Here are some examples of things that have happened to real clients of mine during Venus retrograde transits in past.

Retrograde Venus through 1st house: •widow moves out of 5,000 sq ft home to downsized residence and begins to realize that house and relationship were prisons and that she is well rid of both; •elderly woman resolves long standing issue with IRS who removes lien on her house and frees up her CD.

Retrograde Venus through 2nd house: •husband gets self and wife new cell phone numbers after five years with old ones (?)

Retrograde Venus through 3rd house: •walls close in on man as he realizes he might lose his wife, mistress and home, all in same month!

Retrograde Venus through 4th house: •Consultant breaks up with woman 15 years older, moves to another city to start over with a woman 15 years younger; •heiress’ brother announces divorce, completely upsetting family power structure; •married boyfriend goes back to his wife with no explanation; •woman vacillates between declaring BK, selling house and selling heirloom family jewelry

Retrograde Venus through 5th house: •middle aged woman comes to terms with death of mother and estrangement from brother, releasing her own intense creativity

Retrograde Venus through 6th house: •obsessive love for a younger man triggers long repressed memories of tragic first love in manicurist; •boyfriend who is in Diplomatic Corps leaves for South America for a year, triggering deep depression and abandonment issues in young girlfriend

Retrograde Venus through 7th house: •PhD candidate stops studies when his girlfriend is almost killed by a hit-and-run driver and hover for weeks between life and death

Retrograde Venus through 8th house: •husband of college professor suddenly offered opportunity for work as interpreter with a government “provider” believed to be involved in undercover work in a foreign country if he will leave with two days’ notice and without knowledge of exactly where he is going

Retrograde Venus through 9th house: •young housewife with 2 year old baby joins metaphysics class and finds terrific outlet for her social nature and brilliant mind

Retrograde Venus through 10th house: •young man has Tarot card reading, discovers reasons behind many of mysteries from his painful past

Retrograde Venus through 11th house •gifted intuitive artist attends Jonathan Edwards demonstration and has experience afterwards that convinces her she is going completely mad

Retrograde Venus through 12th house: •elderly woman seriously considers selling her home (which is free and clear) to get really free and clear!

As you can see, many of these events have to do with areas of life which are ruled by Venus, possessions and desires.

Another mystical thing about Venus Retrograde is that cycle lasts for 40 days. It is as if we all wander in wilderness with our Christlike selves, and return with greater conviction about who we are and greater dedication to our selves and our purpose, some through act of denying temptation.

During this cycle, creative and destructive are so closely interacting with one another it may be hard to tell difference as ridiculous as this sounds. Feedback from trusted friends or a professional astrologer can help if you think you might be throwing baby out with bathwater.

During a retrograde cycle, you may have no idea which end is up. But by end of cycle, a New Order is revealed, and order forms out of chaos. Venus retrogrades are intensely introspective and even anti-social transits that bring forth great bursts of personal creativity when complete. This is kind of creativity which produces an art, palette of which is life itself.

Yul Brynner, who died of lung cancer in 1985, helped reverse glamour image in late 80s with a chilling PSA which began, “Now that I’m dead … please don’t smoke.”

If you’re wondering what this has to do with spiritual development and seeing things clearly, let me continue.

If you didn’t go through process of consciousness raising with cigarette smoking, here’s an example from 21st Century. The same thing is occurring with obesity. The same long, time consuming process has begun. This time you can be a part of it, waking up slowly to what is before your very eyes.

I visited Russia this summer and people in Russia are not overweight. I really noticed it when I got back home. I have a friend from India who moved here because he wanted to be in a country where “even poor people are fat.”

Obesity has reached epidemic proportions in United States. Fast food chains are being sued to hold them accountable for selling food high in fat, salt, sugar, and cholesterol content, “despite studies showing a link between consuming such foods and obesity, diabetes, coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, strokes, elevated cholesterol intake, related cancers, and other health problems” and despite a recent published finding by Surgeon General that obesity costs Americans almost as much money per year as cigarette related illnesses. John F. Banzhaf III (http://banzhaf.net) is nationally-known professor and practitioner of public interest law who is bringing these legal actions to public forum.

The Chicago Tribune reports that suits initiated by Banzhof’s students have already forced McDonald's to apologize for "duping" people, and pay out over $12 million in damages. McDonald’s claimed their French fries were “vegetarian”. [They are fried in animal fat.]

According to ABCNEWS Internet Ventures, “a second law suit filed by a disgruntled customer in Florida, outraged when she learned that a so-called low-calorie and low-fat ice cream had at least three times calories and fat she was led to believe, has likewise been granted class action status by a judge, and could involve one million customers.”

Banzhof comments, “We know from tobacco litigation that initial suits have real difficulties because public has real problems accepting new ideas and new concepts. It took us many years to get us to point of educating juries about tobacco, so now they are [learning about fast food industry].”

In one of finer uses of evolutionary nature of law, Americans are being shown -- until they can “see” for themselves -- connection between junk food and poor health. We are also being shown correlation between weight gain and disastrous health consequences which we know intuitively. Obesity, watching television and eating junk food and go together like Whoppers and SuperSizeItPlease.

Connecting dots can help us to correct misapprehensions from childhood and see world around us with new eyes. It is these new eyes of seeing that are both goal and process of enlightenment.