The two planets of good fortune, Venus and Jupiter, have both been traveling retrograde and in the next few days they will be changing direction, moving forward again in what astrologers call “direct motion.”  Planets obviously don’t orbit in reverse, but we observe the movement of the planets from our perspective on earth which creates some anomalies in their travel patterns.

When planets slow down and make a “station” before they change direction their influence is quite powerful, almost as though they are shining a laser beam in our direction.  Venus and Jupiter are called benefic planets because they are considered to have a positive influence on the human experience.  Venus is the planet of love and attraction, and Jupiter governs good fortune, confidence and optimism.  When these planets are retrograde we often experience either doubt and worry as we look to the past and re-evaluate our problems, or else we can become bogged down from decisions that resulted from misplaced confidence and trust.

But retrograde planets don’t doom us to misfortune.  Venus retrograde periods are times to pay attention to the way we relate to others, and to re-evaluate the relationships that we have with people in our lives.  Some we may want to eliminate, and some we may want to re-focus our attention towards.  Jupiter retrograde periods provide an opportunity to free ourselves from restrictions (either situations or ideas) that hold us back from being able to expand ourselves and continue to grow.  It’s true that these are not always the optimum periods for business and wealth creation, although the past few weeks have seen the US stock market rise to its highest point in three years, largely due to the continuing conjunction of Jupiter with Uranus.  But any time we slow down and take a look at our life and our experiences with the intention of learning more about ourselves, we benefit in the end.

Both Jupiter and Venus are connected to wealth and money and we are already seeing some reversals in the markets due to concerns over debt levels around the world, especially in the US, Greece and Ireland.

The Taurus Full Moon at the 29th degree will follow on the heels of the direct turn of Venus and Jupiter, and since Taurus is ruled by Venus and is concerned with matters of material security, including financial security, money and finance are of paramount importance over the next week or so.

This is a good time to explore your own feelings of limitation where money and comfort is concerned, and find new ways of expanding your own beliefs of what is possible in all areas of your life.  As we move towards this Taurus Full Moon and Venus and Jupiter shine their laser beam of attraction power on us, we can generate a great deal of attraction power ourselves.