The main theme that has been occupying me recently is the spiritual dimension of love and its embodiment on Earth. This is why I am dedicating a series of articles to this topic; the present text is the first in that series.
Everything began with my reading of Marie-Louise von Franz’s work on Amor and Psyche, where she presents a psychological interpretation of the archetype of Venus and remarks that its incarnation in the collective soul of humanity still lies ahead. For me, this comment carries great significance, especially in light of the esoteric literature I have read, where the same idea appears under a different formulation — namely, the “building of the body of love,” understood as a central task of the spiritually seeking individual in the contemporary world.
Venus, then, is the archetype of love. And as with every archetype, in order to understand it more fully, it must be approached from multiple perspectives. I will begin by presenting a selection of quotations from Liz Greene, whose writing I deeply appreciate for its psychological insight and wisdom. Through these excerpts, we will see:
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why Venus’s deepest meaning is connected with self-love, self-respect, spontaneous joy, and sensual satisfaction;
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how this relates to the affirmation of individual values through the choices we make;
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why this places Venus in opposition to collective values and aligns her with the processes of individuation;
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why her impulses lie at the core of love triangles, whose soul-level function is to create conditions for awareness and growth;
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and what her positive and negative manifestations look like as an archetype embodied in the world of duality and matter.
More on all of this follows in the quotations below.∗ (please see the end note)
Liz Greene:
We can approach the essence of Venus through the figure of the temple prostitute… erotic love… Part of the power and sanctity of the temple prostitute comes from her refusal to be bound by the laws and restrictions of conventional family life; she can give herself without restraint and thus discover herself and her capacity to give pleasure without concern for who pays the rent. No man can tame or humiliate her; she cannot be bound by the needs of anyone’s son. Her pleasure and joy create pleasure and joy in her partners, and she is unafraid to give of herself because she simply is what she is…
She does not suffer from insecurity at all, but expresses the absolute power of attraction — not because of what she can provide (nurturing, care, security), but because of what she is. She does nothing in order to be loved, because she embodies the essence of the beloved. Venus truly symbolizes absolute self-love and self-respect; she can give herself joyfully to others, but her value does not depend on them…
For Venus, relationships — exchanges with others — serve as a means of gradually forming individual values, which in turn support the development of the core of personality symbolized by the Sun. Our “choices” in love are, in fact, unconscious declarations of what we value most, what we seek outside ourselves, and therefore what we desire… While the Moon seeks relationship for emotional security and well-being, Venus needs it as a mirror — in order to discover her own reflection in the eyes of the beloved.
The golden apple is the symbol of Aphrodite… the awakening of erotic feeling is a deeply psychological and physical separation from the parent, for through it the individual becomes not only mortal, but free.
Thus, in relation to Venus, we must ask ourselves: what do I value most?
The planet Venus symbolizes our capacity to form and recognize what we value most — the foundation of the authenticity of our personal choices.
Here we encounter the myth of Paris, who chooses Venus as the most beautiful and must then live with the consequences of that choice. In this sense, Venus is connected with the choices we make — and therefore with individual values. She is passionate desire — for a person or for some other goal.
Venus is not concerned with relationships per se, but rather with self-definition through them. This is the deepest meaning of Venus: the object of our love — whether a person, a possession, or an intellectual ideal — is a mirror of our souls.
If we wish to remain loyal to that dimension of the soul which astrology calls “Venus,” we will sooner or later become victims of individual values and morality, because while individual values can often coincide with collective ones, there usually comes a day when they no longer do… Perhaps for this reason Aphrodite in mythology constantly provokes adultery among mortals. Someone grows horns, or is seized by an unusual passion…
A constant companion of Aphrodite in her mischievous incursions among mortals is her son Eros, who strikes her chosen victims with his arrows…
As you can see, Aphrodite represents a profound threat to the collective — as Hera experiences her in mythology, Hera being her archetypal enemy. According to traditional standards, Aphrodite is an immoral goddess, and people suffer because of her passions: families break apart, spouses are abandoned, children become embroiled in scandals, and so on. Wherever Aphrodite plays, someone usually falls into deep emotional collapse.
But if we look at her less dogmatically, we see that she is a great champion of the individual, challenging collective definitions of the “appropriate” relationship through the emotional problem of individual values. Whenever I give a seminar on this dimension of Venus, someone in the group becomes angry about the pain caused by “inappropriate” infatuations and love triangles. Yes, people always suffer in these situations — but the question is which suffering we are willing to choose, because the denial of Venus brings equal or even greater pain. Triangles are a major Venusian theme, and no one escapes them — yet nothing stimulates growth more powerfully.
Severing oneself from Venus has characteristic consequences. One of them is a loss of self-esteem at a very basic level — and neither compensation through others’ approval nor a suitably self-denying ideology can help.
The Sun grants us an understanding of the meaning of life. But what good is understanding if we cannot feel happy and satisfied? This quality lies at the heart of Taurus and the second house, and it begins with love for one’s own body as a source of pleasure, beauty, and satisfaction. This concerns not only sexual pleasure, but also the simple comforts of material life — the food we eat, the bed we sleep in, the shampoo we use, the home we live in. I am speaking about whether we feel valuable enough to give ourselves pleasure and joy at the most elementary level.
This can be an extremely painful issue when Venus is wounded in the natal chart, because then we feel ugly, worthless, unlovable, undeserving of happiness. This negative self-image is usually rooted in one of the parents, who may have suffered from the very same Venus problem.
Aphrodite is the bearer of joy…
The usual expression of Venus, in both men and women, is connected with the valuation of the body and the feeling of being loved and satisfied — even in small things, which are far more important than they appear. But as with any planet, too much Venus is as problematic as too little. When someone identifies too strongly with Aphrodite, they lose will and initiative. Aphrodite has no goal in life other than to be loved and gratified — and one cannot survive or achieve independence on that basis alone.
Another characteristic pattern appears when we “give away” Venus. A person may become terribly dependent on the people or objects onto which Venus is projected, because through them they gain a false sense of self-worth. This is extremely dangerous, because if the possessions are lost, the self is lost as well…
When we suffer from a lack of self-esteem, we choose partners who treat us in the same way we treat ourselves.
Venusian sexuality is an absolute expression of individuality — a unique selection of the beloved among millions who could serve the same biological purpose. It is a creative act rather than a mere impulse.
When compulsive patterns exist in a person’s sexual life, they usually reflect parental rather than sexual issues, for wherever compulsions are present, family complexes are generally alive and exerting their influence. These family patterns may or may not include sexual expression, but I have often observed that when the same psychological dynamic operates in two people, one expresses the conflict sexually while the partner expresses it in some other area of life.
Venus tells us what is most beautiful, pleasurable, and appropriate for the individual in terms of erotic fulfillment; but because of unconscious impulses, Venus can be wounded, blocked, or distorted by other issues. Since these compulsive impulses are usually directed toward the parents, they are linked with the universal human dilemma of separation. I would say that we cannot fully live Venus until we have completely separated from our parents and family environment, in order to develop our own individual values and preferences.
Characteristic of most compulsions is a duality that reflects a deep and fundamental problem: the desire to leave the womb and the simultaneous impulse to remain within it. We unconsciously express our longing for return through many symbolic gestures and actions, some of which appear in sexual impulses.
Venusian erotic preferences are easily recognized because they bring joy, whereas compulsive impulses — though they may produce intense excitement and a certain relief — rarely make us happy. For example, sadomasochistic sexual behavior brings little or no joy, even though it is usually obsessive for both parties.
—Liz Greene, selected excerpts from The Inner Planets: Building Blocks of Personal Reality, chapters on Venus (author’s English rendering based on a prior Bulgarian translation)
