PREVIOUS THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY
June 1st to June 5th 2004
TUESDAY June 1
A rare Transit of Venus
A rare Transit of Venus will take place on June 8th - visible from all over Europe. A special series of features containing Jonathan's in depth predictions about the meaning of this event will appear on this website starting Monday June 14th
WEDNESDAY June 2
Full Moon comment
When the Moon is full, we all tend to think more about our closest relationships and our deepest passions. We become aware of hidden tension or conflict... yet we also become aware of reasons to feel glad. Many people say that trouble is stirred up at Full Moon but that's not really fair. It is more appropriate to see this time of the month as a kind of cosmic amplifier. The 'signal' whatever it may be, will have its volume increased. It's up to us though, to send a happy transmission through the loudspeaker.A rare Transit of Venus will take place on June 8th - visible from all over Europe. A special series of features containing Jonathan's in depth predictions about the meaning of this event will appear on this website starting Monday June 14th
THURSDAY June 3
Rare Transit of Venus comment and link to Rupert Sheldrake's article 'Visits after death'
Jonathan writes: Many people want to know more about the rare Transit of Venus which takes place next Tuesday morning. I shall have plenty to say on this topic soon - as will my colleagues Eric Francis and Debbie Franks. But, of course, you don't have to be an astrologer to know what the planet Venus is all about. Rupert Sheldrake, our regular Thursday columnist, must have picked up on this telepathically when he wrote his article this week! On Rupert's page today is a pretty good explanation of what some, at least, of this Venus Transit is all about. Click here to read.
FRIDAY June 4
Reaching the Top of the Solar Roller-coaster by Bernard Fitzwalter and
link to Eric Francis article 'Astrology Questions & Answers'
Still three weeks to go to midsummer and already it's light until well after 10pm. How much later can sunset go? Not much. The length of the day depends on how high the sun is above the celestial equator. At the moment that measurement ('declination') is 22.5 degrees. The maximum is 23.5, which is reached at solstice on June 21. So, only another degree to go, which in terms of sunrise and sunset times means an increase of about three minutes. In other words, the days now are almost as long as they are going to get.
During the weeks near equinoxes, in March and September, the sun gains - or in autumn, loses - declination at just under half a degree a day, which can change the length of the daylight hours by half an hour a week. At the solstices, however, in June and December, the changes are much less, and the length of the daylight stays much the same for about eight weeks at a time.
What this means is that the sun's path through the year isn't so much like a wave, with gradual changes, as like a roller-coaster ride. In winter the car stays low, running along the bottom, then it climbs steeply through March and April. In the summer, the roller-coaster car is high but steady, moving along the top of the ride until it plunges again in August, which on a roller-coaster is the bit where everybody shrieks.
The solar roller-coaster ride gets steeper towards the poles. Near the equator, the change in length of daylight over the year is in minutes, so the solar roller-coaster moves gently up and down like a carousel. But near the Arctic Circle the day's length changes by three hours or more in just one month. Even in the UK, the difference between Scotland and Cornwall is considerable. Being further north, Scotland gets the wilder ride.
Enjoy the summer evenings for the next couple of months. It won't be long before the evenings start to seem shorter - and when they do, you'll know that the chariot of the sun has started its descent.Site Update: We are delighted to announce our new section from Eric Francis - Astrology Questions & Answers. Eric answers YOUR questions - click here to read more.
SATURDAY June 5
Venus Transit comment by Eric Francis
Next Tuesday the world experiences one of the rarest and most auspicious astrological events of our lifetime. Venus, the second planet from the Sun, representing love, creativity and financial abundance, crosses the disk of the Sun. In a sense, it eclipses the Sun, but because Venus is so small, it won't blot it out. Rather, Venus will appear in front of the sun as a small black dot for about six hours after the Sun rises. Don't though, repeat DON'T, try to watch it. If you look at the Sun for more than a second without special eclipse glasses or a pinhole 'shadow camera' you will do permanent damage to your eyes. The Transit has not happened for 121 years, so no living astrologer can speak from direct experience about its meaning. After the event though, the entire global community of astrologers will be discussing it and swapping notes - until, after a few days of intense consultation, they have reached a consensus about its meaning. The ancient Mayan astrologers knew all about this cycle. They based their calendar on it. They also knew that after the 121 year gap, the Venus transits tend to occur in pairs, eight years apart. The pair to this Venus transit is on June 6, 2012. That year famously marks the 'end of the Mayan calendar - which is a matter of much concern to many doom-mongers who wrongly interpret this as a sign that the world may end in that year. It won't... but it may yet come to mark the end of the world as we know it - or the start of a brave, brand new world. Between now and 2012, all the outer planets change signs in rapid succession: Jupiter, Saturn, Chiron, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. This is what you might call a celestial speed-up. The first phase of the exciting acceleration process begins on Tuesday.
Read more about the Venus transit on PlanetWaves.net, Eric Francis's fascinating web page.
Read Eric's Astrology Questions & Answers - click here
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