by Daniel Giamario, edited by Cayelin K Castell

On January 15, 2022  Venus began a new 584 day “synodic” cycle.* Depending on your location and the visibility of the horizon, Venus appeared brightly and dramatically just before sunrise over the Eastern horizon. This is called the Venus heliacal rise, meaning to rise with the Sun.

The Sumerians, Babylonians, and Meso-Americans, among many others, began the Venus cycle with the heliacal rise. Experiential and shamanically oriented astrologers, who literally follow the hermetic dictum, “As Above, So Below, As Without, So Within,” also use the visible earth-centered Venus cycle as the basis for interpretation and archetypal awareness. Read More

by Cayelin K Castell

The planet Mercury symbolizes the alchemical magic of the mind, how we process information, how we perceive our reality and how we communicate. Mercury is also noted for being quick completing  one orbit around the Sun in 88 days. Thus, Mercury’s speed is also linked to the quickness of the mind. Our minds, our thoughts, our perceptions are not necessarily limited by time and space. Our thoughts can take us beyond these boundaries in an instant. Read More

by Daniel Giamario

On the evening of March 3 Mars (13 Virgo 47) rose in the East, just as the Sun set in the west. Technically, this is called the Acronychal Rise similar to when the Full Moon rises in the East as the Sun sets in the West. This is also known as the Sun/Mars opposition.

This is the point in the Mars synodic cycle when Mars is closest to the Earth. In contrast Mars was furthest from the Sun (aphelion) on February 15, 2012. Two days after opposition, on March 5^th, Mars was closest to the Earth, about 63 million miles away and is also in its brightest appearance from the Earth’s perspective.

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