transit of Venus across the Sun

Just ran across this occurrence on another website, and I'd be curious to hear about the astrological side of it: apparently Venus will make a crossing of the Sun very soon. What would an astrologer make of it? Are there events we should look for?
Transits of Venus across the disk of the Sun are supposed to be among the rarest of
planetary alignments. Only six such events have happened
since the invention of the telescope, in 1631, 1639, 1761, 1769, 1874
and 1882. The next two transits of Venus will occur on 2004 June 08
and 2012 June 06.

http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/transit/venus0412.html

Firstly the physics:

What we are seeing here is similar to a solar eclipse. Instead of the Moon passing across the Sun, it is Venus. As Venus is much smaller from an Earth perspective we won't experience anything like a solar eclipse.

A solar eclipse occurs at a New Moon, when the Moon is at or near its nodes. All planets have nodes - they are the points where the planet's orbit crosses the ecliptic (the apparant path of the Sun around the Earth). In effect for the eclipse to happen the Moon must be in inferior conjunction with the Sun (between the Earth and the Sun) and at its Nodes at a time when the Sun also is crossing the nodal axis - Earth, Moon and Sun all line up. However the Sun only crosses the Moon's nodal axis twice a year, so there are only two eclipse 'seasons' during the year when an eclipse is possible.

Now, so the same holds true for Venus, or any other planet - exactly the same mechanism comes into play. The differences are that Venus only crosses the ecliptic twice a year rather than twice a month. Secondly the nodes of Venus are quite static compared to those of the Moon - so the possible eclipse seasons are more clearly defined in time - every June and December. So what we need is Venus to be in inferior conjunction with the Sun in a June or December at its nodes (near too is not good enough - there isn't really a 'partial eclipse' equivalent as for the Moon.

Secondly the meaning:

I don't think there's a 'textbook' meaning for this, given its infrequency. However the reason that I went into the physics above is that it makes the point that we have a situation analagous to a new Moon. So here we have the beginning of a new cycle - this time a Venusian one. Because this cycle is one that will last 12 years I would think that it's effects are more likely to be at the social level - rather like a Jupiter return or Saturn return. In general he intervals between such transits are much wider (usually being more than a century) at a more general level we are looking at something more akin to a Neptune or Pluto return which would operate more for nations and states than individuals.

It also is at a time when Venus has just moved into Cancer so it should have a caring, nurturing, protective overtone. Amongst other things, Venus signifies relationships so we might hope that this is likely to introduce a period in which societies as a whole tend to place more value on caring relationships and the need to protect each other and our planet.

Incidentally the only three planets that can come between Earth and Sun are the Moon, Venus and Mercury and there are similar transits of Mercury which occur more frequently than those of Venus.

Very exciting....

I purchased a great new astrological diary today
www.groundedheavens.com
I love it, it lets you know the planetary alignment, moon cycles etc. for each day.

This is what it says:

"Venus is visible in silhouette against the disc of the sun. Under the transit, the femonine is clearly imprinted on the face of identity, the Sun. The Goddess is unveiled. This has ramifications both socially and personally. In broader social terms it signifies the growing acknowledgement of our need for the feminie, which has been suppressed in the heart of the world for the last four millennia.

The transit of Venus occurs twice in 8 years, then not again for more than one hundred years. The next occurance will be 2012. The last cycle in 1874- occuring in a grand fire trine with Uranus and Chiron- saw the emergence of women's suffrage. The 2004 transit occurs in Gemini, suggesting that women will become more prominent in trade and communications, and esp. in the media."

It also talks about the conjunction in opposition to Pluto and trine with Neptune.

"True well-being becomes important to us, physically, emotionally and spiritually, and we can approach it with intuition and flashes of inspiration. Spirituality, esp. women's, will move into new directions as it resonates with our deepest needs."

XTAX

Woo hoo! That sounds great! We really need some of that feminine energy right now, especially here in the USA to counteract all the macho cowboy warmonger crap that is *saturating* all the media.