After presenting Liz Greene’s psychological interpretation of Venus, I would like to share what Alan Oken has written about its esoteric significance when Venus becomes the ruler of the sign of Gemini.
In his book Soul Centered Astrology: A Key to Your Expanding Self, in the chapter devoted to Venus, Oken begins with a quotation from Alice Bailey, who describes Venus as “the alter ego of the Earth.” In other words, “Venus in relation to the Earth is what the Higher Self is in relation to the human being.” Psychologically, this means that the essence of the spiritual Self of humanity is love—that every “spiritualization of matter” implies the embodiment of the spiritual principle of love on Earth.
Yet since Earth is the world of duality in matter, this immediately brings us to the central challenge: how can we embody the principle of attraction and relatedness in a realm where everything has its opposite? A realm in which forces of repulsion and separation also exist—forces that, in psychological terms, manifest as painful emotions, including the experience of loneliness.
It is precisely here that the esoteric understanding of Venus becomes relevant—an understanding appropriate for individuals whose ego-center already arises from a relationship with the Self of the Whole. Unlike the exoteric meaning of Venus, whose essence lies in deriving a sense of inner value through pleasure, enjoyment, and gratification, esoteric Venus expresses itself in a fundamentally different way. The spiritual dimension of the planet of love is to function as “the focused will of the mind of God.”
“The basic concept we have of love—especially that aspect of it which is romanticized, sung about in songs and poetry, sought at the ends of the earth, and generally presented as the union of human beings—hardly portrays it as logical in nature! Yet the essential quality of consciousness—the primary emanation of the Divine upon the plane of causation and Its embodiment as humanity—is a pure expression of the Universal Mind. On the level of the Soul, Venus is the agent for the emergence of the Love Principle into Life through the focused will of the Mind of God… It is this illumined human being who becomes the instrument of God’s Love.”
Soul Centered Astrology: A Key to Your Expanding Self, p. 309∗
In order to understand what is meant psychologically by the above, it is helpful to examine separately the two key concepts through which this idea is expressed:
- Focused will.
- The Mind of God.
Venus as a Function of Synthesis
When we speak of will, we are speaking of the strongest desire. Will is a quality of emotional intelligence and, as such, it arises from what is important to us—from our values and from our desire to live in accordance with them. Yet the values of our earthly ego in relation to love differ from the values of the Higher Self. On the level of the personal ego, Venus manifests as the pleasure principle, and this is where difficulties with commitment originate. If a relationship ceases to provide pleasure, Venus begins to seek it elsewhere.
This is the primary psychological root of love triangles, in which the pleasure principle is lived out through the lover, while the reality principle is embodied by the spouse. In such cases, the opposites of banality and romance are projected outward, but this projection renders both relationships incomplete. The individual in the role of the betrayer suffers because of a divided will. Although for some individuals entering a love triangle may “work” without generating major drama, this is not the case for those who have reached the point where they are called to embody the spiritual dimension of love.
In such situations the moral conflict becomes too great, and the suffering that follows serves as fuel for the development of the soul and for the unification of opposites on a new level of consciousness. It is precisely here that the higher dimension of Venus emerges—as the focused will of the Mind of God. In this role, Venus is capable of unifying our fragmented desires, and in doing so it becomes a function of synthesis. And synthesis, as Oken writes, is “the process through which the soul grows.”
Alan Oken, Soul-Centered Astrology: A Key to Your Expanding Self
Venus Transforms Knowledge into Wisdom
Here we come to the second part of the definition of Venus—as the Mind of God manifested as wisdom. For only wisdom, which is capable of seeing both sides of the equation and discerning which of them is valid in any given situation, can find the right way to unite opposites in a harmonious and non-contradictory manner.
“The function of Venus is to transform knowledge into wisdom. It harmoniously links the lower and higher mental faculties through the rhythm of interaction embodied in its sign, Gemini. Its focus within the human organism operates through the Ajna chakra—the Third Eye, the Eye of the Bull, the Horn of the Unicorn, and so on. This is the seat of wisdom and the lens through which the more evolved human being perceives the world. For this reason, Venus is the focal point of synthesis, the resolution of polarity and the merging of duality, leading to the resolution of dualism. Venus is the planet that encourages diplomacy and establishes Right Human Relations among all people and nations. The great potential of Venus lies in its ability to generate harmonious relationships between pairs of opposites, thereby facilitating creative expression on all levels. This may be compared with the functions of Mercury, which awakens consciousness by linking opposites, but does not harmonize or synthesize them.”
Alan Oken, Soul-Centered Astrology: A Key to Your Expanding Self, p. 310
I fully agree with this perspective. Psychologically, differentiation comes first—the ability to distinguish between the different parts that are in inner conflict. When the mind is unable to name and articulate this conflict in terms of opposing desires and impulses, tension arises. For this reason, the first step is to give names to both sides of the conflict. Astrologically, this is the function of Mercury, which has the capacity to perceive and differentiate the pairs of opposites through which an archetype manifests on Earth.
Once the two sides of the inner conflict have been named, the next step is to find an appropriate way to unite them in a new and harmonious manner. Yet such unification cannot take place on a concrete level, because the concrete inevitably belongs to the realm of duality and therefore represents one or the other pole of the opposites. It is precisely here that the role of sacrifice enters the picture—the necessity of sacrificing the concrete in order to develop a new quality on the level of the soul.
“When Venus functions through the consciousness of a soul-centered individual, the concept of love and its functions takes on an entirely different meaning. This new concept of love leads the individual to set as a goal the coordination of the active mind so that it may generate unifying acts of goodwill and foster Right Human Relations. This often requires the lower, personality-oriented nature of love to be sacrificed, so that the transpersonal qualities of love may induce an impersonal orientation in life…”
Alan Oken, Soul-Centered Astrology: A Key to Your Expanding Self, p. 310
Esoteric texts of this kind can be difficult to read and understand. For me, however, they are of great importance, because I know what lies behind such statements on a psychological level. The theme of sacrifice is central to love, because only through sacrifice can unification and synthesis be achieved. Yet this sacrifice must arise from a connection with wisdom; otherwise, the ego-mind may reverse the roles, and what appears to be sacrifice may in fact turn out to be a hidden form of bargaining or ego-driven manipulation.
The Connection of These Ideas with Analytical Psychology
It is easy to see the connection between the ideas presented above and Jung’s analytical psychology.
In this framework, the function of synthesis is known as the transcendent function.
Wisdom is expressed in the symbol of the “The Two-Ray Sun,” which is just because it is able to look simultaneously in both opposing directions; in this sense, it corresponds to the symbol of the Ajna chakra—two petals oriented in opposite directions.
Sacrifice, in turn, is understood as an inevitable attribute of the unification of opposites (see: Marie-Louise von Franz, who states that the sacrifice and that which is sacrificed are one and the same—the ego).
In a following article, I will present Marie-Louise von Franz’s ideas on this subject in more detail. For now, I will summarize what is most essential about the esoteric meaning of Venus: namely, that Venus is the means through which love is embodied on Earth through the development of the qualities of wisdom and the readiness for sacrifice.
Only when the mind learns to perceive life as a pair of opposites, and to discern in each concrete moment which pole of the duality needs to be expressed and which must be sacrificed, do we begin to make decisions that are grounded in love.
Kameliya Hadzhiyska
∗All quoted passages in this article follow the wording of the Bulgarian edition of the book of Alan Oken, Soul-Centered Astrology: A Key to Your Expanding Self
