Mythologically, Venus is goddess of love and beauty, and this week she comes to encounter with the now-dwarf-planet Pluto, named for the dread god of the underworld ~ but she doesn’t come unescorted!; she has her consort and beloved Mars in tow, known as god of action and aggression and, when provoked, as god of war.
Venus and Mars can be seen every morning this week, looking east an hour before sunrise. They’ve been meeting in the twilight glow for a few weeks now, making ready for this encounter with Pluto that comes on Thursday, March 3rd.
What does this meeting among the stars mean?
Venus meets Pluto at least once every year, calling to mind stories of the descent of the goddess, who’s taken down to the underworld, oftentimes never to return: Isthar, Isis, Persephone, Eurydice, even the Queen of Sheba, who devoted herself to wisdom and who, after being tricked and seduced by Solomon, wrote: I fell because of wisdom, but was not destroyed.
The unique thing about this week’s meeting between Venus and Pluto is that it’s their third encounter in the current cycle.
The narrative here is about the divine feminine when she has amassed the forces for complete transformation. In mythological cycles, the goddess descends, a judgement is passed, the goddess returns. But even when a goddess returns, the ancients had no stories for this ~ these “feminine ascending” stories belonged to a later humanity, to a time such as our own, when a star knowledge that is reawakened by their return can restore harmony to the world, for as Sheba wrote: While in the dark sea, I slept, and not overwhelmed there, dreamt: a star blazed in my womb. I marveled at that light, and grasped it, and brought it up to the sun. I laid hold upon it, and will not let it go.
To the dawn!
Mary
Hear this episode on my podcast, and on Interlochen Public Radio.
The gathering of celestial forces is happening over the eastern edge of the world at dawn this week, especially on Thursday when Venus and Mars meet Pluto (not shown). Image above from MSU’s Abrams Planetarium Sky Calendar.