The planet Venus is one of the brightest objects in the sky, but right now Venus is on a journey to the other side of the Sun ~ so we won’t be seeing this ancient goddess of love and beauty for awhile. What does that mean for affairs of the heart?
Venus, like Mercury and the Moon, is one of only three objects that can come between Earth and Sun, and while the Moon can go around the Earth and get to its other side, Venus and Mercury never will. What they can do is get to the other side of the Sun from us.
It’s worth a moment here to consider that Mars, Jupiter and Saturn are beyond the Earth in their orbit around the Sun, so unlike Venus, Mercury and the Moon, they can never come between Earth and Sun. This phenomena creates an interesting backdrop for understanding why Venus, Mercury and the Moon are described as “destiny-determining planets”: they seem to sweep between Earth and Sun gathering up forces from Earth and rhythmically carrying them off to the starry cosmos ~ Venus and Mercury on the other side of the Sun; Moon on the other side of the Earth.
On Saturday, October 22, Venus will be at superior conjunction with the Sun which means Venus is on the exact opposite side of Sun from Earth, which is a time in the planet’s journey when the goddess of love and beauty flings her arms wide and casts to the stars everything that human beings carry in their hearts, offering it up for starry affirmation.
Here’s where I really like the words of the Sufi mystic poet Rumi, when he writes that Love is the bridge between you and everything, a terrific contemplation to hold close to your heart until Venus emerges as evening star a few weeks from now.
