Venus Goddess of Love, Sex and Fertility
Venus in a chart shows how one expresses affection, feels appreciated and gives of self. It is the key planet connected to values, how we value ourselves and a measure of our self-esteem.
Richard Tarnas in his book Cosmos and Psyche summerises Venus as follows: the principle of desire, love, beauty, value, the impulse to attract and be attracted, to love and be loved, to seek and create beauty and harmony, to engage in social and romantic relations, sensuous pleasure, artistic and aesthetic experience, the principle of Eros and the beautiful, Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty and love.
Venus is connected to the goddess Freya who is connected to love sex and fertility in Norse mythology. Each day of the week is connected to a planet. Freya was connected to the day Friday during the week.
The planet Venus has had an interesting history in Immanuel Velikovsky book; Worlds in Collision he references Venus as follows:
The star that smoked-a Mexican reference
The star with a beard-a Chaldean reference
A star which scatters its flame in fire-an Egyptian reference
The star with hair-a Babylonian reference
The planet Venus was the youngest planet to enter the solar system. It came as a comet and ravaged the Earth by coming to close to it according to Velikovsky. Either way Venus is perceived to be a brilliant star in the morning and evening. The morning and evening star is called Lucifer in the bible, the light bringer.
The archetype of Venus can play out in many ways in one’s astrology chart. Depending on the aspects will determine how a woman will express her sexuality. Here some of the images a woman can express her sexuality from most negative to positive:
Baubo- Not a widely encountered form of feminine today, but widely noted by Medieval writers. Baubo is primitive, female nature deity, who form a masculine point of view, simply devours males in order to keep her own primitive, sexuality going. This is a more adult kind of witch, seen also in a more benevolent form as Circe in the Odyssey and charactised by Roman writers as a negative witch.
The Showgirl- The empty type of femininity in which the natural fertility of Venus is subordinated to only sexual (often pornographic) role.
Puella- The mature feminine which remains regressed in adolescence. Not so much vain, as fully awakened to the higher implications of Venus. This type is similar to the Maiden but without the strength. In modern terms, the valley girl, the eternal girl.
Hetaira- The lover, the independent woman without commitments. In classical Greece she was independent, often wealthy, courtesan.
Venus-Aphrodite- The feminine goddess of love, sex and power.
Shakti- The female and equal part of all true dyads. The strong feminine as symbolised by Isis searching for the lost limbs of Osiris so that he can resurrect him. Innana, Ishtar.