As
many of you will know, there's a solar eclipse on 23rd October at the
very beginning of Scorpio – 00o 24'. However, there are
a couple of other events around the same time involving Venus. The
first takes place about an hour before the eclipse, when the Moon
meets Venus while hurrying towards the Sun. Moon and Venus make an
exact conjunction on 00o Scorpio 01' – just creeping
into Scorpio. The only two feminine planets in the intensely dark and
magical sign of Scorpio suggest a tapping into the life force that
lies hidden in the depths. Indeed, the three brightest objects in the
sky are so close that effectively they're all conjunct at the solar
eclipse.
(Click to enlarge) |
Two
days later, on 25th October, there'll be a Sun-Venus superior conjunction at
01o Scorpio 48' (on the Ascendant in Exeter). When this
conjunction takes place Venus is far away from us, on the other side
of the Sun. The last time this pair was conjunct was in January. On
that occasion Venus was at her closest to Earth, between us and the
Sun, and she was retrograde. It was a particularly powerful
conjunction, most noted for the fact that little more than an hour
beforehand, Israeli politician Ariel Sharon died. He had been in a
coma for almost exactly eight years, which was the last time that
Sun-Venus had met in Capricorn at inferior conjunction, with Venus
retrograde. On that occasion she re-emerged from the Sun's rays a few
days later as the Morning Star. This time it'll be several weeks
before she reappears and it will be as Evening Star.
I
don't think many astrologers differentiate between the two types of
Venus but they really are very different. A Morning Star Venus is
young, brash, impatient, more of a warrior than a lover – and when
she does appear as a lover, well let's say she has an edge to her.
The Irish Morrigan or Battle Crow is a more apt description of a
Morning Star Venus than the Roman Venus. Goddess of Love, War and
Death, the Morrigan finished off at least one Irish hero who spurned
her advances after a hard day on the battle field. An Evening Star
Venus is closer to the modern astrological Venus – sensuous,
sultry, enticing and generally more mature.
The
transition from warrior Venus to sultry Venus occurs during her long
period of invisibility – roughly 14 weeks – when she is furthest
from the Earth, as if she needs to be free of our influence in order
to change, or grow up. I am reminded of the numerous folk songs about
two sisters – one dark, one fair or one sweet-natured and one
cruel. In many ways, Venus is our sister, or even our twin – the
two planets are the same size, are close neighbours in the solar
system and they engage in a beautiful cosmic dance to a 5:8 rhythm (5
synodic cycles of Venus = 8 Earth years). When she's on the other
side of the Sun she can merge with the cosmos rather than with us,
and in doing so she transforms herself into the magnificent Goddess
of Love. She is then reborn as an Evening Star, the one you're most
likely to see with any regularity unless you're an early riser, as
you have to get up pretty early to catch Venus as Morning Star.
When
Venus disappears from our skies and undergoes her long period of
invisibility, it's a chance for us to go deep within ourselves and
receive inspiration from a hidden source. And while Venus is
undergoing an alchemical process of transmutation on the other side
of the Sun, we too may undergo a similar process. I feel that Evening
Star Venus is particularly well placed for this in the sign Scorpio,
where her magnetic nature can draw individuals into the depths to
explore the mysteries of life and death (although there is always the
danger of it manifesting in a darker form through the murky world of
pornography and the 'dark net'). At the conjunction on the 25th, the
trine from Sun-Venus to Neptune in Pisces can only enhance the lure
of these mysteries, and the sextile to Mars adds a bit of spice to
the mix.
(Click to enlarge) |
There's
one other thing that makes this conjunction of Sun-Venus special,
namely that it's the last time the Evening Star conjunction will
occur in Scorpio for 250 years. The next conjunction, in 2022, will
take place on the final degree of Libra, because Sun-Venus
conjunctions move backwards through the zodiac. There will, however,
be two more Scorpio Morning Star conjunctions, with Venus retrograde,
in 2018 and 2026 before they too move into Libra in 2034.
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