There are two things to know about Venus right now:
- The planet of love and beauty is making a spectacular pairing with Jupiter that is closest on Tuesday, June 9th in a degree of zodiac associated with “spiritual endowment,” and
- On Wednesday next week, June 17th, Venus will be blocked by the Moon over the entire US and most of Canada. This is called an occultation, and when it occurs, Moon and Venus will be exactly opposite the dwarf planet Pluto in the sky.
The pairing with Jupiter seems like an amplification of love, just in time for a veiling of the same when the Moon blocks Venus, which carries the added ingredient of plutonian intensity.
So many poems and stories come to mind!
First there’s the myth of Persephone, who is abducted by Hades/Pluto to be his queen in the underworld. In the ancient Greek rendering of this tale, the abduction was sanctioned by Jupiter/Zeus, Persephone’s father. It’s such a set up for the sky scene, with Vensu passing by Jupiter, but then being blocked by the Moon while opposite Pluto, as though the Moon lends a hand to free Venus from the underworld, giving her agency to stand in the world of her own right.
Then there’s St. Paul, who described being caught up to the third heaven of Paradise. The third heaven is the heaven of Venus, and it’s possible he was describing his Damascus experience in this letter that’s included in 2nd Corinthians chapter 12. Paul also described a thorn in his flesh, which some interpret to mean that he was plagued by passionate desire that needed to be transformed to a higher, greater love.
Then there’s 14th century Florentine writer Bocaccio, whose Decameron includes the much-painted tale of Cymon and Iphigenia As the story goes, Cimon’s father was wealthy, but Cimon, was his problem child. He was described in Boaccacio’s tale as being exceedingly handsome with a fine physique, but he behaved like a complete imbecile. He appeared unable to learn anything, even basic manners, so his father sent to him live with the farm-workers.
One afternoon in May, Cimon was out walking when he reached a fountain in a clearing surrounded by tall trees. Lying asleep on the grass by that fountain was a beautiful young woman, Iphigenia, wearing a flimsy dress that left little to the imagination. Sleeping by her were her attendants, two women and a man. Cimon was immediately enraptured, leaned on his stick, and stared at her. As he did so, his simple mind started to change. And rather than act in a brutish manner toward the sleeping maiden, he was transpired by her loveliness to better himself.
Each of these narratives rests on the ultimate transformation of passionate desire into a true and higher love, the kind Shakespeare writes about a few centuries later in his sonnet 116: Let me not to the marriage of true minds admit impediments. Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds, or bends with the remover to remove. Shakespeare even places this kind of unalterable, enduring love within the context of the stars as an ever-fixed mark, which looks on tempests and is never shaken, the star to every wandering bark..
Then there’s George Gordon, Lord Byron, whose little poem from his Letters and Journals published in 1830 sets an interesting backdrop for what we’ll experience in the sky this week, first with love amplified when Venus meets Jupiter, but then as though given a rest, when the Moon blocks Venus next week, standing opposite Pluto.
Byron wrote:
So, we’ll go no more a roving
So late into the night,
Though the heart be still as loving,
And the moon be still as bright.
For the sword outwears its sheath,
And the soul wears out the breast,
And the heart must pause to breathe,
And love itself have rest.
Though the night was made for loving,
And the day returns too soon,
Yet we’ll go no more a roving
By the light of the moon.
Here’s what to do to have a culturally-rich experience of the sky this week: Watch for Venus in the West all week, noting that June 9th is when the goddess of love and beauty will be closest to Jupiter, king of the gods. Recite poetry, paint, cast a wish into the environment, and pay attention to the things that are beautiful in your day-to-day.
Next week, on Tuesday evening, June 16th, note Venus’ position. The crescent Moon will be rising up, first toward Jupiter, with Venus now upper left, and just beyond their prior meeting spot. On Wednesday evening, June 17th, the Moon will be just past Venus, at the heart of the beehive cluster in Cancer. The occultation will have already occurred ~ can you tell? What has transpired? Was Venus unveiled? Did love take a rest? Did Persephone rise, and assume agency, no longer maiden daughter nor no subject of the dark lord of the underworld?
And look into world events. Where is love needed most? And consider, what can it mean for the planets of love and beauty to meet the planet aligned to the king of the gods with his thunderbolts of power? And what can it mean for this goddess, so augmented by that encounter to then be completely blocked by the Moon over the entire US?
We are in the thick of a mystery and the gods are signaling. How will we respond?
With a wish for beautiful stargazing that fills the heart!
Mary
Hear this week’s episode of The Storyteller’s Night Sky on podcast here, or wherever you listen. Cover image from Guy Ottewell’s Universal Workshop.