(image of Venus by Damia Bouic)
The biggest news this month is the Great Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn that comes at Winter Solstice, but we shouldn’t overlook next week’s Total Solar Eclipse, even though it won’t be visible to us in North America. The mystery of this eclipse at this time is still important in the unfolding narrative of 2020, which is now in its final chapter.
So Jupiter is moving closer to Saturn each night, looking southwest about an hour after sunset ~ and you don’t want to miss them, but let’s turn our gaze east for a moment, and talk about the Moon. This week it’s at its waning gibbous phase, rising after midnight and slowly dropping toward the dawn.
On its way there, the Moon is going to pass by the tail of the lion, the star of abundance in the arms of Virgo, and then on to Venus on Saturday, December 12, when, as a thin thin crescent sliver of itself, the Moon appears only four degrees apart from the goddess of love and beauty. It’s as though the Moon is gathering up the secrets of the goddess for what happens a few days later at eclipse (on December 14), because as soon as the Moon comes to new phase and eclipses the Sun, Venus, which is normally clothed with the Sun in the daytime sky, will be unveiled in broad daylight.
Venus is regarded in most traditions as a “secret retreat of the light,” as the divine feminine that has as her interest what lives in the heart of the human being. When the Sun is eclipsed and Venus is unveiled, then these secrets are revealed ~ it’s as though Venus is a witness who is now asked to bear testimony. But because this happens during a solar eclipse, anything that doesn’t serve a greater good can be released.
So pay attention to your heart this week, and to your dreams and to all your secret wishes and longings, and take to heart these words of Rumi: This is a subtle truth: that which you love, you are.
Note that this is a South Node Solar Eclipse, following the North Node Lunar Eclipse two weeks ago. In astrology-speak this means the Moon is a “passive factor,” and is more receptive to the solar forces, allowing what has been building up in the way of emotional, ego-centric baggage, to be released.
Check out the audio of this segment on Interlochen Public Radio and at the Storyteller’s Night Sky podcast.
All the best!
Mary