"As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste." —Sulamitis, from the Song of Songs of Solomon
On June 5 (June 6 in some time zones) Venus and the Sun form a precise conjunction, called a transit of Venus. Venus and the Sun align about once a year—though this one is different due to the fact that Venus will not pass above or below the Sun but rather directly cross its path. Considered one of the rarest predictable astronomical events, transits of Venus arrive in pairs separated by eight years; the pairs themselves are divided by more than a century.
Events in astrology gain influence by being unusual—though this one will also be spectacular. If you can see the Sun during the event and use a special viewing filter, you will be able to watch Venus cross the disk of the Sun. (Happening at 9:08pm, it will be too late in the evening in New York.) We most recently experienced a transit of Venus in 2004. The June 5 event may be related to something that you experienced or a phase of your life that began eight years ago.
The world will not experience another transit of Venus until 2117, 105 years from now. It's a bit ominous that, barring some life-extending genetic therapy, nobody who sees this one will be alive to see the next one.
Speaking of omens, this kind of rare event indicates a check-in point with the state of humanity. It's the single most distinct astrology element of 2012, a year that may break the record for how much prophecy has hung on its back. Yet we do stand in a moment when one logical use of celestial divination would be trying to figure out what's going to happen to civilization on our planet.
By any objective measure, we are in trouble. It's not that our national and global problems don't have solutions. It's not that there are insufficient resources. The crisis involves lack of leadership and ethics, and a very bad case of greed. Anyone trying for a solution must outsmart what amounts to a cabal of heavily armed thieves who are holding the planet hostage.
We face numerous hotly polarized situations, many of which come from a prevailing condition of inner division that has a grip on the human psyche. Which brings me to why it's so excellent that this event is happening in Gemini. I believe that the political mess we face is a reflection of the deeper elements of our consciousness. Many of these are based on what I will broadly term gender issues.
In recent years, the political machinery has been using gender and sexual orientation—and sex in general—as some of its most effective wedges. Yet with the atmosphere heating up, with fracking consuming the United States and headed to Europe, with the economy in an extremely fragile state and our genetic code under assault from supertoxins-for-profit, worrying about who has the right to married seems like a distraction.
Trying to blast reproductive rights back to the 1950s (as evidenced by the movement to repeal not just Roe v. Wade, which preserves the right to abortion, and also Griswold v. Connecticut, which preserves the right to contraception) is often described as throwing red meat to the conservative base. It's typically analyzed as a political ploy that skews the discussion away from real problems and also preserves the jobs of politicians.
We all know there's a severe imbalance on the planet, and there are many spiritual theories going around as to why that might be. Instead of treating the sex and gender issue as a symptom, I would propose that it may be a lot closer to the cause. People in political leadership are not known for their powers of deep introspection or their sexual integrity. Often, they are in conflict and project that conflict outward as attack, attempted control, and manipulation of people's private sexual lives. People not in positions of public trust drive one another insane with this stuff as well.
This inner turmoil manifests many other ways, including lack of sensitivity for the Earth (the consequence of which is often accurately described as rape). Nearly all of the most potent toxins of industry attack the female reproductive system first, though we're all soaking in an ocean of hormone-disruptive chemicals and all feeling the effects to some degree.
