April 2017

Venus, planet of love and beauty, retrograde and squared to Saturn puts a damper on love and attachments this month and portends serious lessons to be learned.  The “themes of relationships, money, possessions and self-worth” will be highlighted.  Venus retrograde often tends to accentuate problems in all relationships, squared Saturn “severe feelings of disillusionment can set in”.  Mercury, also being retrograde, affects and confuses communications and expressions.  Before ending any relationships, put off all such decisions until Venus goes direct on April 16th; the second half of the month should present more clarity.  Venus retrograde draws attention to what is false, what we need to sift through to discover what is of real value.  The big lesson here is on discerning our level of self-worth.  If we aren’t feeling worthy of the good that can come to us we tend to overcompensate with flashy status symbol items, big spending and too much attention to appearances, and possibly by allowing others “to take advantage of us”.  There “is an opportunity to weed out what isn’t worthy of you” and to create a “richer and more meaningful” life.  Venus retrograde in April is a great time to conduct an extensive spring-cleaning, so let’s release what we no longer love and open space for what we consciously decide to invest in and upkeep. Even in relationships, we sometimes outgrow “people that come into our lives for a reason”, and letting go can be difficult; sometimes differences “become too difficult to tolerate”.   This can also be a positive time for clearing old grievances and restoring and reviving basically “sound relationships”, strengthening and creating a more authentic state of relating and being.  Venus, moving through the sign of Pisces, reminds us “of the importance of tolerance and forgiveness, which is timely, as there’s a huge need for healing now!  “There is a full moon opposite Uranus and square Pluto” around April 11th, where our tolerance will be sorely tested, and Saturn square Venus is a hard aspect, inclining us to feel under-appreciated.  “We must make a conscious effort to forgive or tolerate those we don’t agree with”, even if we feel we must distance ourselves at this time — “we should do so with acceptance that others are entitled to think or be the way they are”.  On April 16th Venus turns direct, but we most likely won’t feel the freeing effects until around April 21st.  “The new moon in Taurus on April 26th” fuels this desire to start fresh and set our positive intentions.  “The conjunction of Mercury and Uranus creates an electrifying buzz in the air that is inclined to think of solutions rather than focus on problems.”  This is the rainbow at the end of a tough month with encourages us to contemplate self-worth issues, which “could be at the root of any discontent and to identify the people and things in our lives that have real value and discard the rest”.   As usual, Saturn, the taskmaster, brings tough, but necessary life lessons; we can choose to navigate with as much positivity and compassion as we can muster for the journey.

The above information is quoted or paraphrased from: Donna Taylor, Predictions article, April 2017 magazine issue of Sedona Journal of Emergence, by Trish Forsyth Voss