'This week very early on Friday, October 8 (about 2 am CDT), the planet Venus will be turning retrograde.  A retrograde planet has three distinct phases: slowing down to a crawl, the actual stop where it reverses direction called stationary retrograde, and then the entire retrograde period.  The peak of the event is always experienced at the station, right in the middle.

'Happening only every 18 months or so, Venus is going retrograde on October 8 and is turning direct again on November 19. However, the actual entire retrograde phase started with Venus going into its shadow (the shadow is when a planet goes back over degrees it's previously gone over) on September 5 and Venus will clear this shadow on December 20 when she starts her journey again on fresh ground.'

'Though the actual retrograde motion phase of Venus lasts approximately 6 weeks the entire span of the retrograde cycle is significantly longer when we account for the pre and post shadow phase also. Venus entered the shadow of pre-retrograde in early September when she crossed 27° Libra. Venus will not exit the retrograde shadow until December 21st when she once again crosses 14° Scorpio in direct motion. As of December 22nd this current Venus Retrograde phase will be complete.'

A discussion on the transit of Venus into Scorpio from 8 Nov to 1 Dec 2009 - it's possibilities with the Sun and Mercury and how the position plays out natally in a chart.

“Central Sydney was plunged into chaos due to a massive peak-hour power outage that forced the closure of major road links, blacked out traffic lights and left hundreds of buildings in darkness.

The fault hit four major cables which supply two sub-stations in the city at 4.45pm.”