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Venus Postscript  [Part Two]
the personal consequences and ramifications of the 2004 Venus Transit

During the period of September/October 2004 Venus will herald its clearest note during the Lucifer phase and bestow the fullness of its energies through the agency of those quintiles. We know the effects of the 5th Ray primarily through science. Seldom do we realize, though, that science is but occultism made mundane (readily accessible to the mass of humanity).

The Fifth Ray

The 5th Ray has been called the Ray of Concrete Knowledge and Science. But, its higher manifestation is what might be called “divine (or esoteric) psychology”. It has been stated before that “Venus unites the three minds”. This is another way of saying that it encompasses all realms of mind to which the human being has access. The Regent of the 5th Ray also informs the Lord of the mental plane, or density.

The esotericist will know that what is being described as the uniting of three minds is the antahkarana—the “rainbow bridge” of Light that links the Soul and persona and thus constitutes a clear channel between the realm of the Spirit and the human mind. It is the means whereby we become fully Soul-radiant and fully spiritually conscious, and Venus rules over its construction through many lifetimes of effort. When we say “God is Love”, it is through the agency of Venus that we come to know this as fact through the direct experience of the Light of the Soul via the “rainbow bridge”.

The Prince of Darkness... or of Light?

I have to digress for a moment here and address something that has been brought forward to me by several readers of these letters. I have been queried about my association of Lucifer with Venus and with its being a herald of Light instead of what is known in the Christian world as “The Prince of Darkness”. We have an opportunity here to shed light on something that has cast a pall over a great part of humanity for many centuries and which has struck fear through so many hearts and done the very opposite of what it was meant to do—to move people closer to God and to show in fullness that God is, indeed, Love. I will begin with my own story on this matter, and I think that many of you will be able to empathize, some of you having had similar experiences yourselves.

I grew up in a region of the United States renowned for its fundamentalist Christian ethic—the “Bible Belt” of the southern US. This is Southern Baptist, hell-fire-and-brimstone country and the revival tent by the side of the road is still a familiar sight in some areas of this region. I had always been a seeker and sensitive to what went on around me. Mine was a church-going family in my youth, though my parents were far from fundamentalist, both being from the North, university educated and very open-minded on questions of religion and philosophy. But, there were many families around us who were much more steeped in the church dogma, so I was exposed to a steady diet of that sort of piousness along with what I received at home, which later turned out to be a saving grace. Even at that, I had a full childhood and got into all the mischief that boys get into and I had a deep love for and fascination with science and music. But then, puberty came along, as it does for all of us, and hormonal changes brought their requisite internal struggles. To make a long story short, I turned to God and became “born again”. It was a very private thing for me and I could never stomach the more evangelical side of my faith, but I was deeply devout and I studied my Bible every day, carrying a small one with me at all times. Few of my friends at the time even knew. And my main reason for turning to God?—I was afraid of being sent to Hell if I didn’t get my act together. It was almost like buying into propaganda. Little did I know at the time that is exactly what I did when I “renewed my faith”. I will have to say, though, that my love for God and all in this world was, and still is, genuine.

Well, time went on and eventually my mind awakened from the hormonal haze through the normal processes of growth. (It may interest you to know as well that all hormones are the direct result of “the Spirit moving upon the face of the waters”—of Soul force, in other words.). I began to question my faith. I began to have doubts about certain things and the way they had been put to me. The chief thing that I questioned and which eventually broke the back of the church doctrine of hell-fire was this very question: How can it be that God—being all-loving, omniscient and omnipotent—could create something so beautiful as a human being and condemn his beloved creations to Hell for eternity for what amounts to mistakes in judgment, especially when those errors in judgement are foisted upon them from otherwise well-meaning people? It just did not make sense. It still does not, and to this day it astounds me beyond belief that such a notion could even be considered by rational people of good heart anywhere. The world is full of good people of all faiths and God created us all—which means that God created all religions as well. The only reasonable and palatable solution I could draw was that all roads must lead somehow to the heart of God and that, therefore, no one faith was “the chosen one”. My course was set. I delved into the meanings behind all religions with the same intensity that I did science and music. Life became an open book, and I have devoured the pages of that divine book ever since.This leads me to certain points that need to be made about this whole business of Lucifer and Satan for, in a paradoxical way, my fear of “The Prince of Darkness” was what eventually caused me to take a hard look at things and to lead me thus “from darkness unto Light”, as Venus does in the final, darkest hours before daybreak.

From Darkness into Light

Before I make these points I will have to qualify what is about to be put forward by saying that I claim no expertise in religious philosophy or dogma. I simply know what resonates in my heart, and I have read and experienced enough to know that all religions basically lead to the same place, no matter how fervently people might believe that their beliefs are special and their faith is the only way to salvation. As the saying goes, “Been there. Done that. Enough said.”, at least to my mind. I will also say as well that my belief in God and the eventual “salvation of all Souls” is unshakable, and that I believe in the substance of the words of all the great faiths, if not the letter.

I had a long talk about faith with my Dad when I last saw him. Faith, to me, is about the substance of the words and the potency they hide, not the literal interpretation of the doctrines. When one sees all religions in such a way, then the world ceases to be polarized, and good and evil then become a divine dance of eternal unfoldment, rather than static qualities. The whole subject of good and evil is a vast study, and the earnest student of such a study would find no better field of investigation than the world as it is today, with pronouncements on all sides of the political and religious fence (and “fence” is an apt term here) that theirs is a just cause and thus all their actions are in accord with the Will of God. Lucifer and Satan are indeed very active in the world today, though not in the way that most people believe.

The Greatest of the Angels

Lucifer was said to be the greatest of the angels (and I am again deliberately being very general here), sitting on the right hand of God and acting as the great Mouthpiece for the Almighty. He was God’s most beloved angel and helper. But it was said that after a time Lucifer became dissatisfied with his role and pride began to get the best of him. He began to think that he was the equal of God, and he began to act on his own volition, rather than at God’s behest. Certain of the other angels began to side with Lucifer and there was eventually war in heaven, a war that Lucifer lost. As punishment, he and his band of rebellious angels were cast into the fiery pits of Hell, there to suffer grievously until the Judgment Day (the great “Day Be With Us”), when everything would be re-examined and all the inhabitants of Hell would be examined according to their acts to see if any were able to be salvaged and thus return to the heavenly host.

Now, I don’t know about you, but this little description of Lucifer sounds suspiciously like an allegorical story for the evolution of the average human being. It is the nature of a human on this planet to struggle against all authority, to feel the potency of the indwelling divine spark and to know intuitively that we are all gods in our own right (once we learn the proper lessons, of course, and show ourselves to be worthy), to feel as though we live in hell on a daily basis—some moreso than others—to feel the pain of separation from our divinity and that we have somehow fallen from grace, to have “the pride of Satan” at times and to know that there must be something greater than us which oversees our destiny.

In part three of this article, Malvin Artley concludes his discussion of the esoteric aspects involved in the Venus Transit of 2004. He explains that the Soul speaks to us through symbols and that many of the primary symbols that pervade and underly are culture have been long misunderstood.
Read part three of Venus Postscript