Venus

Information about the size, mass, orbit, structure and composition of the planet Venus can be found here and here.

The Mountain Astrologer magazine recently shared an informative article, The Eight Year cycle of Venus and the Global Economy, by Arielle Guttman.

Morning Star ~ Evening Star

©Sandra Mosley, 1996–2015

Venus’ high visibility has made her the most closely observed planet throughout human history. Her synodic cycle of 584 days has two distinct phases of approximately 263 days, each of which is separated by intervals when she is totally obscured from sight.

The shortest period of darkness marks the beginning of the cycle, occurring when Venus is closest to Earth and making an interior conjunction to the Sun. After only 7-9 days of invisibility, she reappears dramatically, rising before the Sun in the east. The Greeks referred to her as Lucifer (“the light bearer”) during this morning star phase. She reaches maximum brilliance about 3 weeks after her first appearance, then she slowly decreases in light before disappearing a second time at the exterior conjunction.

The exterior conjunction occurs when Venus is at her greatest distance from Earth and passes behind the Sun. During this interval, she is out of sight for almost 60 days. She reappears from this much longer period of darkness as an evening star in the west, called Hesperus (“setting in the west”) by the Greeks. There she sets a little later each night while increasing in brilliance, until about a month before her next interior conjunction with the Sun.

Dane Rudhyar, the great astrologer, and philosopher wrote that people born with Venus as a morning star (before the Sun in the zodiac) are socially impulsive; they rush into life and love, acting before thinking. People born with Venus as an evening star (after the Sun in the zodiac) tend to reflect before acting and they are more able to identify with society’s rules.

In mythology, the goddess Venus was called Aphrodite, “the golden”; the classical poets imagined her appearing to her lovers bathed in golden light. She was the bringer of all delights, all sensual joys. Grass and flowers sprung up at her feet. Known as the goddess of love and beauty, her jealous and vengeful instincts are most often overlooked in favor of her more attractive pleasure-giving nature. Although she was married, her long adulterous affair with Mars was much more publicized. She was unfaithful and possessive, with a reputation for taking jealous retribution on those whose beauty rivaled hers.

Astrologically, Venus is associated with women, love and money. Venus in the natal chart describes what one is attracted to and what one attracts. She is the indicator of that which is valued: beauty, art, and pleasure. She is acquisitive, magnetic and receptive. Appreciation is a Venusian word, whether it’s used sentimentally in terms of a personal relationship, or financially in terms of increasing value. Transiting aspects from Venus to planets in the natal chart are usually experienced as pleasant and harmonious.

Venus’s 40-day retrograde period begins while she is visible high is the sky as an evening star and ends about two weeks after she becomes visible in her morning phase. Retrograde, the Venusian energy turns inward; affection is generally more difficult to receive or express and financial returns are apt to be delayed. Beginning a new relationship, buying luxury items and investing in objects of art or items of beauty is discouraged during the retrograde period. However, it is a good time to reflect on your values, review your relationships and donate your energy to a charitable cause. Old friends and/or lovers often reenter your life at this time.

Babylonian and Mesoamerican astrologers paid close attention to Venus, particularly to her first appearance as a morning star, which was considered a dangerous time. The Babylonians called Venus the double-phased Ishtar — the morning star of war and the evening star of love. The Mesoamericans linked the morning phase of Venus with Quetzalcoatl, one of their major gods, believing that this was a time when leaders are struck down and natural disasters occur.

Bruce Scofield, astrologer, and researcher has observed certain types of events occurring around the time of the interior conjunction and Venus rising as a morning star. He states that typical news items are of airplane crashes and the discrediting, resignation or loss of power of public figures. He warns that individuals who are “ruled” by Venus may suffer upsets of an emotional or biological nature at these times.

Previous events around the time of the interior conjunction of the Sun and Venus:

• August 15, 2015 – Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, aged 90, announces that recent liver surgery revealed that he is suffering from an as-yet unspecified form of cancer which has spread to other parts of his body on August 12; August 16, crowds gather throughout Brazil to demand the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff due to a bribery and corruption scandal involving senior members of the governing Workers’ Party; Trigana Air Service Flight 257 crashed killing all 49 passengers and five crew members on August 16.
• January 11, 2014 – January 7, four killed in US Air Force HH-60 Pave Hawk crash in England’s Norfolk coast; January 8, two crew members are killed and another is missing after a U.S. Navy MH-53E Sea Dragon helicopter makes an emergency water landing off the Virginia coast, east of Virginia Beach; January 9, 105 New Jersey Governor, Chris Christie, apologizes for his senior aides intentionally causing a traffic jam on the George Washington Bridge for political retribution in September 2013.
• June 5, 2012 – A plane carrying 153 people on board crashes in a residential neighborhood in Lagos, Nigeria, killing everyone on board and 10 people on the ground on June 3; on June 5, voters in the U.S. state of Wisconsin go to the polls for the gubernatorial and Wisconsin Senate recall election with incumbent governor Scott Walker retaining his office, and the Democrats control of the state Senate; Kwame R. Brown, the Chair of the Council of the District of Columbia responsible for the US capital Washington D.C., resigns after being charged with bank fraud on June 6; a helicopter with foreign nationals on board goes missing in an Amazon region of southern Peru and a small Pilatus PC-12/47 aircraft crashes in a remote rural area of Florida in the Tiger Creek Swamp area near Lake Wales, Florida on June 7.
• October 28, 2010 – British drug manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline agrees to settle criminal and civil complaints against the company for $750 million on October 28, 2010; Dilma Rousseff won Brazil’s presidential runoff on Sunday, making her the first female president of South America’s largest and most populous country; on November 4 the Republican Party gains control of the House of Representatives in the midterm elections, but the Democratic party retains the majority in the Senate.
• August 27, 2009 – the death of Senator Ted Kennedy on August 26 was the dominating news story for the week.
• August 8, 2007 – first reports started coming in regarding a potential financial crisis; China temporarily bans exports from two toy manufacturers whose products were banned or recalled in the United States and other countries on August 8; on August 13 Zhang Shuhong, the head of a Chinese toy company at the center of a worldwide toy recall committed suicide and Karl Rove, Deputy White House Chief of Staff and George W. Bush’s leading political adviser, tells the Wall Street Journal that he intends to resign at the end of August; NBA referee Tim Donaghy admitted that since December 2006, he had been paid by gambling associates for correctly predicting which team would win a particular game. He also passed along such insider tips as which players were injured. NBA commissioner David Stern called the Donaghy affair “the worst situation” he had experienced in 40 years with the league and pleaded guilty on Federal charges related to the affair.
• January 13, 2006 – among the notable news stories: lobbyist and businessman Jack Abramoff pled guilty on January 3 to three criminal felony counts related to the defrauding of American Indian tribes and corruption of public officials; US Representative Robert Ney (R-Ohio) resigned his position as chairman of the House Administration Committee (which has jurisdiction over lobbying reform) on January 15 after being implicated in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal; Rizgar Mohammed Amin, the chief judge in the Saddam Hussein trial, resigned on January 16 following criticism of his handling of the trial; Michelle Bachelet is elected the first female President of Chile on January 15 and on the 16th, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf was sworn in as Liberia’s new president, becoming Africa’s first female elected head of state.
• June 8, 2004 – the death of President Ronald Reagan on June 5 was the dominating news story for the week; the National Electoral Council of Venezuela announced a recall referendum to remove President Hugo Chavez (who won the recall vote); CIA Director George Tenet resigned on June 3 and Deputy Director for field operations James Pavitt resigned on June 4; Enron was in the news again when CBS News obtained and broadcast audio tapes of Enron traders gloating over the way they manipulated energy shortages to maximize profits.
• October 31, 2002 – Enron CFO Andrew Fastow was indicted on fraud charges, SEC chairman Harvey Pitt resigned, Representative Richard Gephardt announced that he would not seek reelection as House minority leader and the Republican takeover of the Senate in the November 5 elections were among the week’s top news stories.
• March 29, 2001 – the arrest of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic made major headlines, along with news of the emergency landing of a US spy plane in China after the plane’s wings were clipped by a Chinese fighter jet.
• August 20, 1999 – news stories around this time include Mexican pop star Gloria Trevi’s career-crashing sex scandal involving minors, the FBI reverses position on actions in Waco siege, Serbians rally to demand the resignation of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, questions regarding then presidential nominee George W. Bush’s cocaine use publicized.
• January 16, 1998 – the beginning of the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal.

Previous Sun/Venus Cycles
*The dates of visual appearances and disappearances from the sky are approximate because the dates vary slightly according to location.