Kukulkan/Quetzalcoatl

The heliacal rising of Venus occurs on June 10^th where after a period of darkness she transforms into the Morning Star, rising just before the sun. For the Maya and Aztecs of Mesoamerica the journey of Venus was observed and noted with great interest and precision. Her journey was well documented and richly mythologised.

According to observations made by the Maya, episodes of upheaval linked to the cyclical motion of Venus play out as life-changing events.

What life changing events are taking place today? On the surface what we see is a world under the shadow of a global pandemic… and yet, many sense more is occurring behind the scenes and below the veil of consciousness. We might ask, what aspects of Venus- our value system- are we ready to transform? For the Maya -and contemporary astrologers- Venus’s rise as the Morning Star heralds a new beginning.

What part do we play in this cosmic unfolding? Does the consciousness we bring to bear upon the dawning of a new world influence and create that world? Is this the time when we individually and collectively realise we are far more powerful than we have been led to believe?

This is the first Venus retrograde in Gemini that has happened since the Venus transit of 2012- a year that coincided with the end of a 5125-year solar cycle in the Mayan calendar. It is also taking place between a lunar and solar eclipse. These are powerful times!

Questions to ask: why were the ancient Mesoamericans so fascinated by the movement of Venus on her journey around the sun, and what can that consciousness teach us now?

Long before Copernicus was tracking the movement of the planets in the high renaissance period, the Maya followed Venus with amazing accuracy. In a text known as the Dresden codex (thought to have been produced in the first half of the tenth century) the rise and fall of Venus from Morning Star to Evening Star is carefully illustrated. Curiously, the text made its way from the Yucatan Peninsula to the Royal Library in Dresden, Germany where in the 1800s a German mathematician named Ernst Förstemann- without any prior knowledge of Mayan glyphs- deciphered the text as an illustration of the celestial journey of the planet Venus.

In working with their solar Haab and Tzolkin calendar, the Maya viewed the heliacal rising of Venus (the rising of the planet before the sun after the inferior conjunction) as both potentially auspicious- a sign of new beginnings and the resurrection of Light after a period of Darkness, and potentially inauspicious, an evil portent invoking wars and conflict.  Ritual and warfare were planned accordingly.

Professor Anthony Aveni tells us, “Rituals celebrating the appearance of the Morning Star may have been held on the large plaza in front of the House of the Governor, providing the rulers of Uxmal with a way to commemorate their ties to the sky god.”

In another pre-colonial codex know as the ‘Borgia’, the narrative of the planet Venus suggest that the feathered god Quetzalcoatl represents Venus through the synodic cycle. Also revealed in this codex is the belief of the Maya that Venus is seen as the cause of a total solar eclipse. The story of Quetzalcoatl is also symbolised in the Annals of Cuauhtitlan which associates the 8-day period between the Evening Star and Morning Star- when Venus makes an inferior conjunction to the sun- with the death and resurrection of the feathered serpent deity.

Aveni says, “Before emerging as the Morning Star, Quetzalcoatl descended into the underworld for 8 days, evoking a link with the number of days Venus is invisible in inferior conjunction.”

In Mayan mythology, the planet/goddess Venus was inextricably linked with the sun- never being more than 47 ° away from the sun- and the serpent god Kukulkan- closely related to the Aztec deity Quetzalcoatl- whose name means ‘one who emerges from the serpent-spirit’ or cosmic kundalini force.

In ‘The Secrets of Mayan Science/Religion’, Mayan daykeeper Hunbatz Men says,

 “To be Quetzalcoatl or Kukulcan is to know the seven forces (chakras) that govern our body – not only know them but also use them and understand their intimate relationship with natural and cosmic laws. We must comprehend the long and short cycles and the solar laws that sustain our lives. We must know how to die, and how to be born.”

This initiatory process of death and rebirth is also symbolised in the Sumerian myth of Inanna in her descent to the underworld as a parallel to the cosmic movement of Venus.

In ‘The Hidden Maya’ by Martin Brennan, the Maya equivalent of “chi” is referred to as coyopa or “lightning in the blood,” which enables one to perceive within the body messages from the external worlds – both natural and supernatural. There is no one word for this in English, but it means something like, “vital force spirit.”

For the Maya, when Venus follows the sun, appearing as the Evening Star, she is Lamat when she reappears before the sun as the Morning Star, she is Ah-Chicum-Ek.

Morning Star Venus is associated with war, this is also the case in ancient Mesopotamia where She is Istar d’ Akat, a male deity of war. This warrior aspect of Venus is not to easily grasped or recognised in our modern patriarchal world where political and military power is firmly held by men. Feminine power- ahead of the sun and in her warrior aspect- was  largely rejected in patrilineal cultures such as Hellenistic, pharaonic Egypt, Latin Rome, and Judaism- and still today.

Knowledge of the 7 power centres- the serpent rising- vital energy- kundalini… these are the gifts of Venus. She shows us how to clear our vessels, to burn the old by descending into the darkness to illuminate what lies there, so we can see what is ready to be transformed, and like the Phoenix, or the feathered serpent, we rise.

Image credit: CHN. From the Jiroft culture- Bronze Age (late 3rd millennium BCE) located in present day Iran.

Right now Venus is out of sight, obscured by the light of the Sun in what is known as her inferior conjunction. The ancient Sumerian myth of Inanna- our oldest written myth- tells the story of the descent and rebirth of the goddess as a symbolic representation of the movement of the planet Venus as she moves between the Earth and the sun- and then the other side of the sun.

For Inanna, the underworld journey is a process of healing the split between herself and her dark sister, the lost or unconscious parts of herself that have experienced loss, betrayal, rejection, and trauma. It is a profound experience of awakening, reclamation, reintegration, and sovereignty.

For the ancient world -and still many today- it is believed that Venus is guiding and showing us how to move through the process of death and rebirth as an initiatory journey into the sacred nature of our being. She is showing us how to integrate the shadow and the light parts of ourselves.

This feels more important than ever as the dark unacknowledged aspects of the collective unconscious are becoming painfully visible and destructive.

In Mesopotamia, Venus in her underworld phase was represented by the deity known as Ishhara or Ishkhara- who was symbolised by the Scorpion. She takes her place among the other Scorpion goddesses seen in cultures from Hindu, Aztec, and Egyptian.

Ishhara is the goddess of healing, magic, and sexuality. A vow made to Ishhara was taken very seriously… vows made in the underworld are for real, as is eating the food of the underworld as seen in the myth of Persephone.

Perhaps we are realising that many Faustian pacts have unwittingly been made and that it is time to free ourselves from the bondage of corrupt systems which have led to the desacralization of our humanity.

Times of underworld descent are an opportunity to right wrongs and free ourselves from unconscious patterns and behaviours by making them conscious. This works individually and collectively – as we become conscious of the ‘great below’, below the veil of illusion, or behind the curtain of OZ, the impulse is to rise up and refuse further complicity with that which is in misalignment with or offensive to our essence.

As Venus continues her journey in the underworld, the moon is undergoing her own death and rebirth as she is partially eclipsed on Friday 5^th June in her full moon phase, positioned at the feet of the constellation Ophiuchus- ‘the Great Healer’ and close to the royal star Antares in the constellation of Scorpio. Antares symbolises death and rebirth, power and profound transformation.

Venus emerges on June 12^th just above the fixed star Aldebaran in the constellation of Taurus -the ‘Eye of Illumination’- another royal star which symbolises movement into the new and remembrance of the sacredness of life.

This Venus retrograde cycle closes on June 24 shortly after the solar eclipse/Solstice on 21 June.

Venus then journeys direct in her Morning Star aspect-or Lucifer the Light Bearer- for 9 months before making her superior conjunction on the other side of the sun. She then returns as the evening star- Venus as lover- for 9 months.

What powerful times we are living through as we, part of the cosmic matrix, also undertake these journeys filled with the possibility of renewal, repair, and remembrance of our sacredness.

Credit to Psychologist Heather Ensworth, and to Babylonian Astrologer Rumen Kolev for their research and presentations on this topic.

Light on Water, taken by me in Roslin Glen, Scotland.

We don’t all have to agree right now. Our experiences, though fundamental on some level are also unique. We have different families, communities, cultures (conditioning), and inner worlds (souls). In my opinion we also have different soul paths, karma, consciousness, and life purpose. And it’s all OK.

Some of us trust the people in power to lead us to a good place, and some of us don’t. When a certain few have so much power and money so as to affect the entire globe on many essential levels- including biological- one has to admit, that’s a staggering amount of responsibility. It seems only natural that some of us might want to question if the consciousness behind that power is operating honestly and transparently. For example, is the issue of world health being considered beyond the purely material level of biology and economics? Are less tangible influences also factored in, such as spiritual health and wellbeing, soul-based living, and the living planet?

In previous times, Priests, Priestesses, Druids, Seers, Mystics, and Shamans (or equivalent) might have been regularly consulted precisely because they were able to penetrate behind the veil to see how things operate the level of spirit.

Some people are content with a materialist perspective, others are not.

It doesn’t have to be all conspiracy theory and woo-woo though, separating things in this way only adds fuel to the already raging fire generating more fear, suspicion and division. If there is evidence that doesn’t match up, if there is a sense of dishonesty, or of things being hidden or occult, it seems wise to look a bit deeper. Highly emotive and terrorizing posts circulating on social media can obscure and prohibit measured and responsible conversation. Hence the reason why many people are choosing to opt out of the conversation entirely.

There is a middle way between not engaging and jumping on every little thing out there to prove the existence on an evil cabal.

Talking of wisdom, no matter where stand on the spectrum, keeping a strong inner intuitive connection with oneself is crucial.

If it comes to pass (and perhaps it already has), a global government based on technocratic principles will have unprecedented powers never before witnessed in the history of humanity (at least not as far as we know). Is it enough that these new ‘superpowers’ operate beneath the seemingly benevolent umbrella of humanitarian ideals and philanthropy? Can we trust that?

I need to state again- that is a colossal amount of power.

But life (including bacteria and viruses), and the nature of humanity is more than a problem to be mastered, solved, or controlled.

For me there is a bigger picture to consider- the journey of the human soul and the potential of the human spirit… an evolving humanity whose final destiny is yet unknown.

I am open to questioning the fundamental issues of our time and I encourage others to do the same. I am not going to pass up the opportunity to participate in the potentially greatest transformation (awakening) of our time. And as many have said before me, “We are made for these times”.

Above all I recognise that fear is the biggest inhibitor of the human spirit… and the evolution of humanity.

I notice that the more spiritually inclined among us are focusing on raising our vibration- and if possible, the vibrations of others. Staying positive, upping the ante on spiritual practice, and cultivating good health is essential – I absolutely resonate with that. And yet… I also feel it is important to contribute to the world conversation – we each have something to offer, and for those with spiritual aptitude it is so important to add that to the mix.

Of course, the danger comes in losing sight of oneself in the process and this is why it’s important to honour ourselves… it’s fine to switch off and nourish ourselves, it’s good to retreat for a while, tune into ourselves to find our authentic voice again. It’s all too easy to get bent out of shape.

For me it’s also worth remembering that at the level of spirit, in the absolute sense, or in what native people call ‘Great Mystery’ things may look very different to how they appear to us on this plane.

All things are revealed in good time.

Until then stay strong and centred.

This post speaks to the growing discussion around the possibility of enforced vaccinations.

I am neither anti vaccination nor pro vaccination; I am a strong advocate for medical freedom. I choose to live free from fear and manipulation – I choose personal autonomy, and I align with democratic values in the truest sense of what that means. I believe in the freedom to express opinions even while they may not accord with the general consensus, or the (often subtly imposed) social rules.

Image by Remedios Varo

No one needs reminding of what strange times we find ourselves in. Today we are living through an epic shift of consciousness, replete with upheaval and catastrophe on many levels of human experience. There is a kind of fever pitch taking hold of the collective imagination and in a bid to grasp onto shreds of certainty, theories, speculations and expert data merge and mingle almost seamlessly into jumbles of unfathomable material.

For me this craziness points one way- inward- to the inner knowing and self-generated wisdom that in the aftermath of the age of reason many of us have lost touch with. Bringing our instinctual and intuitive awareness back online is the portal through which we are being invited to walk now- and for me the compass that can lead us there is the language of myth, archetype and symbolism, or in the words Sufi master Ibn ‘Arabi, ‘the imaginal’.

I notice people are getting very angry with conspiracy theorists; one woman’s rant against pseudo researchers demands literature reviews, abstracts on every paper cited and independent probability statistics on each report given before accepting the material as valid. I agree that spouting any piece of second-hand information that comes one’s way in an attempt to validates one’s fears and assumptions is not helpful. But the question I am asking today is, what qualifies a democratic point of view? Also, epistemologically speaking, how do we know what we know are how justified are we in sharing our beliefs?

This is a tricky subject… given that most of our science, philosophy, academia and medicine has been filtered through an androcentric lens for several hundred (if not thousand) years, what space has been left for other ways of knowing? From the Renaissance to the early modern period and beyond, medicine has almost exclusively been dominated by white males of a certain class and education. It was not until 1983 that a woman received the Nobel prize for physiology or medicine, and that was only after decades of having her work refuted and ridiculed by the medical establishment.

This same privilege of male sovereignty is also applied to the fields of education, religion, law, finance, philosophy, and scholarship- in short, the tenets of our entire current Western civilization.

So how do we know?

Barbara McClintock the aforementioned female scientist said of her pioneering work in the discovery of the Transposable element (one of the most important contributions to the study of genetics):

“If you know you are on the right track, if you have this inner knowledge, then nobody can turn you off… no matter what they say.”

In studying maize races of South America, she confirmed the mechanisms of genetic regulation. She worked tirelessly and profoundly with the maize saying,

“I know my corn plants intimately, and I find it a great pleasure to know them.”

With asteroid Ceres conjunct her natal Sun in Gemini, Barbara McClintock seemed to be channelling the wisdom of the Great Mother herself and though she showed steely determination and steadfastness, she finally succumbed to the pressures of ridicule and stopped publishing her research.

She was, and is still, the only woman to ever have received an unshared Nobel prize for physiology or medicine.

My point is this- is the rational left brain, statistic qualified, peer reviewed, scientifically proven knowledge the only knowledge that we must believe or have any faith in? And, is wisdom the same as knowledge?

Given that most of Western knowledge has been presented by men, where we might wonder is the space for more intuitive ways of knowing? Scholar and ecofeminist Val Plumwood coined this particular androcentric way of knowing the ‘Master Model’, and in questioning the validity of this model says,

“The participants in the great dialogue of Western philosophy, which extends now some two and a half thousand years into the past, have been almost entirely male, white and drawn from the privileged sections of society.”

To the ranting woman who so vehemently dismissed any knowledge which has not been processed through the well protected grinder of the verifiable voice of reason, I ask, isn’t your view a little lop-sided and ultimately limiting of the vast human experience?

Some of the greatest scientific discoveries were made by ‘accident’ when the tyrant of left brain rationalism was snoozing… Paul McCartney wrote ‘Yesterday’ while sleeping, and many cast out and rejected artists and thinkers were later celebrated as geniuses.

How does an animal know to climb high or vacate an area when there is an ensuing tsunami or storm? It is down to primal instinct, or as scientist Rupert Sheldrake calls it, the Morphic Resonance… which is in fact a very ancient wisdom.

When I was child growing up in Scotland, I would often hear the women saying, “I just feel it in my water”, and we say, “I feel it in my bones”. We talk of ‘gut instinct’, but so often we are asked to deny these inner experiences and give way to an external voice of authority.

The problem is that we have by-and-large lost contact with our instinctual knowing which has been over-ridden by external governance. Be it the laws and codes of our society, the unchallenged assumptions of our parents and peers, or nowadays the aps on our smart phones that tell us when our next period is due or remind us that we need to pick up orange juice on the way home from work, we have forfeited the ability to think for ourselves.

It is this innate instinct that needs to come back online for us humans, and OK this process might look a bit messy in our ‘post truth’ culture where many of the external codes that we have placed our faith in have begun to crumble. It is little wonder that our channels of information are hoaching with conspiracy theories of a dark cabal, the illuminati, and reptilian intervention- the time is ripe for it.

This kind of projection however prevents the necessary descent into the human psyche to face and own the full spectrum of humanness in all its dark and light manifestations. Casting the darkness into convenient receptacles and scapegoats and remaining in blind fear will not facilitate awakening. Everything, says archetypal psychologist James Hillman, is in psyche, meaning it’s not so much that we have a psyche, but that we are part of the collective psyche, just as the archetypal energy of the lizards, the grays, and the omnipotent ‘One World Order’ are too.

Of course, within this great shifting archetypal matrix we also have an individual psyche and to get to know this is our personal journey or quest. Jung referred to this process as individuation and the ancients knew it as initiation.

In her book on the asteroid goddesses Demetra George says,

“Therefore, insight into one’s personal mythology, gained by an understanding of planetary themes in the birth chart, can enable the individual to more consciously live out his or her destiny.”

Myths depict the basic scripts of life and direct human drama; they are universal patterns of consciousness through which humans may evolve. To understand the secret meaning of myths and to consciously work with them prevents us from becoming stuck in chasms between life played without any personal autonomy, and projecting everything that happens to us onto some uncontrollable agent, or fate. There are of course also uncontrollable agents but here too they might be read through an archetypal lens. Finally, myth, archetype and symbols speak the language of the soul… it can not always be qualified or proven nor does it have to be.

To reject all impulses that fall outwith the spheres of acceptable rhetoric is to restrict the soul’s expression and questing for wholeness.

Once again this crisis throws us back on ourselves- we do not have to read everything that is out there, we don’t have to believe every opinion that floats in with the wind, and we do not need to get angry by other people’s beliefs. If we are triggered there is certainly something worth exploring. Above all this is an opportunity to master discernment.

The journey of the awakening human is to not get stuck or fixated in archetypal complexes or blame everything that we don’t like or understand on outside forces. The trick is to dance with the archetypes towards deeper self awareness and maybe even liberation.