Under pressure

For those of you who haven't heard me pontificate about yods at great length, buckle up: yods are a fascinating aspect pattern. They are formed when two planets are 60° apart and a third planet comes along on the opposite side of the solar system and hits the 30° midpoint on the other side, meaning that planet #3 is 150° away from planets 1 and 2. 150° is called an inconjunct (or a “quincunx”—same thing), and it's an aspect of imbalance, so TWO inconjuncts is an extreme AND dueling imbalance. Here's what a yod looks like. There's a tremendous amount of pressure on the planet at the point of the yod.

Yods in birth charts are rare. You have to be really stingy with your orbs (or the amount of space you'll allow between exact aspects) to have an exact yod. Transit-wise, you feel inconjuncts when they're really close to the exact aspect degree, in my experience, and you don't feel them so much when they're not, so I'm not gonna play around with sextiles that are 64° apart and inconjuncts that are 147° and 153°. It'd better be REALLY close to 60° and 150°. When you find yods in birth charts, the planet at the point has extreme emphasis throughout the person's life. Ye Olde Astrology refers to a yod as a "finger of God," called that because it's like God himself is pointing at that stressed out planet and saying "you *WILL* change the way you carry this particular energy in this lifetime." In modern times, you can just start singing Queen's "Under Pressure" to yourself when you see a yod. Personally, my reaction is usually "oh shit!" (If you have sextile aspects in your birth chart, guess what? Transiting planets can form temporary yods in your chart! They can and do. Sometimes you don't notice, and sometimes it's intense as hell. It depends on the planets in question and is another story for another day.)

But hey, guess what else? There's a yod in the sky *now,* (Mars is temporarily the apex planet) which is a preview for the second half of this month in which Venus will be at the point of a yod (between Neptune and Pluto) for TWO WEEKS beginning around July 15. This is a ridiculous amount of time for there to be a yod in the sky. This isn't normal. Venus is stationing (appearing to stop in the sky) to go retrograde. Expect some weird shit on the love and money front. Venus retrograde by itself means people are crabby, but Venus retrograde at the apex of a yod? Pray you're not at the center of it, and if you're not, and grab some popcorn.

Venus retrograde by itself (not in a yod) might mean:

• bad love life decisions

• hearing from exes

• spending too much money on stuff you don't need

• making other dumb financial decisions

• finding it difficult to be nice to people you don't like very much

• getting a terrible haircut

Venus retrograde in a yod involving Pluto and Neptune might mean:

• having no choice but to reach out to an ex 😱

• spending a bunch of money, but it's not optional

• discovering someone else spent a lot of your money 😱 x2

• ultimatums about dumb financial decisions

• losing or gaining a lot of possessions all at once (use your imagination but it'd probably be another 😱)

• finding it impossible to be nice to people you don't like

• suddenly living the plot of Romeo and Juliet

Actually, this is the sky under which you would not want to issue ANY ultimatums, because the recipient might choose the other option, even if the ultimatum is "it's either me or the ferret." "It's either me or the beanie baby collection." "It's either me or the Ford Fiesta." Do you want to lose to a pile of dusty Yanni CDs? Or an ancient, asthmatic cat? That'd be bad for the ol' self-esteem.

Knowing astrology is helpful, as much as it often sounds foreboding (thank you for not shooting the messenger) because you're aware of energy you might see, hear about, or experience firsthand. I'm telling you right now, the yod-to-Venus sky is "fuck around and find out" energy. Do not write checks you're not prepared to have cashed, literally or metaphorically. Actually, try not to write checks in a general sense, as the postal service is having trouble keeping those secure.