Capricorn Goddess Reborn

Whales crested the Pacific ocean in the distance, spraying water and air just before sunset on January 5th.   On an unusually warm and clear day on the north Oregon coast, I waited for Venus to appear.  The whales carry the knowledge of their ancestors as they make their way to Mexico.   As the Sun crept lower toward the horizon line I thought of the Venus-Moon conjunction I saw over the ocean just a few days ago.  The Moon was now nearly at first quarter, already high in the sky.  About ten or so minutes after the Sun had finally set, I caught a glimpse of Venus retrograde making one of her last appearances before the planet became hidden in the glare of the Sun, rendering her invisible to my eyes and into the underworld.  It was nearing the end of Venus’584 day-cycle before it begins anew on the 17th.

Venus represents the Feminine Principle in Shamanic Astrology.  But what does that mean? How does one define feminine principle or the anima, in Jungian terminology?  Is it about the nurturing qualities or the emotional sensitivity of person?  Is feminine energy the ability to birth a new life and care for a child in order for the youth to reach their maximum potential? Is it the knowledge of the rhythms of the Earth and its life and how to cooperate with them responsibly?  A short answer would be all and much more define the anima.

In Shamanic Astrology, there are twelve basic archetypes of the feminine principle.  One of them is taking center stage on January 17^th and 583 more days as Venus becomes visible that Friday morning in the sign of Capricorn, the elder goddess and responsible administrator of the Earth’s systems, rhythms and domains.

Capricorn archetypal energy represents the deepest descent into matter and consensus reality.  It is also about the Circle of Grandmothers and the ties to ancient knowledge and ancestry.  With Venus in Capricorn and beginning a new 584-day synodic cycle, this archetype is giving all of us a chance to experience and participate in a re-envisioning of Capricorn in general but more specifically the feminine principal inhabiting Capricorn.

The Venus Synodic Cycle

One of the best ways to experience and participate in this Venus cycle is to see it first-hand or acknowledge the importance of Venus’ “Heliacal Rise” (first visible rise in the morning).  Why honor the first visible rise of Venus in the morning sky and not when the planet enters the sign of Capricorn?  That question takes us back to back to the time of the Circle of Grandmothers thousands of years ago just before the time of patriarchy and long before corporate bottom lines.

When Venus first rises in the morning sky, it is bright and brilliant, being the second-brightest object in the night sky.  Astronomically, this means that Venus just passed between the Earth and Sun.  Helical Rise of Venus was a momentous occasion of various ancient cultures.  It is best known from the Sumerian and Babylonian tablets and other inscriptions found in the area of modern-day Iraq. The knowledge of Venus’ synodic cycle is thought to have been noticed before it was written down and passed across Asia and into Indonesia and the South Pacific islands.  Additionally, pre-European cultures in the Americas, especially in the southern part of North America, like the Maya, recognized the planet Venus and its cycles.  Many mythological stories originated from this Venus cycle and the encounters the planet has on the way to completing, then beginning anew, another 584 days.

These ancient cultures knew this planet had an impact on human life and in some ways, helped us track the passage of time.  And the time that passes in this cycle plays an enormous role in our growth.  That role is directly tied to a near-original myth concerning Venus’ precursor, the Sumerian (older versions of this goddess certainly existed, but this is the first story written about it that has been found) Goddess of Heaven and Earth, Inanna.

The Story of Inanna       

In Sumer, the sudden appearance of Venus (or Inanna back then) must have been a wonder.  The astronomers, at that time, followed Inanna’s cycle and found they could track it with ease, an almost perfect pattern.  They saw Inanna had routine meetings with Moon, Mercury and Mars as well as the time spent in the underworld (vanishing from sight due to the glare of the Sun). The story created was displayed in the night sky for all to see.  The goddess Inanna’s descent and subsequent rise from the underworld is the story we are seeing, whenever Venus appears.

To sum up the story, Inanna, the Queen, starts a trip to the underworld to see her sister, Erishkegal and attend the funeral of her sister Erishkigal’s husband, Gugallana, the Bull of Heaven.

Erishkegal is the ruler of the underworld.   In global terms, the death of Gugallana was also the tale of the death of the so-called “Tauran Age”, when the constellation of the Bull no longer represented spring Equinox.  It was the beginning of the Age of the Ram (or Aries constellation).  This was also symbolic of the end of the Matriarchy and the transition into Patriarchy.

As Inanna prepares for the descent into the underworld, she dresses in full regalia as the goddess she is.  Inanna also tells Ninshubar (aka Mercury) to get help if she doesn’t come back soon.  Inanna then makes her way down.  In the night sky, the start of the trip can be seen as the planet Venus appearing as a ‘morning star’, bright and beautiful.  Inanna then encounters a gate and is told by the gatekeeper (with instructions from Inanna’s sister, Erishkegal) that she must give up an item of her power at the gate.  Before arriving at the underworld, Inanna must pass through 7 gates.  In the early morning sky, this is represented by monthly meetings between the waning crescent Moon and Venus.

“If you are truly Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth, why has your heart led you on the road from which no traveler returns?”

–          Gatekeeper speaking to Inanna as she makes her way to the Underworld

With each arrival at a gate, Inanna is informed she must give up something of her power.  When Inanna questions the gatekeeper, he replies, “Quiet, Inanna, the ways of the underworld are perfect.  They may not be questioned.”

She does this seven times.  In the Sumerian tale, she first removes her crown, then her royal staff, necklace, lapis beads, breast plate, double strand of beads, lapis measuring rod and finally her royal robe.  When Inanna finally reaches the underworld, she has been stripped of everything, including her power.  It is then, her life is forfeit and those in the underworld killed and skewered her on a spit.  At this point in the night sky, the planet Venus disappears from sight due to being too close to the Sun (from the vantage point of us being on Earth) between 60-75 days depending on the person’s horizon line.

Venus in Underworld (disappears from sight) September 16, 2014 through December 4, 2014

During the approximately 60-75 days in the underworld, Ninshubar seeks help and through the help on another god manages to assist Inanna back to life and back up from the underworld.   Weakened from her experience, she rises as an ‘evening star’ but not as bright as the planet is now near it’s farthest point from Earth. Slowly as the weeks and months pass, Venus gets brighter (Inanna strengthens) and in reverse order, goes through the same 7 gates (monthly conjunctions with the waxing crescent Moon) to procure her power and vestments.  In its essence, Venus or Inanna is reborn!

This is the background and story of the myth of Inanna.  This is also a complete synodic cycle, which synodic is when a planet or other celestial body comes back to the same place in the sky.  In Venus’ case, it happens the first time she appears as a ‘morning star’, just before sunrise.

The Venus Synodic Cycle in Shamanic Astrology

In a modern sense, Shamanic Astrology applies this for a woman (and a man, but with a different focus) as stages of growth in womanhood.  Every 8 years, Venus returns back to the same place near a person’s birthday, rising again as a morning star (off by a little over 2 days).  Depending when a person was born in a Venus synodic cycle, will create an ‘overtone’ for the person.  The overtone is sign in which Venus rises as a morning starcreated when Venus rises.  For example, when I was born, Venus was more than halfway through her cycle.  But when Venus began her cycle, Venus was in the sign/archetype of Scorpio.  That creates a Scorpio overtone for me.   In 1 Venus synodic cycle, the Moon meets of conjuncts Venus 7 times in the morning sky and 7 times in the evening sky.  The Moon-Venus conjunctions correlate with the chakras in person’s body and these Venus cycles produce personal evolution of the feminine principal or anima within all of us.  So we all have not only a Venus sign but also an Overtone that defines who we are even more.

The elegant and magical nature of Venus can also be shown every eight years in a persons’ life, such as 16, 24, 32, 40, 48, 56, etc.  Any given individual will have a re-creation of the exact Venus-Sun angle on their birthday every eight years, beginning with age 8 (there are very rare exceptions if a person was born with Venus in Retrograde).  These are birthdays to truly honor one’s self and their personal evolutionary process.  The whole synodic cycle and those birthdays at 8, 16, 24, 32, 40 and so on are initiations and rites of passage into the next stage.  Every 8 years a person has their Venus Return and the Venus-Moon conjunctions can truly be looked at as a person removing our own vestments of what is holding us back (for a woman, for a man it is more of the projection onto the feminine figure) and then to rise once again to re-gain our vestments, but in a more progressive and wholesome light.

Lastly

The feminine principle or anima is much more than being sensitive or nurturing or understanding of the rhythms of the Earth.  There is much more there then what is in western culture or popular thought-process.  This Capricorn cycle comes on the heels of the Venus in Gemini overtone that began on June 12, 2012 and ends the day Venus rises as a morning star.  Our goddess is shape-shifting into the matriarch, herself.  She is going from being coyote-woman and the playful minstrel to a responsible administrator of our planet and of the rules that go along with it.   Take a moment to find out your Venus sign and Venus overtone.  There is more there than we think.  The signs/archetypes are slowly evolving themselves and we are on the front lines of this evolution.

The whales carry the knowledge of their ancestors, as we do in our own way.  That knowledge is ancient and is rising once again to help us re-envision and build the communities that are healthy and happy.  The knowledge is not only for us but for the next seven generations.  This is Capricorn, teaching us the ways to do that.   As we gaze up into the skies at night and see the movement of the planets, we can see a place where the Gods (masculine principles) and Goddesses (feminine principles) were born in the ancient days of humanity.  The Circle of Grandmothers are guiding us through the stories above in the night sky, because they are also below within our psyche, spirit and bodies.

Contact Erik M Roth for more information and to know more about your own personal Venus evolution

Contributing Sources:

Inanna: Queen of Heaven and Earth by Diane Wolkstein & Samuel Noah Kramer

Wikipedia

The American Ephemeris of the 20th Century by Neil F Michelson

A Shamanic Investigation of Venus and Mars by Daniel Giamario

Shamanic Astrology Handbook by Daniel Giamario and Cayelin Castell

Star Trek to Hawaii by Clyde Hostetter (no relation to “Star Trek” created by Gene Roddenberry)