The transits of the planets

Effects of transiting Venus

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Inward

The inward effects of Venus's energies appear in two forms. The emotional form is the experience of giving and receiving love. But English presents a problem: our language is rather impoverished when it comes to the word 'love'. Many other languages have several words that all tend to be translated into English as love. For example, the 'philo' in philosophy is often rendered as love, but it really means something closer to 'a fond appreciation of'. Even that does not quite capture it, because the word 'fond' is rather weak in English, whereas the Greek word 'philos' can indicate quite an intense feeling. 'Friendship' is another possible translation. Then there is the word 'agape', which represents the kind of love that arises when we appreciate the divine and transcendent element in all human beings. We also have the Greek word 'eros', which is earthy, passionate love. However, the energies of Venus signify all of these, so in some respects the English word does correlate very well with all Venusian energies taken together. When Venus is active by transit, you may feel any of these forms: sexual love, friendship, or, in the proper setting, a sense of divine love.

The other inward effect of Venus is to create a feeling of harmony and peace within your soul. This indicates that, for a little while at least, all the elements of your being are in accord. This element of Venusian energy often signifies a desire to be in the presence of beautiful things: works of art, poetry, literature, drama, and music.

Outward

The outward expressions of Venus's energies can also be broadly divided into two parts: the aspect of love and the aspect of harmony and peace. The transits of Venus, for example, are favorable for hosting a successful party or for enjoying yourself when you attend one, whether or not you meet someone special. They also increase the likelihood of finding someone for a relationship, though it helps if you are looking in the first place. Venus transits are favorable for virtually any form of entertainment, except for the rougher kinds of sports, which are more the domain of Mars. Yet some sports, even though they have a martial objective, namely to win, often display a kind of harmony and integration among the players that is beautiful to observe.

With this, we have entered the "harmony and peace" aspect of Venus. This is what connects us to the search for beauty in our environment, and for this reason the transits of Venus are suitable for attending artistic performances of almost any kind, although other planetary elements may be involved in such things as tragedies, heavy metal concerts, and exhibitions of many kinds of avant-garde art.

Venus at the Personal Level

What makes Venus somewhat more personal than interpersonal is that most people are seeking the experience of being loved and what it does for each of us. There is nothing wrong with this unless it degenerates into narcissism, which, in its most common form, simply means being more interested in being appreciated and loved than in returning those energies to others. I do not use the word in its clinical, psychiatric sense, although there is some connection between the mythological and psychiatric interpretations of the term.

Another aspect of Venus that is primarily associated with its personal level of manifestation is the feeling of peace and harmony that can sometimes accompany Venus transits. When this happens, you simply feel good and at peace with the world. There is nothing problematic about this.

On the physical side, Venus, along with Mars, is associated with the reproductive system and with organs that purify the blood (itself associated with Mars) or that control metabolism. Among these are the thyroid gland and the other glands associated with it, the kidneys, and the adrenal glands, which are associated with the kidneys.

Venus at the Interpersonal Level

Although the most common manifestations of Venus occur at the personal level as described above, they typically involve another person, so Venus also operates very well at the interpersonal level. At the level of social systems in general, Venus is associated with all the elements of the social order that help people live together in harmony and peace. Unlike other planets, the social aspect of Venus does not coerce individuals. What Venusian energies offer to the social order are the qualities that most people want to participate in. By contrast, Jupiter also rules aspects of the social order and contains the possibility of some degree of coercion, even as its energies lead the various elements of society to integrate with each other. Mars, even more than Jupiter, operates by coercion. And, of course, Saturn on a social level is all about rules and regulations, most of which people find annoying and irksome.

Venus at the Transcendent Level

The quality of Venus that is not so commonly discussed is its operation at the transcendental level. In fact, most astrologers are inclined to assign this transcendental quality to the planet Neptune. This is the Venusian energy found in spiritual devotion and the experience of the divine as love. It is the most unconditional form of love and is the kind signified by the Greek word 'agape'. The devotion you find among Roman Catholics who venerate the Virgin Mary almost at the same level as Jesus himself, and even the kind of love that Jesus discusses in the Gospels, is this form of love, and it is indeed part of the Venus complex. It is worth noting that the Christian feast held in the spring, usually referred to in English as Easter, gets its name from an Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring who was clearly derived from the Middle Eastern goddess Ishtar, the Babylonian form of the original goddess Venus. In this manifestation of love, bhakti in Sanskrit, the individual ego entirely disappears within the flow of divine love.

In Kabbalah, there is a manifestation of this divine love referred to as the Shekinah, which literally means the presence of God. It is usually regarded as a feminine form of God, and I would argue that this is the highest expression of the transcendental Venus. Most other goddess forms are mixtures of the energies of Venus and the Moon, with varying doses of Mars and Pluto.