Venus in Tropical Gemini

It's 4:25 AM on Wednesday. I woke about ten minutes ago to see Venus shining down on me through my bedroom window. Actually, I wasn't sure if it was Venus or Jupiter at first, because I haven't been keeping up closely with my cultural astronomy lately. I used a pair of Celestron 7x50 binoculars to get a closer look and picked up a faint orange star nearby. It looked almost like Saturn or Mars. Then I checked LUNA and saw that the main planet was definitely Venus in tropical Gemini, conjunct my natal Moon. Jupiter, for its part, is just crossing the horizon on the Ascendant in tropical Cancer. But what about that faint orange star? For this I turned to Stellarium, and quickly learned that it is Aldebaran.

What is the spiritual or mythic significance of Aldebaran? I ask Google Gemini and learn that Aldebaran, the "Eye of Taurus," is known as the "Watcher of the East." It is associated with new beginnings, initiations, and the start of cycles. It is one of the four "Royal Stars" in Persian astrology, and it relates to ethical leadership and the care for both humanity and the planet (cf. Star Lore: Aldebaran, The Watcher of The East | Creatrix Magazine).

As my attention is thus drawn to tropical Gemini, I see that Uranus is now in the first degree of the sign. Twelve days ago, on 4 July 2025, Venus and Uranus formed a conjunction in tropical Taurus right on the cusp of Gemini.

I went to sleep last night wondering what God would bring to my attention this morning now that I have reached "YouTube Zero." It looks like a meditation on the morning star (Venus) and the Guardian of the East (Aldebaran).

Here are three other points to consider before I leave the desktop for morning prayer on the meditation cushion:

• What is a 'Morning Star,' and what is an 'Evening Star'? | Space
• Why are both Jesus and Satan referred to as the morning star? | GotQuestions.org
• Iran's President Gives Major Update on Nuclear Talks | Newsweek

That last point is based on a tentative association I have now formed between the IAEA, Iran, and Aldebaran. Let's see what morning prayer brings to my attention. No, wait, one last thought to investigate: does Aldebaran (the "I" of the Bull) ever occur in the Psalms (AEA)? No, according to Google Gemini, Aldebaran does not appear in any of the 151 canonical psalms of the Eastern Orthodox Church, but it may appear in Job 9:9 and 38:32. More generally, the word "bull" appears in Psalm 22:12 and in Psalm 69:31. Okay, enough with the apophenia. But I have to admit, Raphael Grossi does have a tough job.