Un-fighting for Love
Venus retrograde in Aries / Pisces
🌟 This week’s golden opportunity is to alchemize interpersonal attacks into loving connection with Venus in Aries 🌟
The world feels an awful lot like a battlefield right now.
I see threats of war being handed out like lollipops, something sweet to suck on while the troops gather. I’m not even sure I know who the enemy is supposed to be anymore, and the people who would tell me look an awful lot like a group of trigger-happy kids in a candy store. Grab the jellybeans! No, wait, throw the jellybeans on the floor and go for the licorice. Hold up, STOP! Is that chocolate? All hands on deck, GET THE CHOCOLATE!!!!!
But here’s the thing: conflict isn’t candy. And war isn’t something to suck on, it’s something that sucks. So in this place where we are being poked, prodded and peppered with unreliable promises of impending combat, how do we use this provocative energy to make things better? How do we turn cries for war into calls for love?
For guidance, I’m looking up to see Venus shimmering brightly in the skies. Venus is the planet of social relationships, and it shows us how to harmonize with the people we encounter in our earthly experience. Venus usually wants us to look around and see what we share, to help us find a peaceful path through the forest of mutual agreement.
But sometimes there is so much emotional overgrowth that you can’t see a way forward. And when it feels like every sentence is just pushing another button to upset you, Venus can help to cut back the weeds that tickle and prick. This is what Venus does during its biannual 40-day retrogrades, one of which is - you guessed it - on our doorstep.
This year’s retrograde begins on Sunday in the sign of Aries, the most bellicose of places in the Zodiac. Venus in Aries is absolutely willing to fight for the love that is always possible, and in retrograde it will also bring acute awareness of the ways that fighting gets in the way of love. There is brilliant irony in this, and yet it also feels remarkably straightforward because what do you get when you fight fire with fire? MORE FIRE.
So then, you might be wondering, what the hell do we do?
We find another way. Thankfully retrograde planets are also wonderfully conscious, and moving in an unfamiliar direction pushes us into greater embodied presence. Try walking backwards today and notice how much more you have to pay attention, how much care you put into every single step. This kind of consciousness inevitably breeds creativity, and it is very much available to support us.
Knowing that Venus will end its retrograde in the sign of Pisces - a place of loving love for love’s sake - I’m seeing a solution in the deeply held universal truth that there is no separation between you and me, between us and them. The language of strife simply doesn’t make sense on the infinite plane of unconditional love that our planet is built on, because there is ultimately nobody to fight but yourself.
With this in my heart, I’m feeling like it’s time to start un-fighting. It’s time to notice all of the times we instinctively reach for a weapon - whether it be a gun, a fist, a word or even a look - and choose to put it down. There are so many complicated stories we tell ourselves about why we need to fight, but none of them holds a candle to the one incredibly compelling reason to un-fight: love. Every fairytale ever written - including the fairytale that is your life - will show you that love always shines through at the end, no matter what kind of bullshit you try to put on top of it.💩
So let your courage guide you to align with the power of love. Imagine a world where we meet concerted threats with equally considered blessings, where loving intention quenches the thirst for blood. And now know that you already live in this world, that there is an abundance of scientific proof about how your thoughts can heal anything.1 To help you on your way, here’s a short video with two simple ways I shift from battling to blessing in my own life:
If you’re still feeling the weight of the world on your shoulders, I also invite you to join me and
for a free hour-long event to celebrate the one day of the year when the Sun passes over Saturn in the sky (more on the significance of this soon). So come and Connect with Loving Wisdom on Tuesday, March 11 at 11 am Pacific / 1 pm Central / 2 pm Eastern / 6 pm London / 7 pm Europe. We’ll channel messages of compassion from the ringed planet with friendly conversation and a group meditation experience, and we’d love to see you there. Register here to attend live and you’ll also receive the recording to listen to later. 🪐Love,
Patrick
🇬🇧 London Love 🇬🇧
I’m running In-person Workshops in London with my friends Mary and Fred for the upcoming Solar/Lunar Eclipses and the Spring Equinox.
Eclipse Workshop(s): Friday, March 14 / Friday, March 28 @ 7 pm in Hampstead
You’ll learn to welcome big change with movement and meditation to recenter, ground and come home to yourself. These ritual classes will include Elemental yin yoga, breath work, moon ritual journaling, special eclipse movement practices, guided meditation, energy clearing, tarot and - of course - astrological wisdom from yours truly. Book here.Equinox Workshop: Saturday, March 22 @ 12:30 pm in Primrose Hill
You’ll (re)connect with your natural confidence, strength and resilience as we move head-first into spring. You'll calm your nervous system and embrace your courage with sacred movement practices, restorative yoga, and guided meditation attuned to seasonal and (as always) astrological insight. Book here.
Check out the brilliant work of Lynne McTaggart, who has tirelessly tested and documented the powerful effects of intention: https://lynnemctaggart.com/