Of the Earth, Venus, and Pentacles

It's still Tuesday, right? (Checks clock.) Yep. A couple hours at least. :-)

So I got feedback on the Zaphkiel Project, my first novel and, in a sense, an experimental project. The result? Good and bad news. Good? My editor liked the premise. The bad? Not quite ready for prime time. But even that's good. I recently came across some astronomical information that could really lend some weight to the story.

The transition of Venus, which occurs every 243 years, recently took place in 2004 and will again in 2012 (eight year intervals). Hello, time lock! But even more interesting, I found this from The Pentagonal Cycle of Venus http://www.lunarplanner.com/HCpages/Venus.html

"Because the Earth moves 584 Earth days...before the two planets align, each alignment occurs about 215.6 (degrees) further than the previous one...As this process continues, five unique Venus-Earth locations are created in the ecliptic. The result is a pentagonal synodic series that takes about eight years and which consists of five synodic cycles..."

Pentacles play an important role in this story but it was only until today I realized I could tie them in with this Earth-Venus synodic cycle.

Not only that but Lucifer, a character in the Zaphkiel Project, is also the Latin name for the morning appearance of the planet Venus. I knew this from previous research but not about the pentagonal synodic cycles. Talk about a serendipitous situation. So excited to see if I can implement this.