Understanding the Historic 2004 Venus Transit

by Malvin Artley		print version
		print version (graphics)

Greetings Friends!

At the time of the recent Venus transit, I was in the air over my adopted wide, brown land taking the last leg of my trip on my way back home. The transit had only just started, and I was given over to thoughts of what it would mean to me and to people I knew over the coming weeks and months. After my flight arrived and my friend picked me up from the airport we chatted about my trip and about what had been going on in Adelaide and Oz in general since I had been gone. The conversation eventually came around to relationships and about how many people both she and I know had been having a tough time of things in the “relating department” since Venus had been retrograde and since the Wesak Moon. I could empathize, as I had experienced my share of that sort of dynamic with people in the previous weeks. When we finally arrived at her place we decided to sit on her porch swing and take in the energy of the transit for a while and to dwell in silence for a time while it happened. As I sat with my eyes closed, forehead facing the Sun, the stillness of the day was punctuated by the magpies begging for food and fussing amongst themselves. It was a beautiful, cool day in the Adelaide Hills and the memories of my trip, just finished, filled me with awe in consideration of how the Soul works its magic in people’s lives and how we all get what we need, though it may not seem so at the time. I also felt very potently that my life was starting a new phase, having just completed an old one. I was about to find out just how strong that Soul potency was with me in the coming days.

An event is never an isolated occurrence. They are signposts in a long succession of causation and effects, of choices made and life cycles reaped from those choices and that all these things come and go in a steady stream of endless spirals of energies that we glibly call “cycles”. The day after my sojourn on the porch swing with my good friend, the magpies and Venus, the next phase of my life was set in motion—I registered for Australian citizenship and I registered my new business. As I had surmised, after that time all of my relationships have indeed shifted since after that Venus retrograde period and subsequent transit and, most importantly and as a result of a new inner alignment with my own higher Self, my views on relationships in general have undergone a great revision. I have since heard from many people that they, too, have experienced the same sort of thing. Long-standing relations have “exploded”, to quote another friend of mine, judgment has been replaced by Soul discrimination, and unrealistic desiring and expectations of people—especially the feminine side of people—has been replaced to a large degree by greater understanding, tolerance and a truer sense of what is needed to feel fulfilled as a person. This latter point applies as much to ourselves as it does to others.

With these points in mind I feel it necessary to fill out this saga of the Venus transit and what it means in a little more depth than has been done in other papers, bearing in mind as we go that we have only just started a period wherein we shall see the results of all our new alignments, relations and realizations as the Lucifer phase of Venus progresses over the next 8 months. As usual, there is a lot hidden beneath the surface and there are other signposts in the heavens along the way, and we shall look at these in due course. We should also bear in mind as this discussion proceeds that Venus, more than any other planet, bestows upon us through its lessons that fine discrimination that only an open and receptive heart can bring and that such discrimination is that which eventually allows us to understand somewhat the mind and Purpose of God as it works out in our lives. Thus, spiritual discrimination is a great divine unifying force rather than a base human reaction that only divides people. It is a very different thing to judgment (judgmentalism), a fact upon which due meditation should be brought to bear, for discrimination of that sort is open-ended and productive always of highest good for people, whereas judgment tends to close and separate through the agency of the mind. This last point will become important as we proceed with our consideration of this unfolding Venus saga.

This Lucifer phase of Venus will proceed and unfold over the next 8 months, making nine months in total (the period of human gestation). Venus will reach its greatest separation from the Sun while the Sun is in Virgo and the 1^st part of Libra, at which time it will grace the pre-dawn sky with its light and sound its strongest heralding notes. As we know, Virgo always stands for what is purest and true in any form and it is the sign which is the Mother of the Christ Light (the purified form through which the Soul can best express itself in the world). During this part of the Lucifer phase all manner of forms, including our very bodies, will come under the scrutiny of our spiritual discrimination and we will all have a chance to see whether or not those forms are suitable for the tasks to be set before us in the coming years. Much of this will happen unconsciously, but we should all be able to get a clear sense as to whether or not our bodies, our relationships, our group affiliations and many other things are in alignment with our highest good and whether any changes need to be made in those areas. When the Sun enters Libra the note will be carried over from Virgo and the true shifting and sifting of relationships will take place. As a matter of interest, this takes place just before the U.S. elections.

During this period as well, there will appear in the heavens an incident of a rare planetary alignment called a Grand Quintile (see the end of this letter for a link). A Grand Quintile is formed when 5 planets all span the zodiac at an angle of 72 degrees from the planet before and after it in zodiacal longitude. The quintile is a little-understood and seldom-used aspect in astrology. It is an aspect of 72 degrees, which is obtained by dividing the circle by 5. The number 5 is very intimately connected with Venus, since it is the Regent of the 5^th Ray or Light Stream from esoteric literature. It is said to be an aspect which brings forth a particular sort of genius, that genius being indicated by the sign and house placement as well as the energies of the planets involved. It is an aspect of creative freedom, and it always caries with it a very individual touch—as Dane Rudhyar calls it, “….the genius which transforms a routine action into an inspiring, significance-releasing performance.” I have looked quite a bit at quintiles over the years and I have found that people who have them in their charts—particularly when there are two or more of them—often have a way of doing things that sets them apart from the crowd. But, it often appears only after a struggle of some sort, at which point the Soul of the person is invoked somehow and thus shines its Light to a fuller measure through the person. It is an aspect that gives a particular aptitude with symbolism in some way and with abstract thought along some line. True genius is ever of the Soul. The quintile gives one the ability to create unique and rare forms and to manipulate matter in ways that benefit the greater society and which uplift humanity as a result. I will write more on the quintile closer to the time of these alignments.

During the period of September/October 2004 Venus will herald its clearest note during the Lucifer phase and bestow the fullness of its energies through the agency of those quintiles. We know the effects of the 5^th Ray primarily through science.Seldom do we realize, though, that science is but occultism made mundane (readily accessible to the mass of humanity). The 5^th Ray has been called the Ray of Concrete Knowledge and Science. But, its higher manifestation is what might be called “divine (or esoteric) psychology”. It has been stated before that “Venus unites the three minds”. This is another way of saying that it encompasses all realms of mind to which the human being has access. The Regent of the 5^th Ray also informs the Lord of the mental plane, or density. The esotericist will know that what is being described as the uniting of three minds is the antahkarana—the “rainbow bridge” of Light that links the Soul and persona and thus constitutes a clear channel between the realm of the Spirit and the human mind. It is the means whereby we become fully Soul-radiant and fully spiritually conscious, and Venus rules over its construction through many lifetimes of effort. When we say “God is Love”, it is through the agency of Venus that we come to know this as fact through the direct experience of the Light of the Soul via the “rainbow bridge”.