Before I attempt to answer these questions that arose in my mind, I want to point out that the pattern of Transit of Venus is based on a cyclical occurrence between Venus, Sun & Earth. This has to do with the relationship of all three bodies, where Earth’s orbit around the Sun aligns with the Nodes of Venus and Venus’s orbit around the Sun, placing Earth, Venus & Sun all on the same plane (or similar enough). I do have a blog on that from June 4, 2012 if you want more info. Whereas Venus retrograde at the solstice or equinox is two separate things happening at the same time. Kind of like someone knocking on your door and the phone ringing at the same time. They are not dependent upon each other at all. Each is following their own pattern that happens to coincide at a predictable rate to create the larger pattern. This is the same mathematical pattern that is already connected to Transits of Venus because the same bodies are involved.
Tomorrow, Dec 21, 2013, we will experience Venus retrograde at 4:53 PM EST occurring within hours of the 2013 winter solstice at 12:11 PM EST just one and a half years after a Transit of Venus. This too always happens because the same pattern is in operation. If you scroll through the Venus Rx at the solstice data in my blog on Dec 19th while bearing in mind the dates Transits of Venus you’ll see that the December 1874, 1882 & 2125 Transit dates each have a the summer solstice with Venus retrograde occurring 1.5 years later in 1876, 1884 & 2117. Do we make something of this close proximity of celestial events? Or do we just say “of course, that is just how the math works out.” Or do make something of this because this is how the math works out? The skeptic in me considered a mere coincidence but the seeker in me doesn't really believe in coincidence. Even if the phone rings while someone knocks on the door, there is a synchronistic connection between those two people or messages; we just have to look for it.
Math being the universal language, shows us that phi (1.618 the divine proportion or golden ratio) is related to the Sun, Earth and Venus. Or is that just a coincidence too? Would you still think it was a coincidence if you also knew that Earth & Moon are in a phi relationship, that the diameter of Saturn and the diameter of its rings are in a phi proportion, that Mercury-Sun & Earth also have a cyclical relationship that is also very close to phi, that planetary distances from each other are also close to phi? This could go on and on and become an article in itself! Point being phi is the divine proportion because it is what naturally occurs in nature with petal patterns of flowers and more, our bodies (DaVinci’s Virtruvian Man), and the universe. We could say phi is the Divine expressing and replicating itself through beauty. This is why it is called the Divine Proportion.
If we say the Divine is represented astrologically by the Sun, and beauty is represented astrologically by Venus, then this is no coincidence at all. It is a synchronicity for us to unravel. It also says the nature of the Divine is one of beauty and love because it is expressed as such. This I think is the message we are asked to receive, those of us here on this planet right now while these two greater cycles with Venus and Sun are simultaneously arising as celestial phenomena.
In Jyotish the Sun is Atman, the divine inner
dweller of our soul, our connection to the divine. It shows who we truly are in
our hearts, our central purpose and creative aspirations as we seek the light
of truth and search for our true Self. When we associate the Sun with the ego
we are appealing to its lower qualities reflected onto the Sun by our
humanness. We can’t get away from being human, yet as human’s we can strive to
operate less from our ego and more from the divine dweller in our heart and
soul. Think of the symbol for the sun, a central dot with a circle around it.
The Sun is the center of our solar system with the planets orbiting around it.
We are the center of our universe with our projections circling around us. That
dot in the center is our focused stillness where we can connect with the divine
within and the light of our true Self. It
is the centering thought of a meditation that quiets the mind so the soul can
experience the stillness of the observer within.
Venus is perceived through our senses. On one
level Venus represents we desire to have, the things and people we form
attachments to. Yet the forming of an attachment also involves the ego because
these things or relationships are in some way are defining who we think we are.
So that is the lower level Sun-Venus dance. On another level Venus represents our values. This can be monetary value (in which case it has a connection to Mercury and commerce) or it can be our personal values, which is the vein in which I am proceeding here, because those are the values connected to the truth in our heart and soul. Our personal values represent the middle level of the Sun-Venus dance. They show an evolution of our soul as we go from valuing our possessions, because our egos are using them to define ourselves, to valuing non-tangibles of our connections where we bring love and beauty to others and see their divinity reflected back to us. At this level we begin to grasp the meaning of Namaste.
At the highest level I believe the Sun-Venus connection to be about Divine Grace. This still involves Venus reveling in the pleasures of the senses, but not at lower level filtered through the ego for material pleasure, gain, comfort or security. Instead this level of reveling in the pleasures of the senses involves presence. Presence to feel each moment in our heart and soul, presence to just be exactly where we are without thinking of what we are doing next, what our ego wants us to accomplish in this situation, or what thing in the past is being recalled to our minds in this moment. Experiencing Venus from that central stillness of the Sun is the cultivation of Presence and Divine Grace. From this state of the Sun-Venus dance we operate with non-attachment to our selfless deeds expecting nothing in return because it’s the ego that keeps tabs on who owes whom while our Atman knows we are experiencing the Divine flowing through us and others. At this level we experience the meaning of Namaste.
Many of us are so preoccupied with our busy lives and the things we have to do, that we rarely take time to be present in the moment. Most of us are rarely, if ever, present in the moment -including me. While we are doing something we are either preoccupied with what else we have to get done (therefore not giving our full presence to the moment) or we are so focused on what we are doing that we have tuned out everything going on around us (therefore not present in the entirety of the moment either). It is a hard thing to get out of the ego and the thinking mind and experience Presence through a centered heart. Yet the more we try, the more it will occur. It is something we have to learn. Or perhaps it is something we’ve always known and have forgotten. Something we are being reminded to return to now. Why now? Why us who are on this planet today?
There is chaos going on in the world all around
us. Much of it we don’t like, but we tell ourselves we can’t do anything about
it anyway. So we just go about the rat race trying to gobble up all the things
and milestones we can that we think are going to make us feel better or happier, before
the bottom falls out. If we die with the most toys we win, right? Ahhh no. Yet technology is moving so fast we
can barely keep up with the new toys. We need a new phone almost the moment we get one along
with the latest apps. We constantly interrupt moments where we could be present
because we heard an email come in, or a text, or a Facebook pop or whatever.
Look around at a restaurant and see how many people are sitting together all on
their devices, missing the real connections to those present with them in the
moment. I’m sure we are all guilty of doing that at least once. Of course it is
always because it was important to do so at the time. Or was it?
And if we receive a text in the moment and answer it in the moment are
we present? I suppose if I actually
experienced presence more often I would know that answer. To ourselves we feel present in that
texting, but to those around us we appear frozen to our phone or walking
through a store preoccupied by our device.
Then too if external technology is accelerating
our connection times with others, does that mean our internal technology is
accelerating our connection to the Divine dweller within? How willing are we to
take time out from our devices and sit in meditation to experience that
connection? Do we dare to leave our electronic devices at home to be fully
present with those in our physical proximity calling our mind back when it
wanders to something outside of the moment?
What does your answer say about your attachments?
We don’t have to sit in stillness to call our
minds back to the moment, to be present and aware and experience the
heightening of our senses when are present.
In this way, Venus is connected to presence. If you’ve ever caught a
glimpse of being fully present in some moment of your life, and most of us
probably have, however fleeting it was, you know that the colors around you are
more vibrant, sounds are clearer and crisper, you can pick up subtleties with
your senses you didn’t recognize were there the moment before the state of presence.
I believe the Divine cosmic message of the
recent Transit of Venus and this Winter Solstice with Venus retrograde is to
consciously call up in each of us an awareness of our own Sun-Venus dance; to remind us
to cultivate more moments of Presence, to recognize and radiate more Divine
Grace. Perhaps this is to raise our attunement to the higher octaves of the Sun & Venus through the awareness of their larger cycle.
The Winter Solstice is the longest night, the day when the Sun appears to stand
still before beginning its journey north where the daylight hours begin to
lengthen. This is highly symbolic as light
begins to conquer darkness and the wisdom of Truth begins to conquer ignorance.
We are reminded of this every year at this time. Venus Retrograde is a time to honor the grace within ourselves, our ability to
experience inner bliss. We are reminded of this every eighteen months. Yet the simultaneous occurrence of both of these is much more rare.
Combined they
are the reminder to cultivate Presence as we experience the bliss of each moment
in non-attachment. As we learn to connect to Atman by practicing more and more
each day to live from our hearts with gratitude, honoring the Divine in our
Self, each other, and in the present moment we will begin to see Divine Grace in the
world around us because we will be attuned to it, we will radiate it, and it
will be reflected back to us. As more and more of us do this, the world really
can change and become a better place. Even if just a few of us do it, it will
make a difference in our own lives and the lives of those we touch. From there
it will catch on and spread as all things do.
So each of us really is significant enough to make a difference, in fact we are
integral to it.
A year and a half ago I wrote in my blog on the Transit of Venus that it
was an awakening to Divine Grace. I think Venus Rx at the Winter Solstice is a
reminder to cultivate Divine Grace and Presence. Each day forward from the
solstice as the days get longer we can awaken to more of our higher Venus
& Sun qualities by turning our focus inward, seeking our connection to the Divine
within. When Venus goes direct, we can carry that stillness and grace into our
outer lives and practice keeping that connection to our heart center in every
moment as our awareness of presence grows. Namaste,
Julene
