Venus Combust Dates

Venus is combust when the Sun passes within ten degrees of it, or eight when Venus is retrograde. Parashara and Surya Siddhanta give those orbs. The long combustion comes at the superior conjunction, Venus behind the Sun and moving direct, and lasts about two and a half months. The short one comes at the inferior conjunction, Venus retrograde between the Earth and the Sun, and lasts around ten days.

The Sun and Venus are enemies in Parashara's table, and the combustion is a real loss. Venus's significations, marriage, love, art, comfort, vehicles, wealth and the reproductive system, lose their strength for as long as Venus is hidden. Desire is present without the grace to fulfil it. Relationships feel dry, and money spent on pleasure gives less pleasure.

Muhurta Chintamani holds Shukra asta, with Guru asta, among the standard reasons a wedding is postponed. Venus is the karaka of marriage, and a hidden karaka cannot bless the union. The rule applies to the wedding itself; a marriage already made is untouched.

The house where the combustion happens, from the Moon and from the lagna, names the field. In Phaladeepika's favourable houses for Venus, the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, eighth, ninth, eleventh and twelfth, the period is a pause in comfort. In the sixth, seventh or tenth it asks for care in partnership and in expense.

Venus combust shows how one holds desire when its object is hidden. It reveals whether love was for the person or for the pleasure. Art made in the period is honest and often sad.

The remedy is Lakshmi and the mantra Om Shukraya Namah. Parashara's dana for Venus is white cloth, rice, curd and silver, given on Friday. Offer water to the Sun, and postpone the wedding until Venus rises again.