Venus Combust Dates

Venus is combust for as long as the Sun is 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, with Venus behind the Sun and moving direct, and lasts about two and a half months. The short one comes at the inferior conjunction, when Venus is retrograde between the Earth and the Sun, and lasts around ten days.

In Parashara's table the Sun and Venus are enemies, so this combustion is a real loss. For as long as Venus is hidden, its significations weaken: marriage, love, art, comfort, vehicles, wealth and the reproductive system. Desire remains, with little ease in fulfilling it. Relationships feel dry, and money spent on pleasure buys less of it.

Muhurta Chintamani lists Shukra asta, along with Guru asta, among the standard reasons to postpone a wedding. Venus is the karaka of marriage, and a hidden karaka cannot bless the union. The rule covers the wedding itself, and a marriage already made is untouched.

The house where the combustion falls, counted 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 calls for care in partnership and in spending.

The weeks show whether love was for the person or for the pleasure, and art made during them tends to be honest and often sad.

The remedies are Lakshmi worship 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.