In the spirit of the upcoming Labor Day, this week’s blog features summer reruns, hits from past blogs.
Here is Robert Blaschke’s introduction to the distinction in Mercury retrograde cycles, due to its orbital speed. He explains: “The most problematic of the three retrograde Mercury types are the “Longies” (a 24-day slow retrogression with only 9º between stations). The third category of retrograde Mercury are the “Middies” (a 22-day retrogression with ±13º between stations). These can go either way.”
Robert gave further evidence of the phenomena in a later blog, Benign Retrograde Mercury Heralds Shift into Fire Signs.
In Aberrations in the Venus-Mars Cycle, Robert explains an intricate planetary cycle and speculates on why relationships are so complex in our era. “In modern times, since 1960, an aberration has occurred in the Venus-Mars transit cycle in which the retrograde Venus conjunction no longer recurs exactly every 77 months as before. In the view of your correspondent, this has contributed to a societal decline in personal reflection taking place within marriage that would have led to an improved self-awareness about one’s personal responsibility for problems in relationship. As a result, without that necessary introspection, society has evolved relational patterns that repeat over and over again in a counter-productive sequence of ongoing serial monogamy.”
In The Astrological Faces of Love Gary P. Caton writes that “the natural progression of Love is from Eros, to Philia, to Agape.” Gary writes: “Once integrated, these three archetypes, or faces, of Love are really One. If we consider the concept of Holarchy — each part or piece of the whole also contains the whole within itself — then Venus contains within her the essences of all three faces of love and love ‘planets.’ It is as if there are three ‘decanates’ of Venus: Venus-Venus, Venus-Juno, and Venus-Neptune.”
Adam Gainsburg’s A New Model for Full Planetary Phases: The Venus Journey introduced many of us to his uniquely synthetic and creative approach to the Venus archetype. Although in later works he slightly updated some of his terminology, this blog stands as a wonderful introduction.
It’s true, I went to a beautiful wedding this weekend and love seems to be on my mind. In upcoming blogs, we’ll be looking at the presidential election and other more serious worldly and political matters.
For now, onwards into the week, dear friends. Enjoy these waning days of summer.