Venus Transits of the 19th Century

Astrologers are also history detectives, we look to the past to help understand the present.  The current Venus transit on June 5, 2012 and its pair on June 8, 2004 are part of our current times.   We  have front row seats to observe and interact with this energy – you can learn what it means for yourself.

Venus rules Taurus on the earth sign end, and Libra in her airy expression. Venus in Taurus has to do with material concerns.  She is Mother Earth incarnate in this expression and governs the earth’s resources – land, timber, farm crops, etc, also commodities, banks, financial markets, income, real estate and possessions in general.  In Libra Venus is Aphrodite and rules all relationships, specifically romance – matters of the heart, along with cultural affairs – the arts, music, fashion, theater, literature, dance, etc., and also affects women’s issues.

The last Venus transit pair was on December 9, 1874,  followed by one on December 6, 1882. They both occurred when Venus was traveling in the sign of Sagittarius – exactly opposite the current Gemini transits. This was quite an amazing era! It spanned the waning British Colonialist expansion, the height of the Wild, Wild West, and the beginning of the New Imperialism which lead to the World Wars of the 20th century. There is so much information on this interesting time span I decided to create a separate article for this.  “Times change, people don’t”  as the old phrase goes. Echos from this era ping into our current times.   Let’s understand more about what happened in the last Venus Transit era with some time-line events during this 8 year span:

It was an era of Anglo-European cultures asserting  dominance over  indigenous peoples.  In 1877 British explorer Henry Morton Stanley emerged from the forests of Africa near the mouth of the Congo River after tracing it to the source, and Queen Victoria was proclaimed ”Empress of India” the same year. In 1879 British troops occupied Kabul, Afghanistan. The Anglo-Zulu wars began in 1878 with a Zulu win over the British, who went on to defeat the Zulu in 1879.  In the U.S. General Custer lost the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876, and the U.S. government orders all Native Americans to move into reservations the same year. That same year the Presidential election is disputed and according to the Compromise of 1877, Hayes is declared  the winner of the election even though Tilden had won the popular vote.

In 1875 the Treaty of Saint Petersburg is signed between Japan and Russia. The 1877 War between Russia and the Ottoman Empire (Russo-Turkish War), lead to the formation of Bulgaria in 1878.  Germany and Austria-Hungary made their first alliance in 1879,  and Russia and the United Kingdom sign the Treaty of  Gandamak establishing an Afghan state. Construction began on the Panama Canal in 1880, and Alexander II of Russia is assassinated in 1881.

The Wild Wild West was really wild.  Billy the Kid killed his first man in 1877.  Bushranger Ned Kelly is hanged in Australia in 1880. The famous Gunfight at the O. K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona was in 1881, and Jesse James was shot dead in 1882. Law and order in these out-land territories was basically who could shoot the quickest!

It was an age of invention. The telecommunication era dawned during this time. In 1876 Alexander Graham Bell successfully tested the first telephone. Invention of the four-stroke cycle internal combustion engine by Nikolaus Otto was in 1876. Thomas Edison invented the first phonograph in 1877 and the first electric light in 1879.  In 1877 Emile Berliner invented the microphone.  In 1880 George Eastman patents a roll of film for cameras. In 1882 Robert Koch announces the discovery of the bacterium responsible for tuberculosis, and Nikola Tesla invents the alternating current generator.

It was a time of Capitalist Robber Barons and agitating Labor movements. “The Panic of 1873” had caused an economic down-turn and by 1879 over 10,000 U.S. businesses failed.  In 1875 violent bread riots take place in Montreal., and a murder conviction effectively forces the Irish-Pennsylvania coal miners group “Molly Maguires” to disband.  In 1877 there were bloody workers riots in both Baltimore and Pittsburgh.  In 1880 Andrew Carnegie has a monopoly of the steel industry.  In 1882 the first Labor Day Parade was held in New York City, and in that same year John D. Rockefeller organized the Standard Oil Trust to circumvent the laws of individual states which set limits to the running of his organization.

In cultural affairs, the straight-laced conservatism of the Victorians was beginning to yield to the high kicking Folies Bergères CanCan dancers, and outrageous Vaudevillian acts. Artistic
expression flowered!  1874 saw the first Impressionist Exhibit in Paris. During this time-span
Monet had his first show, Van Gogh began his artistic career, Renoir, Cezenne, Degas, and
Toulouse-Lautrec, along with many other now-famous artists painted actively in France, with
Whistler, Eakins, Homer, Sargent, Casset and others painting and exhibiting in the U.S. Franz
Schubert’s 2nd Symphony in B, and Johannes Brahms’ 2nd Symphony in D premiered.  Bizet
composed his opera Carmen, Tsjaikovsky’s Swan Lake, Wagner’s Ring operas, and Gilbert and
Sullivan’s musicals had their first debuts.

Sarah Bernhardt made her US debut in New York City, where Lillian Russell also made hers. In Literature Thomas Hardy published Far From the Madding Crowd , Tolstoy published Anna Karina, Robert Louis Stevenson published The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, while Lousie May Alcott, Mark Twain, Jules Verne, and Henry James continued their series of popular works throughout these years.

Womens issues were marked by both progress and setbacks. In 1874  Sophia Jex-Blake
established the London School of Medicine for Women.  In 1875  the U.S. Supreme Court declares a state can prohibit a woman from voting, saying women constitute a “special category of  nonvoting citizens.”  In 1877 Laura DeForce Gordon forces California Governor William Irwin to sign a bill allowing women to become members of the State Bar. In 1878 the first American badminton club was formed in NYC. Its charter limited play to men and “good looking single women.”  In 1879 Belva Lockwood becomes first woman admitted to try a case before the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1880 the first woman licensed to practice medicine in Canada was Dr. Emily Howard Stowe . In 1881 the American Red Cross is founded by Clara Barton.  In 1882  U.S. Congress outlawed polygamy.

Mother Nature had mixed progress during this period as well. The Desert Land Act is enacted by Congress in 1877 to encourage the development of arid Western lands by farmers.  In 1878 the Timber and Stone act is passed, permitting the cutting of timber on public land to increase the acreage of farm land.  In 1879 Congress passed the first Timberland Protection Act. 1880 was a big year. The “Blizzard of 1880” one of the worst on record hit that winter; the first US sewage disposal system, separate from storm drains, was established in Memphis;  the first commercial hydroelectric power plant began in Grand Rapids, Mich; and also in 1880 Woodsmen marched west to Wisconsin clearing forests of white pine, yellow birch, hemlock, maple, and oak.  In 1882 New York state’s Pure Food Law went into effect to prevent “the adulteration of food or drugs.”

Commercial ventures abounded! Woolworth’s opened their doors for the first time, and Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis receive a US patent for blue jeans with copper rivets. American Bell Telephone Co., General Electric Co., and Standard Oil of New Jersey were all established.  The Pacific Stock Exchange was founded in San Francisco, along with the Tokyo Stock Exchange and the central Bank of Japan.

This 8 year span  is obviously a vital time!  The astrological question to ask is, can we see any Venus themes threading through these events? Venus was in the sign of Sagittarius during both those earlier transits. Certainly Sagittarian issues abounded during this period.  Sagittarius rules the  elites of world systems and Gemini,  its opposite sign, rules the “tribe”.  The Zulus of South Africa defeated the British with a vastly inferior army, then were later starved into surrender.

In the U.S. there was Custer’s Last Stand and Native American tribes were virtually wiped out during this era of vicious expansion.  Common people were trying to tip the scales their way during this Robber Barron era of worker and immigrant exploitation.  It went the other way too, with brilliant, but non-elite men like Edison and Bell coming up with inventions that helped everyone rich and poor alike. Sagittarius is opposite the present  transit sign of Gemini, so we can look for issues triggered then to come back to sit at the other end of the scales in this current Venus pattern.  If you read through the time-line I’m sure you saw items with direct connections to current events in our present day.

In terms of Venus’ domain,  womens issues were mixed at best, natural resources were both exploited and saved, commerce thrived, though financial markets were unpredictable and unstable.  The Arts are another story!  Art flourished and shone so brightly, that a new artistic movement, Impressionism,  was born and has influenced the art world ever since. Literature, music, dance, and theater bloomed profusely as well, and in fact much of the creative efforts from this period are still avidly read, watched, and performed to this very day!

So what might we expect from the current Venus Transit era June 2004 through June 2012?   Essentially, time will tell.  I will continue to discuss this in the months to come,  as other astrological currents waft in and connect to Venus’ tendrils.  For now one main point I’d like to bring out is this:  Venus is fractionally smaller than the huge massive ball of the Sun, which will dwarf her as she passes over its face.  Imagine the Sun’s rays passing around and even permeating  her as they continue onward to us here on Earth. We will essentially be bathed in glowing Venus beams!

It is time for us all to honor Venus in every way we can.  Access your creativity as never before, and watch it grow and bloom! Do random acts of kindness, spread love, smile more, be gracious, listen well, practice politeness, and be balanced and fair in all that you do.  Use and expand upon this lovely, blessed, and beautiful force!  The world certainly needs Venus’ peaceful healing energy.