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As August 2023 draws to a close, we find ourselves deep within retrograde season with seven planets in apparent backward motion. The lineup includes inner planets Mercury and Venus as well as those that are further away, including Saturn, Chiron, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. On September 4, 2023, Jupiter will join the lineup of planets in retrograde.
What Does It Mean When Planets Are In Retrograde?
No matter what we humans think life should look like, it continuously reminds us that our path is not linear. Although many of us may feel most comfortable, and even celebrate, the seasons that are most direct and straightforward, have we forgotten the rest of the picture?
As the planets in our cosmos take a moment to retrace their steps, they take us on a journey through our past actions, selves, experiences, desires, and expressions. It is a retracing and reliving of what is still awaiting our presence, awareness, understanding, and compassion. We experience the emotions that ask to be witnessed so they may be worked through. The endings that never truly ended needing reviving or final closure. The old ideas that entered our consciousness before we were ready asking us to be understood or released completely. And the stories that simply need the kind of reframe that comes from looking at them anew with the perspective that we have acquired since they were introduced to us.
As much as planets in retrograde can feel like a step backward, they are a necessary and sacred part of our journey forward. They are the gift of reflection that allows for insight, the introspection that allows for self-awareness, the spaciousness required for the assimilation of steps already taken, and the sacred pause needed to build the inner capacity to take any leap forward.
While the world around us continues to move forward, we are invited to bring space into our days wherever possible. An extra few breaths before we begin our day, a quiet contemplation at lunch, a few minutes of quiet as we settle into bed. We are asked to clear away the unnecessary, the noise, the extra, and instead create pockets of space where we can. Space for the inner journeying that is taking place within you to reach your consciousness. Space for emotion to move through your body and release itself where it can. Space for reflection. Space for you to surprise yourself as to who you now are, and all the ways in which you have changed. There are new perspectives waiting to be seen.
What Planets Are in Retrograde Right Now?
In ancient astrology, it was understood that planets in retrograde were journeying through the underworld, gathering insights, perspectives, and information from the unseen world. As with all astrology, this understanding is used as a metaphor for what happens within our inner worlds when a planet is in retrograde. Beyond the light of our awareness, there are aspects of us, each represented by a planet in retrograde, that journey downward and backward into our shadows. Far beneath our surface, these aspects await being acknowledged witnessed claimed, and reintegrated into our consciousness.
Pluto Retrograde: May 1 – October 11, 2023
Neptune Retrograde: June 30 – December 6, 2023
Saturn Retrograde: June 17 – November 4, 2023
Venus Retrograde: July 22 – September 3, 2023
Chiron Retrograde: July 23 – December 26, 2023
Mercury Retrograde: August 23, 2023 – September 15, 2023
Uranus Retrograde: August 28, 2023 – January 27, 2024
And soon, Jupiter Retrograde: September 4 – December 31, 2023
Many astrologers caution us not to begin anything new during retrograde or make any sudden changes or big decisions. Once we emerge from this descent, we do so as more of who we are. We emerge with these newly reclaimed parts of ourselves. We emerge with greater clarity on our next season, the direction of our forward movement, our most aligned desires, and our enhanced understanding of, quite simply, who we are.
Your Invitation
Not only is our journey within this human experience non-linear, within it there are many cycles. Our directions shift. The speed at which we move seems to ebb and flow. The desires that call our name flow in and out and take different forms. We meet chapters of immense transformation and movement, chapters of sinking into a routine, a state of being, setting down roots and solidifying the moment, and chapters of excitement, adventure, and outward exploring. Just as the seasons shift as the Earth spins her glorious spin, we too, hold all the seasons within us.
And so, how do we continue with our forward movement, the direction that is so expected of us in today’s world, when so much of us is instead invited to mimic these planets and go on our own retrograde journey? What does this mean for us, within us, and within the lives we live? It means we retreat into our inner winter and sink into stillness, reflection, and inward contemplation.
The invitation of astrology is to continue to honor our seasons, whether we are in a time of planets in retrograde or otherwise. And to bring back a balance of appreciation and respect for the inward as much as the outward, the reflection as much as the forward thinking, and the stillness as much as the action.
Retrogrades afford us an opportunity to catch up with who we have become, with the experiences we have moved through, and insights we have gained along the way. It is as if the changes and growth we have been experiencing are granted an opportunity to seep deep into our bodies, integrate into our identities, and become available for us to live. We move through so much in this world and are changed by all of it. This retrograde season, can you allow yourself to get to know yourself?
Venus finishes her retrograde on September 3, 2023, and Mercury will follow on September 15, 2023. These inner planets are referred to as “personal planets” and are generally felt more within our individual experience, compared to the outer planets, which operate less within our seen and felt daily reality and more behind the scenes at a slower pace. Despite our long line-up of ‘outer planets’ still in their backwardsspin, as Mercury and Venus station direct in September, there will be a clear influx of fresh new energy and easeful forward movement within our days once again.
Learn more about the influence of astrology in your life, including astrological events the Moon cycles, your Sun and Moon and rising signs, how journaling can help you connect with the current influences, and more with Jordane Maree at Girl and her Moon.
About Our Contributor
Jordane Maree is the founder of Girl and Her Moon, a platform and community exploring Soul through the lens of astrology, tarot, and energy healing. She is a writer, intuitive astrologer, energy and soul guide, and host of Girl and Her Moon, The Podcast. She is inspired, every single day, to be the mirror for you to see all that you truly are, you in all your infinite abilities, in total expansion, in infinite opportunity and love.
