Category Archives: Venus

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Venus & the Temple of the Sun

Konark Temple of the Sun

Konark Temple of the Sun

This is really not much more than a brief note and inquiry into the nature of the Sun and Venus when they are very closely associated. – in this case in a very beautiful and enigmatic work of art

It’s been my contention for most of my life as an astrologer that Aphrodite is a charming but inadequate personification of the celestial Venus. It is necessary, I think, to broaden one’s view by examining various associations , not just Hellenistic ones, to get a glimpse of the many layers of meaning and variety of expressions to fully understand the significance of the planetary archetype.

There are few better opportunities for this study outside of the Western tradition than that afforded by the temple of Konark , a 13th century Sun Temple, imagessat Konark, in Odisha, India.  It was apparently built by king Narasimhadeva I of the Eastern Ganga Dynasty around 1250. This temple to the Sun god Surya is built in the form of a Solar chariot, drawn by seven spirited horses.

The motif of the Sun in a chariot drawn by horses is ubiquitous in the ancient world, although the details do differ. Here we have time represented by the months of the year, seven days of the week and the number of hours in a day. The chariot wheels themselves are decidedly Solar, but there is also poetry, music and dancers described among the erotic figures and hence we find ourselves very much in the fuller spectrum of all things Venusian. In fact, this is very much the realm of the Fifth House where Venus finds her joy

Sarasvatī - Hindu goddesss of Music, Poetry , Nature

Sarasvatī – Hindu goddess of Music, Poetry , Nature

Venus is known as Shukra in Indian mythology and is male. Shukra means semen, so the associations of fertility and creativity only strengthen the fifth house associations.

Shukra is however also represented by a female deity, most commonly, Lakshima, but there are obvious and close associations with Sarsawati, the patron of music, poetry and learning. The temple appears to embrace the Venusian within the larger Solar context.

This may seem confusing, but is much less so if you consider the Fifth House. First and foremost the house is the realm of all that is creative, including offspring and pleasure in music, poetry and sex. This is the house of Good Fortune in Hellenistic astrology and the parallels between the European and Indian conceptions becomes apparent, as do their differences .konark2

Consider firstly the relationship between the Sun and Venus in the symbolism of this temple’s construction. Its more than proximity of deities. It expresses a deeply intimate relationship to the Sun and Venus. Like all great art, it leaves us with many questions, but the study is time well spent

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The Taurean Venus

Venus Consoling Cupid - Benjamin West

Venus Consoling Cupid, Stung by a Bee – Benjamin West

Planets and Signs are Archetypes. Astrology is an art that considers the microcosm in relation to the macrocosm. That isn’t a modern idea. It’s an ancient one. So when we talk of the astrological Venus we refer to a rich matrix of attributes, each of which will manifest according to her Sign, her placement and her relationship to other planets and luminaries.

The glyph for Venus consists of the circle of Spirit, having precedence over the cross of matter. In medicine and in all the biological sciences it is still the symbol for the feminine.venusglyph Venus is the Ruler of both Taurus and Libra. In this article, I will be focusing on what I will call the Taurean Venus. This is her Earthly domicile. She is very much at home here, so it affords an opportunity for discussion of this particular expression of the Venus archetype

Taurus is a fixed earth sign and here Venus is the Earth Mother or womb from whose energy the earth receives the beauty of the natural world, as well as the comforts and pleasures it may afford. In Taurus, Venus is in her dignity and is best described as the voluptuary, a lover of physical, earthly beauty. This is the embodiment of Eros.

As the Sun waxes in Taurus, the Earth is green and full of new life. Venus delights in beauty, including the arts of poetry, dance, music and visual art.  She’s the creative force that bringing new life through erotic love as well as procreation. She rules the sense of touch. In Classical Astrology, she is naturally said to take her joy in the fifth house.

Venus was identified in tradition as the daughter of the Moon. The Moon and Venus are both reflective, feminine archetypes in the chart.

Venus is more than the figure of Aphrodite can describe. In Classical mythology she was a powerful, but potentially treacherous deity.

Lucretia Borgias by Lucas Cranach- A Darker Side to Eros

Lucretia Borgias by Lucas Cranach- A Darker Side of Eros gone awry. Cranach did a few paintings on the same theme, But here there is some ambiguity. Lucretia committed suicide but had poisoned countless people. She has been considered as an erotic serial killer .

The metal associated with Venus is copper. We know that copper is widely used in the cosmetic industry!  In alchemy, Venus is externally beautiful and highly receptive, but with a corrosive core.

The Venus cycle corresponds to the gestation period and underscores her role as bringer of life.Lakshmi - The Hindu Goddess of Wealth & Beauty

Lakshmi – The Hindu Goddess of Wealth & Beauty

In Babylonian tradition she was a “star” in a trinity with the Moon and Sun. She was at one time personified as the Great Goddess who gave birth to the Sun, and at other times known as Lucifer, the light-bearing attendant to the Sun.

As River and Gillespie have written, the deities associated with Venus in the Ancient Near East were “active initiators, for they brought in the day, awakening solar vitality. As the gentle and loving Evening Star, Venus was Zib, Hesperus and Shalem,said to speak the Word of Peace nightly to the Sun, giving the Hebrew and Arabic word for peace, shalom and salaam.

As Evening Star, Venus returns to the lunar world of the imagination.” (The Knot of Time. p. 79). It is easy then to see her connection to the idealistic,  spiritualized love of Pisces, the sign of her own exaltation.

The Venus element in the natal chart is a place of potential vibrancy and sensual delight. An unafflicted Venus in the fifth house can produce great artistic ability. Venus in the same house but afflicted and in a different sign, may signal no more than a profligate gambler.

In other cultures, such as India the equivalent of Ishtar, Aphrodite and Venus is revered as the Goddess Rati and as the Tantric Goddess Shakti. However. the most Venusian Hindu Goddess is Lakshima, particularly in relation to the Taurean Venus

The Hindu god Krishna Surrounded by Ladies - British Museum

The Hindu god Krishna Surrounded by Ladies – British Museum

In the painting above the god Krishna is enjoying the sensuality of earthly life. Many of the attributes of this painting seen quite Taurean to me.

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Venus : The Golden Mean & the Pentacle

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Nautilus – Golden Ratio

What is now called the Fibonacci Series was allegedly discovered C. 1200 AD by Leonardo Fibonacci,

It isn’t clear that Fibonacci understood the full import of his discovery or its relation to Phi or the Golden Mean.

There is a good deal of evidence that the ratio was known in ancient times. It has been said that the Pythagoreans considered he planet Venus and the pentagram as one and the same.

Venus, with her 13:8 orbital proportion to Earth, traces out a pentagram in the heavens over an 8-year period.goldenTriangle2

The numerical ratio is 1.61803398875. We find this expressed in the architecture of the pyramids of Egypt, the Parthenon in Athens, a multitude of Gothic cathedrals and many modern architectural works of art..It’s the ratio expressed in DNA

golden_ratio

golden_ratio

Take the nautilus shell for example. Each new segment has a 1.616033 ratio with the one preceding it.

We find it everywhere in some of the most famous works of art, particularly Classical or Renaissance. The Mona Lisa and many other works by Leonardo D’ Vinci demonstrates his familiarity and prolific use of the ratio.

Botticelli’s Venus is a virtual embodiment of the ratio, as is Michelangelo’s David.  The Venus pentagram was well know to adepts such as John Dee.

In fact, it is said that whatever expresses itself in this ratio is most pleasing to us.

The Golden Means also manifests abundantly in nature. Everything from sunflowers, fiddle heads and most flowering plants. The ratio recurs throughout the animal kingdom. Some of the best known are the the spiral shelled snails and the nautilus. The human ear has the same ration as do spiral galaxies.gold11

These all have the same ratio as recurring themes, one might say fractals.

It seems appropriate that Venus, the planet of beauty, harmony and attraction should express this ratio on a grand scale. We don’t know which came first: the recognition of beauty and harmony of Venus’ cycle or the attributes given to her.

It seems plausible that the two events were contemporary with each other. That would resonate with the fact that both have been known since ancient times.

In the process of the unfolding cycle, we have the spiral, the triangle and the circle. When her cycle is complete, she has formed a pentagram. image19

For something so powerful and so beautiful to be unknown to most of humanity is one more symptom of alienatation, not only from nature and the night sky, but from our ancestors. This 8 years cycle is, after all, in her relation to the Earth.

The Venus Cycle and Phi