One thing of my Zen teachers called breath practice, or following your inhalations and exhalations as a meditation anchor, a “beginner, intermediate and advanced practice”. We can forget how deceptively complex the basics are, if you dare look deep enough.
That was my mindset when I wrote my Embodying the Planets series, which you can now purchase in full as a zine: though I have been studying astrology for years, I always find greater depth every time I revisit the basics, especially the planets. They truly are the foundation for the rest of the discipline and if you understand these seven traditional planets, you not only know a ton about astrology, you can begin integrating it into your daily life.
That is the bridge I wish to gap: the one between intellectual and embodied understanding. While I have learned much from studying ancient texts and reading books on the planets, what really cemented my understanding of the planets was noticing when they showed up in my direct experience.
For months, I not only compiled all my favorite resources and observations about the planets into comprehensive essays, but created exercises and rituals to help sink that intellectual knowledge into your bones.
By learning how to find the planets in your daily life, you are halfway to remediation, or the practice of using astrology to balance and transform your life.
If you want to learn more about remediation, check out my recent newsletter on the subject.
So today, I though I would give you a taste of that is like using the planet Venus. I believe Zacc Powell was the first astrologer whom I heard say that everyone would do well to spend more time with Venus because we could all use more pleasure and enjoyment in our lives.
Here is an excerpt of what I wrote about Venus for my zine:
Compared to Jupiter, the Greater Benefic, Venus is a much smaller planet with a much shorter orbit. While it takes Jupiter roughly one year to traverse one sign of the zodiac, Venus spends about a month in each sign and usually cycles through the whole zodiac in one calendar year. Accordingly, Venus’s pleasures are more intimate, perhaps more fleeting, and local: a really good meal; the kiss from a lover; the feeling in your body when you stop and witness a rose.
Marsilio Ficino tells us we align ourselves with Venus “by gaiety and music and festivity” 3. Abu Ma'shar lists such things as "board games, chess, backgammon while reclining, sweetness, sugar, honey, wine, shopping and enjoying shopping" as under Venus's purview 4. In the more recent era, Helena Avelar and Luis Ribeiro in "On the Heavenly Spheres," tell us "[Venus's] expression is pleasant, composed and joyful, although not given to work or effort" 5. It is clear that Venus enjoys the good life. The intimate relationship between one of our divine emissaries and pleasure also demonstrates the spiritual importance of feeling good. In a world that so often forgoes pleasure for labor, it is quite revolutionary to remember that sweetness is not some extra but crucial for a fulfilling, spiritually whole life.
One could even say Venus is busy even at rest. In his Three Books Occult Philosophy, Agrippa calls Venus “safeguarder of the human species, allowing no moment of time pass empty of beneficence nor idle” 6. Even moments of repose have significance, movement. It reminds me of a quote often misattributed to John Lennon, a Libra: "Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time".
But I also wanted to show you how you can see Venus show up in your everyday life. Here are some everyday objects and activities when you want to some beauty, creativity, joy, romance in your life. Any of these things can be Venus remediation, made even more so by setting an intention or specifically offering that time up to the goddess of love
Smelling Roses
Venus and I have made a pact where anytime I pass a rose bush, I have to take a sniff. Living in Portland, the Rose City, means taking frequent stops to experience the many blooms I pass on a given walk but it’s always worth it. I have written extensively about roses before because the flower just makes itself so universally appealing. The smell, the appearance, the danger, all make it tantalizing and exciting to me no matter how many times I see them.
I find my sense of smell and ability to pick up the fainter, hybridized rose scent has also improved. I also feel like I’m praying to Venus when I put rose water on my face as a daily toner. You not only have to smell roses; you too can smell like one to embody the lesser benefic.
Dressing Up
Of course it’s fun to have a special occasion to put on your fancy dress or nice earrings, but I find my days are filled with so much more texture when I adorn myself lavishly just because. After a long day, I have taken to slipping my new see-through tulle dress over my outfit while I listen to records and gaze lovingly at myself in front of a mirror. Even if I won’t see anyone else, I feel so magical taking two minutes to swipe on a cat eye or wear my long, pink tasseled earrings because I can feel like a queen all by myself.
Treat Yourself (and Mean It)
I remember reading a while ago that you shouldn’t just reward yourself after completing a task lest you begin to believe you only deserve pleasure after toil. But one of Venus’s whole thing is that we are allowed to feel pleasure just because we are alive and have a body with which to experience it. So nowadays, I celebrate myself by eating multiple spooky green-dyed candy on Halloween; go out of my way to the big bookstore in town so I can purchase the newest I-Ching book for no other reason than that I’ve been waiting months for its release. You do this when you take a bath instead of a shower and stay as long as you want; have a late morning reading in bed; a private dance party just because. Notice if there is guilt coming up around pleasure for its own sake and if you can be soft with that part of you. This is what meaning it means to me: enjoying it rather than being in your head and have compassionate curiosity when you can’t just be yet. It take times. Venus says the journey can be pleasurable too.
Flirt
One thing I’ve been working on lately is making eye contact in public. Not in a creepy way I hope, just softly scanning the room rather than keeping my eyes to the ground. I notice if anyone draws my attention or returns my gaze. There is no ulterior motive to this looking; just a merging with the world and seeing what looks back. Maybe if someone around me is wearing a cute outfit, I let them know, regardless of if I want to date them. I think a lot of my issues around flirting in the past comes from being too goal oriented; flirting is most satisfying when its pleasure lies in the moment of meeting, just two or more souls enjoying each other, even if nothing else happens. This can extend to all sorts of connections; give your lover an extra long kiss and tell them something you appreciate about them. Tell your friend or sibling that you’ve been thinking about them if you have been. Venus loves not out of obligation or a sense of control but because it is enjoyable just to experience.
The Color Green
Though Venus is often associated with pinks and pastels, green is perhaps the most classic color of this planet. Green shows growth, life, a connection to the land. It is here where Venus is at her most sensual and natural; no dressing up or being anything other than what you are. But there are many shades of green, each with their own feeling and history. Of chartreuse, author Katy Kelleher says it “stops screaming and begins to hum, singing songs of childhood and nostalgia, periods of growth and joy”.1 She calls a deeper, appley shade of called “Hooker’s Green” “a haunting color, heartbreakingly familiar and deceptively pleasant”.2 There is forest green, sea foam, teal, olive, sage. Perhaps there’s a certain shade you wear a lot or draws your eye when out in public. Spend time with that shade, perhaps researching it or just meditating on it, and see what that intimacy yields.
Call yr reps, attend a rally/vigil, call for a ceasefire
What is happening in Palestine is beyond words. It is anti-human, anti-the truth of our interconnection and shared joy. We are witnessing genocide in real time being cosigned and funded by the American government. The fact that $14 billion of our taxpayer dollars can be mustered to fuel a death machine but not to provide improved infrastructure, education, or healthcare to our citizens is just salt on the wound. Do what you can to let your elected officials know that this deeply wrong and a ceasefire is necessary to avoid further horrors. Get involved with local movements.
Portlanders: there is a rally, a vigil and a flower-making event all happening tomorrow, 11/4. If you can, consider attending. You will see me at the vigil!!
Learn more here.
I believe all of these activities can also be their own form of magic, of inviting more pleasure, beauty, creativity, connection, to your life.
But Venus is just one of seven chords that sound throughout our lives.
The Planets are the building blocks of astrology: understand the 7 traditional planets and you will understand seven dominant categories of experience and matter that we interact with every day. My newest offering, “Embodying the Planets” uses both the mind and the body to facilitate this astral understanding. By featuring both long-form essays and participatory activities, this zine helps you see the planets in your own life and comprehend how they impact your life.
This is for anyone who wishes to deepen their knowledge of astrology, and bring more intimacy to their lives, both intellectually and experientially. Prior astrology knowledge not required.
For now, I leave you with this poem from Lebanese writer Etel Adnan.
Until next time,
Love,
Chloe
ds https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2018/10/03/hookers-green-the-color-of-apple-trees-and-envy/https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2018/12/17/chartreuse-the-color-of-elixirs-flappers-and-alternate-realities/
https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2018/10/03/hookers-green-the-color-of-apple-trees-and-envy/