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Venus, her Cycles, Symbols and Myths was published October 2006.
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"Use your imagination not to scare yourself to death but to inspire yourself to life."—Adele Brookman
"The innate rhythm of the planetary cycles sets the natural beat of life; there is a perfect time for everything. The incredible symmetry, the simplicity and the precise, predictable timing of the Venus cycles are truly a work of art."—Anne Massey (1)
There are several stories built into this incredible cycle. Over time in five 584-day increments (eight years), Venus paints a pattern of a five-petalled rose in its travels around the Sun. The tips of those petals, from the New Venus perspective, are currently in Aries, Gemini, Leo, Scorpio and Capricorn. There are three other perspectives. The New Venus represents a new cycle. This cycle begins June 5, 2012. The image shown here is the Venus cycle plotted around the Earth from an old astronomy text book, the original rose with only five petals is an addition I made to the image.
At eight year intervals, Venus repeats her long visit to a 16-degree stretch of the Zodiac, travelling through it three times. This year as in 1996 and 2004 the Venus graces fall upon the sign of Gemini. When we recall that Venus typically graces each sign for about 24 days, and will now spend 120+ days in Gemini, we can bring its significance into focus. Simply put, when something lasts a long time, we have time to work it, contemplate it, learn to accept it, etc.
Before lapsing into additional details of the many storylines within this Venus event, let's contemplate what Venus in Gemini might desire. Venus does not only represent love and beauty. She shows us what we appreciate and how we relate with others. We tend to attract people whose values are similar to ours and who like similar things in life. Venus represents balance and harmony, she likes things nice. While she is in Gemini, she takes on the qualities important to that sign. Gemini is associated with versatility, inquisitiveness, communication, exchange of ideas, changeability, and adaptability. Gemini is also the sign of commerce, trading, bartering and primary education.
Venus in Gemini is interested in a variety of people, as long as they can chat about and are interested in a variety of things (and are interesting...). Venus travels will influence an area of life for each of us, bringing those matters into high focus.
• Repeats from: April 3-August 7, 2004 and April 3-August 6, 1996
• Will repeat: April 3-August 7, 2020; April 3-August 7, 2028 and April 3-August 7, 2036
Potential themes for the various signs are discussed in the horoscopes for each sign. Note that in order to get a good idea about how this plays out for you is to analyze your entire chart. If you have personal planets and other sensitive points under the path of Venus, this Venus in Gemini Summer will prove rather profound for you. Naturally some of our experiences will not be pleasant in the now, however Venus brings us 'what is best for us', and we simply don't know it yet.
It's been eight years since we last lived through this part of the Venus cycle, and once again it is time to re-evaluate what is of true value and significance to us personally. The imagery of the cycle is a five petalled flower like the rose and a pentacle or pentagram. Venus cycles allow us to get in touch with our intimate desires—not merely in terms of relationship—but also about what we wish to have, do and achieve in the course of our lives in order to feel fulfilled and in harmony with our soul. The repeating themes associated with the Venus in Gemini cycle began with the Venus Summer of 1996, the time lines are shown above.
Venus weaves its magic in a certain sign for a hundred years. The intense years vary from 40 years to 56, half of a long lifetime. The intent is to awaken us to our innate potential. Note that there a five independent, yet interweaving cycles—in Aries (2009, 2017, etc)*, Gemini (2012, 2020 etc), Leo (2007, 2015, etc), Scorpio (2010, 2018, etc)*, and Capricorn (2006, 2014, etc). Those marked with asterisk (*) are moving toward the preceding sign, Pisces and Libra respectively.
Venus is currently a brilliant Evening Star, visible due West after Sunset for up to three hours. You can also see Jupiter in the same direction, Jupiter is higher in the sky at that time and Venus is brighter. Venus appears first. Venus like the Moon has phases, New to Full. Venus is moving closest to Earth now reaching its greatest brilliancy on the last day of April 2012. Venus reached her greatest elongation (46°West) March 27, 2012. The New Venus is an occultation and takes place on June 5, 2012 at 18:09 PDT; the position astrologically is 15°Gemini 45'.
The biggest story about Venus this year, 2012, is that Venus will dance across the face of the Sun (June 5, 2012 18:09 PDT; In terms of GMT June 6, 2012 @ 1:09 AM); visible through a telescope when she is expected to be hidden by the Sun's bright rays. This is known as an occultation. It is similar in nature to an eclipse, those we can see readily, the Moon is big enough to occult or hide the Sun, Venus is not. What is rare is that we can see Venus . Well in reality a black spot on the surface of the Sun. These occultations happen in pairs at an interval of about a quarter of a millennium. Thus the influence is in play for a quarter of a century. Going back far enough in time or long enough into the future, the sign would be different. However we are talking about truly long periods...The occultation in 1510 occurred at 15 Gemini 27 and is now at 15 Gemini 45.
Yes, we had one just eight years ago (June 8, 2004 @ 1:43 PDT)...but prior to that we would be looking at the years 1761 (June 5) and 1769 (June 3)—also 1510 (June 7) and 1518 (June 4), and backward in increments of 243 years. 1500's were the time of the Renaissance, revivial of interest in the arts, in art —perspective was understood. Nicholas Copernicu, Tycho Brahe, Johannes Kepler and Galileo were among the pioneers who opened new dimensions of science. The 1700s brought great strides in the arts and science. The industrial revolution potentially began with the steam engine and the spinning jinny...both inventions tied to the Venus occultation period 1761-1769.
Note all times expressed in PDT unless otherwise stated. Venus is societal at this point . These years 2004-2012 mark a time in our collective experience when we question what is fair and equitable for all. Naturally there are other cycles that echo a similar message.
Since about 2004, there has been a shift in our perception of what is fair and equitable. For example, the markets have been very unstable. The stock exchange is a Mercurial enterprise that began as a bartering venue. Growing into something where paper is traded for paper...the intrinsic value of our investments is dependent on the mood of the traders, people and corporations. Since that time, it has been easy to observe how people are trading and bartering more without structures. This to me appears to be a big theme of things to come. If I can fix your car and you can paint my walls, let's trade, etc.
The movements to occupy Wall Street, to protest about welfare, the massive numbers of homeless in the industrialized world, the state of fill in the blank with any word associated with value...people are joining forces to demand something more equitable and fair. Naturally the other big planetary cycles play into the scenarios—it takes at least two to tango, and it tends to take at least three to create an out of balance setting for anything. The schism between the haves and have-nots has widened, and with the two successive Venus occultations we begin a process to right some of the wrongs.
To repeat what I wrote about the 2004 occultation: The strong repeating themes are the plight of the people and gaining rights. Better access to information, religious conflicts divided churches into two sects throughout history during these time periods. The right to believe and to understand religious concepts took on a new meaning during Venus' rare occultation ‘decades'. The occultation in 1761 lead to the creation of the AU, astronomical unit. Astronomers could define the distances and the size of our Universe.
Mirror, mirror, on the wall... mirrors reveal what is; the magnifying mirror blows things up for impact, so we may see the details. Mirrors just like people in our lives reflect back our actual or perceived image. Reality tends to be that we never truly see how we are nor how we impact the lives of others.
These are the times when we pause to contemplate what we truly value. Venus is about more than love and beauty. It is about what we appreciate and how we relate with others. We tend to attract people whose values are similar to ours and who like similar things in life. I have often liken the Venus retrograde phenomenon to a barber's mirror—the flipside that magnifies everything. Most of us can handle looking at our own image in a regular reflective surface, but when things are blown tenfold, we only see the imperfections—things that need repair. Staring at our own image in the magnifying mirror is disconcerting. Staring at our life can be equally so. Keep in mind that Venus in motion works as timer, the events of the time may have little to do with Venus concepts. Although, I would suggest that finding new investments during this period is challenging and somewhat difficult to predict. Venus retrograde is not associated with growth and fertility—quite the opposite.
These periods repeat with the precision of a metronome. About the same dates back in 2004, 1996, 1988, etc. When reflecting on the past think of the four month period (spring and first half of summer). If you happen to have planets (or the angles of your chart) in Gemini the memories are likely more vivid and future potentialities are stronger. It is the themes that repeat, not necessarily an identical event.
Let's say you have your Sun in Gemini (particularly around the active degrees: 24°, 16° or 7°), you may find that your identity and approach to life is under intense scrutiny both from within and from the outside. Are you happy with the direction your life has taken? What would you rather be doing/being?
In the table below, the first column shows the date (in GMT) of the Venus retrograde station with degrees and minutes, the second column shows the date and position of New Venus (also called the inferior conjunction), the third column shows the date and degree of Venus stationing direct. The fourth column shows the date and degree of the Full Venus, which takes place four years after the New Venus. The orange bordered section shows the years when Venus is in Gemini for 120+ days, the blue border identifies the two occultations in Gemini, which occur at intervals of about 2.5 centuries. Technical note: Venus occultations take place at the nodes of Venus; her North Node is in Gemini and South Node in Sagittarius. The North Node is associated with the future and the South with the past. The tables and information about the other pair of occultations can be found in my book Venus, her Cycles, Symbols and Myths (Llewellyn 2006) as can the tables for the other four signs in play at this time.
(1) Venus, her Cycles, Symbols, and Myths by Anne Massey, Llewellyn 2006
(2) James Ferguson's Astronomy Explained upon Sir Isaac Newton's Principles, 1799 edition, plate III
is a ISAR certified astrologer. who has maintained an astrological practise since 1988. To learn more about Anne read her bio and to learn about consultations click here.
To read Anne's daily astrology blog visit www.annemassey.ca
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Photograph: Miranda MacDonald December 2009 (Miranda's photos on Flickr)
Anne is the the founding president of the Fraser Valley Astrological Guild, an International VP for ISAR in Western Canada (International Society for Astrological Research), a member of the Finnish Astrological Association, and a member of the Canadian Association for Astrological Education and of the National Council for Geocosmic Research
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