I’ve written elsewhere, see Stars and Constellations, about how the people around here are generally ignorant of planets and constellations. I credit that to the prevalence of fog and overcast skies, though I may have been a bit charitable in that regard. Tonight I walked 25 minutes down hill in the cold from the market home. Since being in the hospital I walk much slower than I did. I mention this because for 25 minutes I watched Venus glow and glare above Morro Rock, the core of an ancient volcano sitting just off the coast. I watched it decline in the sky until I reached home and ran for warmth. This was the view near the beginning of my walk home over the library parking lot with trees and power poles in the way. Of course the same view is available everywhere, except, I suppose, the southernmost reaches where the sun itself has ceased to be visible. The sun sank behind Morro Rock, allowing Venus to shine a bit brighter than it might.

Of course Astrology has provided us with unlimited interpretations of this phenomenon. Here’s one example from Tarot.com:

When it comes to love and money, Venus is the place to look. Yes, transits, progressions and eclipses to your natal Venus will be the major markers to look out for in anticipation of a major shift in money and romantic matters. But to add even more depth of flavor to your analysis, it's a good idea to look at your Venus Return chart each year.

We can see the broad outlines of the story of Satan in the activity of Venus, if our minds are open. One of the various names for Satan is Lucifer. Lucifer means something akin to brightness. Venus reaches its brightest point before falling from the sky. The fall of Satan is an important subject in Christianity. It falls from the night sky and is “reborn” in the morning sky. From there it rises, becomes dimmer and dimmer until it finally passes behind the sun and disappears. In a sense, then, Satan is chased away, only to return. This story is hidden in the New Testament without mentioning Venus.

To imagine all this you must visualize Venus as having an orbit between the earth and the sun. It can rise from the sun as a dim spec of light, grow in size, grow very bright, though by then, like the moon it is only a crescent because it is nearing the sun, and then continue between the earth and sun until it disappears. It cannot appear in midheaven or in the eastern sky. Of course, it then continues into the morning sky, rising before the sun and eventually passing behind it.

The Transit of Venus is a very rare occurrence when as Venus passes from the night to morning it passes directly through the disc of the sun. This last happened in 2004 and eight years later in 2012. It will not happen again 2117. These transits provided Shirley Hazzard with the backdrop for a novel, Transit of Venus in 1980. A novel that won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction among many others. A wonderful novel that was nonetheless difficult to read. I recommend it to those who don’t mind difficult books that are worth the effort.

On a humorous note, I received a phone call a number of years ago from a psychiatrist friend. He was standing in the parking lot of the hospital looking at something in the eastern (by which he meant western) sky and it hadn't moved for at least ten minutes. It's close to the zenith (which it might be if his head were tilted, or if that's where he expected it to be) and I should go outside at once and look in his direction. He was almost positive he was looking at a flying saucer. He didn't believe my explanation about Venus, and still tells people that flying saucers are real because he has seen them (them) himself.

All this aside, Venus will be in the early evening sky for a while now. It has just surpassed the sun and will climb and become brighter as it does so and then astonish us as it disappears. It will be bright enough to peek through a light fog (if you live in Morro Bay) or it will seem to light the sky if you live where the sky is clear. And then it won't be there. Pay attention. You may enjoy this.