This is a re-print from this blog, 2009–if you’d like the forecast in all its glorious detail, sign up here:

No one is entirely conscious within a relationship; there is always something about ourselves or the other person that we’re willing to ignore, look away from, tacitly accept, or pretend we don’t know. This is part of civilization, an agreement not to read each other’s minds, to embrace the pretense that we can’t know the other person immediately. I think I was first introduced to this concept in Spiritual Midwifery by Ina May Gaskin (during my brief turn as a midwife), and ever since first reading of it I’ve observed human interaction with that in mind: if we want to, we can see the other person whole, for precisely who they are, at any time.

Now, it’s not just the rules of civilization that facilitate the creation of such boundaries; our own psyches need particular experiences, we might call them lessons or interactions or a deepening of our understanding of human nature or of ourselves, and this leads us to ignore what we could know, to put ourselves into interactions that may be, on the surface, damaging, or cause our victimization, or that are some kind of relationship ‘wrong turn,’ at least when seen from the finite, earthly, want to get from point a to point b as quickly as possible, perspective. This is why we shouldn’t be too hard on ourselves when we make, despite our best efforts, what we judge to be a misstep; even the less than perfect experience, relationship, event offers something that shapes us, or that gives us an opportunity to respond differently than we may have in the past, to grow (and it very often offers both).

So, we might want to know which times are best for getting the clearest view possible of our relationships. The upcoming Venus retrograde period will be a prime time, at least in terms of getting an alternative view of relationships, love, and assets as they figure in your life, and this is particularly so if the retrograde occurs in your 5th, 7th, or 11th–this focuses the spotlight on those significant relationships represented by the Houses, with activity in the 8th emphasizing the significant other or a partnership in terms of what’s being shared, while retrograde occurring in the 1st, 2nd, or 12th makes your own internal workings most prominent. Colleagues, teachers, bosses, other authorities, and those with whom you must work get a once over when Venus retros in your 6th, 9th, and 10th, and family relationships are at the forefront with retro in the 4th, and specifically relationships with siblings and neighbors (or those around whom you grew up) are important with the retro in the 3rd.

Other transits that may facilitate clarity include Saturn, which brings reality home to roost, the Sun, which shines a bright light on whatever it touches, and the Moon, which offers fleeting illumination that is at once more subtle or gentle in tone than the Sun’s, but also carries a tinge of the emotional reality, which may or may not aid perceptions. These planets and lights in contact by Solar Arc and Secondary Progression bring the same opportunities but over a much longer term.