Embodying Venus Part II
This newsletter is part of a series on the magical-creative properties of the planets, as well as how to begin embodying them yourself.
So much of astrological study nowadays is confined to book learning but my understanding of the planets improved dramatically when I began engaging them directly. By doing this, I could conjure feelings, deeply-impressed images and great meaning behind the words I used.
This newsletter offers you a portal to have your own connection to Venus. It’s one thing to say Venus is about love or beauty but it’s another to be in the midst of a luxe dinner party or wearing your favorite perfume and think “Venus would like this too”.
If you want help connecting to your unique Venus, and the rest of yourself through the stars, my books are currently open! My readings are meant to lift you up, to secure you against difficulty and remind you that there is always space, creativity, play. Book now to remember your place in the cosmos.
This writing is intentionally not technical and meant to be understood even by those who have not studied astrology but want to connect more deeply to their world and themselves. Remember: these planets all describe fundamental parts of us. Whether you try to or not, you embody Venus everyday. By learning what functions and activities with which Venus corresponds, you learn more about yourself and your life, with nothing added but attention.
By reaching this felt understanding of Venyus (and the other planets), I believe we are also able to be better magicians and artists— two categories whose differences are slowly shrinking in my eyes. Do we not need the same centeredness and momentum to create a piece of art as we do to create a spell or gaze into the future? Aren’t we vessels for something beyond our small self in both? This essay also delves into where in your creative-spiritual practice a dose of Mercury could serve you well.
To read Part I, on the Moon, click here, Part I on the Sun, click here and Part I on Mercury click here, Part I on Venus click here.
Natural Magic
“Tree speaks to stone; stone speaks to water”
-Susanna Clarke
In my last installment on Venus, we left off discussing Venus and harmony, or the planet’s ability to connect the seemingly fractured parts of the world together at any point in time. In practice, this concept is as simple at stopping at a crosswalk and observing the sounds, cars, dogs, people surrounding you. I feel this act of presence as a sort of melting. Dr. Ali Olomi calls Venus's power the “magic of nature, [the] magic of feeling, the magic of instinct or magic of intuition”. 1 This deeply felt power is Venus’s ability to bring the far away things very, very close; this is her role as the Lesser Benefic, better able to fit into smaller and smaller spaces, finding connection everywhere.
This harmonious quality also leads into Venus’s role in magic; though certain planets, like Jupiter and the Sun, say, have been singled out as religious planets, or having to do with the celestial parts of life, I believe all planets have a magical and spiritual role to play. Venus corresponds with natural magic, or finding the occult powers of rocks, plants, animals, the weather. Cornelius Agrippa defines natural magic as “that which contemplates the powers of all natural and celestial things, and searching curiously into their sympathy, doth produce occults powers in nature…so coupling inferior things as allurements to the gifts of superior things”.2 Natural magic demonstrates that even the matter of earth, inferior to the perfect Ideas and purity of the Celestial world, pulse with knowledge of the heavens. Olomi tells us "Venus is the principle which transforms the plain old rock into a force that moves mountain," or "the spirit of nature itself".3 Venus tells us there is more to see when we look beyond our habitual thinking and become intimate with the world as it actually is; even the most mundane substances have supernatural meaning. This magic is not something extra but a deep part of the natural world, or, as Agrippa puts it, "from thence arise wonderful miracles, not so much by art as by nature, to which art becomes an assistant whilst it works these things".4 When we craft talismans, pick a flower at a certain time, make art or oils or offerings to a planet or entity, we are trying to enhance or harness the magic that already arises, enter the current that is already there. The artifice we create on the face of a stone or in making a product is just to support innate power in this earthly realm.
In that sense “devotion” is a wonderful word to dedicate to Venus; the ability to give oneself over to something “outside” of you and let it guide you. Venus’s style of religiosity, as Dr. Olomi puts it, is “ecstatic, all-consuming”.5 The word "ecstasy" comes from the Greek ekstasis, meaning to “stand outside of oneself”.6 This sort of hollowing out is what lets the Muse enter you in art-making and it's what lets you feel the presence of the divine in religious ceremonies. Venusian magic is intimate, present before thought, and deeply felt.
an activity: Notice if there’s a certain planet, stone, metal or other natural substance that has been "“following” you lately or catching your eye. Greet it when you see it and if you find it outside, ask if you can take it with you. If it assents, then start carrying it around with you. Ask it questions. Journal and meditate with it. Do you have any dreams with it or any interesting syncs? Try researching its magical properties and request to have those enhanced in your life. Often, the thing that’s chasing us is chasing us for a reason.
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