Welcome to Ghost of a Podcast. I’m your host, Jessica Lanyadoo. I’m an astrologer, psychic medium, and animal communicator, and I’m going to give you your weekly horoscope and no bullshit mystical advice for living your very best life.

Darlings, let’s talk about Retrogrades for this week’s Astrology Hot Takes. What do you think? So I get so many questions about Retrogrades, and I actually just want to start with what is a Retrograde? Let’s just start there, okay. So I’m not talking specifically about Mercury Retrograde, which everybody knows about because it’s when computers and communication become annoying and dysfunctional; so everybody knows about that.

But, basically, when we talk about Retrogrades in the birth chart, what we are talking about is on the day of your birth a given planet was Retrograde, so this planet appears to be moving backwards. So it’s moving backwards through the zodiacal degrees. Now, the reality is, of course, planets aren’t moving backwards. What Retrogrades are is an illusion that comes from Earth. So it comes from our point of view on this very planet, and it has to do with the Earth orbiting the Sun at a different speed than other planets. That’s the simplest and most generalist way I can explain it.

Now, the Sun and Moon never Retrograde—isn’t that fun to know? The Sun and Moon never Retrograde. It is all the other planets that do Retrograde. Personally, me—and a different astrologer might have a different take, but, personally, me, I have never, in my 25 years of consulting practice, I have never focused on an outer planet being Retrograde in the birth chart. That doesn’t mean it is without value completely. I am not saying that no other astrologer does it, and I certainly notice in the past few years that there’s like a million articles that come out about when outer planets shift into a Retrograde motion or become direct. It’s not that there’s no data to be gleaned from the Retrograde of an outer planet—there is some; however, from my perspective, it’s really subtle. It’s really subtle in the birth chart. And it’s not the most useful kind of bit of information.

So, before I unpack the theme of Retrogrades, I just want to pause to acknowledge each of us as astrologers or practitioners in any field are going to practice our chosen craft from our own personalities, right. Now, I am Sun, Moon, and rising all in Capricorn. That’s called a triple. I’m a triple Capricorn, and what that means is I love a hammer. Give me a damn hammer. I want a tool that I can use that will give me the best results the most efficiently as possible; that’s kind of my move. And someone else might really like to get into the intricacies of what would be much more subtle energies of a Retrograde. Now, I certainly work with subtle energies, just not in this particular way.

So, as I say about a lot of the Hot Takes and a lot of the kind of like teaching of astrology that I do on the podcast, what I do is very effective in my practice. I love doing my client work. I love doing readings on the podcast, and I find my work to be very effective for the people I consult with.  Doesn’t mean it’s the only way to be effective, right. So you kind of got to figure out what’s going to be exciting and authentic for you.

Part of why I’ve hesitated to create a Retrograde episode is because I really just don’t fuck with Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, or Pluto Retrograde. It’s not that important IMO. I know that a lot of you have a lot of outer planets Retrograde, and, when you start studying astrology, you kind of want to learn all of these details. And, on the one hand, I think that’s exactly what you should be doing, and, on the other hand, if your astrology study is not structured, if it’s not being facilitated by a mentor or a teacher, if you’re not learning from a text book that is specifically intended to teach you the fundamentals of the birth chart and of astrology, then what’s going to inevitably happen is you’re just going to be polling lots of exciting or interesting data points but not necessarily doing it in a way that is structured and systematic and all that kind of stuff.

So, if you’re learning astrology, and I am a resource that you are really relying on as an astrology teacher—I said teacher—if that’s what’s happening, then I’ll—then my take on this is just don’t overthink the outer planets being Retrograde. So there is that. And that might just mean that a lot of you stop listening to this episode because your main interest in the Retrogrades in the birth chart comes from the fact that you have outer planets Retrograde.

And the reason why so many people have so many outer planets retrograde is because they’re Retrograde all the damn time. The reason why transits from Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto tend to give us two to three hits—they tend to happen for a period of time; they go away; they come back for a period of time; they go away, and then they do a final pass; that’s very common—it is because those planets Retrograde all the time, right. So, for whatever that’s worth; that’s my thinking behind it.

And now we will talk about the inner planets that do Retrograde. So those planets are Mercury, Venus, Mars, and that’s it—that’s it. Okay, now let’s get to it. Before I give you the 411 on Mercury, Venus, and Mars Retrograde, I want to say the sign, the house placement, and aspects are all really important. And, so, the trouble with astrology when any astrologer shares some data, you can listen to them and be like, “That’s not me,” or decide that that’s you and that you’re locked into it. But it’s this one piece—it’s kind of like—think about it like this, the tomatoes that are the base for a Marinara sauce. Hot tomatoes are not a Marinara sauce. It’s an essential ingredient. It’s a foundational ingredient, but it’s not the whole damn thing. So you have to keep in mind with astrology when you’re learning about your birth chart, each piece is like an ingredient, right. And each bit of ingredients really shapes who you are and the general flavor of you, but it’s not the whole thing. So don’t freak out if something doesn’t resonate, or, if you’re like, “That’s not me.” It’s about the kind of medley of flavors and what it all comes out to.

Okay. So Retrogrades. When we have Retrogrades in the birth chart, there’s this way that we can feel misunderstood in the context of the planet that is Retrograde. And the reason why that is is because it makes the planets’ energies more internal. So it’s kind of like facing inwards instead of facing outwards. So, when we start with Mercury Retrograde, what tends to happen for people with this placement is you feel often misunderstood. There can be a way that people misunderstand what you’re trying to say, so your tone might not match your kind of message. There may be a way that you feel scrambled with your words, or it’s kind of like there’s this gap between your intention and the language you’ve chosen to express that intention or maybe the tone of voice that you use. So, tone of voice, as well as what you say, what you think, your attitudes, your beliefs, how you listen, how you show and express that you are listening, all of that is Mercury.

And, so, really when we have a Mercury Retrograde in the birth chart, there is this tendency to take in and process information differently than for people who have Mercury direct, okay. And, so, what this can simply mean is that your way of reflecting on data is different from the people around you, and when it’s different, that leaves lots of room for miscommunication. It also leaves lots of room for genius, TBH.

The thing to make sure, wherever we have Retrograde planets, is that we are allowing ourselves to be self-referential and to self-define because, essentially—I’m not saying don’t pay attention to what other people think or say, but I am saying that checking in on yourself or checking in with whether or not people get you can very quickly lead to self-doubt. And, in the context of Mercury, that self-doubt can be not feeling confident with what you have to say, not trusting your own thoughts, feeling really frustrated that people don’t get you, and so allowing that frustration to start to become a projection or a chronic issue where you kind of decide you’ve failed before you’ve started, right. So that kind of turning inwards can become self-defeat essentially.

The key to working with Mercury Retrograde in the birth chart is to allow yourself the space you need to reflect and to sort through data in your own damn way. And your own damn way is going to be specific to, again, the sign that Mercury’s in, the house that it’s in—very much the house that it’s in, and, of course, any aspects that you have in your birth chart from or to Mercury.

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Now, let’s talk about Venus Retrograde in the birth chart. So Venus is the planet that governs a lot of things, including but not limited to, dating, the kind of sensual part of inter-personal connection. It’s also partnerships in general—that can be your friendships, that can be work partnerships, and that can, of course, be romantic partnerships. It’s also your finances. Venus governs what you own, and that’s about cash, money, dollars, and it’s also about stuff. When we have a Venus Retrograde in the birth chart, these things can be kind of awkward for you because there’s a way that Venus is so about a dynamic—back and forth. It’s about us, right. Even what you own and the money you have—what you do with it; it is all a reflection of your values. Venus is values: interpersonal, financial, yada, yada. Okay.

So when we have a Venus Retrograde having that kind of like—being more internally focused can be tricky. It can make you feel super awkward with people. It can make you superficial or really dislike superficiality. It can make you really prioritize and center romance or money, or, again, it can do the flip. So the thing about this Retrograde is it kind of stimulates—not exactly an extreme expression of Venus, but a bit of a lopsided one. And the reason why there is this lopsided expression is simply because Venus is so relational and that Retrograde has us pointed inwards, right. It has us in a more reflective state.

And, so, this is where either your romantic connections, which are not always sexual, right; a lot of us have romantic friendships. So our romantic connections, our sense-based connections, our relationship to our personal finances—so not capitalism; that’s more Saturn. Venus is what you have and what you do with it. So it can make our relationship to these things confusing because we can be of too many perspectives, and it’s hard for us to kind of locate what we truly value and to feel confident in that value in such a way that we can express it consistently in our lives.

Venus is a planet that loves security, right. That’s the Taurean side of Venus is this love for security. So there’s this way that when we’re not sure where to turn on these topics, we can get into, again, low self-esteem stuff where you’re questioning yourself. So, in the context of Venus, that self-questioning can be like, “Am I cute enough? Am I nice enough? Do I have enough?” And, so, what’s really essential with the Venus Retrograde in your birth chart is to make sure you are aligned with what you value—that you spend time over the course of life, in different periods of your life to really check back in with what is it that I value? Not just in the situation and in reaction to other people, but what is it that I value? What is it that I center and deeply care about? When you can be clear about that, then the actions that are required of you, the thing to do with your finances or your relationships or even with beauty and aesthetics and how you present yourself to others or to the world, those things become a lot easier if you align with your values.

Now, again, like with all Retrogrades, we kind of need the space in which to do that. And that space is generally internal—AKA in private, AKA not in the business of life and not with a million distractions.

And that brings us, finally, to Mars Retrograde. So Mars, as you know, is the planet associated with fornicating and fighting. It is ambition. It is assertion. Mars is a real go-getter, right. It literally goes and gets stuff. In the kind of like dance of dating, Venus is a gatherer, and Mars is a hunter. So, when we talk about Mars in general, we are talking about how we go about things, how we materially make things happen. So you can understand why this would be related to sex and sexual acts. It’s also related to anger and acts that come from anger, as well as ambition and the things we do to express our experience of our ambitions—Mars.

So when this planet is Retrograde, it can make it, again, really confusing or overwhelming for you to sort through all of those kinds of impulses, depending on placement. A Mars Retrograde might feel more like, “Oh, it’s not really about work ambition; it’s much more about how I pursue sexual relationships.” It might not be all the damn things expressing itself in your chart.

So when we have Mars Retrograde in the birth chart, there can be a way that we go about getting stuff done in a way that pushes others away or doesn’t exactly communicate our intention in the way we meant it to. And that is because we can kind of barrel through things or hedge and not really go for things until, all of a sudden, we do and then it comes off as defensive or awkward in some way. And when we pursue actions that are awkward, we can often make other people feel awkward or confused, right.

Now, Mars is not the planet that we look to for deep feelings, emotions. It’s the planet that we look to for action and consequence in a lot of ways. And so when we see our desires through Mars, and they are Retrograded, then we must give ourselves the space we need in order to sit with our desires, to unpack which of our desires are coming from a place of healthy ego and which from unhealthy ego. And, as I’ve talked about on the podcast before, unhealthy ego can be too much ego or not enough ego, right. You want balance. You don’t want none, and you don’t want too much.

Finding ways of experiencing anger and passion and desire and ambition that actually allows you to be present for those feelings is so important. And, again, because of the Retrograde, a fair amount of this work needs to be done kind of alone or in a therapeutic setting. So that might look like doing some form of exercise like running where it’s about your personal best, and it’s a time for you to be with yourself and to let go of control but also to explore your own desires. It doesn’t have to be necessarily talk therapy. Mars likes to move through things instead of talk about them, but we should always talk about our things. I think—of course, I’m a counselor; I think we should talk about things.

So, when we have Mars Retrograde, we need to really make sure that we’re taking responsibility for our own relationship to anger, to sexuality, and to ambition—even, within that, to our physical bodies. It is really important with a Mars Retrograde that we challenge ourselves to investigate these themes instead of trying to repress them or pretend they don’t exist or to over express them and to kind of like act in a way that doesn’t really reflect a whole lot of introspection. Retrogrades in the birth chart really are a call towards greater introspection and to cultivating a more dynamic inner life. It’s not so bad.

Now, one last thing I’ll say on the topic of Retrogrades, My Sweet Loves, is about the outer planets. Now, because the outer planets reflect the culture at large, as I’ve talked about a ton on the show, there may be ways when you have multiple outer planets Retrograde that you do feel somehow out of step with the culture at large or you do feel in some way kind of like, “Oh, God. I know I’m a millennial, but I feel like a Gen X,” or something like that. And it might also be that you have the capacity within your nature to be able to be self-reflective about your role in society—whether that’s really micro or really macro—that is kind of more accessible to you. Now, if you want to be an introspective person and a part of society, this is a great thing. And, if it’s not really how you think or how you live your life, then it might just make you feel a little, I don’t know, off or you’re kind of disconnected from your culture or from your generation in general, right.

Now, the very last thing I’m going to say about Retrogrades in the birth chart is—please, I beg of you, do not shit on yourself for having Retrogrades, or, if you listen to this and you’re like, “That sounds cool. I want Retrogrades,” do not shit on yourself for not having Retrogrades. This is not about good and bad. This is about your nature. It’s about using astrology as a tool and resource for contextualizing and understanding your nature so that you can make the best of your life—so that you can not only have a healthy inner life but that you can cultivate a life in which you are making choices that reflect your own capacity—what you can sustain, what you can offer. Astrology should never be something that you use to damn yourself. It should only be something that you use to support yourself and others.

My Loves, as always, I thank you for joining me for another Astrology Hot Take of Ghost of a Podcast. If you are getting value from this podcast, I do invite you to give it a star on whatever podcasting platform you’re listening to it on, and, of course, write a review if you like what you’re hearing.

Also, please do join me on Patreon—that little thing called Patreon where you can get your month ahead horoscope for August, every month. I’m finding ways of kind of sharing some more woo on Patreon which I’m really excited about. So, yeah, join me over there. And, per ushe, keep on doing your best and have a lovely week. Bye.