The underworld planet, Pluto, stationed retrograde on April 24^th.  This is the first of four planets over a 3-week period that will station retrograde, an unusual time, but part of the rarity of having Saturn, Pluto and Jupiter clustered together gives us at the Turning of the Ages.

Earlier this year, humanity experienced two stages where all major planets were in direct motion

January 11-February 16:  37 days

March 10 – April 24:  46 days

During those days, we experienced a great acceleration of events, especially in the spread of the emerged Covid-19 virus.  While this is been a recent inquiry in the Shamanic Astrology Paradigm™, we are getting clues to how direct motion and retrograde motion are in groupings of planets/asteroids.  This year was blaring neon sign of activity and with a combined 83 days within the first 4 months of 2020 where all planets were in direct motion.

As we are understanding this, direct motion symbolically shows that things are proceeding regularly (this is not a reference to “normal”).  That means that however the planets are aligned with each other and whatever signs they are in, the fullness of those signs, relationships and planets are coming through to maximum effect.

With that basic understanding, let’s look at retrogrades as we are about to enter into a major retrograde period this year until October. 

Retrogrades are natural consequences of living in a solar system and seeing the rest of that solar system from the perspective of being on Earth.  Retrograded motion in planets and other celestial bodies take place due to either Earth catching up with that planet in orbit or a planet catching up with Earth.

Only Mercury and Venus catch up with Earth (since they orbit inside Earth’s orbit) and the rest Earth catches up with them since they orbit outside of Earth’s orbit.  Only the Sun and Earth’s Moon do not have retrograde motion.

When planets are either in direct motion or retrograde motion, at some point they have an apparent slowing down of that motion when they are about to change direction, just as a vehicle slows down to make a turn. 

The slowing down, then moving retrograde allows the planet to emphasize a particular sign and spatial region or area of the sky.  This emphasis is heightened when there are dynamic or hard aspects occurring during the changing direction.  In the case of the upcoming retrogrades or Pluto, Saturn and Jupiter, they are all in shamanic conjunction and helping to deepen our understanding of the signs they are in: Capricorn and Aquarius and the area or degrees of those signs.

In 2020 we will experience a rare time when all of the outer planets up to Pluto’s orbit will be in retrograde motion and two minor planets Ceres and Chiron.  Mars joins the party in retrograde on September 9^th and for a few days, 8 planets will be in retrograde motion and it has been 24 years since this has taken place.

7 planets in Retrograde (Chiron, Ceres, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, Uranus, Pluto)

August 15 – September 12: 29 days

8 planets in Retrograde (Chiron, Ceres, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, Uranus, Pluto and Mars)

September 9 – 12: 4 days

The last few times where we experienced 7 planets in retrograde motion happened in:

2018 (7 planets – Mercury, Mars, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto and Chiron for 12 days in August of that year)

2001 (7 planets – Mercury, Mars, Ceres, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto and Chiron for 24 days in June of that year)

1996 (7 planets for 2 periods of time that bordered a period of 8 and 9 planets in retrograde, described below)

1996 (8 planets – Venus, Ceres, Vesta, Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto and Chiron for 24 days in May/June of that year)

Interestingly, also in 1996, we did experience a short time of 9 planets in retrograde motion for 7 days a week before the time when Mercury was going to go direct and as Venus stationed Retrograde in May of that year. 

Each of these periods can be looked at as a case-by-case basis because of the varied alignments of the planets during those times of retrograde.  Going back to 1996, the major alignment in process was Uranus, Neptune and Jupiter semi-clustered in the signs of Capricorn and Aquarius.  Uranus and Neptune represent celestial world energy and Jupiter is a middle world planet that expands anything it touches in alignment or sign.  This means that an important storyline in the spring of 1996 was about a detachment from reality, formlessness, breakthroughs, illusions and confusion. 

The 1996 period is only 3 years removed from the slow-moving planets of Uranus and Neptune being in exact conjunction in 1992-93 in the sign of Capricorn.  At the point of those planets in retrograde in 1996, less than seven degrees separated them with Jupiter about 10 degrees away.  Structures and idealisms, spiritual movements and realities and dramas going in unpredictable ways along with the dissolving of attachments.  A theme of “things not working” was seen in those months and seeded from the 1992-93 period.

During this next major phase of 2020 between late April and mid-May, the planets stationing retrograde:

Pluto – April 24/25, 2020

Saturn – May 10, 2020

Venus – May 12, 2020

Jupiter – May 13/14, 2020

Three of the four planets are stationing retrograde in the same area that Uranus and Neptune were located in 1996, but since these are different planets, we have a bit of a different theme.  In the context of what we are experiencing now, there is a sense that we reached one maximum point and are about to take a needed break (in the accelerations of) from the Plutonic surrendering and composting of structure and systems and the Saturnian shedding of our societal skin.

This period of time during the slowing down of these planets and through May and mid-June, it is a theme of opening up a deepening or enrichment of the seeds planted during the early months of 2020 to find how we can truly work with them without compete annihilation of who we are.  Pluto reminds us or our organic and soulful nature while Saturn reminds us of our physical structure, systems and laws we’ve had in place for decades.  Pluto’s last time in Capricorn was during the 1760s and 1770s when the US was born.  This is the last retrograde loop of Pluto before the US begins its Pluto Return in 2021.

The fourth planet going retrograde is Venus, which is in the midst of spending four months in the sign of Gemini and the majority of that time with the asteroid Vesta.  This is a counter-balance to the deep, dynamic and heavy intensity of the Saturn-Pluto-Jupiter cluster that has dominated this year.

Gemini is the sign of the puer or eternal youth.  In more modern imagery, the archetype of Peter Pan with all of the freedom, imagination and creative expression to be anything and anyone it wants to be.  Venus is retrograde from May 12^th to June 24^th but stays in Gemini until early August.  Venus represents the goddess or feminine principle archetype and when paired with Gemini and Vesta, this brings in the sacred clown or divine comedian into the world, perhaps showing us the silliness of our reactions and the ability to gain PERSPECTIVE beyond what we can see in the thickness and seriousness of life.

Upcoming Retrograde Periods of the 4 planets in 2020

Pluto – April 24/25 to October 4, 2020

Venus – May 12 to June 24, 2020

Saturn – May 10 to September 28, 2020

Jupiter – May 13/14 to September 12, 2020

Guidance during this period

As I shared in a recent episode of Signs, Planets and Stellar Rhythms, this is a time of introspection and creative explorations.  We are truly slowing down with the planets.  In the Daniel Giamario’s Shamanic Astrology Paradigm™, the principle of “As above, as below, as within, as without,” from the Emerald Tablets from ancient Egyptian philosophies, we are in intimate relationship with that which is around us and astrology is not a cause and effect practice.  It moves in step with us. 

This does not mean that all things are coming to a halt.  It is simply a transmission and field that is currently in development in our cosmic environment.  The Sun, Uranus and Mercury are in the sign of Taurus for much of late April and May, which also confirms the intent of slowing our pace and checking in with ourselves and all our relations to experience the wisdom and pleasure of Earth. 

We can take this time to feel into what kind of world we want to paint and how we want to structure our systems.  We can get up and bring back joy into our lives and realize the importance of personal, human connection.  If we stay in fear of the unknown, it could create even more disharmony than any pandemic could achieve. 

The retrogrades are emphasizing the slow, deconstruction and composting process to help us innovate, open up and connect, remind us of our vital essence and power of the life force within us all.  Our relationship with Earth and all of its gifts cannot be ignored as we have all that we need.  It’s just a matter of choosing the future we want to write.

Another aspect of this revolves around Pluto and powerlessness.  Most of the world population has given away (or sacrificed/surrendered) its own power to the few, which creates a lack of power within to be able to change what are communities and nations are doing.  But our personal power is really our own and we can be reminded by Saturn that we have a responsibility to take advantage of Pluto’s gift of empowerment (after going through the trails and tunnels of powerlessness and surrender), which is the ultimate intent of a Pluto initiation.  This is a period, that I see, that could allow us to truly claim our power.

This will not be our only opportunity to advantage of this time as that period in September and early October will have more retrogrades to connect to when the retrogrades slow and change direction to move forward once again.  We may find ourselves more prepared than where we were in January of this year to face our ancient issues and discover our true selves.