#2 Tutorial: VENUS STAR POINTS
How to find them and how to read them, with some examples
Hello friends,
I am trialling a series of very short astrology tutorials for anyone wanting to learn more about chart reading, ancient or modern. Here is #2, Finding your Venus Star Points.
Venus’ synodic cycle is an enormous, and deeply fascinating topic, and one which has been written about extensively by a multitude of astrologers and astronomers with better credentials than me. Here is one such random selection.
With the Leo Venus retrograde cycle underway right now there are some great offerings freely available to help you get your head around it. Which is fantastic. Go forth and learn widely. And wildly.
FINDING YOUR VENUS STAR POINTS
So this not a tutorial about Venus’ synodic cycle. It is a very abbreviated lesson (with links), on how to identify your Venus Star Points (VSPs) and how to read your unique Venus star pattern.
I love how this pattern looks like a giant doily.
“The artistry of Venus weaving her beautiful embroidery upon the celestial tapestry of our night sky, is more than a lovely image to behold. This star pattern actually affects you and everyone else in the world.” Arielle Guttman ~ Venus Star Rising.
So dust off your birth chart. I am going to show you how to find your VSP, and the Venus star pattern you were blessed with. You can buy astrology software to do this for you or find a website to make one. If you have done this then skip this bit.
If you can, print off a copy of your whole-sign birth chart (if you would like me to email a copy of your birth chart, please send me your date of birth, including place, and time).
Otherwise you can improvise by hand drawing your chart, with your digital chart as a reference. Take an A4 size piece of paper and draw a large circle on it. Divide it into the twelve equal sections the zodiac (like a pie, or a clock face). Pencil in your rising sign, (your ascendent sign) at 9 o’clock. Then the rest of the signs following in their usual order around the chart counter clockwise. Well done, you have drawn a chart.
We are now going to locate the point on your chart where Venus was conjunct the Sun (Cazimi) before the day you were born.
Go to the webpage here. It is a PDF page that you can download if you want to. It is basically a list of the dates and positions of all the Venus Star Points for the last 100 years.
Scroll down until you find your year of birth in the left hand column. If the month next to it is after your birthday you will need to go to the previous year’s star point. Your VSP is always the one before you were born.
In the third column, next to your year of birth, you will see the degree and sign. Find the zodiac sign on your chart and mark this point prominently, making a note of the degree.
For example if my DOB is Feb 10, 1973, my VSP would be June 17, 1972. If my DOB is April 17, 1983, my VSP would be Nov 3, 1982. Hope that makes sense.
So now you have the sign, house and degree of your VSP you can begin to read it. The sign and house of its location as well as any planets in aspect to it, will tell you about your relationship patterns, your experience of beauty, joy, love, connection, abundance, friendships, pleasures and all things Venusian, both positive and negative. Venus is not always sweetness and light.
When it comes to cycles and patterns in your life, this is where you should look for insight and healing. It a sensitive spot like a scar, that can be rubbed the wrong way with transiting planets.
Venus-Sun conjunctions (Cazimi) return every eight years to this same place, shifting as this imperfect pattern evolves. It is where cycles end and begin, and where Venusian processes unfold.
The next step is to mark on your birth chart the two Venus Star points before your birth one, and the two following. From your VSP on the graph as we did previously note the sign and degree of the star point prior to it, and the one prior to that, and mark them on your birth chart.
Then do the same for the two Venus star points following. You will have five points in total, and if you draw lines between them you should have something like this (image below). A beautiful five pointed star.
Your VSP, the one prior to your birthdate, is known as the head. This is the defining VSP, from which the others evolve. The other four points mark the hands and legs of the star.
Moving clockwise, to the left, you have the giving hand, and the giving foot, the one that steps forward into the future. Continue around back towards the head and you have the receiving foot, planted in the past and the receiving hand, gathering in the Venusian energy, receiving.
Are you good at receiving? Are you addicted to giving? Perhaps you can start to see a pattern emerge.
So looking at your birth chart again. This is your pentagram of love, cycling in and out through time. This hidden pattern reveals how you give and receive love, beauty, joy, pleasure, and desire, in the story of your life.
Think about what these themes mean to you. What brings you joy? What elevates you? What or who do you truly love? How can you bring more of joy, beauty and love into your life?
The answers lie in the houses, signs and degrees of the five pointed star in your birth chart, sacred symbol of eternal love and devotion. It will manifest in the processes and patterns of Venus themes through your life.
Looking at the qualities of the signs where the points are, what can they tell you about the nature of your love experiences? What can the houses tell you about where in your life the Goddess will show up? Do you have any star points in 1H, 4H, 7H, or 10H? Are they forming easy angles to benefics? Are they forming hard angles or are configured to malefics?
Look closely at the elements too; Fire—passion, Water—sensitive feelings, Earth— stability, loyalty, Air— intelligence.
It becomes even more interesting when you look back at some of the transits to these points in the past. If you don’t have software to do this, you can ask an astrologer to look into it. The easiest way is to provide the dates for the past events in your life you want to understand, and see what transits they match up with.
Once you get the hang of it you can look at what transits to your VSP’s are coming up into the future. This could be profoundly significant and healing for you, especially if you have had some intense love experiences, twists of fate, falling in love, marriage and so on.
Some people have repeating patterns in relationships, which they long to escape from. Often it melts away with awareness, when you can see how the pattern works and understand the karmic momentum it has.
This is how the goddess works her magic in your life, by clearing the way for more love, more forgiving, more gratitude, appreciation, pleasure and joy. In your chart she has a distinct personality, and a unique signature.
Here is an example from personal experience. I have a Virgo VSP in my 4H, in a tight square to my Ascendent and trine to my 8H Mars. I experienced an especially traumatising separation from my mother, just before my eighth birthday as Venus conjoined the Sun at this same degree. Also this is an unhappy Venus, in her fall in Virgo.
Note that the Venus-Sun Cazimi falls very near the same degree every eight years, moving backward through the zodiac incrementally, to form the spiral-doily pattern. The Virgo VSP has now moved into Leo, where Venus will mark her next star point at 20 degrees Leo on 13 August 2023.
Another example from real life. My left-hand Venus point, the giving hand, is in Gemini in my 1H. When Saturn transited this point, I married an older man, looking for stability and security from a relationship. There was loyalty and commitment, some shared interests, but not much actual love, kindness or empathy.
And so when Saturn reached my 4H Virgo VSP roughly seven years later we separated and shortly after that we divorced.
So here there is a pattern of separation. I’m not saying your VSP will be a pain point like this, but if it does, this is where profound healing and soul growth can occur. Leading to a life full of joy, beauty and love. How it is supposed to be.
Drop a comment or contact me if you have any questions.
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this was great, thanks for sharing!
Thank you so much!