looking back before finally being able to move forward.

The Sign of Libra wants you to live in balance and seeks a sense of luxury. Although normally this is a social New Moon, the tie-in to Venus in Scorpio, and death and rebirth Pluto add an extra dose of private deep emotions continuing to build.

Be willing to be vulnerable with those in your inner circle and keep healthy boundaries with those people who know what you “should” do better than you know yourself.

At the same time, wounded-healer Chiron has temporarily moved backwards into Pisces where it has been since 2011 (and gave us a teaser of its coming path through Aries over the summer). As Chiron is the transformation of wounding/healing/teaching, this centaur is finishing up his run through Pisces. This is a good time for compassion and forgiveness as well as opening to a higher vision that comes from your spiritual center. Tune in to the deeper calling beckoning you from a place inside that is unfamiliar and darker than you would prefer.

That does not mean I want you to become your worst self. It means that I want you to find that voice from the depth of your soul that you had locked away in a prison. That voice needs to be let out. That voice has been locked away by your ego and your need to “look good”. And it has been harmed by your lack of understanding and loving. All parts inside deserve to be loved and heard. All voices have value. All parts of yourself are needed for you to transcend this density.  

There is a new opportunity waiting in the wings for you, but it is off in some fog bank and just out of sight. You have to go find that part. You have to release it from the prison that you stuffed it into. You have to brave the dragons that are going to try to stop you. This month you are going to be asked to release the past and open to your intuitive side and your hidden self. A re-balancing needs to occur between partnership and individuality, and mundane practicality and spirituality.

This month is about realizing that you are doing a pattern ineffectively. You cannot keep doing this because the energy drain is killing you. You have to find another way.

The easy way to understand this moment is to see that what you are avoiding is the direction you need to head into. Then do that as gracefully and with as much conscious balance as is possible.

No. This month is not going to be fun.

Yes. This month is going to be messy.

You have to find an unfamiliar door that will lead you not into the light but deeper into the dark. You have left a part of yourself behind. You can never be whole if you are unwilling to be brave enough to rescue the parts of yourself that you have judged and shoved into the prison of your shadow self.

They are down there.

They are waiting and calling to you.

They have the answers you seek but not necessarily the answers your ego wants.

Those answers will cause a reckoning within you.

But that is how you will find freedom and peace.

~Suzanne Wagner~