Storyteller's Night Sky 2026-06-17 (When the Heavenly Door to Love Opens)

When Venus is evening star and attended by the bright lights Jupiter and the Moon, it’s easy to understand why the planet is associated with love, with beauty, with poetry, and why it’s been so for ages. On Wednesday, in the late hours of the afternoon, the crescent Moon will move directly in front of Venus, and though you won’t be able to see this with the naked eye, it’s a terrific opportunity to pause for love. Here are some poetic things to consider: When the Moon falls in love, we get the Greek myth of Enydmion, the shepherd who was beloved by the Titan Goddess of the Moon, Selene. She loved Endymion so deeply once her light fell upon him where he lay sleeping in a cave that she begged Zeus to grant him eternal sleep, so that she could meet him each night in dream. The story inspired John Keats’ poem Endymion that begins: A thing of beauty is a joy forever, Its loveliness increases It will never pass into nothingness But still will keep a bower for us Full of sweet dreams and health and quiet breathing… When Venus falls in love, epics are born! as in the tale of Aeneas. Aeneas was a hero of the Trojan War, and was the son of the goddess Venus (Aphrodite to the Greeks) and the mortal Anchises. Venus/Aphrodite had bragged that she was the most powerful of all the gods because she could make the deathless ones fall in love with mere mortals. So Zeus caused the same to happen to her! In the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite it was sung that Aeneas escaped the Trojan War with his father on his back, carrying all the household gods. Eventually he established Rome, providing an essential link from Greek to Roman culture. The Roman poet Virgil’s rendering of the tale through his Aeneid later inspired Dante to use Virgil as his guide through the pre-paradise parts of the Divine Comedy, up to the moment he meets his beloved, Beatrice. And this week on Wednesday, when the Moon occults Venus, they’ll be opposite Pluto, which calls to mind another Greek myth, of Perspehone, who is abducted by Hades/Pluto and taken into the underworld against her will, to be his Queen. But this week, when the Moon occults Venus, it’s as though the lunar goddess is running cover for her celestial sister, which brings to mind the poem I Fell, attributed to Makeda, a Queen of Sheba from 1000 BC. She was reknowned for beauty, her purity, and her love of wisdom. This poem was inspired by another historic act of subterfuge, when King Solomon seduced the Queen, though she had devoted herself to wisdom. In the Ancient Ethiopian rendering of this tale, Sheba’s son then performed a similar act of deception, when he later returned to his father and took the Tabernacle, the physical embodiment of God’s covenant with Israel, back to Ethiopia. Now the poem, from Makeda, Queen of Sheba: I fell because of wisdom, But was not destroyed: Through her I dived Into the great sea, And in those depths I seized A wealth-bestowing pearl. I descended Like the great iron anchor Men use to steady their ships In the night on rough seas, And holding up the bright lamp That I there received, I climbed the rope To the boat of understanding. While in the dark sea I slept, And not overwhelmed there, Dreamt: a star Blazed in my womb. I marveled At that light, And grasped it, And brought it up to the sun. I laid hold upon it, And will not let it go. Watch Venus, Moon, and Jupiter all week, and especially Tuesday evening after sunset, and again Wednesday evening, knowing that the heavenly door to love has been opened for all attentive hearts.