The planet Venus is named after the Roman goddess of beauty and love. To the Greeks she was known as Aphrodite. She is perhaps the most ancient and primal of all the goddesses around the world, and has had many names from many cultures over human history. She is often referred to as the Goddess of Love, and the Goddess of Generation due to her creative powers of attraction, abundance and prosperity. She is associated with the lush fertile greenness on our planet, and the life giving force it provides to animals and humankind.
As an archetypal figure Venus embodies the power of spirit to attract and animate matter. Venus expresses love in the world by drawing to her the prima materia to bring Spirit into physical form. She provides warmth and substance. She holds, cares for and preserves the seed: the embryo form of beauty gestating in our earthly world. Venus represents our ability, as spiritual beings having a human experience, to manifest the beauty of spirit through our corporeal selves and by working with material resources in the world to create tangible objects of practical beauty.
All human creative endeavors, including mythology, are influenced by the cultural paradigms, beliefs and assumptions of their time and place. The Greek and Roman myths we know are a product of the patriarchal worldview of the past three thousand or more years. The archetypal figures in Greek and Roman mythology and their stories are all interpreted and told through a misogynist lens. Masculine endeavors and traits are over-valued in the patriarchal system, while the feminine are under-valued, even denigrated.
Reforming Uranus conjoining the Taurus Sun this month directs us to break through the old patriarchal view of Venus and revise our attitudes, stories and interpretations of this important feminine archetype. It is high time to up-date and modernize our vision of the Divine Feminine principle. Getting back to basics, looking at Venus and her sign of Taurus from an energetic level may help us see her in a truer light. As a receptive fixed earth sign, Taurus is patient and loyal, warm and generous, earth centered, and practically creative. Connecting with the earth through all our bodily senses can help bring us into direct contact with Taurus’ planetary ruler Venus, and develop a greater appreciation and understanding of her archetypal principle.
“The body is condensed Soul.” – LiYana Silver