Timeline of Venus:
November 4, 2010 to June 11, 2012: Overtone in Scorpio
This Venus Return is the death and rebirth of the goddess in the incarnation of Scorpio. This Overtone acts as a bowl of energy in which a person’s Venus sign is swimming. 1/5 of the population has a Scorpio Overtone, as do I. My Venus sign or archetype is that of Sagittarius that operates in the Scorpio matrix. It is akin to an explorer carrying a torch/light in search of the magical feminine mysteries and truths inside a cave, deep underwater or beyond the boundaries of the Earth. This is the last time Venus will have a Scorpio overtone for over 100 years.
June 12, 2012 to January 17, 2014: Overtone in Gemini
This Venus Return is the death and rebirth of the goddess in the incarnation of Gemini. The trickster or coyote Goddess rises from the transformation from Scorpio. Freedom of thought, communication and serving spirit as a contrarian to what is considered mainstream. This manifestation is about having mental awareness that perspective can be turned upside down in order to understand what it means right side up!
History & Process of Inanna (aka Venus):
Have you ever wondered how the ancient civilizations came up with the stories of the gods and goddesses? One example is Venus and the ancient dance in the sky with the Moon and the Sun (all from Earth’s perspective).
Thousands of years ago in a land called Mesopotamia, great cultures arose around the significance of the movement of the stars and planets. The Sumerians, Akkadians, Babylonians and some Native American tribes studied the cycles of the sun, moon, stars and planets and found regular patterns (some of which are largely ignored in today’s modern society). These cycles and patterns helped establish the foundations of their civilizations. The movements of the stars and especially the planets brought forth the stories to help keep time for a great variety of things. The lights in the sky were untouchable, bright jewels that held communities and cities in awe. Over time, the cultures assigned gods and goddesses, painting pictures to understand, forming order in an occasional chaotic world.
The planets today are named after Roman dieties, but those names had many “aka”s, showing that the Romans had simply took those dieties for their own. For example, Venus’ original name was Inanna in the land of Sumer, then Aphrodite to the ancient Greeks and finally Venus.
In this article, I focus on Venus, a little on the mythology and explain the regular cycles for those planets from an Earth observer’s perspective.
THE SYNODIC CYCLE OF VENUS:
After the Moon, Venus is the brightest object in the night sky. From a shamanic and historical perspective, this is exceedingly important. It draws the eye, especially on a moonless night without light pollution. Though subtle, at times, Venus’ brightness can even cast a shadow here on Earth.
Venus has a 584 day synodic cycle and has 5 synodic cycles every 8 years. A synodic cycle 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. 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.
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 Gugallana, lord of the underworld. In the night sky, the start of the trip can be seen as the planet Venus appearing as a ‘morning star’. Before arriving at the underworld, Inanna must pass through 7 gates (represented by monthly Moon-Venus conjunctions). With each arrival at gate, Inanna is informed she must give up something important to her. 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. After approximately 60 days in the underworld and Ninshubar’s work to sprinkle bread and water on Inanna 60 times, she is resurrected. Inanna then rises as an ‘evening star’ , and in reverse order, goes through the same 7 gates (monthly conjunctions with the Moon) to procure her power and vestments.
Moon & Venus January 29th 2011
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 created when Venus rises as a ‘morning star’ and the sign the planet is located. For example, when I was born, Venus was more than halfway through her cycle, but when she 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.
Every 8 years are important markers in a persons’ life, such as 16 and 40. These are all significant ages and can be rites of passage into the next phase of life. 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.
As we gaze up into the skies at night and see the movement of the planets, we can see a place where the Gods and Goddesses were born in the ancient days of humanity. The night sky has been with us for as long as human beings walked this Earth.
Contributing Sources:
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)