The inferior conjunction of Venus with the Sun took place early on the morning of January 14 at 23 degrees of Capricorn and at this point in its cycle it moved into the morning sky for the next nine and a half months. On October 27, 2006 it will reach superior conjunction with the Sun at three degrees of Scorpio. Venus will remain in retrograde motion until February 3 when it stations at 16 degrees of Capricorn and turns direct. For the Mesoamericans first appearance of Venus as morning star was of great importance and even danger, and was known as the "heliacal rising" of the planet. Indeed for the first two weeks after this rising blood sacrifices were made and efforts were made to prevent light from entering the houses. Venus was known as Quetzalcoatl and had a more Martian or masculine energy and he was called Xux ek, or the wasp star. Persons born with a heliacal Venus include the actress Jodie Foster, the skating star Tonya Harding, our present Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the actor Jack Nicholson, and according to his own testimony Sadaam Hussein of Iraq. Also the artist Amadeo Modigliani, and the writer Ken Kesey. Persons born at this time are charismatic with strong passions, often creative and of keen intelligence, but attract sudden and dramatic events in their lives. The Mayans and Aztecs called it the plumed serpent and related it to the quetzal bird with fiery feathers.

The actress Jodie Foster, born with the Sun and Mercury in Scorpio in the 12th house and the planet Venus rising retrograde conjunct Neptune has acted in television commercials since she was three years old, and her first starring role was as a 12 year old child prostitute in "Taxi Driver." Her parents separated before her birth and by age eight she was working constantly on television and in films. She gained attention in 1981 when she was stalked by John Hinckley Jr. who attempted to assassinate Ronald Reagan, apparently thinking that would impress Foster with his courage. She has won Oscars as Best Actress for "The Accused" and in "The Silence of the Lambs." Foster graduated Magna Cum Laude from Yale University and has created her own production company known as Egg Pictures. She refuses to divulge the identity of the fathers of her two sons.

Tonya Harding is also a Scorpio native with not only a retrograde Venus but also Jupiter rising ahead of the Sun in that sign. Tonya gained wide publicity when she was implicated in an attack on her skating rival Nancy Kerrigan in 1994 just prior to the Olympic Games. She skated in the Olympic Games, which Kerrigan won, but resigned from the U.S. Skating team and her skating career was finished by the bad publicity. In recent years she has participated as a professional boxer.

Condoleezza Rice is well known on the world stage, as is Sadaam Hussein. Rice was born with Sun and Venus in Scorpio, and was born the day of the inferior conjunction of Venus to the Sun. In her case Venus retrograde was closely conjunct the Sun and had not yet moved out of the glare of the Sun to appear in the morning sky. Like Foster, she distinguished herself academically and is now Secretary of State, though not the first woman to hold that position. Nicholson was born the same week as Sadaam Hussein, and has had complicated personal life. He was raised by his grandmother and believed his birth mother was an older sister until he was a grown man. As an actor he has played the role of intense, passionate and troubled men. The artist Modigliani was influenced by Henri de Toulouse Lautrec and Picasso, but he was famous for his portraits which had an intense personal atmosphere and long heads, noses and necks. Drugs and alcohol destroyed his health and he died at age 37.

As morning star, especially in the two weeks after the inferior conjunction, Venus gives an ardent, passionate nature and the native is apt to love not wisely but too well. Doubtless Queen Guinevere of Camelot had her Venus rising closely ahead of her Sun, the heliacal rising. Guinevere's love affair with Sir Lancelot caused not only her own destruction but the ruin of Camelot. In ancient times, and even today in some Muslin countries, a woman risked death if she let her heart rule over her had. Persons born with Venus rising just ahead of the Sun (within 10 to 15 degrees) are generally emotionally impulsive and spontaneous, eager in relationships. As Venus makes a station and turns direct the emotions become wiser, and the station gives a strong aesthetic sense but not as passionate as in the heliacal stage. An example of a Venus station is Michelangelo, born the day Venus stationed and turned retrograde, the point of a Yod with Pluto and Neptune. He is usually recognized as the greatest artistic genius of all time.
 
A week after the inferior conjunction Venus rises more than an hour before the Sun and by the time it stations in early February it will rise nearly two hours before the Sun. Following the station it picks up speed and moves through the second half of Capricorn to enter Aquarius on March 5. Venus will not turn retrograde again until September 8, 2007 at which time it will be at 16 degrees Leo, quincunx the degree where it will turn direct on February 3. It is significant that Venus always stations quincunx where it last stationed. The planet has the most unique and predictable retrograde cycle of any planetary body in the solar system. Every eight years, within a day or two, Venus repeats its orbit, coming back to the same degree and sign on that date. Five times in that eight year cycle, Venus will station and turn retrograde for six weeks, then station again and turn direct so that it traces out the points of a great five pointed star on the zodiac with the Earth as its center. Venus stations occur at the same season of the year and at nearly the same degree in the same sign.

The ancients watched Venus more carefully than any other planet and it as next in importance to the Sun and Moon. They counted off the days of its cycle beginning with it direct station, the beginning of its 246 days as morning star. They celebrated its reappearance in the evening sky after the long encounter and the superior conjunction when it began its 246 days as an evening star. The entire Venus cycle takes 19 months thus Venus is less apt to be retrograde than any other planet. After 251 years the planet comes back to the precise degree of the zodiac on the same month and day.

© 2007 Frances C. McEvoy
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