Astrology: a perspective switch
By: Janette Dalgliesh – Confluence Daily is your daily news source for women in the know.
10-16 May 2020
This is a BIG week for shifting perspectives, with not one, not two, but THREE planets making the switch into retrograde motion.
All planets move forward in their orbits around the sun, all the time.
But all of us, dear reader, we stand upon the Earth. So our own personal perspective is based on how things appear in the sky above us.
Because of the relative movement of our own planet’s orbit and the orbits of our neighbours in the solar system, there are times when every other body which orbits the Sun will appear to go backwards.
When you’re in a fast train, overtaking a slower train, you have the same effect – that other train appears to be going backwards in relation to you.
It’s all about relationships, and perspectives.
When planets appear to go backwards, it’s not an objectively ‘real’ event – it’s the way we humans perceive it, based on our perspective.
A retrograde period is an invitation to reassess, re-examine and reconsider the things that planet is most interested in.
And when any planet goes into a retrograde (Rx) period, the turning points at the beginning and end are the most powerfully felt, because those are the moments when the perspective changes.
First up, we have Saturn.
His role in our personal lives is to be curator of our own Life Mission. He cares deeply about our legacy, the mark we make the world, our work. He wants us to do it well, with a robust foundation and something real at the core.
He’s also interested in societal areas such as governance, authority, rulership and Doing Things Properly.
He yearns for rigour, for a sense of a job well done. He can be our most inspiring mentor, keeping our ambitions alive and flourishing; or he can be our biggest taskmaster and critic, tapping into the societal pressures of productivity and hard work to toxic levels.
In the lead up to Saturn Rx, it’s not uncommon to feel the weightiness of this impending shift in perspective, as we are invited to pause and reconsider our own relationship with our working lives and our own purpose in the world.
Normally, this might seem relatively subtle and personal. Right now, as we face major changes in how we work on an epic and global scale, don’t be surprised if you’re feeling (as a friend of mine put it) like you have concrete in your legs.
Saturn Rx brings him back out of Aquarius and into his home sign of Capricorn right through until just before Christmas; and it takes him back almost to the point of the January Saturn-Pluto conjunction.
This is not a return to the heaviness of that 2019 build-up to the Saturn-Pluto conjunction, so you can relax a little.
Think of it more like an opportunity to check in with the work you did towards building foundations for what you want to create next. There will be things to tweak, things to refine, and things to completely change.
And this is also a perfect opportunity for us individually and collectively to ask how we want to return to our working lives, whether we’ve been laid off, working from home for the first time, working from home while figuring out distance learning for our kids, or whatever.
We get to re-assess our relationship with Saturn himself, especially the taskmaster aspect of him.
And we get to ask whether the old working structures and systems are really our best possible option.
Are they fair? Are they flexible enough?
Does my job actually feed my soul or is it anathema and I really REALLY don’t want to go back?
If everything is up for change, and if anything were possible, what would I want to do?
And this is perfectly supported by Venus turning Rx in Gemini, just a couple of days later.
Goddess of desire, she helps us to understand fully and without apology what we actually DO want, even if all our social conditioning has taught us it’s impossible or out of reach.
While she’s retrograde, she also provides an opportunity to re-examine our old assumptions about our desires themselves. And situated in Gemini, the curiosity and the ability to articulate will both be off the charts.
And finally, we have optimistic blue-sky thinker Jupiter turning Rx in Capricorn. He brings his unique talent for leaping ahead without worrying about the how – and when we have Saturn in Capricorn, it’s really useful to have this jolly energy alongside to help lighten the mood.
When Jupiter joins the party, we can more easily tap in to that feeling of ‘anything is possible’ which might be required in order to help inspire us forward.
The key with Jupiter is to ALLOW.
No trying to force things to come under our control, no pushing and no holding back out of fear.
This combination is a potent mix for preparing us all for a new normal, because the shifts in perspective in our public legacy, our true desires and our amazing human capacity to believe anything is possible – oh boy, that’s some powerful mojo right there!
Exact times (US Eastern timezone):
- 11 May, 12:09 AM – Saturn retrograde at 1° of Aquarius
- 13 May, 2:45 AM – Venus retrograde at 21° Gemini
- 14 May, 10:32 AM – Jupiter retrograde at 27° Capricorn
- 28 September, 11:46 PM – Saturn turns direct at 25º Capricorn
Janette Dalgliesh has one mission in life – to wreak more joy in the world. That means no more walking through the day like a zombie, doing the job-from-hell, twisting yourself into a pretzel to suit other people, or putting off those secret dreams you’ve had since childhood for yet another year. Janette uses her unique blend of astrology and neuroscience-based coaching to help people take charge of their own lives with love, inner peace, fun and deep contentment – no matter the external circumstances. You can connect with Janette via her website, or over on Facebook.
