Venus retrograde inferior conjunction with the Sun today

Today marks the day that Venus conjuncts the sun while in retrograde motion. This is the time that marks the planet Venus going from being the evening star to the morning star. This inferior conjunction of Venus and sun means that Venus passes between earth and the sun, inside our orbit, being closer to the sun than earth. It occurs once every 19 months, and today is the day.

This is not a direct transit, since Venus is about seven degrees away from the sun but it is the conjunction point where Venus while in retrograde or apparent backwards motion (from earth viewpoint) passes between us and the sun. Direct transits are much more rare. The last pair were in 2004 and 2012, while the pair before that was in 1874 and 1882. The next exact transit across the actual face of the sun from our point of view, will be in 2117 and 2125, just in case you wish to see it.

For now though, we have the regular conjunction as it occurs every 19 months. By 21 August, in about eight days from now, one will be able to see Venus rising as the morning star just before the sun, using the naked eye and watching the horizon just before sunrise in the east. You will see the planet Venus rising brightly just before the sun itself.

This Venus cycle is the one that is the foundation of the Mayan calender, where a unique system based on the Venus cycle is used for measuring time. Five full cycles of Venus make up exactly eight years, give or take two days. This is an exact cycle of Venus, meaning that the conjunction with the sun occurs in exactly the same place in the sky or constellations of the zodiac as it did eight years ago.

And if you follow the pattern of Venus through the heavens as it takes this eight year journey around the sun with us, the pattern created will make up a five pointed star, the symbol sometimes associated with Venus. Thirteen orbits of Venus (13x224.8 days) make up eight earth years, and the Mayan astronomers designed a date system and record keeping calender around this Venus cycle, with thirteen as a key number.

It’s amazing how the people of the Mayan culture discovered this unique system of calender based on astronomical observations, a system unused by any other culture in our human history that we know of. And with today’s Venus conjunction it marks the point where Venus is the closest to the sun that it can be in they entire synodic cycle of 584 days.

As a result of Venus passing nearby the sun now, it will become invisible to the eye as it disappears in the dazzling rays of the Sun for a week roughly. The planet will become visible again, this time as the morning star, rising just before the Sun.

Traditionally the Venus retrograde phase is said to facilitate the return of friends from the past, although not great for new relationships. This retrograde phase of Venus ends on 3 September, in coming weeks, marking the start now of this new Venus cycle of 19 months in length. Curiously the last Venus conjunction of the Sun occurred on 9 January 2022, which just happened to be bitcoin’s birthday. That period was just about tow months after the all time high for bitcoin at the top of the last bull market cycle. Since then we have been in a distinct bear market and have also seen the shift toward the next bull market cycle this year, since the lows of nine months ago around new year.

This start of the new Venus cycle around the Sun marks a time in my life where I’m inspired to pursue day hobby of day trading, not practiced since the last such Venus conjunction with the Sun at the start of the last cycle, roughly. Let’s see if the goddess of fortune smiles upon my efforts again as before.

That said, with Venus obscured from visibility by the dazzling sun for the nest week, until reappearing as the morning star, we may need to wait a week before the rays of Venus can shine alight on our fortunes and value systems once more, now in a new fresh and positive way, compared to the previous half of this year and all of last year, which were quite bearish.

Image ref: https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/five-petals-of-venus/