Astrologer Bill Attride

Venus-Sun Conjunction Tonight

The planet Venus has been moving retrograde since October 8 and tonight reaches the halfway point of its retrograde cycle. This is known as Venus making its Inferior conjunction to the Sun. This is because we find Venus now at its closest approach to the Earth, positioned between the Earth and the Sun.

This alignment makes this phase of the Venus cycle similar to a New Moon, wherein the Moon is also positioned between Earth and the Sun. And, just like a New Moon, this moment in the Venus cycle creates an opportunity for us to make a new beginning. In this case, since it is Venus, a new beginning in our understanding and experience of Value is offered to us.

All retrogrades of planets create a period in which we can and should go back and review, reflect and repair our experience of whatever that planet has rulership over. Venus only retrogrades every 18 months or so, (it retrogrades the least of all the planets!), making this time a very special time indeed. And the actual length of its retrograde period is quite prophetic, Venus retrogrades for 40 days! There are numerous references in all major religions and metaphysical systems to the number 40 as being significant, but the question is what are we to do with Venus retrograde?

Venus rules value, it rules the feelings we have as regards our attachments, our wants...it rules what we call Love. What Venus retrograde asks of each of us is this, it asks us to look within ourselves and see what are the values that are unique to me and make me me?

Of course, we must and will share many aesthetic, cultural and spiritual values with our fellow human beings. How could we not? We are social beings, we are nurtured and unfold our given and unique potential within a particular family, within a particular village, town or city, within a particular culture. All of these create and reinforce the essential language of value in our life.

Yet we also find a need to be special, to be our self, and to combine in our own unique way the various themes and forms of expression of value that are in and around us. We take what is provided by our environment and mix it with the essence of our self that comes from within, our spirit, our soul, so that in the end what we make is a life of value that stands as a testament to our own soul's journey.

Along the way, the Universe provides moments to pause, to reflect and if necessary adjust our journey. With Venus retrograde we have all been doing this, mostly unconsciously, during these last 20 days. And now, an answer is offered. The conjunction of Venus with the Sun releases a message, again, for most, a very deep and probably unseen answer to our prayer for guidance and help. But it is there, tonight.

Do not expect fireworks...expect a breath, a feather, a hint of another way. To hear the message we must be still and open to the Wind of the Spirit in which we live and find the true meaning of our lives.

And Venus will keep moving backwards for another 20 days, till November 18. At that moment the energies will shift again. We will be able to take that seed of a new understanding and begin to act on it, still unsure of its true importance. The revelation of our new understanding comes later, much later, when Venus again aligns with the Sun and Earth around August 16, 2011.

But we can be comforted tonight in the knowledge that the Universe is offering us help, as always, if we can take a moment and be still and reexamine what is good, what is beautiful...what is love to me...tonight.

Sun in Scorpio

The Sun moved into Scorpio today. The next month will highlight a new theme for us to consider. The theme for Scorpio is the natural progression from Libra. We now move from the structure and forms of relationship to its heart, to the experience of Union.

Libra Full Moon

The Libra Full Moon arrives this evening. The Sun provides the theme, and the Sun in Libra will make this a revelation about relationships. This opposition of Sun and Moon creates an opportunity for each of us to examine our relationships more objectively.

The Moon being in Aries provides the counterpoint of the kind of energy, the kind of understanding, that we always need to improve our experience of relationship. I like to call the experience of Aries as being the expression of our "presence" in life. Each of us is who we are, internally. But we present a different aspect of ourselves to the various types of people in our life. We present one kind of our self to our family, another to our friends, and another to our partner. We are always who we are, but we use these masks to better interface with the world around us.

The question then becomes, have we created the right masks, the right personas, for each person or group of persons in our life? When we do, then others find our presence welcoming...we neither "come off" too strong nor too weak. We bring to bear the right energy appropriate to each and every situation. If a situation seems overly nervous, we bring our calmer self to bear, and if a situation seems a bit slow, we call upon our more livelier self to stimulate the experience.

The full Moon in Aries should be experienced as an opportunity to examine our masks and see whether or not we are revealing ourselves truly in our relationships. Are we making the best possible case for who we are, or is it apparent that there is some misunderstanding and we need to clarify ourselves to one another?

The full Moon says look at your relationships and see whether you are present in them. Or are you trying to be something for someone, or they are for you, and that is why circumstances are coming to a point of stress now? Take a deep breath, and then look at yourself and see whether or not you like the relationship you have....with yourself.

Aries Moon

The Moon has entered Aries as we move towards the Full Moon on Friday. The pace of activity picks up as we prepare for the revelation that every Full Moon delivers. Of course, this time, it is a revelation about relationship that awaits us.