Greetings to you on this May Day, which the ancient Romans celebrated in honor of Flora, the goddess of flowers.
During this season when the blaze of wildflowers covers the earth in dazzling arrays of color, Jupiter has been culminating over my Midheaven. I’ve had the great good fortune to travel to many places teaching astrology and will share some of the highlights from these visits.
But first, a few words about the upcoming Venus ‘transit’ or occultation which occurs on June 5 as Venus can been seen moving across the face of the Sun along its outer rim. This is a rare celestial event, which takes place only about once each century and comes in pairs that are 8 years apart. The astronomy is similar to that of an eclipse of the Moon.
The orbital plane of Venus is tilted at a slight angle to that of the ecliptic – the Sun’s apparent path as seen from earth. The two points at which these planes intersect are designated as the nodes of Venus – the point at which the path of Venus orbit crosses the ecliptic from south to north motion is the North Node at 16 Gemini and where it crosses as it travels from north to south is the South Node at 16 Sagittarius. The degrees of these heliocentric nodes remain almost constant over millennia. When there is a conjunction of Venus and Sun and it occurs on the degree of one of these nodes as it will on June 5 when the Sun, Venus, Venus North Node are all at 16 Gemini, we have an occultation or eclipse of the Sun by Venus as she is seen to pass over him.
As in all eclipse-like phenomena, the portions of the solar light radiating to earth will be temporarily occulted or obscured by Venus, and she instead takes into herself the solar effluence through a most intimate encounter with Helios. Thus Venus will be infused with and greatly energized by the solar radiance. In addition, and coincidentally, a Full Moon lunar eclipse at 14 Sagittarius, opposite the Venus eclipse at 16 Gemini, occurs the day before. And Mars stands at the bendings (square points) of this nodal axis at 16 Virgo.
What might this mean in individual charts? The Sun is the star of our solar system and its light can be said to represent the over-soul that holds and integrates all the planetary energies orbiting it. The heliocentric nodes of each planet are the points at which each individual planet’s energy interfaces with the collective. For anyone who has planets on or sensitive points at 16 Mutable (Gemini, Sagittarius, Virgo, Pisces), this is a time when not only will you be charged and energized with the radiant glow of solar venusian energy (recalling one of Aphrodite’s epithets as ‘golden’), but also your experiences will have some sort of significance or impact upon the larger social collective of which you are a part.
Venus and the Moon in eclipse with the Sun –Goddess, Queen, Mother, Lover – watch the display of the Divine Feminine in her veiled dance with her Solar God and become inspired by the vision.
Travel Journal
While on the faculty of the Federation of Australian Astrologers Conference held in Melbourne in January, I was filled with gratitude to be able to deepen my many friendships developed over the last seven visits since 1990. We were all spellbound with conversations with Dr. David Juste, Belgian scholar working in Sydney, who is cataloguing all the thousands of Latin astrological manuscripts. Brian Clark closed this year’s conference Weaving the Fabric of Time as Melanie Reinhart, Verena Bachman, and I, as the Three Fates (pictured at right), spun the threads that bind us together.
In February, I met with my students in Portland Oregon, for a series of ongoing seminars on Traditional Astrology sponsored by Tony Howard. We focused upon interpreting the topic of relationships, and learned how to access the relative eminence of the chart as well as some ancient timing techniques.
Early March brought me to the South Florida Astrological Association in Fort Lauderdale where I presented my most recent material on hermetic medical astrology, including further research on the Egyptian decans. The end of March was amazing in Austin at the South Texas Astrology Retreat held in a beautiful natural rustic setting amidst flowering of bluebonnets and Indian paintpots. Each year STARS, under the direction of Melanie Schlossberg, John Cole, and Maria Mateus, hosts an in-depth presentation on some aspect of traditional astrology. I took the group through the intricate process of understanding under just which particular conditions the malefics suggest their most positive and their most destructive indications. NORWAC, the Nalbandian family’s annual astrological conference reunion was held in April this year, and we started off with a two-day pre-conference intensive for beginners and intermediate students on Traditional Astrology the indicators for success in the charts of Obama and Romney.
This season ends in May with UAC to be held in New Orleans. Right now I am completing my translation of the 1st century text On the Virtues of Herbs, the earliest astrological botanical on the medicinal plants associated with each zodiacal sign and planet which I’ll present on May 28th. But my joy at each UAC has been participating in the Michael Lutin productions. This year, the Saturday evening musical extravaganza is OMG the Mayans Were Right, and the goddesses are incarnating as the Real Housewives from some mysterious galactic wormhole yet to be revealed. And do we have stories to tell!
During the second part of 2012 my plans are to stay close to home, complete Traditional Astrology For Yourself, and continue to research and refine my translations from ancient Greek of the hermetic medical astrological texts. We’ll be making the recordings of some of this year’s lectures available for purchase on the website. We’ll also let you know about the dates for the next seminar in Portland, probably in August, in a future communication.
Venus Consultations
If you are interested in learning more about the Venus transit occultation in your chart, through a personal consultation or private lessons or coaching, contact me by email. I’ll soon be more available on a steady basis than in recent months.
New Audio & Video Release
Why has the constellation of Ophiuchus the Serpent-Bearer as the 13th sign recently emerged into the collective consciousness through the media hype? Ancient astronomers associated this image with the Greek and Egyptian gods of healing who knew the mysteries of rebirth. Ophiuchus has his foot poised above the heart and center of our galaxy, alerting us to the timing of a celestial alignment that occurs only once every 26,000 years. Explore the profound connection between celestial gods, myth, cosmos, and psyche. Now available in mp3 audio and video download formats. Preview the video