I absolutely love to listen to Arielle Guttman talk about the Venus Star. She lives and breathes and knows this topic to her core. I was fortunate enough to hear her wonderful lecture at the recent UAC (recording available at the UAC website) and on “The Turning of the Wheel Podcast” (found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TwSyYRvQWs). Her book, “Venus Star Rising,” is a treasure trove of information about this amazing celestial phenomenon, in which Venus retrograde and the Sun conjoin every eighteen months at five different points in the zodiac, repeating the pattern every eight years, creating the pattern of a star. To best see how this pattern forms, print out or sketch your chart. Then:
Place a point at 5 degrees Scorpio and label it 10/28/10.
Place a point at 15 degrees Gemini and label it 6/5/12.
Draw a line from the Scorpio to the Gemini point.
Place a point at 21 degrees Capricorn and label it 1/11/14.
Draw a line from the Gemini point to the Capricorn point.
Place a point at 22 degrees Leo and label it 8/15/15.
Draw a line from the Capricorn point to the Leo point.
Place a point at 4 degrees Aries and label it 3/25/17.
Draw a line from the Leo point to the Aries point.
Place a point at 3 degrees Scorpio and label it 10/26/18.
Draw a line from the Aries point to the Scorpio point.
Do you see the star? And do you see how this October, you are coming back to the events and matters close to your heart which were in your life eight years earlier?
“During Venus’ 584-day cycle,” Guttman explains, “there are two conjunctions of Venus to the Sun, one inferior (close to Earth) and one superior (farthest from Earth). The inferior conjunction produces the subsequently occurring Morning Star, while the superior conjunction gives birth to the Evening Star.” The conjunctions you have labeled, then, are times when Venus, retrograde, disappears into the Sun, joins the Sun in the same degree, and then will reappear in the sky as a Morning Star after about sixty days. In between these eighteen month intervals, Venus direct conjoins the Sun, but will then appear after five to ten days as a Morning Star. To see this pattern, with a different color pen, add these points to your chart:
Place a point at 23 degrees Leo and label it 8/16/11.
Place a point at 8 degrees Aries and label it 8/28/13.
Place a point at 1 degrees Scorpio and label it 10/25/14.
Place a point at 16 degrees Gemini and label it 6/6/16.
Place a point at 18 degrees Capricorn and label it 1/9/18.
You can see that these conjunctions, which transform Venus into an Evening Star, occur in the same pattern, awakening themes from four years earlier.
What is most revelatory is that we are all born under a certain Venus Star, which is independent of where the Sun and Venus appear in our natal charts. This Venus Star Point gives a whole subgeneration of people certain characteristics. “The Venus Star Point (VSP) reveals an inherent motivating life principle, a unique talent, and erotic expression of the joie de vivre we possess,” Arielle Guttman tells us. “If you embody the nature of your Venus Star, it is probably working well in your life.” Resisting it can work against your well being, but if you find others to partner with who embody the characteristics of your VSP, this helps you to tap into your own “vibrancy and passion.”
At this point, you may be wondering, “What is my VSP?” I will attach the chart which lays out all the VSPs from 1900 to 2020. Your VSP is the date immediately preceding your birth date. Should your birth date fall within a couple of months of the next VSP, Guttman explains that your VSP will at some point in your life move to the next VSP pursuant to secondary progressions. Should your VSP be a Morning Star, it has the characteristics of the warrior goddess. The Evening Star VSP is the lover. Arielle Guttman has extensive descriptions on each of the VSP signs, looking at how it works in the personal realm and in the historical realm.
You will note that the sign of the VSP eventually shifts as the VSP moves by primary direction through the zodiac (clockwise). A VSP changing signs will introduce a new era of world trends which last approximately 100 years. The Aries VSP, for example, is in place from 1929 to 2038, which coincides with “rapid, dramatic changes in the world related to political and social conflicts.” Each VSP has an ingress chart, which provides further information about its influence during its journey through each sign. One fact notable about our world today is that nearly forty percent of all people alive were born during Aries or Scorpio VSPs, ruled by Mars. The current VSPs, in Scorpio, Aries, Gemini, Capricorn and Leo, contain two VSPs ruled by Mars, one by Mercury, one by Saturn, and one by the Sun. Venus is not in her domicile or her exaltation in any of the VSPs occurring today. Guttman believes much of the discord and fractiousness of our times are mirrored in this phenomenon. She has great hope that when the Scorpio VSP shimmers into Libra, its home, in 2022, the human race will come to a greater accord, and when the Aries VSP slips into Pisces, Venus’ exaltation, in 2041, we will understand that love and cooperation are our only keys to survival as a planet.
This is an absolutely beautiful book, lovely to look at, chock full of illuminating illustrations, sensual to hold. Arielle Guttman has given us a loving tribute to the brightest planet shining in the morning or the evening sky, which showers us with the gifts of pleasure and joy and connection to all of life.
