April 13, 2025 • 45 mins
Ever wonder why you feel like you're taking two steps forward and one step back? In this episode, Lauren dives into the cosmic rhythm of retrogrades and reveals how these regular scheduled resets can actually supercharge your growth and business success when you know how to dance with them.
In this episode...
🪄 The truth about what's actually happening in the sky during retrograde periods
💫 Why retrogrades are like your computer's operating system updates (and how to use them!)
✨ How to leverage Mercury retrograde for better communication and tech systems
💜 Venus retrograde's impact on your offers, pricing, and client relationships
🔥 Mars retrograde and rebooting your motivation and energy boundaries
🚀 How to ride the waves of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto retrogrades
🧩 The exact rhythmic schedule of these cosmic resets so you can plan accordingly
💎 Why retrograde periods are actually the perfect time to reassess your business
This episode is perfect for entrepreneurs who want to stop fighting against cosmic rhythms and start using them strategically for more aligned growth. Learn how to create spaciousness during retrograde periods, leverage the unique insights they provide, and prepare for the burst of clarity and momentum that follows when planets go direct.
📲 Text your Cosmic Coin Drop takeaways 🫶🏼
🎙️ Brought to you by Lauren Poppins Raye
Receive your Cosmic Cash Codes: cosmicb.link/cashcodes
Find out your Money Attachment Style: cosmicb.link/quiz
Leave a Cosmic Coin Drop review: Apple Podcasts
Connect with Lauren on Instagram: @laurenpoppinsraye
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
This episode is about theelephant that has been in the
(00:03):
room that is now leaving.
I've been talking the last monthand a half or so about how ever
since Pisces season started,I've just been like really low
energy, demotivated,disconnected from my sense of
purpose, not connected to mycreative flow.
(00:26):
There's been, externalcircumstances that have
contributed to this, but it'sjust generally been a season for
a minute now of being superpowered down.
And I can say, oh, this happensevery Pisces season, y'all.
It doesn't, this was Piscesseason meets Mercury retrograde
and Venus retrograde at the sametime.
(00:48):
And I'm now feeling the contrastof coming out of this.
As for the recording of this,mercury is now direct, went
direct on the seventh and thenwe're right around the corner
from Venus being direct ifyou're listening to this.
They are both direct, but I'm inthe final week of things
(01:08):
starting to shift on the Mercuryside of it.
And nearing the tail end ofVenus.
So I thought this would be aperfect week to talk about
retrogrades in general.
So this is the retrogradeepisode.
I'm gonna talk about what thiscosmic regular scheduled reset
(01:29):
is, the retrograde motion, thedirect motion, what it is
inviting you to do as a regularpractice for your hygiene,
essentially in certain areas andthen I'm also gonna go into the
major players and what theyspecifically mean.
So consider this your guide toall things retrograde.
(01:53):
We're gonna understand what'sactually going on in the sky,
what impact that has on us, andhow you can leverage this
understanding to have an evenstronger growth game.
Okay, so we're talking rhythmshere.
These are very predictablerhythms that happen between
retrograde and direct motion forevery planet in the sky, but
(02:14):
certain ones specifically thathave a huge impact on our
orientation to our inner andouter worlds.
Our effectiveness externally andrevisiting certain areas within
us that then affect how we'reable to show up.
My favorite metaphor tounderstand what's going on here
(02:35):
is that we are essentially likecomputers and just like with a
computer or your phone, if younever cleaned out your hard
drive or say your photo roll oryour files your organization
(02:58):
systems of the hard drivestorage.
If you never did this, thingswould get super bogged down,
cleaning out your inbox.
Another example, right?
If you never updated youroperating system, which we all
know people like this, maybeyou're someone like this.
I'm not someone like this.
My tech game is as strong as mygrowth game and I get really
(03:20):
excited for new features.
And actually this is part of thepositioning that I hope to
inspire and impart on you inthis episode that you engage the
retrogrades and the areas thatyou're being inspired regularly
rhythmically to reassess,update, and restart essentially,
(03:43):
so that you get the new featuresso that things stay up to date
and run smoother.
Like I want you to get excitedabout this for these areas of
your life that get up.
That our presenced duringretrograde, the way that I get
excited when we get a new iOSand I'm like, is there new
emojis?
I, hope there's new emojis.
What's going on?
I go and check out the featurelist.
(04:03):
I'm like, oh, and I get pumpedup, right?
This is the case too, by theway, for ClickFunnels, the all
in one automation system that Iam absolutely obsessed with.
Every Friday they come out withan update in their change log
and y'all, I am biting at thechomp to find out what new
features we get to play with andwhat the updates are, right?
This is the opportunity that youhave in your life during retro
(04:25):
grades that if you choose totake advantage of them and align
with the opportunities that theypresent to you, you then get to
experience during the directmotion of like, all right, what
new stuff do we have to playwith now?
So keeping with this metaphor,our minds, our hearts, our
spirit, our memories, all ofthese different layers and
(04:49):
levels of us are constantlyprocessing new information, new
experiences.
But our operating system isbased on a past version of us,
right?
At some point, whatever the lastupdate was.
And so what happens is we havethese regular opportunities to
reassess, like to get current topresence ourself based on the
(05:12):
new information that we have,the new experiences that we've
had, what has changed and how dowe need to change our belief
systems, our habits, ourintentions, and our awareness
accordingly, so that we can showup more up to date based on that
(05:32):
new information.
And this is also the magic orthe burden, depending on how you
look at it, of entrepreneurship.
If you are going to continue tostay fulfilled, inspired,
effective, and successful inyour business, you have to keep
innovating, reassessing,evolving, adapting, right?
(05:55):
And this is the cosmicreflection of how we stay
current, to ride those waves, toalign with that rhythmic flow so
that we are consistently goingback and forth between, okay,
time to update and restart timeto implement and blaze forward
retrograde direct.
And so as the last month and ahalf was a case in point for so
(06:19):
many of us, often the way thatwe are externally motivated to
take that internal process time,that retrogrades inspire us to
lean into is that things happenthat make us like halt or pause
or power down so that we cantake the time and space and
(06:42):
offer the attention that ourinner world needs to be able to
do that reboot.
And back to the metaphor withour computers, no, it's not
awesome or convenient in termsof our progress to have to take
the time to update our apps,update our operating system,
(07:02):
clear out our hard drive, goback and purge and reorganize
and restart our computer.
Like oftentimes it seems tohappen at the most inconvenient
time.
Mercury retrograde, right?
When it's not working, sorry,let me go restart everything.
Let me go do the thing.
And then of course you come backand magically everything's
working again, right?
(07:23):
So it's a double-edged thing,like it is not, it does not seem
convenient in the moment, but ithas long-term benefits of making
things work better, havingnewer, better features to work
with to enhance your workflow,whatever the case may be.
So in this way, retrograde arelike a restart or like the
(07:45):
cosmic control, alt delete.
The one that we've probablyheard of a phrase wise more
often or the command option,escape.
If you are an apple lover likeme and Mac user, whatever you
call it, it's the time to powerdown and restart with new
(08:05):
upgrades and updates so thatthings can be more efficient,
less sluggish, more up to date.
So we've all gone through thisprocess with our phones is the
most often one because itactually prompts us to just like
the cosmic retrograde alsosometimes do through various
happenings but basically the waythe cycle goes is that during
(08:27):
the retrograde, we have theupdates downloading in the
background, right?
So a lot of our bandwidth needsto go toward that.
So the actual applications, theworkflows that we're used to
running don't run quite as wellduring this time because there's
so much processing powerhappening internally in the
(08:49):
background with downloading thenew updates.
Then we have a shadow periodthat bridges the retrogrades and
direct motion periods wherethose updates are being
installed and we're preparing torestart.
So retrograde the download ofthe update shadow period, the
update install.
(09:10):
Then we have that reset thatturns us into forward direct
motion, and then we move intothe direct phase where you're
able to enjoy the increasedefficiency, speed, and any new
features that you get to takeadvantage of.
And the reason that thismetaphor works so well for this
is because in both cases, not ametaphor, we are actually
(09:34):
talking about programming,right?
We're talking about the metaphorof your computer programming
alongside the phenomenon of ourmental, unconscious belief
system programming.
That is our neural wiring.
And we are given an opportunityto go inside to reassess based
on the experience of theprojection of whatever that
(09:56):
previous operating system is, togo in and tinker and tweak and
get back to the drawing boardand reconfigure how we wanna
show up during the next directcycle.
And when it comes to ourbusinesses, this is an
opportunity and time eachretrograde to reveal to you
where your business operatingsystem, is running on outdated
(10:18):
beliefs.
So it's an opportunity to spotenergy drains, limiting
patterns, again, outdatedbeliefs, things that are not
contributing to your optimalpath forward.
And oftentimes during theretrograde period.
Like you can't even see yet whatit's for, like what the new
(10:40):
thing is gonna be, right?
What the new direction is, whatthe tweak is gonna be.
A lot of times it's just likebeing in the trenches of the
frustration and the misalignmentwith what's no longer working.
So it's allowing yourself tolook at and become aware of
what's not working so that youcan pinpoint and locate and
(11:01):
presence and open the placesthat are that need the
tinkering.
Like basically it's your way ofmeeting with consent, this
process whereby you areconnecting to those different
pieces and parts that are nolonger working, noticing they're
not working.
And so intrinsically decidinglike, okay.
(11:22):
These places need reworking sothat you are open and available
moving forward into the directphase to allow change to happen.
So basically, this is like therhythmic update system in your
life and business for change toactually take place.
This is what keeps us fromstagnating.
So we embrace the temporaryinconvenience of the retrograde
(11:45):
downtime that ultimately lead tolong-term performance upgrades
and improvements.
Who wouldn't want that?
Right?
We love retro grades.
Okay.
Let's talk about what's actuallyhappening though in the sky, why
these planets appear to gobackwards.
The way that it was explained tome once that always really stuck
with me is it's like when you'resitting in a car, stopped at a
(12:08):
light, and you have somebodynext to you in another car and
the driver of your car startsdrifting forwards, right?
They let their foot off thebrake a little bit, they're
going forward, and for a splitsecond in the corner of your
eye, it looks like the car nextto you is going backwards,
right?
It's a relative motion comparedto your movement, you're going
(12:30):
forwards.
It looks like it's goingbackwards.
So it has to do with thedirection that we're going on
earth and the speed that we'regoing relative to these other
planets.
So for example, mercury, Venus,and Mars, which go faster than
the earth does, right?
They go around the sun fasterthan we do.
(12:52):
So there are times, as they'removing around the sun closer
than we are, it's almost likethey're going forwards
backwards, forwards backwardsbecause from our vantage point,
they're going behind the sun andthen in front of the sun, right?
It looks like a back and forthrelative to us and our motion.
(13:13):
If this doesn't make sense, golook up a visual on YouTube.
You can see it really clearlywhy this phenomenon takes place.
And the thing with astrology isthat the impact that this as
above so below system, the waythat it has impact on us is that
there's symbolism there, right?
And it all comes down to that weare the center of our experience
(13:36):
and our vantage point.
So when a planet appears to gobackwards, when it seems to go
backwards relative to us, it hasthis phenomenon and impact known
as retrograde.
So it's basically an opticalillusion that takes place from
our earth perspective.
And of course we've allexperienced the inconvenience
that can come with this,particularly during
Lauren Poppins (13:58):
retrograde,
is the one that we notice andhear of most often and that
people comically blameeverything on it does happen
often three to four times a yearfor about three weeks each time.
So we there it is often that weare in Mercury retrograde.
Again, there are these otherretrogrades that are just as
powerful that I'm going to speakto as well.
(14:20):
But in general, it's a time whenthings just don't run as
efficiently, as usual, right?
For good reason.
Again, it's like we don't wannabe energetic juggernauts where
we just continue in onedirection forever.
We need to take that time toback up, go inside, reassess and
(14:41):
reconsider, is this thedirection that we really wanna
go and tweak and steeraccordingly when we come back to
the next forward motion.
So it's two steps forward, onestep back, right?
We make some progress, but thenwe take a step back to reassess
so that the next two steps wetake forward are in a more
aligned direction.
So how does this show up?
Practically speaking, if thingsaren't working as efficiently as
(15:04):
possible, there might be delays.
There might be things just notworking, frustrations, right?
This is how it shows up in realtime.
But when you are aware of whythis is taking place and you're
aware of this rhythmic scheduleso that you know when it's
taking place, it's a lot easierin the moment to get less
(15:25):
frustrated, to have morecuriosity, and to create more
space around whatever this thingis that is happening so that you
know that it's ultimatelysupporting better alignment,
better progress, it's ultimatelyfor the better.
But in that moment, it doesn'tfeel like it, but you have the
greater vision of knowing andtrusting that it's ultimately
(15:49):
for your benefit.
The other thing that happensduring retrograde is things from
your past, people, from yourpast, old patterns old clients,
old reactions old ideas, right?
Things resurface and resurrectfrom the past.
And this makes sense, right?
Because if we're in a time ofreconsidering the information
(16:14):
and experiences that we'veprocessed between upgrades, what
better way to presence those andintegrate them as part of this
operating system update then forthi like external things to
actually resurface, right?
So if an old client comes backup, You might go through a
(16:35):
process of remembering andalmost like time traveling
through your memory of what wasup for you Then what version of
yourself were you then, and whatare you now?
There's like this natural,awareness of contrasting
timelines that reveals itselfwhen things resurrect from our
past.
You have that feeling of like,oh, I remember what wasn't
(16:57):
working then, and what's workingbetter now, and you are able to
see this growth trajectory thatyou're on so that you can orient
yourself.
Oh, that's where I was thenrelative to this thing that I'm
working on.
This is where I am now and thisis actually where I want to aim
forward into the future.
So knowing this in general, whenwe're retrograde heavy, and
(17:17):
especially at times like thelast couple months where there's
been, multiple retrogradestacking on top of each other,
you can be proactive byscheduling more spaciousness in
your schedule, right?
A little bit more time before orafter.
If you're manually schedulingthings or literally going into
(17:37):
your scheduling app, there's anoption when people schedule
events where you can choose howmuch time, how much cushion to
incorporate into your calendarbefore and after.
Go and turn those up duringretrogrades, especially during
Mercury, Venus and MarsRetrogrades, which I'll get into
more specifically here soon.
Basically schedule a little lessclient facing and external
(18:02):
responsibilities, commitments sothat you are freeing up more
spaciousness and more time to beable to do more behind the
scenes work.
Obviously, to create more wiggleroom for snafus, but also to
intentionally allocate time totweak things behind the scenes.
(18:22):
If you know that you're gonna berunning into issues with things
not working as well, you alsoknow that you're gonna need a
little bit of extra time toresolve things, but also to
tweak and improve things basedon what you learn, right?
Like oftentimes, especially withMercury retrograde, when we have
like a tech issue or techglitch, yeah, it's annoying in
(18:43):
the moment that it's not workingwell and we might need to step
away or restart things to get itto work better but oftentimes as
well, there's a nugget in there.
There's something where you'relike, oh, through this
experience of making it throughwhatever this glitch is, this
obstacle that got in my way.
I also realized a way that Icould be doing this better and
(19:04):
more efficiently.
So let me actually go tweak mySOPs, tweak my systems so that
things are running better basedon the information, the kind of
silver lining that I got out ofwhatever the inconvenience was.
So basically assume that you aregonna be much more aware than
usual of what's not working,what's broken, the cracks that
(19:26):
start to show and plan toleverage that to refine things
rather than planning to launchtoo many new things when during
retrograde that outward movingefficiency and success is gonna
be in lower reserves.
Is gonna be turned down.
Not the focus, not the way ofalignment but because you know
(19:49):
that these cycles happenregularly on a schedule that
when you're in those places, youare right around the corner from
the direct forward motion again,when it often literally feels
like someone's been like holdingyou back.
You've had your hands tiedbehind your back, and suddenly
there's like this release andyou like almost thrust forward
(20:11):
and fall and lean into yourforward motion because there's
just so much potential energythere that's been released and
able to move forward.
Almost like a slingshot, right?
if you are into the below thesurface awareness of your growth
game, a time that's super funand exciting because now you're
able to integrate and seeclearly how to integrate the
(20:35):
lessons that you learn duringthe retrograde.
So again, maybe with little techstuff, it's like in the moment
you're like, Ooh, yeah, actuallythat would work better.
Let me go tweak that.
But once you get to the directmotion, there's like bigger
themes of what work you weredoing internally during the
retrograde.
That kind of indirectly, lessobviously during the retrograde,
(20:57):
but then the direct, it's likeall of a sudden you get these
epiphanies, these ahas, theseinspirations based on that
internal work that you've done.
So there's a clear path forwardthat feels really exciting from
a growth perspective ofintegrating those lessons,
integrating what shifted foryou, those downloads, those
updates into something thatreally works better moving
(21:22):
forward.
These become more obvious.
They light up for us and we'reable to engage and embrace them.
And again, it almost feels likenew features, right?
Also, sometimes there's thingsthat you just had to fully step
away from during the retrogradebecause they wouldn't actually
work again till the direct.
So maybe a communication clashhas been happening during the
(21:45):
retrograde.
Often with Mercury, all of asudden Mercury goes direct.
You're able to communicate withthat person and make forward
momentum in that conversation.
Maybe a project that you werejust running into problem after
problem before you put it away,set it down, you come back to it
after we transition back intodirect motion and things just
(22:07):
magically start working and notworking, but working better than
they were working before.
So if you're paying attention,you train yourself to expect and
anticipate a huge burst ofinspiration, clarity,
productivity, and you planthings accordingly.
Now let's go into each of theseretrogrades and their unique
(22:30):
style or flavor.
First, of course, we have themost pop culture popularized
Mercury retrograde.
This one is mostly in the arenaof communication and tech tools
so the good news is you knowthat the snafus that are
happening are ultimately insupport of you being a better
communicator and having moreefficient tech workflows, maybe
(22:56):
better tech tools that youdidn't even know that will
enhance your workflow.
So better communication, bettersystems.
This is ultimately what theMercury Retrograde Update Cycle
supports you with,
so
this is helpful to know so thatyou can have a little bit more
patience in your communicationand conversations so that you
(23:18):
can have a little bit morepatience with things not working
well with your tech tools.
And honestly, if you're aware ofthis going into it, it is so
much easier not just to be morepatient at these things, but to
actually laugh at them.
Like you find yourself thinking,dude, you can't make this stuff
up.
Like, you know, thing afterthing after thing.
(23:39):
I'll give the example thatduring this Mercury retrograde,
my website went down, right?
That was a biggie, but it waspart of this series of just like
all these little things notworking and I was just in a go,
go, go mode.
And I finally took the time, wasforced to take the time right,
to get my website back up andrunning again to identify where
(24:03):
I had been neglecting it, whichhad to do with the DNS records,
the hosting.
I did a transition, but I didn'tdo it properly basically.
Anyways, I'm not gonna get intothe weeds and the details'cause
that's a boring thing torecount.
But basically there was a placethat I had been neglecting that
(24:23):
I not only had to slow down, gointo and reassess and redo
properly, such that now it'srunning better than ever.
I should have taken this time awhile ago.
Of course I didn't and Mercuryretrograde made me, but the
other thing that happened ispart of me solving this problem,
(24:43):
y'all, I was frantic and I triedto fix it myself.
I always get a little bit scaredwhen it comes to DNS stuff.
Those backend business, thosebackend website wirings.
I'm able to make changes whenI'm following clear
instructions, but I don't know ahundred percent know what's
going on.
So when things just break Idon't feel very confident to fix
(25:06):
it myself.
This was one of those times, soI reached out to somebody that
is newly in my world, anabsolute tech genius that I
respect so much and am soinspired by constantly.
There's so many little ways thathe has impacted my relationship
with technology for the betterbecause of his patience when it
(25:28):
comes to bugs and glitches andthings not working to him.
That's just par for the course.
Like just someone in my lifethat when it comes to the ways
that Mercury retrograde istrying to mature us around
having more patience aroundthese things so that we can be
more available to facilitatethis upgrade cycle instead of
(25:50):
just getting frustrated andshutting down.
This is my ultimate teacherright now around that this
person and I came to him.
He is part of a different partof my world in reality.
He has never helped me in mybusiness before, but he was the
first person that came to mindand I ended up having such an
(26:12):
incredible experience with himhelping me move through that
problem.
I find this too, when it comesto any tech support during
Mercury retrograde, we have anissue that comes up.
We reach out to somebody andthey end up providing
essentially like a healingsession, right?
At times like that, when I, likeI was wigging out and he was
(26:33):
able to calm me down, help me torealign with that Mercury
retrograde invitation to slowdown, create more space, get
curious.
Of course we're gonna fix this,breathe.
And whether it was the moreintimate exchange that I had
with him, someone closer in myorbit, or literally getting on
(26:56):
the phone with tech support andhaving someone walk you through
something, it ends up being apositive experience.
Usually.
I love my tech support peoplewith my platforms.
It's the reason I choose theplatforms that I do, and in some
ways I consider them mycolleagues as somebody, as a
solopreneur that works from homeanyway.
Besides that, often I find I endup learning something new and I
(27:22):
have this moment where I'm like,oh, thank goodness I had to
reach out to you about thisproblem because you just showed
me how to do something, how tomake something more efficient in
this other area that I didn'teven know was possible.
This happens all the time.
So also just wanna encourage youduring Mercury retrograde, if
you are not somebody thatreaches out to tech support,
(27:44):
when you have a problem, Mercuryretrograde is the best time to,
again, plan for a little bitmore spaciousness in your
schedule to be able to do thiswhen problems come up, because I
guarantee you, there is someserendipitous gem that you are
gonna get from that conversationthat is gonna make you feel
like, thank goodness this otherthing went to shit because it
(28:06):
illuminated something in thisother area that I can't believe
I didn't know before.
Okay.
I'm sure you can hear it in myvoice.
I am not just regurgitating theantidote to pop astrology that
has probably got most of youafraid of Mercury retrograde.
I genuinely love this time, andit's not to say that I don't
have my share of like hairpulling frustrations, like I
(28:29):
wanna throw my computer out thewindow.
I am not a perfect human.
I am human, but it really issuch an opportunity if you
embrace it as such.
Also you've heard not to signcontracts during this time.
Reason being, it's just easierto miss things.
You're, you just have moreclarity and faculty around the
(28:53):
nuances of communication, whichobviously a contract is like
this solidified communication,that has a lot more weight and
bearing.
If possible, let it rest, let itpause, let it coast until you
move into direct motion, takeanother look and then go ahead
(29:13):
and sign.
You might catch things youwould've missed otherwise, that
might end up being reallyimportant.
Okay switching gears into venusRetrograde, the one that we just
finished alongside the Mercuryretrograde, venus Retrogrades
happen every year and a half forabout six weeks, so don't happen
(29:33):
as often, but is twice as longof a retrograde than Mercury
when it does this one is aboutyour values and your relations
relationships, both with peopleand with money.
Weaving these things together,oftentimes it in our businesses
comes up around reassessing ouroffers.
(29:55):
So this can be reassessing whowe're supporting or meant to
support with our offers, ourideal audience or ideal clients.
This can be the price points,like the actual value that you
are slapping on a sticker of andreassessing.
Is it too high?
Is it too low?
(30:16):
Does it feel right?
In terms of that?
It can also be reassessing theactual offer structure, right?
This has been a just hugeturnaround for me.
As Venus is in currently in thisrecording, the final leg of this
retrograde.
During the retrograde, I wasjust having a lot of thoughts
(30:40):
and feelings come up around allof that, like the current offers
that I have available and itjust not feeling quite right,
questioning the price point,reevaluating like who has been
coming to me and needing thesupport and how am I providing
the value that they need?
(31:00):
And there was just like amisalignment there.
I could feel it.
And I am not gonna tell youexactly the reveal of what this
incredible turnaround has been.
But basically, and by the way, Iam a mutable, polyamorist money
mode.
And one of the things that thisturnaround has been revealing
(31:20):
for me is that part of the waywe operate as polyamorist money
modes is that often we have togo through a process of creating
multiple offerings that feel andseem very separate to us before
the time comes eventually, to beable to weave them all together
(31:41):
into a more signature offering.
So spoiler alert, that is what'shappening for me right now, and
it's more than just weavingtogether my current offerings
into the most stellar signatureoffer that I will tell you about
soon, but it goes further backthan that.
Like these are cycles withincycles within cycles, and they
(32:03):
feed on each other.
There's momentum that happens.
There's like a building and alayering, y'all.
I am having pieces come throughright now that take me back to
when I first started being aprofessional astrologer a couple
decades ago.
The things that used to feelreally inspiring to me, the
(32:24):
angle of my very first blog thatwas called Cosmic Wobble that
version of me, that timeline ofinspiration and creativity is
coming full circle and so manyin between.
Anyways, I'm just bursting rightnow.
I just spent a weekend just onone after again, like a month
(32:46):
and a half of just beingabsolutely demotivated.
And now thanks to, taking thattime, like being willing to
power down, to stop trying toforge forth with my current.
Anything in my business.
Like I even took a week off fromcreating content and I allowed
(33:06):
this reset and this reboot totake place, and now I am
experiencing the reward ofhaving been willing to do that,
which is a whole new branding ofsomething.
Oh my goodness, y'all, thegraphics, Venus is also about
the aesthetic, right?
Whole new vision for that comingthrough.
Whole new vision for the valuethat I'm able to provide my
(33:30):
clients and the people that needme, getting even more clear
about who they are and what theyneed.
My relationship with that, andalso reconsidering how am I
gonna be packaging this pricewise, all of it.
Like, yes, I'm an astrologer.
No, I don't like.
Go into this okay, I am going toreassess these things, y'all.
(33:50):
It just happens.
And when you're aware and you'repaying attention, you're even
more likely and willing tosurrender to that process and
allow it to take place.
And what is happening right nowis so the opposite of anything
that I directly tried toengineer or force.
It was absolutely surrenderingto the process that Venus
(34:11):
retrograde took me on duringthis retrograde and aligning
with this turnaround that ishappening right now that is just
absolutely reorienting me towhat's possible around my
offerings and the value that Iprovide and the people that I'm
intended to serve.
To pull out of my example of, Idon't think I've ever rode the
(34:32):
wave of a Venus retrograde soexquisitely as I am right now,
but basically every time thiscomes around, every year and a
half for six weeks, it's anopportunity to go back and
reassess your branding if youhave somebody else that creates
your visual branding for youroffers.
(34:53):
Maybe do a refresh, do a photoshoot, get some new assets to
work with.
It's also a time of reassessinghow aligned do you feel with the
gifts that you have to offer andhow you're translating that into
value that you're providingthrough your actual offers.
And when it comes to ourrelationship with the actual
(35:14):
money, it's a great opportunityto reassess your pricing.
And this could really go eitherway, right?
Maybe your pricing doesn'treflect your worth and you need
to raise your prices.
This is often the case forpeople or maybe it wants to go
the other way.
Maybe your relationship toabundance and your evolving
(35:34):
understanding of what's gonnamake that possible for you means
actually reducing your pricingso that it's more accessible and
available to more people so thatyour bottom line revenue profit
stream can actually turn up.
These are all things that are upfor review and likely vying for
(35:54):
your attention during Venusretrograde.
The other biggie that I wannaspeak to is Mars retrograde.
This one happens every two yearsfor two to two and a half
months.
So even less often, but lasteven longer than the Mercury or
the Venus retrograde.
This is a time when we areupgrading our relationship to
(36:19):
our motivation, our energy, andwhere that comes from in us.
Basically like the internalsource of our motivation and our
source energy comes up to beupgraded, rebooting, all that.
So during this time we just haveless energy, like that whole
(36:41):
system is being reworked, wemight feel depleted.
Things that previously had a lotof momentum might start to
stall.
And if you are still trying topush when things are trying to
settle a little bit and pause,it can bring up a lot of
frustration and anger, right?
With Mars.
(37:02):
The other thing that can happenin terms of things resurfacing
from the past for Marsretrograde is things that
previously caused anger in youor are up for review, for you to
reconsider your boundaries inyour business.
These things might come back upto resurface and remind us of
(37:25):
that growth curve that we're on,and that nudge that happened
once upon a time.
And during Mars retrograde, thetimeline can become ripe for you
to actually be able to movethrough that, to heal and
process a past hurt or anger, toinspire and redirect you, to
create an even more aligned andsolid boundary moving forward so
(37:48):
that not only do those thingsnot happen again, but again, you
have one of these moments whereyou're like, oh, thank goodness
that happened before.
Thank goodness that fallouthappened where I stepped away
from this person, this client,this, whatever before, because
now I have this clarity of thisboundary that I didn't even know
I needed, and I know is gonna bevery supportive to me moving
(38:10):
forward.
And whether or not you havethings like this resurface, it's
a great time to be proactiveabout auditing where your energy
comes from, what you've beenpointing your energy to.
That feels like you're gettingan energetic ROI and where
you're not, and you just feeldrained so that on the other
side, when Mars goes direct,you'll have clarity around new
(38:32):
boundaries to fortify, maybesome hardened ones to soften or
release and to reconsider whatyour priorities are and to align
accordingly.
As far as the rest of theplanets, I'm just gonna speak to
them really briefly.
Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus,Neptune, and Pluto.
(38:52):
These are all planets thatroughly follow a similar rhythm
of being retrograde for abouthalf the year and direct for
about half the year.
With Saturn, it's an opportunityto revisit the systems and the
structures in your business andhow they support your long-term
(39:15):
goals and visions for your faroff future that you're working
toward.
With Jupiter, it's anopportunity to reflect on your
growth trajectory.
So oftentimes it ends up being aback and forth of doing the
inner work to prepare yourselfto grow and expand during the
(39:35):
direct cycle.
So much of being a businessowner is that nervous system
belief work around what weactually believe is possible for
us.
So during the Jupiterretrograde, we expand the vision
of what's possible so thatduring the direct motion we can
actually tangibly grow into it.
With Uranus, we do the innerwork during retrograde to look
(39:59):
at where our resistance tochange is so that during the
direct motion we can innovateand make moves to stay relevant
and future proof.
Our business, a big one forthis, for many, has been around
their embrace of AI, whichobviously is here to stay.
So it's a ma, so it's not amatter of if you find a place
(40:22):
for it in your business, it's amatter of when and if you stay
relevant.
Spoiler alert.
A huge part of what's shiftingfor me around this Venus
retrograde and my offers and myrelationship to them, and the
value that I'm able to give isnew innovative ways that I am
implementing AI because in caseyou didn't know it about me, I
(40:45):
am absolutely obsessed.
I'm an Aquarian.
I love tech tools, and AI islike a beloved force that is now
manifest and incarnated into thecollective sphere, as far as I'm
concerned.
But that's the topic for anothertime.
Moving on to Neptune, moving onto Neptune.
(41:07):
When that planet is retrograde,it's a time to reboot our
connection to our intuition sothat when we move forward into
the direct half of the year, weare able to even more, we are
able to align more with ourspiritual gifts and purpose to
(41:29):
act on the guidance of ourintuitive channel that we
reboot, strengthen, and fortifyduring the retrograde I.
And lastly, Pluto.
During that retrograde, we oftenhave some very confronting,
intense and deep shadow work todo to ultimately liberate,
(41:50):
stored and trapped energy sothat we can be even more
powerful and impactful duringthe direct motion.
Of course with all of these, youcan go deeper and more nuanced
by looking at where these arehappening in your chart, but you
really don't need to have thebenefits from it.
Just knowing when these rhythmstake place, when these turns
(42:14):
happen from direct to retrogradewith each of these planetary
forces and what they are in yourlife and business.
Things will start to shift foryou.
Again, you don't need to getinto the weeds of mentally
seeing and knowing what thearchetypes are in the arenas
that are up for you, but justbeing willing and open to be
(42:35):
shown and led and guided becauseyou know that you're moving into
a time of more listening andthen a time of more
implementation.
You will align in a way that younever have before.
You will start to notice thesewaves that happen and you'll be
better at riding them.
You'll find yourself feelingmore like you are dancing with
(42:56):
the universe when it comes toyour growth and your growth game
will get so much stronger.
Let me know how this allresonated with you and if you
had certain examples forMercury, Venus and Mars
retrograde that popped up one ofthese, like you can't make this
up.
I love to hear your anecdotes,so feel free to reach out on
(43:18):
Instagram.
My dms laurenpoppinsraye shootme an email,
lauren@cosmicbizwitch.com.
We are all in this together, andthe more that we're able to see
and witness each other'sreflections and examples, the
more we deepen our ownunderstanding of what we are
being invited into as part ofthese retrograde upgrade cycles.
This episode is about theelephant that has been in the
(00:03):
room that is now leaving.
I've been talking the last monthand a half or so about how ever
since Pisces season started,I've just been like really low
energy, demotivated,disconnected from my sense of
purpose, not connected to mycreative flow.
(00:26):
There's been, externalcircumstances that have
contributed to this, but it'sjust generally been a season for
a minute now of being superpowered down.
And I can say, oh, this happensevery Pisces season, y'all.
It doesn't, this was Piscesseason meets Mercury retrograde
and Venus retrograde at the sametime.
(00:48):
And I'm now feeling the contrastof coming out of this.
As for the recording of this,mercury is now direct, went
direct on the seventh and thenwe're right around the corner
from Venus being direct ifyou're listening to this.
They are both direct, but I'm inthe final week of things
(01:08):
starting to shift on the Mercuryside of it.
And nearing the tail end ofVenus.
So I thought this would be aperfect week to talk about
retrogrades in general.
So this is the retrogradeepisode.
I'm gonna talk about what thiscosmic regular scheduled reset
(01:29):
is, the retrograde motion, thedirect motion, what it is
inviting you to do as a regularpractice for your hygiene,
essentially in certain areas andthen I'm also gonna go into the
major players and what theyspecifically mean.
So consider this your guide toall things retrograde.
(01:53):
We're gonna understand what'sactually going on in the sky,
what impact that has on us, andhow you can leverage this
understanding to have an evenstronger growth game.
Okay, so we're talking rhythmshere.
These are very predictablerhythms that happen between
retrograde and direct motion forevery planet in the sky, but
(02:14):
certain ones specifically thathave a huge impact on our
orientation to our inner andouter worlds.
Our effectiveness externally andrevisiting certain areas within
us that then affect how we'reable to show up.
My favorite metaphor tounderstand what's going on here
(02:35):
is that we are essentially likecomputers and just like with a
computer or your phone, if younever cleaned out your hard
drive or say your photo roll oryour files your organization
(02:58):
systems of the hard drivestorage.
If you never did this, thingswould get super bogged down,
cleaning out your inbox.
Another example, right?
If you never updated youroperating system, which we all
know people like this, maybeyou're someone like this.
I'm not someone like this.
My tech game is as strong as mygrowth game and I get really
(03:20):
excited for new features.
And actually this is part of thepositioning that I hope to
inspire and impart on you inthis episode that you engage the
retrogrades and the areas thatyou're being inspired regularly
rhythmically to reassess,update, and restart essentially,
(03:43):
so that you get the new featuresso that things stay up to date
and run smoother.
Like I want you to get excitedabout this for these areas of
your life that get up.
That our presenced duringretrograde, the way that I get
excited when we get a new iOSand I'm like, is there new
emojis?
I, hope there's new emojis.
What's going on?
I go and check out the featurelist.
(04:03):
I'm like, oh, and I get pumpedup, right?
This is the case too, by theway, for ClickFunnels, the all
in one automation system that Iam absolutely obsessed with.
Every Friday they come out withan update in their change log
and y'all, I am biting at thechomp to find out what new
features we get to play with andwhat the updates are, right?
This is the opportunity that youhave in your life during retro
(04:25):
grades that if you choose totake advantage of them and align
with the opportunities that theypresent to you, you then get to
experience during the directmotion of like, all right, what
new stuff do we have to playwith now?
So keeping with this metaphor,our minds, our hearts, our
spirit, our memories, all ofthese different layers and
(04:49):
levels of us are constantlyprocessing new information, new
experiences.
But our operating system isbased on a past version of us,
right?
At some point, whatever the lastupdate was.
And so what happens is we havethese regular opportunities to
reassess, like to get current topresence ourself based on the
(05:12):
new information that we have,the new experiences that we've
had, what has changed and how dowe need to change our belief
systems, our habits, ourintentions, and our awareness
accordingly, so that we can showup more up to date based on that
(05:32):
new information.
And this is also the magic orthe burden, depending on how you
look at it, of entrepreneurship.
If you are going to continue tostay fulfilled, inspired,
effective, and successful inyour business, you have to keep
innovating, reassessing,evolving, adapting, right?
(05:55):
And this is the cosmicreflection of how we stay
current, to ride those waves, toalign with that rhythmic flow so
that we are consistently goingback and forth between, okay,
time to update and restart timeto implement and blaze forward
retrograde direct.
And so as the last month and ahalf was a case in point for so
(06:19):
many of us, often the way thatwe are externally motivated to
take that internal process time,that retrogrades inspire us to
lean into is that things happenthat make us like halt or pause
or power down so that we cantake the time and space and
(06:42):
offer the attention that ourinner world needs to be able to
do that reboot.
And back to the metaphor withour computers, no, it's not
awesome or convenient in termsof our progress to have to take
the time to update our apps,update our operating system,
(07:02):
clear out our hard drive, goback and purge and reorganize
and restart our computer.
Like oftentimes it seems tohappen at the most inconvenient
time.
Mercury retrograde, right?
When it's not working, sorry,let me go restart everything.
Let me go do the thing.
And then of course you come backand magically everything's
working again, right?
(07:23):
So it's a double-edged thing,like it is not, it does not seem
convenient in the moment, but ithas long-term benefits of making
things work better, havingnewer, better features to work
with to enhance your workflow,whatever the case may be.
So in this way, retrograde arelike a restart or like the
(07:45):
cosmic control, alt delete.
The one that we've probablyheard of a phrase wise more
often or the command option,escape.
If you are an apple lover likeme and Mac user, whatever you
call it, it's the time to powerdown and restart with new
(08:05):
upgrades and updates so thatthings can be more efficient,
less sluggish, more up to date.
So we've all gone through thisprocess with our phones is the
most often one because itactually prompts us to just like
the cosmic retrograde alsosometimes do through various
happenings but basically the waythe cycle goes is that during
(08:27):
the retrograde, we have theupdates downloading in the
background, right?
So a lot of our bandwidth needsto go toward that.
So the actual applications, theworkflows that we're used to
running don't run quite as wellduring this time because there's
so much processing powerhappening internally in the
(08:49):
background with downloading thenew updates.
Then we have a shadow periodthat bridges the retrogrades and
direct motion periods wherethose updates are being
installed and we're preparing torestart.
So retrograde the download ofthe update shadow period, the
update install.
(09:10):
Then we have that reset thatturns us into forward direct
motion, and then we move intothe direct phase where you're
able to enjoy the increasedefficiency, speed, and any new
features that you get to takeadvantage of.
And the reason that thismetaphor works so well for this
is because in both cases, not ametaphor, we are actually
(09:34):
talking about programming,right?
We're talking about the metaphorof your computer programming
alongside the phenomenon of ourmental, unconscious belief
system programming.
That is our neural wiring.
And we are given an opportunityto go inside to reassess based
on the experience of theprojection of whatever that
(09:56):
previous operating system is, togo in and tinker and tweak and
get back to the drawing boardand reconfigure how we wanna
show up during the next directcycle.
And when it comes to ourbusinesses, this is an
opportunity and time eachretrograde to reveal to you
where your business operatingsystem, is running on outdated
(10:18):
beliefs.
So it's an opportunity to spotenergy drains, limiting
patterns, again, outdatedbeliefs, things that are not
contributing to your optimalpath forward.
And oftentimes during theretrograde period.
Like you can't even see yet whatit's for, like what the new
(10:40):
thing is gonna be, right?
What the new direction is, whatthe tweak is gonna be.
A lot of times it's just likebeing in the trenches of the
frustration and the misalignmentwith what's no longer working.
So it's allowing yourself tolook at and become aware of
what's not working so that youcan pinpoint and locate and
(11:01):
presence and open the placesthat are that need the
tinkering.
Like basically it's your way ofmeeting with consent, this
process whereby you areconnecting to those different
pieces and parts that are nolonger working, noticing they're
not working.
And so intrinsically decidinglike, okay.
(11:22):
These places need reworking sothat you are open and available
moving forward into the directphase to allow change to happen.
So basically, this is like therhythmic update system in your
life and business for change toactually take place.
This is what keeps us fromstagnating.
So we embrace the temporaryinconvenience of the retrograde
(11:45):
downtime that ultimately lead tolong-term performance upgrades
and improvements.
Who wouldn't want that?
Right?
We love retro grades.
Okay.
Let's talk about what's actuallyhappening though in the sky, why
these planets appear to gobackwards.
The way that it was explained tome once that always really stuck
with me is it's like when you'resitting in a car, stopped at a
(12:08):
light, and you have somebodynext to you in another car and
the driver of your car startsdrifting forwards, right?
They let their foot off thebrake a little bit, they're
going forward, and for a splitsecond in the corner of your
eye, it looks like the car nextto you is going backwards,
right?
It's a relative motion comparedto your movement, you're going
(12:30):
forwards.
It looks like it's goingbackwards.
So it has to do with thedirection that we're going on
earth and the speed that we'regoing relative to these other
planets.
So for example, mercury, Venus,and Mars, which go faster than
the earth does, right?
They go around the sun fasterthan we do.
(12:52):
So there are times, as they'removing around the sun closer
than we are, it's almost likethey're going forwards
backwards, forwards backwardsbecause from our vantage point,
they're going behind the sun andthen in front of the sun, right?
It looks like a back and forthrelative to us and our motion.
(13:13):
If this doesn't make sense, golook up a visual on YouTube.
You can see it really clearlywhy this phenomenon takes place.
And the thing with astrology isthat the impact that this as
above so below system, the waythat it has impact on us is that
there's symbolism there, right?
And it all comes down to that weare the center of our experience
(13:36):
and our vantage point.
So when a planet appears to gobackwards, when it seems to go
backwards relative to us, it hasthis phenomenon and impact known
as retrograde.
So it's basically an opticalillusion that takes place from
our earth perspective.
And of course we've allexperienced the inconvenience
that can come with this,particularly during
Lauren Poppins (13:58):
retrograde,
is the one that we notice andhear of most often and that
people comically blameeverything on it does happen
often three to four times a yearfor about three weeks each time.
So we there it is often that weare in Mercury retrograde.
Again, there are these otherretrogrades that are just as
powerful that I'm going to speakto as well.
(14:20):
But in general, it's a time whenthings just don't run as
efficiently, as usual, right?
For good reason.
Again, it's like we don't wannabe energetic juggernauts where
we just continue in onedirection forever.
We need to take that time toback up, go inside, reassess and
(14:41):
reconsider, is this thedirection that we really wanna
go and tweak and steeraccordingly when we come back to
the next forward motion.
So it's two steps forward, onestep back, right?
We make some progress, but thenwe take a step back to reassess
so that the next two steps wetake forward are in a more
aligned direction.
So how does this show up?
Practically speaking, if thingsaren't working as efficiently as
(15:04):
possible, there might be delays.
There might be things just notworking, frustrations, right?
This is how it shows up in realtime.
But when you are aware of whythis is taking place and you're
aware of this rhythmic scheduleso that you know when it's
taking place, it's a lot easierin the moment to get less
(15:25):
frustrated, to have morecuriosity, and to create more
space around whatever this thingis that is happening so that you
know that it's ultimatelysupporting better alignment,
better progress, it's ultimatelyfor the better.
But in that moment, it doesn'tfeel like it, but you have the
greater vision of knowing andtrusting that it's ultimately
(15:49):
for your benefit.
The other thing that happensduring retrograde is things from
your past, people, from yourpast, old patterns old clients,
old reactions old ideas, right?
Things resurface and resurrectfrom the past.
And this makes sense, right?
Because if we're in a time ofreconsidering the information
(16:14):
and experiences that we'veprocessed between upgrades, what
better way to presence those andintegrate them as part of this
operating system update then forthi like external things to
actually resurface, right?
So if an old client comes backup, You might go through a
(16:35):
process of remembering andalmost like time traveling
through your memory of what wasup for you Then what version of
yourself were you then, and whatare you now?
There's like this natural,awareness of contrasting
timelines that reveals itselfwhen things resurrect from our
past.
You have that feeling of like,oh, I remember what wasn't
(16:57):
working then, and what's workingbetter now, and you are able to
see this growth trajectory thatyou're on so that you can orient
yourself.
Oh, that's where I was thenrelative to this thing that I'm
working on.
This is where I am now and thisis actually where I want to aim
forward into the future.
So knowing this in general, whenwe're retrograde heavy, and
(17:17):
especially at times like thelast couple months where there's
been, multiple retrogradestacking on top of each other,
you can be proactive byscheduling more spaciousness in
your schedule, right?
A little bit more time before orafter.
If you're manually schedulingthings or literally going into
(17:37):
your scheduling app, there's anoption when people schedule
events where you can choose howmuch time, how much cushion to
incorporate into your calendarbefore and after.
Go and turn those up duringretrogrades, especially during
Mercury, Venus and MarsRetrogrades, which I'll get into
more specifically here soon.
Basically schedule a little lessclient facing and external
(18:02):
responsibilities, commitments sothat you are freeing up more
spaciousness and more time to beable to do more behind the
scenes work.
Obviously, to create more wiggleroom for snafus, but also to
intentionally allocate time totweak things behind the scenes.
(18:22):
If you know that you're gonna berunning into issues with things
not working as well, you alsoknow that you're gonna need a
little bit of extra time toresolve things, but also to
tweak and improve things basedon what you learn, right?
Like oftentimes, especially withMercury retrograde, when we have
like a tech issue or techglitch, yeah, it's annoying in
(18:43):
the moment that it's not workingwell and we might need to step
away or restart things to get itto work better but oftentimes as
well, there's a nugget in there.
There's something where you'relike, oh, through this
experience of making it throughwhatever this glitch is, this
obstacle that got in my way.
I also realized a way that Icould be doing this better and
(19:04):
more efficiently.
So let me actually go tweak mySOPs, tweak my systems so that
things are running better basedon the information, the kind of
silver lining that I got out ofwhatever the inconvenience was.
So basically assume that you aregonna be much more aware than
usual of what's not working,what's broken, the cracks that
(19:26):
start to show and plan toleverage that to refine things
rather than planning to launchtoo many new things when during
retrograde that outward movingefficiency and success is gonna
be in lower reserves.
Is gonna be turned down.
Not the focus, not the way ofalignment but because you know
(19:49):
that these cycles happenregularly on a schedule that
when you're in those places, youare right around the corner from
the direct forward motion again,when it often literally feels
like someone's been like holdingyou back.
You've had your hands tiedbehind your back, and suddenly
there's like this release andyou like almost thrust forward
(20:11):
and fall and lean into yourforward motion because there's
just so much potential energythere that's been released and
able to move forward.
Almost like a slingshot, right?
if you are into the below thesurface awareness of your growth
game, a time that's super funand exciting because now you're
able to integrate and seeclearly how to integrate the
(20:35):
lessons that you learn duringthe retrograde.
So again, maybe with little techstuff, it's like in the moment
you're like, Ooh, yeah, actuallythat would work better.
Let me go tweak that.
But once you get to the directmotion, there's like bigger
themes of what work you weredoing internally during the
retrograde.
That kind of indirectly, lessobviously during the retrograde,
(20:57):
but then the direct, it's likeall of a sudden you get these
epiphanies, these ahas, theseinspirations based on that
internal work that you've done.
So there's a clear path forwardthat feels really exciting from
a growth perspective ofintegrating those lessons,
integrating what shifted foryou, those downloads, those
updates into something thatreally works better moving
(21:22):
forward.
These become more obvious.
They light up for us and we'reable to engage and embrace them.
And again, it almost feels likenew features, right?
Also, sometimes there's thingsthat you just had to fully step
away from during the retrogradebecause they wouldn't actually
work again till the direct.
So maybe a communication clashhas been happening during the
(21:45):
retrograde.
Often with Mercury, all of asudden Mercury goes direct.
You're able to communicate withthat person and make forward
momentum in that conversation.
Maybe a project that you werejust running into problem after
problem before you put it away,set it down, you come back to it
after we transition back intodirect motion and things just
(22:07):
magically start working and notworking, but working better than
they were working before.
So if you're paying attention,you train yourself to expect and
anticipate a huge burst ofinspiration, clarity,
productivity, and you planthings accordingly.
Now let's go into each of theseretrogrades and their unique
(22:30):
style or flavor.
First, of course, we have themost pop culture popularized
Mercury retrograde.
This one is mostly in the arenaof communication and tech tools
so the good news is you knowthat the snafus that are
happening are ultimately insupport of you being a better
communicator and having moreefficient tech workflows, maybe
(22:56):
better tech tools that youdidn't even know that will
enhance your workflow.
So better communication, bettersystems.
This is ultimately what theMercury Retrograde Update Cycle
supports you with,
so
this is helpful to know so thatyou can have a little bit more
patience in your communicationand conversations so that you
(23:18):
can have a little bit morepatience with things not working
well with your tech tools.
And honestly, if you're aware ofthis going into it, it is so
much easier not just to be morepatient at these things, but to
actually laugh at them.
Like you find yourself thinking,dude, you can't make this stuff
up.
Like, you know, thing afterthing after thing.
(23:39):
I'll give the example thatduring this Mercury retrograde,
my website went down, right?
That was a biggie, but it waspart of this series of just like
all these little things notworking and I was just in a go,
go, go mode.
And I finally took the time, wasforced to take the time right,
to get my website back up andrunning again to identify where
(24:03):
I had been neglecting it, whichhad to do with the DNS records,
the hosting.
I did a transition, but I didn'tdo it properly basically.
Anyways, I'm not gonna get intothe weeds and the details'cause
that's a boring thing torecount.
But basically there was a placethat I had been neglecting that
(24:23):
I not only had to slow down, gointo and reassess and redo
properly, such that now it'srunning better than ever.
I should have taken this time awhile ago.
Of course I didn't and Mercuryretrograde made me, but the
other thing that happened ispart of me solving this problem,
(24:43):
y'all, I was frantic and I triedto fix it myself.
I always get a little bit scaredwhen it comes to DNS stuff.
Those backend business, thosebackend website wirings.
I'm able to make changes whenI'm following clear
instructions, but I don't know ahundred percent know what's
going on.
So when things just break Idon't feel very confident to fix
(25:06):
it myself.
This was one of those times, soI reached out to somebody that
is newly in my world, anabsolute tech genius that I
respect so much and am soinspired by constantly.
There's so many little ways thathe has impacted my relationship
with technology for the betterbecause of his patience when it
(25:28):
comes to bugs and glitches andthings not working to him.
That's just par for the course.
Like just someone in my lifethat when it comes to the ways
that Mercury retrograde istrying to mature us around
having more patience aroundthese things so that we can be
more available to facilitatethis upgrade cycle instead of
(25:50):
just getting frustrated andshutting down.
This is my ultimate teacherright now around that this
person and I came to him.
He is part of a different partof my world in reality.
He has never helped me in mybusiness before, but he was the
first person that came to mindand I ended up having such an
(26:12):
incredible experience with himhelping me move through that
problem.
I find this too, when it comesto any tech support during
Mercury retrograde, we have anissue that comes up.
We reach out to somebody andthey end up providing
essentially like a healingsession, right?
At times like that, when I, likeI was wigging out and he was
(26:33):
able to calm me down, help me torealign with that Mercury
retrograde invitation to slowdown, create more space, get
curious.
Of course we're gonna fix this,breathe.
And whether it was the moreintimate exchange that I had
with him, someone closer in myorbit, or literally getting on
(26:56):
the phone with tech support andhaving someone walk you through
something, it ends up being apositive experience.
Usually.
I love my tech support peoplewith my platforms.
It's the reason I choose theplatforms that I do, and in some
ways I consider them mycolleagues as somebody, as a
solopreneur that works from homeanyway.
Besides that, often I find I endup learning something new and I
(27:22):
have this moment where I'm like,oh, thank goodness I had to
reach out to you about thisproblem because you just showed
me how to do something, how tomake something more efficient in
this other area that I didn'teven know was possible.
This happens all the time.
So also just wanna encourage youduring Mercury retrograde, if
you are not somebody thatreaches out to tech support,
(27:44):
when you have a problem, Mercuryretrograde is the best time to,
again, plan for a little bitmore spaciousness in your
schedule to be able to do thiswhen problems come up, because I
guarantee you, there is someserendipitous gem that you are
gonna get from that conversationthat is gonna make you feel
like, thank goodness this otherthing went to shit because it
(28:06):
illuminated something in thisother area that I can't believe
I didn't know before.
Okay.
I'm sure you can hear it in myvoice.
I am not just regurgitating theantidote to pop astrology that
has probably got most of youafraid of Mercury retrograde.
I genuinely love this time, andit's not to say that I don't
have my share of like hairpulling frustrations, like I
(28:29):
wanna throw my computer out thewindow.
I am not a perfect human.
I am human, but it really issuch an opportunity if you
embrace it as such.
Also you've heard not to signcontracts during this time.
Reason being, it's just easierto miss things.
You're, you just have moreclarity and faculty around the
(28:53):
nuances of communication, whichobviously a contract is like
this solidified communication,that has a lot more weight and
bearing.
If possible, let it rest, let itpause, let it coast until you
move into direct motion, takeanother look and then go ahead
(29:13):
and sign.
You might catch things youwould've missed otherwise, that
might end up being reallyimportant.
Okay switching gears into venusRetrograde, the one that we just
finished alongside the Mercuryretrograde, venus Retrogrades
happen every year and a half forabout six weeks, so don't happen
(29:33):
as often, but is twice as longof a retrograde than Mercury
when it does this one is aboutyour values and your relations
relationships, both with peopleand with money.
Weaving these things together,oftentimes it in our businesses
comes up around reassessing ouroffers.
(29:55):
So this can be reassessing whowe're supporting or meant to
support with our offers, ourideal audience or ideal clients.
This can be the price points,like the actual value that you
are slapping on a sticker of andreassessing.
Is it too high?
Is it too low?
(30:16):
Does it feel right?
In terms of that?
It can also be reassessing theactual offer structure, right?
This has been a just hugeturnaround for me.
As Venus is in currently in thisrecording, the final leg of this
retrograde.
During the retrograde, I wasjust having a lot of thoughts
(30:40):
and feelings come up around allof that, like the current offers
that I have available and itjust not feeling quite right,
questioning the price point,reevaluating like who has been
coming to me and needing thesupport and how am I providing
the value that they need?
(31:00):
And there was just like amisalignment there.
I could feel it.
And I am not gonna tell youexactly the reveal of what this
incredible turnaround has been.
But basically, and by the way, Iam a mutable, polyamorist money
mode.
And one of the things that thisturnaround has been revealing
(31:20):
for me is that part of the waywe operate as polyamorist money
modes is that often we have togo through a process of creating
multiple offerings that feel andseem very separate to us before
the time comes eventually, to beable to weave them all together
(31:41):
into a more signature offering.
So spoiler alert, that is what'shappening for me right now, and
it's more than just weavingtogether my current offerings
into the most stellar signatureoffer that I will tell you about
soon, but it goes further backthan that.
Like these are cycles withincycles within cycles, and they
(32:03):
feed on each other.
There's momentum that happens.
There's like a building and alayering, y'all.
I am having pieces come throughright now that take me back to
when I first started being aprofessional astrologer a couple
decades ago.
The things that used to feelreally inspiring to me, the
(32:24):
angle of my very first blog thatwas called Cosmic Wobble that
version of me, that timeline ofinspiration and creativity is
coming full circle and so manyin between.
Anyways, I'm just bursting rightnow.
I just spent a weekend just onone after again, like a month
(32:46):
and a half of just beingabsolutely demotivated.
And now thanks to, taking thattime, like being willing to
power down, to stop trying toforge forth with my current.
Anything in my business.
Like I even took a week off fromcreating content and I allowed
(33:06):
this reset and this reboot totake place, and now I am
experiencing the reward ofhaving been willing to do that,
which is a whole new branding ofsomething.
Oh my goodness, y'all, thegraphics, Venus is also about
the aesthetic, right?
Whole new vision for that comingthrough.
Whole new vision for the valuethat I'm able to provide my
(33:30):
clients and the people that needme, getting even more clear
about who they are and what theyneed.
My relationship with that, andalso reconsidering how am I
gonna be packaging this pricewise, all of it.
Like, yes, I'm an astrologer.
No, I don't like.
Go into this okay, I am going toreassess these things, y'all.
(33:50):
It just happens.
And when you're aware and you'repaying attention, you're even
more likely and willing tosurrender to that process and
allow it to take place.
And what is happening right nowis so the opposite of anything
that I directly tried toengineer or force.
It was absolutely surrenderingto the process that Venus
(34:11):
retrograde took me on duringthis retrograde and aligning
with this turnaround that ishappening right now that is just
absolutely reorienting me towhat's possible around my
offerings and the value that Iprovide and the people that I'm
intended to serve.
To pull out of my example of, Idon't think I've ever rode the
(34:32):
wave of a Venus retrograde soexquisitely as I am right now,
but basically every time thiscomes around, every year and a
half for six weeks, it's anopportunity to go back and
reassess your branding if youhave somebody else that creates
your visual branding for youroffers.
(34:53):
Maybe do a refresh, do a photoshoot, get some new assets to
work with.
It's also a time of reassessinghow aligned do you feel with the
gifts that you have to offer andhow you're translating that into
value that you're providingthrough your actual offers.
And when it comes to ourrelationship with the actual
(35:14):
money, it's a great opportunityto reassess your pricing.
And this could really go eitherway, right?
Maybe your pricing doesn'treflect your worth and you need
to raise your prices.
This is often the case forpeople or maybe it wants to go
the other way.
Maybe your relationship toabundance and your evolving
(35:34):
understanding of what's gonnamake that possible for you means
actually reducing your pricingso that it's more accessible and
available to more people so thatyour bottom line revenue profit
stream can actually turn up.
These are all things that are upfor review and likely vying for
(35:54):
your attention during Venusretrograde.
The other biggie that I wannaspeak to is Mars retrograde.
This one happens every two yearsfor two to two and a half
months.
So even less often, but lasteven longer than the Mercury or
the Venus retrograde.
This is a time when we areupgrading our relationship to
(36:19):
our motivation, our energy, andwhere that comes from in us.
Basically like the internalsource of our motivation and our
source energy comes up to beupgraded, rebooting, all that.
So during this time we just haveless energy, like that whole
(36:41):
system is being reworked, wemight feel depleted.
Things that previously had a lotof momentum might start to
stall.
And if you are still trying topush when things are trying to
settle a little bit and pause,it can bring up a lot of
frustration and anger, right?
With Mars.
(37:02):
The other thing that can happenin terms of things resurfacing
from the past for Marsretrograde is things that
previously caused anger in youor are up for review, for you to
reconsider your boundaries inyour business.
These things might come back upto resurface and remind us of
(37:25):
that growth curve that we're on,and that nudge that happened
once upon a time.
And during Mars retrograde, thetimeline can become ripe for you
to actually be able to movethrough that, to heal and
process a past hurt or anger, toinspire and redirect you, to
create an even more aligned andsolid boundary moving forward so
(37:48):
that not only do those thingsnot happen again, but again, you
have one of these moments whereyou're like, oh, thank goodness
that happened before.
Thank goodness that fallouthappened where I stepped away
from this person, this client,this, whatever before, because
now I have this clarity of thisboundary that I didn't even know
I needed, and I know is gonna bevery supportive to me moving
(38:10):
forward.
And whether or not you havethings like this resurface, it's
a great time to be proactiveabout auditing where your energy
comes from, what you've beenpointing your energy to.
That feels like you're gettingan energetic ROI and where
you're not, and you just feeldrained so that on the other
side, when Mars goes direct,you'll have clarity around new
(38:32):
boundaries to fortify, maybesome hardened ones to soften or
release and to reconsider whatyour priorities are and to align
accordingly.
As far as the rest of theplanets, I'm just gonna speak to
them really briefly.
Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus,Neptune, and Pluto.
(38:52):
These are all planets thatroughly follow a similar rhythm
of being retrograde for abouthalf the year and direct for
about half the year.
With Saturn, it's an opportunityto revisit the systems and the
structures in your business andhow they support your long-term
(39:15):
goals and visions for your faroff future that you're working
toward.
With Jupiter, it's anopportunity to reflect on your
growth trajectory.
So oftentimes it ends up being aback and forth of doing the
inner work to prepare yourselfto grow and expand during the
(39:35):
direct cycle.
So much of being a businessowner is that nervous system
belief work around what weactually believe is possible for
us.
So during the Jupiterretrograde, we expand the vision
of what's possible so thatduring the direct motion we can
actually tangibly grow into it.
With Uranus, we do the innerwork during retrograde to look
(39:59):
at where our resistance tochange is so that during the
direct motion we can innovateand make moves to stay relevant
and future proof.
Our business, a big one forthis, for many, has been around
their embrace of AI, whichobviously is here to stay.
So it's a ma, so it's not amatter of if you find a place
(40:22):
for it in your business, it's amatter of when and if you stay
relevant.
Spoiler alert.
A huge part of what's shiftingfor me around this Venus
retrograde and my offers and myrelationship to them, and the
value that I'm able to give isnew innovative ways that I am
implementing AI because in caseyou didn't know it about me, I
(40:45):
am absolutely obsessed.
I'm an Aquarian.
I love tech tools, and AI islike a beloved force that is now
manifest and incarnated into thecollective sphere, as far as I'm
concerned.
But that's the topic for anothertime.
Moving on to Neptune, moving onto Neptune.
(41:07):
When that planet is retrograde,it's a time to reboot our
connection to our intuition sothat when we move forward into
the direct half of the year, weare able to even more, we are
able to align more with ourspiritual gifts and purpose to
(41:29):
act on the guidance of ourintuitive channel that we
reboot, strengthen, and fortifyduring the retrograde I.
And lastly, Pluto.
During that retrograde, we oftenhave some very confronting,
intense and deep shadow work todo to ultimately liberate,
(41:50):
stored and trapped energy sothat we can be even more
powerful and impactful duringthe direct motion.
Of course with all of these, youcan go deeper and more nuanced
by looking at where these arehappening in your chart, but you
really don't need to have thebenefits from it.
Just knowing when these rhythmstake place, when these turns
(42:14):
happen from direct to retrogradewith each of these planetary
forces and what they are in yourlife and business.
Things will start to shift foryou.
Again, you don't need to getinto the weeds of mentally
seeing and knowing what thearchetypes are in the arenas
that are up for you, but justbeing willing and open to be
(42:35):
shown and led and guided becauseyou know that you're moving into
a time of more listening andthen a time of more
implementation.
You will align in a way that younever have before.
You will start to notice thesewaves that happen and you'll be
better at riding them.
You'll find yourself feelingmore like you are dancing with
(42:56):
the universe when it comes toyour growth and your growth game
will get so much stronger.
Let me know how this allresonated with you and if you
had certain examples forMercury, Venus and Mars
retrograde that popped up one ofthese, like you can't make this
up.
I love to hear your anecdotes,so feel free to reach out on
(43:18):
Instagram.
My dms laurenpoppinsraye shootme an email,
lauren@cosmicbizwitch.com.
We are all in this together, andthe more that we're able to see
and witness each other'sreflections and examples, the
more we deepen our ownunderstanding of what we are
being invited into as part ofthese retrograde upgrade cycles.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.