Venus and Her Friends
Venus is well-known for its beauty. The Romans called their principle goddess of love and beauty, “Venus,” while the Greeks called her, “Aphrodite.” Venus entices and charms. Even beautiful landscapes or flower gardens are endowed with Venusian energy. Most obviously, beautiful woman represent the energy of Venus.
Venus’ beauty, however, runs a spectrum ranging from gaudy and grotesque to refined and elegant. And the sign it is in and the planets it is associated with determine where it will fall on this spectrum. In short, all Venuses are not created equal.
Venus rules Libra and Taurus which represent different facets of its personality. Libra is the masculine side and, as an air sign, is focused on social enterprises. Libra types could be cheerleader captains—expressing both a concern for beauty along with the desire for social networking. Libra could also be a social crusader or even a politician looking for create a more beautiful and harmonious world (the symbol for Libra is the scale or balance reflecting its fundamental desire to create balance and equality).
Taurus, on the other hand, focuses more on the enjoyment of life and being beautiful and desirable. Taurus’ shadow side can be laziness, shallowness, and excessive sensuality. However, in a more directed and disciplined person, the beauty of Taurus can make others more receptive to whatever a Venusian person has to give. And the beauty found here can actually direct others to a higher inner beauty. (Krishna, for example, is well-known to have strong Taurus energy.)
Saturn and Mercury are Venus’ allies. Saturn is discipline and depth. It cares about serious things and, as a rule, is not very susceptible to shallowness and sensuality (which are Venus’ very pitfalls). When allied with Saturn, Venus’ energy becomes more easily harnessed for good. Venus can be beautiful, magnetic, and socially intelligent. All of these qualities make it easy for Venusian people to get their way and to charm others into following them.
When Venus becomes too emotional, egotistical, or sexual it usually leads us to disaster. Helen of Troy, famously misguided by Venus’ influence, left her husband for a Trojan prince and sparked a war between 50,000 Greek soldiers and Troy—causing death on a vast scale and unimaginable suffering for both the armies involved and the Trojan citizens. That is a long way of saying that Venus is not just beautiful—it is vastly powerful! And power needs to be guided by wisdom. Saturn—clothed in detachment and self-restraint—is wise.
Mercury is different from Saturn but is another of Venus’ allies. Mercury does not restrain and focus Venus like Saturn does, but rather, it refines her. Mercury is the god of speed, communication, detail, and even refinement. Like Venus, Mercury can also fall into the realm of shallowness and is weakened by seeking endless sensory stimulation. Obviously, when allied with Venus’ charm and sensuality this can be a disastrous combination. And, with this in mind, we should note that Mercury is as likely to over-stimulate Venus as it is to improve and refine her.
However, when Mercury is more mature it refines Venus and endows her with clarity of communication, refinement, and discrimination.
With Mercury’s refinement and Saturn’s maturity Venus possesses queenly virtues and, through its grace, leads others on noble pursuits and inspires them to express their own grace and beauty.
