Now that the Jupiter, Mercury, and Mars retrogrades are over, it's difficult to ignore some of the other planets that are still retrograde (aka appearing from our perspective on Earth to be moving backward).
The retrograde planet that's making itself known at this particular moment is Saturn. It went retrograde on April 17 and goes direct on September 6. For some of you, that may not be soon enough. Saturn governs structure, practicality, boundaries, authority, karma, responsibility, discipline, and ambition. When a planet is retrograde we can encounter the shadow side of all these influences.
What does all that mean? If you've been hitting roadblocks at work or had setbacks trying to get your business off the ground, this influence could explain some of those obstacles. Authority figures may be more irksome than usual. The people around you might be pushing your buttons and/or testing their limits, making you at least consider enforcing boundaries. You might be feeling the weight of a responsibility more than usual. Or something may have happened that has forced you to step up to the plate—whether you wanted it or not.
However this retrograde is affecting you, there are lessons and opportunities for you to set up healthy boundaries to protect yourself. Some of these issues will not last forever, but some may continue well past September 6th.
Here's a question I pose to you: What can you live with? What can you not live with? If, for example, family members are acting out more than usual, is this your opportunity to change your dynamic, or do you want it to continue? Have the blocks for your business pointed out some things you want to change or details you know need to be ironed out?
Once Saturn goes direct, there's an opportunity to learn from the experiences you've had during these retrogrades. How do you want to change your life for the better? What do you want to see improve?
Other people will always have their quirks and foibles, and you can't change them. However, you have complete control over how you interact with them (and how often), how you respond, and how you choose to associate with them.
Asserting boundaries and taking care of lingering issues are acts of self-care.
It's not selfish. It's taking care of your mental health, which has a direct effect on your physical health. This has been an emotionally difficult summer, and the shadow influences of these planetary movements have affected us all in different ways.
But as the planets continue to move out of these seemingly backward transits, you have opportunities to change and reset your present life for the future.
When it comes to building stability in your life, having a job you truly enjoy, interacting with the main people in your life, deciding what subject you wish to study next, what responsibilities you really want to take on in your life, and how you react to or feel about certain authority figures, now is a great time to assess your true feelings and see what comes up.
It might sound time consuming, but you're worth it. You owe it to yourself to lead a happy life with your energy spent on the things you truly care about. Life is too short to be spent focusing on the wrong things. You'll never look back and wish you spent more time stewing over a person who didn't matter in the grand scheme of things or a situation that could have been handled with an open and honest conversation. You deserve to be happy.
