Back in March of 2007 I had the pleasure of attending and speaking at the first Blast Astrology Conference in Sedona, Arizona.  The conference was organized single-handedly by Moses Siregar, and it was a smashing success, bringing together a broad array of both up-and-coming and well-established astrologers as speakers.

From my point of view the standout lecture of the conference was Nick Dagan Best’s presentation on Venus and Mars retrograde cycles, appropriately titled Back That Thing Up.  Kelly Lee Phipps recorded the lecture and posted it on YouTube a while back, and you can watch it in its entirety below.

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The basic thesis underlying Nick’s lecture was that Venus or Mars retrograde periods, including the shadow periods leading up to and following the actual retrogrades (see the intro to this article for info on shadow periods), link together pivotal events in the lives of certain individuals.  These periods correspond to the synodic cycles of those two planets, which is 8 years for Venus, and 15 years for Mars.

Basically what this means is that there are certain people who have major events occur in their lives at regular intervals every 8 or 15 years, whenever Venus or Mars reach the same retrograde cycle in the same area of the zodiac.  So, if you have a major lifechanging event occur in your life during a Venus or Mars retrograde, then there is a pretty good chance that the next retrograde of that planet 8 or 15 years later will similarly coincide with a pivotal event.

As it turns out, this is a pretty easy phenomenon to follow, since, for example, Venus will turn retrograde in almost the exact same spot in the zodiac every 8 years, creating a giant pentagram in the process (see diagram to the right).

Nick describes the whole process in the lecture with a couple hundred example charts, so I won’t belabor the point here, but suffice it to say, it can be a very useful approach to studying transits, which yields greater insight into the nature and purpose of retrograde cycles.

Nick has his own particular approach to astrology, and recently he  has been doing some great work with this technique and others over on the Celebrity Astrology Blog.   If you like the above video then I would suggest checking out his other work, as well as his website at www.exotericastrology.com.

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Related posts:

1. Nick Dagan Best On Astrology
2. The Astrology of Paris Hilton’s Return to Jail, Mercury Retrograde Strikes Again
3. Hard Venus-Pluto Aspects in Relationships
4. Ann Coulter’s Mars Gets Her Into Trouble Again
5. Rob Hand and Nick Campion – Kepler College Graduation Speeches

Tags: astrologers, Astrology Conferences, Mars, Nick Dagan Best, retrograde, Venus, Venus retrograde, video clips

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