Once in a lifetime comes a very rare astrological and astronomical event. One of great astronomical significance is coming in June 2012 and is billed by astrologers as the event of the year.
Approximately every 121 years, the planet Venus moves between the Sun and our line of vision so that Venus passes directly across the face of the Sun. When the Moon passes across the face of the Sun it’s called an eclipse. When a planet passes across the Sun’s face it’s more precisely known as an occultation. It has been called an eclipse on some web sites, but this is not correct. It is too small to block out the sun. It will look like a small dot crossing the Sun’s face.
These Venus occultations always occur around the end of May or beginning of June, (Gemini), and or in November or beginning of December (Sagittarius).
On June 6th this year we will be able to see the small shadow disc of Venus transit across the Sun maintaining its passage for about 6 hours. This doesn’t happen often and unless you happen to have a great, great, grandfather who is approaching 125 years, nobody alive today has seen this before.
The last occultation was December 1882 and each time the occultation occurs it comes in twos, the second one being 8 years on. The previous first one was in December 1874. The earlier transit this century was June 8th, 2004. Following this time around, the next one is 2117.
Historical Venus Transit Events
Venus transits seem to presage great shifts in human consciousness and this June promises more of the same. If we look back at the last several occultation’s – in 1518/26, 1631/39, 1761/69 and 1874/82 we can pick up patterns with them in Sun signs of Gemini or Sagittarius. Looking at the events of 1519, Magellan del Cano set about the first circumnavigation of the world. The impact on European civilisation was immense showing clearly the world was a globe.
This was one of the first steps into a new world view – we live on a globe, not a flat world that drops off into heaven or hell. The Reformation began in Western Europe, and the age of female rulers came to Europe – Mary Queen of Scots, Mary I, Elizabeth I, and Catherine de Medici and all reigned then.
The next pair of occultations in 1631/1639, coincided with the beginning of the first regular mail services in Europe, Denmark, and Sweden. This enabled communication over long distances. The transit was in Sagittarius, which rules long distances.
At the time of the 1639 transit, the first printing press was set up in America in Cambridge. With faster communication the global village had started. Also came the rise of rationalist science beginning to get its hold over the Western mind.
The 1761/1769 transit was the first to be observed in an international co-operative effort by scientists from around the world setting up at 70 different locations. This kind of co-operation had never been done by any scientific group on a global scale before. Venus is all about relationships, and Gemini is information. She was the cause of the change in the way we communicate with each other throughout the world. The American revolution had its origins in this period. And Australia was claimed as a country for Great Britain.
In 1874/1882 the Venus transit coincided with the founding of the World Postal Union and the completion of the Atlantic telegraph cable. Also in those years Alexander Graham Bell first conceived the idea of the telephone – global communications began to be a reality. The explosion of information really started – newspapers, telephone, telegraph, eventually radio and finally the internet. In the same period the rise of women’s suffrage eventually led to women being given the vote in NZ, then Australia, and ultimately throughout the USA.
Each transit has brought about new explorations into the world, especially in communication, because the transits often occur in Gemini, the sign of communication. It has brought humanity closer together. What will the transits of 2012 bring? We could have another colossal advance in thinking, communicating and relationships, and a new planetary world-view.
The Transit of Venus across the Sun June 8th, 2004 - taken with a time lapse camera - source unknown
The Mayan Civilisation and Venus
The Mayan civilization, along with the Aztecs and Incas, which were crushed by Spanish and Portuguese expansionism after the 1518/26 transits, all placed tremendous importance on Venus cycles. The Mayans regard the cycles of rising and setting of Venus near the Sun as a key timing trigger in the world.
Within the Indian Vedic traditions, the 120 year Venus transit cycle is also regarded as of major importance. And it’s not surprising that the second Venus transit falls in 2012, just six months from the end of the current Mayan calendar.
How did the Maya determine the revolution periods of Venus with such accuracy?
One way to explain this is that they exploited the opportunity of a pair of Venus passages, e.g. those in AD 659/667, to accomplish this.
As Venus makes 5 synodic revolutions, the Earth makes 8 revolutions around the Sun minus approximately 2 days. This is why the dates for the Venus passages in 2004 and 2012 occur at 8th and 6th of June, respectively. The Maya knew the period of revolution of the Earth around the Sun within three decimals, and then by making observations through their black obsidian glass of Venus crossing the disc of the sun, and determining the time of day this happens on consecutive passages, it would have been possible to make an exact estimate of the synodic revolution of Venus. It is mathematically simple, but to do this requires greater insights into the workings of the Cosmos than we have. To the ancient Maya, this was their reality, and they knew the importance of these measurements for the future.
The eight years in between each occultation are prolific processing moments for new ideas and world changes as they grow and mature.
Previous cycles have shown that global communications and a change in consciousness concerning the scope and nature of the world are part of these transits. The other issue is Venus’ role as female entity and ruler of the feminine, the creative and as an artistic channel for new breakthroughs.
The Sun in astrology represents the masculine energy and the principle life force in our solar system. It’s at the centre, and from its position it drives the planets. It’s a vital life force, the ability to give and receive, leadership, generosity, and drive.
Venus is the female love principal in astrology. It’s the primordial Yin energy of our system. It’s harmony, beauty, sociability, co-operation, women, and the goddess energy. So when Venus aligns with the Sun (from our Earth’s perspective), the principle life force is united with love, female energy, harmony, and the goddess principle.
The Venus Prophecy
In the book The Mayan Prophecies for 2012 by Gerald Benedict, he refers to a number of prophecies made by Popul Vuh who speaks of a critical period of transition as Venus crosses the face of the Sun. It’s interesting that the prophecy seems to be saying that self-sacrifice is the key here. Restraint in the face of crisis and what we need today is restraint in the face of a consumer driven world.
There they looked forth for the coming forth of the Sun… then they fasted and cried out in prayer. They fixed their eyes firmly on the dawn, looking to the east. They watched closely for the Morning Star, the great star that gives its light at the birth of the Sun. They looked to the womb of the sky and the womb of the Earth.
The Popol Vuh is a book of narratives of the post classic Maya K’iche’ kingdom in Guatemala’s western highlands. The title translates as “Book of the Community,” “Book of Counsel,” or more literally as “Book of the People”.
The 6th June occultation occurs at 15 and half degrees Gemini with a square to Mars in Virgo and to Chiron (the healing force) in Pisces. There is also a strong creative Quintile aspect to Uranus the revolutionary planet of innovation and rebellion. Uranus is also about fast and progressive technological innovation. This means very powerful energies are released to deal with and harmonise the masculine vital force of Mars – through direct action! And this is at a time when women’s rights issues are at the forefront in Muslim and Arab cultures; and in the USA where woman’s contraception and birth control rights are under attack. A powerful time of transformation for a very disturbed and disrupted world. This Venus transit couldn’t have come at a better time!
Observing the Venus Transit
Venus will take about 6 hours to fully transit the face of the Sun when viewing from Eastern Australia.
Normally you cannot look at the Sun as it burns your retina, so do not stare directly at the Sun Instead set up what’s called a Pinhole Camera. Get yourself in a position where you can project the light from June 6th Sun and through a large sheet of card with a small hole in it onto another sheet of white paper in the shade. Given good weather you’ll be able to see the small black disc of Venus on the top section of the Sun’s face on the projection.
Observations from Brisbane, Cairns, Sydney (Australia): Begins: 8:16am, Middle: 11:30am, Finish: 2:44pm.
Along the East coast of Australia, Venus begins its passage after 8 am and completes after 2.30pm. The centre point is at about 11.30am. Stand up and look out for this rare cosmic event – you’ll only see it once in a lifetime.
Universal Times – Begins: 22.09.29 UT, Greatest: 01.29.28 UT, Finish: 04.49.27 UT
The transit and many of its technical details are available on the internet at the web site:-
http://www.transitofvenus.org/
or
http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/transit/venus0412.html
What Do We Do Now?
We can accept that we choose our thoughts and how they are directed.
We can realise that there is a global mind and global thought.
We can begin to know that our actions and thoughts affect our world.
Group action and thought is a very powerful. We now go beyond the left-brain and are bringing in the power of the right-brain. This is the return of the Venusian Goddess. A new dimension is slowly starting, and you just let go of the old and change your thoughts to change your life.
Venus is the planet of creative pleasure and harmony. She doesn’t bring suffering if we do the needed work. She is combining her light with the Sun so that we can end this old system and bring in a new evolutionary way.
References
The Venus Conjunction by Malvin Artley,
http://www.malvinartley.com
Transits of Venus, by Susan Custer,
http://www.theastrologypage.com
The Mayan Prophecies for 2012, by Gerald Benedict, Watkins Publishing, 2008 .
Venus Transit Resource Websites
http://www.transitofvenus.org/
http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/transit/venus0412.html
http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/transit.../city12-1.html – International Cities
http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/transit.../city12-2.html – For US cities
Venus Transit: world wide live observatory feeds June 5/6, 2012
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