About Michael Erlewine
Inner and Outer
If you try looking at retrogrades this way, you will quickly
find it a helpful technique for understanding where, in
the scheme of things, a particular planet is. And, when
using this view, the fact of whether a planet is direct or
retrograde, while important, may not be AS important as
determining whether it is running ahead of or behind its
helio position. Is it in the future or in the past, and, how
close to either? Are we going over a piece of ground
(the zodiac) for the first, the second or the third time?
These are questions worth considering.
Perhaps, at times, the external world of appearances or
circumstances (geo) runs ahead of or before the real
essence (helio) of the planet. At other times, events may
trail behind the essence, or inner activity, bringing up
the rear. Perhaps at some points of a year we are more
far-seeing or future-oriented (geo position ranging
ahead of the helio), while at other points we are more