The Bright and Morning Star
Venus as humankind’s celestial mnemonic…
“I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.”
— Revelation 22:16
This is part II of the Functional Astrology Venus series (see part I, here). As a reminder, we are mapping the repetitive pattern of Venus’s appearance in the night sky to the ancient Sumerian story of the goddess Inanna. And for the complete stories of Inanna (and excellent commentary on those stories), see, Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth, by Wolkstein and Kramer.
As we see with Jesus’s quote above, Venus’s 548-day path through the heavens has been used as a cyclical, “celestial mnemonic” to retain humanity’s most sacred and vital wisdom. That is, much in the same way that Aboriginal songlines are used by that culture to map geography and routes to story and song (ancient Polynesian sailors did the same), the ancients used the repeating motions of the planets against the background of the constellations to embed the oral traditions of their culture’s wisdom in an age before the written word.
In Greek times, Aristotle explored how the mind better retains information when ideas are associated with vivid images and spatial locations. This method of loci became foundational in classical rhetoric, where orators would mentally walk through imagined spaces, each filled with symbolic objects representing points of their speech. Similarly, celestial bodies (Venus, in this case) serve as mnemonic anchors within the vast landscape of cultural memory. And their predictable movements through the heavens embody complex truths about chaos, transformation, and renewal. Just as Venus’s cyclical path or Aboriginal songlines map sacred knowledge onto the stars or the land, Aristotle’s method of loci maps wisdom onto the architecture of story and psyche, thereby ensuring its survival across time.
In fact, once you know this, many of the “nonsensical” passages of the Bible become clear. They are telling both the story and the celestial mnemonic underpinning that story, because they knew full well that in the Kali Yuga ignorance would proliferate and only a very few would have a true connection to the only thing that is timeless; that is, the stars.
For those who have ears to hear…
For the Sumerians, that connection to the goddess of heaven and earth was told by mapping the 548-day repeating cycle of Venus. Each stage of that cycle having a corresponding Inanna story to go along with it.
In part I of this series, we looked at the period of Venus’s inferior conjunction to her helical rise, or first sighting in the early AM pre-dawn. And now we turn our attention to the period between “first sighting” and the event that happens on the 27th of April, 2025, which is Venus’s period of “greatest brilliance”.
But before we continue with the myth, let’s understand the astronomy of what’s happening. Because you simply cannot employ any level of accurate celestial mnemonics unless you look at the actual sky. Not a frozen-in-time, Ptolemaic version of the sky, but the real, as it actually appears, sky. Where is Venus actually? What is her actual constellational backdrop? What planets are near her? All of that is of critical importance to how the framework of this 548-day epic plays out in the here-and-now.
Venus’s greatest brilliance (in the east, or as the “Morning Star”) occurs when Venus is in her crescent phase, between inferior conjunction and greatest elongation (that is, greatest separation from the Sun). And usually occurs at a separation from the Sun of approximately between 40 to 45 degrees. It’s at this point where her distance from earth and percentage of illumination combine to produce her greatest radiance. That being about -4.7 magnitude, the brightest object in our sky after the Sun and Moon.
And what’s cool about this particular “greatest brilliance”, is that it coincides with an Aries new Moon, so there won’t be much in the way of the Moon’s "infringement" on Venus’s show.
And it IS Venus’s (Inanna’s) show now. This isn’t the unsure and unproven, brooding and fearful young girl of the Hupullu tree story. Inanna now has her throne and crown. And, delighting in her newly realized womanhood, she’s ready to begin testing and flexing her new powers. And so she sets out (in true “hero’s journey” fashion) to find and meet with Enki, the Sumerian god of wisdom.
Inanna in this, the second story of the myth (Inanna and the God of Wisdom), takes on an almost Promethian-like quality. She’s out to get what the God of Wisdom (Enki) has - the me (pronounced “may”) - that is, the divine secrets, decrees, powers, and archetypal blueprints that govern and control all aspects of existence. Cosmic, cultural, and personal.
For his part here, Enki is the creator of humankind, a magician and master of ritual and incarnation. He is the mediator between men, and the liaison between the gods and mortals. He is, in a matter of speaking, the “Big Kuhuna” as far as the mortals are concerned. And you get the feeling that Inanna’s take is that Enki should be just a little more liberal in making the me more accessible to humanity. So Inanna’s quest is not only to gain these powers for herself, but for her Queendom as well.
The story is infused with an incredible amount of symbolism (which is characteristic of all ancient myth), and to truly know all aspects of Venus, it’s critically important to know her lineage, which includes the goddess Inanna.
And I see Venus in this phase exhibiting that unabashed, Promethean rebelliousness. Much more Uranian in nature than you might ever consider Venus to be.
Inanna in this story has matured into an incredibly bold - audacious, even - seeker of what makes the Universe tick. Using her wits and womanly wiles to cajole an already cock-sure (and smitten?) Enki to give up, as it were, the keys to the kingdom. And it seems as if Enki has relaxed his guard, underestimating Inanna’s poker face, single-focused drive and her street smarts. Inanna is much more capable than what she lets on. Not to mention she’s apparently acquired a healthy tolerance for beer, and adept social engineering skills. Because she eventually drinks the God of Wisdom under the table as he gleefully tosses her the keys to said kingdom..
Once Inanna has possession of the me, she ducks out with a proper “Irish goodbye”, loads the me in her boat, and hits the road (river, in actuality) for her queendom with the newly acquired gifts for her people. Enki, having sobered up and realizing that Inanna now has access to the me, attempts to stop her multiple times with demons of his magic conjurings. All of which Inanna skillfully rebuffs with magic of her own.
Again, I highly encourage you to read the myth as my intent here is not to offer a full commentary on the multitude of intricate details (there’s a lot here), but to offer a summary. And more precisely, to illuminate the Venus-centered celestial mnemonics at play.
By the end of the story, Inanna returns to her queendom and bequeaths even more me to her people than she’s obtained from Enki. These additional me are focused on Inanna’s feminine attributes. To gain Enki’s favor, Inanna flaunted her raw, feminine vitality and calculating wit. En route to her queendom and in battle against Enki’s demons, her powers were tested and honed. Then, joining forces with her innate spiritual resources, Inanna emerges a full-fledged warrior queen. Finding that additional me that was hidden within, and only revealed through the heroing experience she’d voluntarily taken on.
So THIS is the Venus energy we are currently experiencing. This is not the warm, cuddly Venus, but Venus on a mission. She might very well have Prometian motives (stealing fire from the gods to give to humanity), but she’s got an empire to build, and she’s not concerned with making sure the children (literal and/or emotional) are securely tucked in each night. “You gotta break some eggs to make an omelet” is her M.O. in this phase. “I gave you the me; fend for yourselves. I’ve got an empire to build”.
So the story ends with Inanna having claimed her power and having provided her people with the knowledge and tools required to lift themselves up. But every queen needs a king to feel complete. In a Jungian sense, she’s well underway in her Individuation process. That is, the lifelong psychological process of integrating the conscious and unconscious parts of the Self (especially the shadow) to become a whole, authentic individual. Now she must find and integrate her masculine (animus) side. Because she knows a truth that is self-evident, but largely widely ignored in the world: you cannot lead where you have never been. She’s powerful now, but not yet whole. And she won’t rest until she IS whole.
In a psychological sense, this is a dangerous combination. Immense power, but lacking the wisdom and discernment that can only come from lived experience. That’s the Venus that we are experiencing now.
Next up, we’ll explore the next story in Inanna’s myth. Venus’s next astronomical phase. Where Inanna finds her king: The Courtship of Inanna and Dumuzi.
And I don’t think I’m giving away too much by letting you know that, as anyone who works in human psychology and Jungian Analysis knows, the Individuation process can, if taken seriously, be a, well… real motherfucker.
That’s my technical term for it, anyway. God, goddess or mortal it seems - the only way to complete the journey is to actually pack up and set sail. Which Inanna does, with little hesitation.
Need a sherpa for your hero’s journey? That’s what we do. Pack your bags (we have an essentials list) and book a consult. Life is too short to play small.
–Keith