posted August 29, 2005 04:05 AM              

Does anyone have mercury or venus in retrograde in their birth chart?
Does anyone have both?

I have read a few sites that talk about the 'internalizing' energy of the retrograde, or the need to go through a few things over and over again, but would like to hear some Personal Experiences in regards to these retrogrades.

Does the Mercury retrograde make you have 'different' views, as opposed to society/those around you? Are you afraid to communicate your opinions? Do you consider yourself a genius? Etc...

Does the Venus retrograde give you 'different' notions of beauty vs. what societ deems to be beautiful? Do u find it hard to fall in love, do u fall in love later on in life than most? Do you find it hard to express yourself in love? Etc...

Do you think the retrograde placements have been of help or a problem?

posted August 29, 2005 12:42 PM            

Mercury rules over the mind's processes, studying, communication, businesses, travels and the like. When Mercury reverses its direction, all these areas are affected as well.

The mind turns naturally inwards and people tend to analyze more the own thoughts and follow the common thinking patterns, rather then be curious and eager of new intellectual experiences or challenges. This helps the meditation or the thorough lonely long-term study of a specific matter, but it affects the study of new subjects, the communication with the others, the attention oriented outwards.

Businesses, travels and communications tend to experience delays and different problems. Computers and other processes that work with information may experience crashes, unexpected failures.

Don't enroll to courses, don't buy expensive Mercurian items (books, cars, mobile phones etc.), don't sign important contracts and do not marry.

What is this Mercury retrograde period good for?

It is definitely a very good period for some actions. No time is completely bad for anything, there is a reason in everything happens.

The key is the reversed direction of movement: take any known Mercurian action, reverse its flow, consider the keywords "re-doing something", "double-checking", "finish the old projects" and there you are, you've found the good side of Mercury retrograde.
http://www.astrologyweekly.com/astrology-articles/mercury-retrograde.php

In general, Venus retrograde forces us to take an examining eye to our romantic relationships. Suppressed feelings may rise to the surface, and we may reevaluate what we want and where we seek it. The rules that structure our value system may come into question; suddenly what we valued most may seem inconsequential. We may find ourselves rethinking the meaning of beauty and aesthetics. Financial issues may step into the limelight as well.

If Venus is retrograde in your chart, you may have some relationship issues to overcome. Oftentimes you feel too inhibited to seek what you really want and you withdraw from your partner. You find it hard to get exactly what you need from the people who are close to you. Some of this influence that applies to emotional matters also applies to money matters: You never quite feel that you have enough in your pockets. Self-worth becomes a large issue for you in your lifetime.

For instance, you may want to read again a book you particularly liked, a subject you studied before, meet and discuss with old friends you haven't met for a long time, travel to places you've already been to before.

This is an excellent time to work on old projects that never got to be finished. So, think about the things you started and never finalized.

Next, you might wish to prevent any bad things to happen to you: so double-check your agenda, call your business partners to confirm that everything goes as planned, have everything ready before the deadline and leave some extra time for unexpected events. Make copies of your important files and documents, save your work more often.

The other solution is to go on vacation or at least slow down the pace of your projects. You will find that going slowly during the Mercury retrograde period will spare you many efforts of redoing the same action that wasn't performed right the first time.

Above all, be generous and compassionate: you are already aware about the influence of this period, but the others aren't aware of it or there may be uncontrollable events. That's why you should have more diligence with the others and give them some more time. It'll be your mental health that you'll be sparing actually.

Venus rules our affections, what we find valuable and what pleases us. On the material plane, this includes our all-time favorite things—the expensive couch, the fancy car, the antique jewelry box passed down for generations, that super-comfy sweater—as well as the money and other financial resources that enable us to procure such pleasing things. Its same principle also applies to people, in that Venus draws those we love to us and promotes the connections at the heart of these relationships. Venus loves love. In our own personalities, Venus represents those characteristics and innate talents (we've all got 'em!) that we deploy whenever we create or appreciate.

When Venus goes retrograde all these elements of our lives undergo a momentary shift in perspective. Importance shows itself to be super-important or hardly important at all; a tiny blip on the radar becomes amplified to major-event status, justifiably or not.

Venus retrograde is not the most favorable time to make major purchases or investments, to remodel or refinance, to get rid of belongings or to accurately assess the financial viability of business plans. Your aesthetic sense is temporarily orbiting far-left field, which is great for taking creative (and reversible) risks but less opportune for deciding on colors or designs that will stay with you for a while.

You don't know how much anything is really worth—there's the list price, the sale price, the super-sale price, the member's-only price and the markup, and when you eventually discover what others have been paying, you might not be happy with the 'bargain' being thrown your way. Of course, if you spot a gem priced dirt-cheap, you might consider that the proprietor has also fallen victim to Venus retrograde and doesn't realize his mistake—snatch it up, so long as your investment is minimal and can't possibly cause later financial stress.

Within our relationships, Venus retrograde can reveal truths we've been unwilling or unable to see until now. Have we been settling for routine mediocrity or self-sabotaging inertia in one or more important romantic or friendship couplings? Have we been overvaluing? Have we overlooked key interpersonal bonds from our past and only now are able to appreciate them for what they were/are? Have we been undervaluing?

posted September 01, 2005 01:44 PM              

In a woman’s chart Venus retrograde suggest a life uncommon to most women. Such a woman often dares to break new ground, refusing to accept traditional female roles. As a result, women with Venus retrograde often find themselves amid emotional struggles and public controversy regarding their uncompromising quest for truth, justice and acceptance.

For A Man
Although Mercury’s role in a birth chart doesn’t vary significantly for men and for women, in a man’s horoscope Mercury indicates where a man should be able to operate best without gender conditioning. As explored in-depth in another feature, Mercury’s angular connections with other planets, especially Mars and Saturn, reveals how gender biases are transferred to Mercury and the mind.

For A Woman
Because Mercury is neutral, biases and prejudices can be exposed with its aid. In woman’s birth chart, Mercury shows her best approach to attaining social recognition and equality without engaging in or reacting to gender conditioning and sexual politics.

posted November 11, 2005 12:36 AM              

For me, it makes getting my point across kind of difficult. Sometimes, when I'm luckily talking to someone about something that really fascinates me, like some theory, they either tune out or cannot follow the idea at all. SOme jealous bit#@ would act like I'm retarded whenever I'd talk to this one attractive guy about abstract subjects. GOsh, I wish I could have slapped that dissembling, hypocritical...grrr!! Then other times, some people like to hear what I have to say...it's kind of similar to my writing. It seems like my teachers have either hated my writing, loved it, or questioned its authenticity (for papers/compositions).

I'm sorry; I don't know anyone with venus in retro.

posted November 11, 2005 01:30 AM              

quote:

---

Speaking from my
own personal and professional experience, the one thing I can say for sure
is that the energy of that planet is more pronounced than if it were
direct. If the planet is stationary at the time of birth, or at
significantly reduced speed, it is even more pronounced. That is,
retrograde and stationary natal planets function at the extreme ranges of
their expression. Retrograde and stationary planets have heightened energy
and the state of retrogradation can alter or divert the energy of a planet
from its normal expressions. Why would this be so? When a planet is
retrograde it is actually closer to the earth. This is why the planet's
energy is more pronounced. This means its energy is more personal to the
person who has it retrograde in the natal chart. It can mean that it is
difficult for the person to experience that planet's energies as separate
from the self.In this sense, it can be difficult to 'control' a
retrograde planet or experience its energies objectively. It is easier
both to objectify and to detach oneself from the energies of planets in
direct motion.

When a planet is stationary or retrograde at birth, the expression of that
planet's energies are usually less obvious, less open, and much more
inwardly focused. I've found that when the planet who rules the sign that
the natal Sun, Moon, or Ascendant is in, the person may seem shy or be
cautious in approaching new situations. A person with four or more
retrograde planets tends to be someone who marches to their own drum beat.

---

posted November 11, 2005 11:16 PM              

I used to be more outgoing when I was younger, but for the past several years I been shy & awkward towards most people I meet. I am cautious, reserved and I find it hard to let my guard down.

I do have ideas that are different than the people I socialize with. I have been described by others as quirky, creative, deep, or different. My IQ was tested when I was young and it is in the "gifted" range. I don't consider myself a genius like Einstein but I sure am a quick-learner.

I find it hard to express myself verbally but I'm very good at writing and creative expression through music, song-writing, and poetry. My mercury is in Sagittarius, retrogade 24'12 degrees. I have a 3 other retrograde planets: Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. I wonder what those planets Rx mean?