Lunar Eclipse and Venus conjunct the Sun

I want to talk about the Lunar Eclipse of Friday, June 5, 2020 along with the importance of the Venus retrograde in Gemini and the transit of Mars.  These three astrological transits are coloring the immediate period and setting the stage for a great deal of change. 

Lunar Eclipses bring to light, in eruptive ways, destined events rooted in the past that now need to be confronted.  They heighten emotions and bring an unstable and chaotic energy to the foreground in order to catch our attention because the matter that is climaxing must be addressed.   It’s time has arrived and there has to be at least an attempt at resolution.   It’s asking to fuse and unite tension between two different zodiacal signs.  On a lunar eclipse there is too much light and information, and that adds an extra layer of freneticism.   Anything that has been simmering, percolating or festering now boils up to the surface and overflows.  Lunar Eclipses are heightened and more fated versions of full moons and rational behavior doesn’t abound.  This eclipse is at 15° 34’ Sagittarius.  The very important inferior conjunction of retrograde Venus with the Sun at 13°35’ Gemini occurred within two days of the eclipse.  Planets within a 2°-3° orb of conjunction, opposition or square with an eclipse will color what the eclipse is about.  With that in mind Mars and Neptune also play important roles in the interpretation of this eclipse since on the day of the eclipse Mars is at 15° 52’ Pisces, and Neptune at 20° 52’ both squaring the eclipse degree.  Conjunctions are about birth and creation, squares are about resistance and challenge, and oppositions bring conflict through awareness of the other.   This is a configuration astrologers know as a T-square but more on Mars and Neptune later; let’s deal with Venus and the eclipse first. 

Please read my post from Monday, June 1 for some important background information.  Venus retrograde periods are very important.  There is a death and rebirth syndrome with this transit.  The Sun is the giver of life, light, birth and creation.  It is also a destroyer in the sense that anything that gets too close to the Sun ignites and burns up (read the myths of Daedalus, Icarus and Bellepheron as symbolic of being filled with hubris, flying too close to the Sun and toppling).  Think of when you’re out in the Sun too long and it burns your skin.  Basking in the glow and energy of the Sun brings a sense of vitality and life up until the point where it blinds you with too much heat and light.  There are two ancient astrological terms that describe the power of the Sun as destroyer and giver of life.  They are “Under the Beams” and “Cazimi”.   Under the Beams means, that when a planet gets within 15°of a conjunction with the Sun, it cannot be seen with the naked eye.  Venus has a unique relationship with the Sun in that it never is more than 48° away from it.  Its retrograde motion is always important in predictions and the ancients knew this.  In Mesopotamia, Babylon and other ancient cultures, these cycles of Venus were timed with the agricultural seasons.  Her inferior conjunction to the Sun begins her new moon phase, when she is closest to Earth and is seen in the sky as the Morning Star, rising before the Sun.  In this visage she becomes more warrior-like and aggressive.  The land was dry, arid and barren.  Her superior conjunction starts the full moon phase when she is farthest from Earth and morphs into an Evening Star, setting after the Sun.  She is imbued with more pleasure seeking and indulgent behaviors and in ancient times this is when the land becomes wet and fertile. 

In modern interpretations the transits of Venus provide powerful periods of great change.  It’s a time of rebirth surrounding one of the many Venusian matters such as love, relationships, equality, peace (and its opposite war – more of that later), diplomacy, pleasure, money and values.  When Venus is Under the Beams of the Sun its light is completely overshadowed and obscured by the closeness to the Sun and something about the matters she presides over is burning up, coming to an end, being destroyed or purified and transformed.  There is darkness surrounding the planet and because we don’t see her light we are not sure where she is going and what direction she is taking.   Matters become restless, in the dark and concealed for a while until she reveals her light and is reborn as the Morning Star and sets out on a new, more assertive path.  But for the time she is Under the Beams she is agitated, frightened, dark, concealed and hidden from view.  The issues pertaining to her such as peace, love and harmony are nowhere to be seen in her benefic form.  Instead we see something more warrior-like and antithetical to her true nature.   Venus is still concerned with the principles of equality, peace and harmony but she is angry and bitchy that they have been ignored, so she changes her form, alters her fighting tactics and adapts a more Martian-like guise and aggression accompanied by Pallas-Athena’s sword of justice and cold, strategic wisdom.  There’s more yelling, screaming, punches and loud, abrasive and assaultive tactics as opposed to diplomacy and standard protocol.  The Goddess of Love becomes the Goddess of War because she is fighting for true love and justice.  She has lost her balance and equilibrium and must get it back.  She becomes the Iron Fist in the Velvet Glove although I’d go one step further by saying the velvet glove comes off too!

Under the Beams for the current transit of Venus lasts from approximately May 24 through June 15.  This is the time period when major world events occur and there is a death and rebirth of Venusian principles.  She is in her darkest period as she must be reborn into a new, and hopefully, but not necessarily higher form.   There is death and destruction before the rebirth.   

On Monday, May 25, just as Venus started disappearing from the sky, George Floyd was arrested for allegedly passing a counterfeit $20 bill.  Police ordered Floyd out of his vehicle, handcuffed him and forcibly pinned him on the street.  One of the officers, Derek Chauvin, held his knee to his neck for 9 minutes till Floyd lost consciousness and died while 3 other officer looked on doing nothing.  As Venus goes under the beams she is in the dark and there’s a loss of consciousness of Venusian peace and rationality.  A man literally loses consciousness and those that are supposed to be there to protect are literally turning into his murderers.  Venus is a planet without a rudder and has abdicated her throne.   Her normally calming influence is nowhere to be seen as she rears her ugly head.  It suddenly seems as if we have a double dose of bully Mars’ energies in the sky as the light of Venus is extinguished.  During the entire week that follows, and through at least June 15 when she comes out from Under the Beams, there will be protests and riots over the injustice of this crime.  Venus has a rogue quality and this crime powerfully fuels the awareness of the vast inequality of our black and brown brothers since the founding of the country and the institution of slavery was established.  This transit is a trigger point for major evolutionary energies that were birthed on the Saturn/Pluto/Jupiter conjunctions in Capricorn in January 2020.  On top of it all the USA is currently experiencing her Pluto return, and the current eclipse cycle harkens back to the terrorist attacks of 9/11 as this set of eclipses is part of that 19 year Metonic cycle.  This eclipse cycle will bring back memories from 2001.  We’ve already seen the correlation to the terrorist attacks from an open enemy in 2001 vs. terrorist attacks from of a hidden enemy in 2020.

The Cazimi period was Wednesday, June 3rd.  Cazimi is when Venus and the Sun conjoin within 15’ of arc and it means “in the heart of the Sun”.  This is the day that Venus literally combusts into the heart of the Sun.  She is dignified and blessed with the revitalization principles that the Sun, as King, can bestow on her and share with her.  She is crowned and reborn and embraced rather than being burned.   In current events, on that day the rebirth of Venus is seen in the intensity of the peaceful national and international protests combined with the loud battle cry for change.  Yes, there is still anger and violence, but something is changing on a deeper level that we are still unaware of.  We sense change, feel it, yet we are unclear of its path and manifestation.  Most importantly on this day all four police officers are charged in Floyd’s death.  Pallas-Athena’s sword of justice is making her first of many swipes.  We feel a hope and chance that we may be able to give the Black and Brown community the justice they deserve and the equality that is their God given birth right as citizens of the USA.  New love is being born out of the awareness of centuries of fear and lack of love.  In the absence of love horrible things occur to the human spirit and soul. 

One of the other major events of the exact Cazimi period was the announcement of General James Mattis excoriating the Trump administration.  Here is a major military voice, a former United States Secretary of Defense, writing a damning condemnation of Trump and the administration.  This is a new voice coming out of the old guard.  It may be a small step, but it is a major one.  Through his voice there is a chance that the dying old guard is coming around and slowly breaking and smashing old, ossified, warn out traditions; traditions that have enslaved our black and brown brothers.  Could it possibly be a sign of the baton finally being passed forward?  The cold heart of white entitlement may be starting to wake up on a more wide scale level.  More and more religious leaders are also adding their voice to the cause. 

Cazimi is the moment of rebirth.  We now feel a spark of clarity and gain deeper understanding of Venusian issues of agreements, reconciliation, epiphanies and awareness of the “other”.  There’s that “A HA” moment!  It can also bring to light someone’s shadow side where you see the absence of love.  The phony artifice is revealed and what becomes visible is the stark difference between the superficial image and the real more substantive Venusian issues.  This is when you begin to realize whether a relationship will grow or the revelations forge a split because you learn who does not love you as well as who does.  On the world stage Venus is revealing an even deeper insight into the shallow and superficial posturing of Donald Trump through the manner in which he did a sham photo op in front of a church.  The epiphany for many is that “A HA” moment of the lack of empathy and understanding coming from the President.  The image of something is revealed to be vastly different from what he says is in the heart.  He’s the president and now at the Cazimi point many are finally awakening to the truth of his lack of true leadership and seeing someone who wants to divide and conquer rather than bring peace, harmony and understanding.  If you’re not coming from a place of authentic love then no matter what image is projected to the public, it will come off as phony and disingenuous as the retrograde reveals the truth of what lies beneath the surface. 

In your personal charts look at the two houses of the Gemini/Sagittarius polarity because that’s the area of your life where you have to balance energies based upon the eclipse and Venus’ transit to the Sun.  The Gemini house is where Venus is seated on the throne and given the seal of the King or the Queen and empowered with the authority of the Sun.  That’s the house where you want to grow into your higher nature.  The Sagittarius house is where you want to revise philosophies and release outdated opinions and prejudices. 

The Sun spiritualizes Venus as she comes into its heart.  We are driven to see what’s at the center of a situation and the depth and truth of what’s at the core of relationships as Venus is elevated, lifted, and illuminated.  The power the Sun bestows can conversely veer Venus towards a negative manifestation.  Venus is redefining love, peace and happiness but first she has to reveal just where those values are falling short.   All levels of social expression are under immense pressure and transition due to the pandemic, and now the George Floyd protests has delivered another paradigm shift in dealing with already stressed out social interactions.  Fate is forcing a social revolution and reevaluation.   How that fate is received is dependent on one’s point of view and depth of enlightenment.  This holds for personal as well as collective situations. 

As I said, Mars and Neptune are also playing a strong part in the June 5 lunar eclipse and the Venus transit to the Sun.  The Mars/Neptune conjunction tightly squares Venus at her inferior conjunction and the eclipse chart.  Mars and Neptune are inflaming the fight for the invisible, the underdog and disenfranchised in Pisces.  That’s who Mars likes to fight for in this sign.   He provides the flame of action to the Neptunian collective.   Enough with the pain and suffering of relegating our black and brown brothers and sisters to the fringes of society.  That old pattern that is woven into the collective psyche of the nation for eons is played out.   There’s a warrior battle cry from the soul of the collective unconscious.  This square aspect is a battle and struggle between beliefs, thoughts, words and principles.  It’s a struggle to find common ground between the heart and the mind.  Out of the struggle will come new laws.  The invisible are given a voice that is finally being heard.  It has to come in the form of peaceful protest, a definitive phrase for retrograde Venus.  Yes, there is some violence amidst the philosophic battle, but that is a fringe element.   A fiery planet like Mars in a waters sign like Pisces produces hot steam.  The imagery is a pot of water boiling over.  This is a fight that has a compassionate undertone to the surface anger. 

The empty sign of the T-square is the sign of Virgo and that is an indication of where the healing can occur.  Through practical matters of change and reform that impact the daily, everyday lives of the citizenry.  Everyone has a role to play in the wheel of life, and it’s time to find where you can be of service to implement change.  That is what Virgo is all about.  Everyone has to do their small part because it all adds up in the end.  Look at a finely tuned Swiss watch.  Open it up and see how many parts and pieces go into the making of a thing of precision, beauty and high functionality.  That’s what we have to do with the internal workings of society.  We are all pieces to the puzzle.  We can fine tune society through constant awareness, healthy criticism, fixing, analyzing, adjusting and processing.  We can always be improving it.  There is a striving for perfection, but never the attainment of it.  The striving is what makes everything work and function better.  Virgo rules civil servant jobs like the Police, the Military, laborers and blue collar workers.  There needs to be reform in all these areas in one way or another.  I barely mentioned the Coronavirus in this article as I’ve been posting a great deal of information on that over the past few months.  You can see the imagery in everything discussed above at work with the pandemic.  We are dealing with two social viruses:  a flu and racism. 

Our thoughts and words (Gemini), beliefs and history (Pisces), Laws and Philosophies (Sagittarius) are at a breaking point and must be changed.  Virgo is the remedy.   Virgo is a health sign.  The country is unhealthy, ravaged with disease and riddled with Cancer.  We are dependent on our health care system and health care workers more than ever.   We have to heal it, feed it better food and take care of the common man.   Where can each of us as individuals be of service?
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In order for there to be a new Morning there first has to be Mourning.