At the end of May, New Orleans hosted one of the world’s largest conferences of professional astrologers. Earlier this week, the planet Venus made its breathtaking visible transit across the face of the sun – the last time such an event will take place for more than a hundred years. And on June 6, author Ray Bradbury – a poet of 20th century science fiction, who seemed to track stardust across pages written before men ever actually stood on the moon – passed away.

Is this what they call a harmonic convergence? Is the moon in the seventh house – or perhaps Mercury’s in retrograde? (I forget, honestly, if those things are bad, or good.)

Either way, it seems like the stars are aligning to tell us to lie back, consider the mysteries of the zodiac, and dig some psychedelic sounds from the spaceways with this hour-long playlist – bookended, of course, by two cuts from Sun Ra, the most famous American musician to actually come from outer space (Saturn, to be exact.)

Click the link to listen to the playlist “Ain’t No Particular Sign I’m More Compatible With” on Spotify.

Oh, and what’s your sign?

1. Planet Earth – The Sun Ra Arkestra

2. Born Under A Bad Sign – William Bell

3. Readings In Astrology – Curtis Mayfield

4. No Matter What Sign You Are – The Supremes

5. I Am The Black Gold Of The Sun – The Rotary Connection

6. Age of Aquarius/Let the Sun Shine In – The Fifth Dimension

7. Scorpio – Dennis Coffey

8. Venus – Shocking Blue

9. Third Stone From The Sun – The Jimi Hendrix Experience

10. Capricorn – Miles Davis Quintet

11. Space is the Place – The Sun Ra Arkestra

Originally published: http://www.nola.com/music/index.ssf/2012/06/in_honor_of_the_transit_of_ven.html