Venus Cycles And Star Points
Listening to Arielle Guttman on The Astrology Podcast inspired me to think deeper and investigate my own thoughts about Venus and what can be learned from her geometrically stunning orbital cycles. Like everything else that I have love for, I have critiques of the conversation but in an effort to embrace the Venusian virtue of harmony, I’ll save those for another day. (I think my Venus star point in Capricorn well describes this critical tendency toward what I love and value. It’s a constant, ‘yes and how can we improve this.) At the same time I offer these thoughts , I recognize I am a young and relatively new astrologer with all the gratitude and respect for Guttman and her work with Venus Star Points and its synodic cycle.
I was taught that Venus speaks to what we value which is inherently connected to how we define our resources.
I love this signification because it makes room for the shifting of values that is practically guaranteed over time, but it also makes room for the sociopolitical and economic delineations of Venus. All while it still engages the most traditional significations of Venus as love, creativity, pleasure, and connection, all nearly universal cultural values. Though standards of beauty, love, and pleasure change based on time and place, they are perpetually valued by seemingly everybody.
So what of the economic significance of Venus? First, let’s myth-bust what economics really is. While it may seem like a hard science of money math, it’s much more aptly described as social science of values, production or creation, and exchange.
The term "economics" comes from the Greek words οἶκος [oikos], meaning "family, household, estate," and νόμος [nomos], or "custom, law," and hence literally means "household management" or "management of the state.
Economics is concerned with what and how qualities, goods, and services are valued and therefore their potential for exchange and cultural importance. Value is not simply based on use value or intrinsic value; the cultural values of that particular time and space are significant. Just think of how highly a Gucci belt is valued, how it costs so much more than the same materials fashioned into a belt of a different design. The value is in the status of the symbol on the buckle, in the signal to the community that this person is and values all the qualities that are culturally connected to that particular brand and item. If economics is exchange based on values as I believe it to be, it is best represented by both Mercury and Venus.
…Back to the podcast. Guttman, a scholar of Venus and her cycles, points to the economic significations of Venus though not in that terminology. In fact, I don’t think she ever used “value” as the signification of Venus on this specific podcast episode. She speaks of the Venus synodic cycle, a miraculously, faith-inducing orbital pattern, and delineates the sociocultural shifts mirrored in this cycle. Guttman explains that prior to the use of fossil fuels, the Venus cycle made its first star point, its cazimi (conjunction with the Sun) in the sign of Sagittarius. This coincides with a time when the economic systems of the world relied upon (valued) horses and humans working together as the means of production (creativity) that generates wealth (resources we value). That is to say, horse and human (can you see the Centaur of Sagittarius?!) were hugely valuable resources and the primary driver of economic development during this phase of the Venus synodic cycle. As this star point feature shifted into the sign of Scorpio, a sign of the underworld, of plumbing the depths, of digging up what is buried, of secrets, inheritance, other people’s money, of taxes; the global economies began to place value on fossil fuels, power drawn from the depths of the earth, an inheritance from the dinosaurs. Horses were no longer the valued resources as markets shifted to the dark power of oil and globally, economic structures completely reorganized around this substance drawn from the underworld. Guttman spells out how the Venus star points are now shifting into Libra, the sign of balance, of pairing and partnership, the cardinal air sign that is associated with justice and quality design. While Guttman related this to clean air, I thought of batteries, of the power generated by a current that is balancing positive and negative charges. We have already begun to see the shift toward batteries, even rechargeable batteries. Though not without their toxic heavy metals, these batteries do have the potential to drastically change our output of air pollution.
Venus begins to make her star point journey in Libra on October 22nd. She will make one last cazimi (conjunction with the Sun) in Scorpio four years later, before continuing her star point journey through Libra for over two hundred and forty years. This coincides beautifully with the lengthy orbit of Pluto, returning now for the United States Sibley Chart, as well as a number of other cycles that are coming to a close as the American Empire faces its cosmic reckoning. As Venus makes this star point journey through Libra, where she is home and comfortable, we can engage this opportunity to negotiate our values around matters of reproductive sovereignty, economic and environmental justice, and identity politics.
As creativity faces devasting blows in our education system and feminine magic continues to provoke suspicion, we can look to the mythology and orbital patterns of Venus to inspire us as we embody liberatory values.
Another critical point in the conversation between Arielle Guttman and Chris Brennan was the parallel of these Venus star points with sociopolitical change and historical events. The terms civil rights and human rights kept coming up and are often associated with the warrior side of the goddess Venus. Again I turned to the concept of values. What are rights if not a direct expression of values, of who and what is considered worthy? Certainly, in countries that value women’s right to reproductive sovereignty, this cultural value is reflected in their legislation. Certainly, in nations that value increased financial revenue above all else, this value is demonstrated in the workplace. Certainly, in states where guns are more valued than lives, this value is exhibited in access to weapons over access to healthcare. What we value is demonstrated by what we protect, what we provide access to, and what we invest in.