Astrology Tutorial: Retrograde Planets, A Summer Overview, part 1

Today's astrology tutorial is retrograde planets, and what they mean in astrology. I've written about retrograde Mercury before, but retrograde motion is something that we on Earth "see" in regard to the other planetary bodies as well.

Retrograde motion is the name we give to what we see when, from our point of view, a planet seems to be moving backward against the apparent backdrop of the zodiac belt. It isn't, atually (see earlier posts about Mercury retrograde and retrograde motion), but while it appears that way to us, it's a signal to look within. It's a signal to turn our attention away from our same-old, same-old habitual behaviors and see if certain shifts are occurring in our inner landscapes.

At this point in Earth's sojourn around the sun and our solar system's sojourn through the galaxy, we experience more retrigrade motion than at any other time of year. In summer, 4 or 5 planets often seem to move retrograde at the same time. Currently, we're experiencing retrograde Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto.

How, and how much, they have an effect on each of us personally depends on which planet's moving retrograde, and in which sign of the zodiac, of course, but also on the factors in each individual's chart. The impulse to look within is a retrograde "universal", but what aspect of your life is the catalyst for the introspection depends on the houses involved, and what planetary aspects in your chart the current retrograde movement touches by its transiting -- temporary -- aspect.

But though the transits are tmporary, we have the opportunity to learn form each one of them. That way we keep the benefits, long after the transits are history instead of curent experience.

Tomorrow's post starts a look at the specifics of our here and now retrogrades: Jupiter in Capricorn, Uranus in Pisces, Neptune in Aquarius and Pluto in Sagittarius.