The Path of Hearts or Pentacles

“Hey man.” Warren grabbed the forearm of his friend Matt, who was the beer bearer for the 40th birthday party. “So, what’s on tap tonight?” queried Warren. Always proud of his artisanal beer, Matt was keen to explain his choice of hops and malts to anyone willing to listen. He had pursued his dream and had landed on his feet, as head brewer for a local pub. He was always pleased to strut his stuff. As they spoke other friends celebrating their spring birthdays joined the party on the last day of May, 2025.

The group was close. Many had gone to school together; and were part of the Star Gazers club. The core group included two tattoo artists, two nurses, a financial analyst, and a handful of less regularly employed.

Kat looked up and thought, “Ok. Take the risk. Set I a scene of something I have seen. " Kat turned her attention back to her story.

In the group of maturing adults, many still held onto childhood social habits and friends. A few had started a family but most had decided not to procreate. Global population expansion had changed the world. It seemed futile to bring children into the repeating model of Marx’s oppressor and oppressed.

The party was held in the backyard near the center of the Island town. The neighbors, a cool elderly couple who were wiccans, had been invited. Terrance, the wiccan warlock looked up at the noble and aristocratic monkey puzzle tree towering some 130 feet high saying, "You have your own tree of wisdom. It is very hard for monkeys to climb, but squirrels can do it. ”

His wife Celia added, “This is the perfect centerpiece for your party. These living fossils have been around for 200 million years. I like to think we are like squirrels who can navigate the rigid symmetry of the spiky bits and tuck away bits of godlike Knowledge. Mankind is given good reason to fear knowledge. It is often kept secret under threat of punishment. After teaching mankind about fire Prometheus had his liver, the seat of the soul, eaten each day. Eve lured Adam to eat from the Tree of Wisdom and Knowledge then both were cast from Paradise. Knowledge is complicated and easily misunderstood. A substandard education is cheap and reduces problems for those in charge.”

Layna, an accountant added. “Many individuals are enslaved by a lack of education, money, psychological adaptability and opportunity. Computers offer some relief from ignorance if you can navigate the spiky bits.”

Kat exhaled."Older generations often criticize the younger generation forgetting they must learn for themselves what they do not know. Baby boomers, imagined hat computers would reduce resource usage. They gave love a chance. Both aspects met with limited success. The truth was less muffled under the growing quagmire of misinformation often generated by AI." She continued her story.

Terrance quoted Alexander Pope, "‘A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.’ Humans are subject to hubris when they think they can outsmart the powers they think they understand. Kepler figured out that the planets have off centered elliptical orbits around the sun. That oval pattern transposes to the albumin around the egg and space between electrons surrounding an atom, muscles and more, but metals and magnetism cause hysteresis to form tear drops. Age allows the acquistion of knowledge to recognize patterns, and sometimes wisdom to develop a plan to re-establish order in the chaos."

There was a pause in the conversation. The night chorus held a cadence of bravado. The group thrived in the confidence of knowing the unspoken rules of etiquette that their friendship afforded. Outbursts of laughter punctuated the evening air. The theme was a fancy-dress party. Small groups chatted amongst themselves. One included a goddess speaking with a South American in traditional garb, a serpent, and a playing card with hearts and pentacles..

Kat chuckled. “What the heck. I enjoy costume parties. They transform the atmosphere into a stage.”

The night curtain fell. Kat called out, “Happy 40th to the many among you were born in spring forty years ago. Forty is not just another number. Let me explain.” Kat pointed to the heavens with a laser . “That’s Mars close to the moon in the constellation Leo. Jupiter is approaching Mercury in Taurus. At sunrise, Venus will be a morning star, at its greatest elongation in Pisces. Warren and his famous electric guitar, and a selected cast, will help me present a case for why forty is special. Take it away!

Warren established a heavy metal beat and in his gravelly voice sang. “We are all forty disciples. We learn and forget in cycles.”

A goddess walked forward. Kat explained, “Mankind describes archetypes using an Astro-mythological reality. Myths of Venus have been written in the stars. The symbol for Venus, females and the Queens of Heaven, is the ankh, also called the mouth, said to interpret knowledge and the key of Life and resurrection. It is worn by the Sumerian goddess Inanna and the Egyptian goddesses Hathor and Isis."

A person draped in a scarf, with varying transects of circles, walked across the stage. Kat stated, “Venus has many faces as it cycles from new to old, through the constellations every 18 months which equals the 584 days of the Mayan long year."

Warren’s guitar rang as he sang: Venus in retrograde lasts forty days , as did Noah’s flood, and Moses, Oannes and Jesus’ desert stays.

Kat withdrew from the story world. She was frustrated that Scientific facts, the basis of religious myths, are seldom recognized.

A person dressed in a black backed and white front robe, each side adorned with a star, spun across the stage. Kat said, “Venus moves clockwise, opposite to other planets. It appears to cycle forwards, and backwards in retrograde, around the Sun. Venus appears in the evening and was known as Vesper, thenb disappears for 40 days when it is aligned with the sun, and reappears as Lucifer in the morning.

Warren sang. "Forty weeks of gestation are needed for birth. A generation takes 40 years on Earth. What are the odds . Forty is the number of many gods.

Kat explained, “Many ancient fertility gods were represented by the number 40.

Warren’s voice cut the air ." A generation passes when Venus returns to its source. It takes 40 years for man to find wisdom as he follows his course.

A character entered wearing a placard with the heart shaped, five petalled flower orbit of Venus on one side and the Wiccan symbol of a pentagram on the other.

Kat explained, “The Venus cycle occurs five times over eight years. Venus returns to where it started, in the same degree of the zodiac. Venus adorned Sirius, the star marking floods in Egyptian myth, in March 2020 and will do so again in 2028. In retrograde, Venus appears to reverse, creating a rose shaped orbital path over 40 years. Plotting the dates of retrogrades over the five cycles forms a pentagram."

A pyramid walked onto the stage. Kat said, "The moon, considered the serpent, meets Venus each month. Egyptians honoured the serpent by wearing the Asp. Virgin Mothers are often seen with a serpent. On spring and autumn equinox, a snake like shadow of the feathered serpent Quetzalcoatl, slithers down the stairs at the Mayan temple at Chichen Itza, and attaches to the serpent head at the base."

Warren finished with a flourish. “Forty marks a time of trial. Happy fortieth, we’ve gone the mile.

The group applauded. The party continued till dawn.Those present were bathed by the bright morning light of Venus.

The story was finished. Kat pondered, “Perhaps humans like other beasts, are wired not only to the moon, but also to Venus. For their first 40 years they trace Venus' heart-shaped orbits and give love a chance. During the second 40 years, they mark the retrograde pentacle by manifesting good or evil."

Forty months ago Kat wrote her first Vocal.Media's piece for the Dystopian challenge describing a meteor strike that caused radical global changes. Students were taught a new curriculum underground. Kat found little peace knowing irreversible cataclysmic changes happen and are part of the cycle.