The Summer Retrogrades of 2020: Pluto, Saturn, Venus, and Jupiter

The sun now in Taurus, and the Taurus new moon the evening of April 22nd, has us yearning for that comfort, stability, and enjoyment of life that Taurus energy is all about. Yet, challenged by change and restriction now, we find ourselves grappling with uncertainty, anxiety, fear, isolation, separation, and even hopelessness, loss, and depression. 

The impossible to ignore presence of Uranus and Saturn is requiring we get creative with feeling the Venus-ruled earth vibes of this sign of creature comforts and enjoying life's little luxuries and pleasures, and at a time when we could all truly use free-flowing Taurus medicine. 

And the thing is, this isn't going away anytime soon. 

This weekend, on April 25th, Pluto kicks off the retrograde season by reversing direction where its been sitting now for a while at 24 degrees Capricorn. 

The retrogrades really get going just after the May 7th Scorpio full moon, with Saturn following Pluto's lead on May 10th, then Venus on May 13th, and finally Jupiter on May 14th.

Retrogrades are a time of review and reevaluation.  A planet in retrograde backtracks over the degrees recently covered for a period of time, then turns direct and goes back over that territory a third and final time. ​

Pluto's retrograde encompasses the retrogrades of Saturn, Venus, and Jupiter this summer, with Pluto being the first to station retrograde on April 25th, and the last to station direct on October 4th.  Pluto began it's shadow period (meaning it arrived at the degree of the zodiac it will be reversing back to during its retrograde) around January 1st of this year.  This means we are going to be reviewing everything since January 1st from this coming weekend through the fall, and really through the end of the year, as although all four planets will have stationed direct by October 4th, they will still be making their way back through the territory of their retrogrades a third and final time.

Below, each of the four coming retrogrades are individually listed, each with a short description, in the order they will be stationing retrograde. 

At this Taurus new moon, we are challenged to take a good look at our lives and at what we truly value, and then evaluate new creative avenues of honoring these values and meeting our related needs in this new landscape of daily life. 

The retrogrades this summer will be helping us do this. 

Doing this now is going to give back exponentially in the coming months and years.  As our world continues to shift and change, we will quite likely be repeating this process over and over, shifting and changing with it. 

Now is the time to get good at this.  

Now is the time to anchor into our personal truths and values, and to strengthen our beliefs and our minds, and our intentions, and our wills, so that we are absolutely unshakable. 

Now is the time to befriend the unknown, and get comfortable in the void, because the one thing change will never be is familiar, and the sweet spot for consciously creating our lives is right in that void, in the chaos of creation. 

When we work like this, consciously, with the energies at play, we might find ourselves suddenly surfing the giant incoming waves of change - supported by those energies we once found so ominous and threatening.  

SUMMER RETROGRADES  (Pluto, Saturn, Venus, and Jupiter)

PLUTO
Stations RX at 24 Degrees Capricorn April 25th; Stations Direct at 22 Degrees Capricorn October 4th

Pluto's retrograde this summer encompasses all the others.  Pluto and Jupiter will be dancing during their retrogrades, making their 2nd conjunction in June while both retrograde and third and final one on November 13th once direct - the first one was on April 5th. 

Pluto is the modern ruler of Scorpio, and  as an archetype, the ruler of the Underworld (the Roman version of the Greek Hades - the one who abducts the maiden Persephone and is the catalyst for her stepping into her true power, albeit by less than savory means.  Pluto is about power and transformation.  When Pluto is at work in transit, it is a process of stripping down, of exposing what is rotten and decaying beneath the surface. Pluto rules the cycle of destruction and creation - of regeneration - this is the energy of the Phoenix that must first burn in order to be reborn from its own ashes.  Pluto is also about elimination and letting go.  When Pluto is at work, the harder we cling to false security or a false sense of power, the faster we will sink to the bottom with that anchor. 

Since 2008, Pluto has been in Capricorn, and it is moving towards the Pluto return of the United States in 2022.  This means Pluto will return for the first time to the point it was at when the U.S. became a country.  Because this takes about 280 years, we never experience a personal Pluto return, but examining the events since 2008, we can begin to get a sense of where this might be going. 

When Pluto turns retrograde, like any other retrograde, it is giving us an opportunity to review this recently covered territory. Pluto is the furthest planet out and therefore moves through the zodiac the most slowly.  Its retrograde is longest, going from April 25th until October 4th, yet only covers two degrees of the zodiac. 

Pluto applies pressure - like the kind of pressure that transforms coal into diamonds. 

As it moves backwards from 24 degrees to 22 degrees Capricorn - going right over 23 degrees which was the point of the Saturn-Pluto conjunction on January 12th - we get to examine our relationship to power, from power struggles in close relationships to our relationship to the powers at work in the world as we move through this pandemic. 

Pluto can feel like a relentless grinding away, and it also comes through as that energy that drives us or pulls us so strongly to someone or something and we once we decide it isn't such a good idea it is way too late.  That is exactly how Pluto lures us down into the depths of the Underworld to meet our shadow and ultimately reclaim our power - that isn't a journey many willingly decide to go on - it is Hell, quite literally. 

Pluto retrograde gives us the power to destroy those things that hold power over us - emotional triggers, fears, old wounds, addictions, obsessions, false securities, manipulating/being manipulated, etc. What I learned during my own Pluto transit was, "that which you feel you cannot live without is precisely that with which you cannot live". 
​
Anything that you are that attached to is something to which you have given your power away.  ​

SATURN
Stations RX at 1 Degree Aquarius May 10th; Stations Direct at 25 Degrees Capricorn September 28th

Saturn is moving back into Capricorn to take care of any unfinished business before it moves on into Aquarius for good. 

Saturn in Aquarius from March 22nd until July 2nd is our introduction to what the next couple of years has in store as Saturn transits Aquarius (the presentation of the issue/topic/problem/area of study).  Saturn will retrograde back into Capricorn on July 2nd, and won't move back into Aquarius until December 18th. 

​The good news is it won't be meeting up with Pluto again or even back to the same degree of the Saturn Pluto conjunction that occurred on January 12th.  The not so good news is this particular retrograde is going to be digging deeper into the themes of the pandemic - hospitals, restriction, isolation, illness, death, fear, and inability to work - and since it is moving back into Capricorn, I would say that themes of political, governmental, and financial systems are going to be coming up for closer examination and review as well. 

Saturn is the authority, Capricorn is the big system and the patriarchy. Saturn hit 25 degrees Capricorn, the degree it will be reversing back to, for the first time on February 1st, and entered Aquarius on March 22nd, so whatever was coming up in our lives personally and globally during that time will be revisited from July 2nd until September 28th.  ​

VENUS 
Stations RX at 25 Degrees Gemini May 13th; Stations Direct at 5 Degrees Gemini June 25th

Venus has the shortest retrograde, stationing direct by June 25th.  Venus' retrograde occurs every eighteen months, and it is when she makes the transition from evening star (Hesperus) to morning star (Lucifer). 

Venus, known as Aphrodite to the Greeks, is actually much more than a goddess of love - she comes from long lineage of goddesses of heaven and earth, sex and war.  Venus represents our relationship to love and money and how we relate to and connect with the world around us and others - Venus is what we value, and most of all our value of ourselves - it is this self-value and self-esteem that determines our relationship to everything and everyone around us and dictates how well the feminine energy - the ability to ask for help, receive, attract, create, desire, and enjoy - functions in our lives. 

One of Venus' predecessors is the Sumerian goddess Inanna.  Venus' retrograde is associated with the Sumerian myth of Inanna's Descent, where Inanna journeys to the Underworld to meet her sister Ereshkigal (her shadow self), dies at the hands of her sister but then is reborn to a new consciousness, "whole unto herself".  This follows the retrograde path of the planet as Venus, as the evening star, reverses direction, then disappears beneath the sun's rays, and emerges as the morning star and resumes forward motion.

​Venus is about values and self-esteem at the very deepest level, and Gemini is about the mind and thoughts and seeing things from every angle.  We have the opportunity now, while so many planets are in retrograde, slowing down and backtracking over recently covered territory, to review many important aspects of our lives, but with Venus in Gemini specifically our core values and beliefs. This is our chance to get them in alignment with the life experience we wish to create before everything moves forward again this fall.  (Venus retrograde and the Sumerian myth of Inanna's Descent is one of my very favorite topics in astrology - there is a separate blog post coming soon!)

JUPITER
Stations RX at 27 Degrees Capricorn May 14th; Stations Direct at 17 Degrees Capricorn September 12th

Jupiter spends one year in each sign.  This ruler of Sagittarius is the planet of optimism, faith, beliefs, philosophy, the big truth, higher education and teaching, luck and wealth, and growth and expansion. Jupiter is one of the two benefics - planets that are considered blessings - along with Venus.  When Jupiter is in play in astrology, it can function solely as an amplifier - something that makes whatever going on that it is involved in bigger. 

While Pluto moved into Capricorn in 2008, and Saturn came running up behind Pluto in 2018, finally catching up to Pluto at 23 degrees on January 12th, 2020, Jupiter rolled in at the end of 2019 and just on April 5th had the first of three conjunctions with Pluto - the 2nd will be June 30th with both planets in retrograde and the 3rd will be November 13th.  Jupiter's big conjunction with Saturn in Aquarius will not be until December 21st, 2020 (the last one was in the year 2000). 

Jupiter can be seen as "the guru" archetype - all about philosophy, faith, and beliefs.  The methods are not necessarily conventional or bound by tradition.  Its about expansion - even exploration and the breaking down of barriers between cultures and belief systems.  So when talking about beliefs or life philosophies or life paths, Jupiter is really interested in the big overarching truths - universal type truths. 

Capricorn is Saturn-ruled and all about the tried and true methods and traditions and the rules and the structures and the systems.  Jupiter can start to feel a little too restrained here with not enough wide open space to maneuver in, boxed in by the do's and don'ts and laws and rules.  However, Jupiter rules fire sign Sagittarius and Capricorn is earth - a fire that gets out of its stone fire ring can easily burn down the entire forest.  Capricorn might be just the thing to channel Jupiter's enthusiasm into something truly productive and lasting. 

​With Jupiter in retrograde in Capricorn, we get to review our philosophy and beliefs and make the necessary changes to ground the ideas that set our heart on fire into a format that will be strong and sturdy as we bring it into reality on the 3D earth plane. ​