The Role of the Least Aspected Planet in Astrocartography.

Planetary Symbolism in Astrocartography and Transcendental Astrology,

by Rob Couteau.

All text © Copyright 2005, 2012 Rob Couteau

 

Transcendental Venus

Love is a nail driven into the spirit animus (fixus animus clavo cupidinis).
–Titus Maccius Plautus (245-184 B.C.), as cited in R.B. Onians, The Origins of Euro­pean Thought.

The heart Pathos, the genitals Beauty, the hands & feet Proportion.
The nakedness of woman is the work of God.
–William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.

Love and harmony combine,
And around our souls intwine.
–Blake, Poetical Sketches.

Beauty as we see it is something indescribable: What it is or what it means can never be said.
–George Santayana.

Core meaning:

In continuing the development of the receptive yin consciousness, Venus acts on the personal soul (Moon) and deepens and refines its capacity for feeling-toned experience. With Venus, we have the personification of the soul, either as the beloved who captures our heart in the outer world1 or as the internal soul-image, the anima, who serves as a guide to the collective unconscious, thereby humanizing an otherwise cold, inhuman, and even ter­rifying experience of the archetypal mystery. This maturation of the soul through its personification marks a crucial developmental stage, surpassing the merely personal soul experience (Moon) and anticipating the social-collective soul (Jupiter) and the transpersonal soul (symbolized by the ultimate yin planet, Neptune: the world soul or anima mundi).
        As discussed in the essay “Transcendental Moon,” while the Moon and Venus are not traditionally thought of as energizing catalysts in astrology (as are the Sun and Mars), in fact, they do trigger various aspects of yin consciousness and energy: in particu­lar, the ability to harmonize, to balance, to value. Through her personification, Venus lures the emotions into deeper and more sophisticated levels, often by dra­matization of the soul as “lover.”
        One of the primary functions of Venus is the creation of meaningful intimate relationship. While the Moon symbolizes a feeling of connectedness to the “Primal Round,” the “Great Mother,” and the soul’s “absorption” of her lunar reflection (generating feelings of security, stability, and interior depth), Venus further refines the soul through intimate interpersonal relationship. Through Venus, soul union is extended through romance or through creative exteriorizations of the soul in artistic craftsmanship and the expression of aesthetic balance, harmony, beauty etc.2
        While Sun and Moon correspond respectively to the “individual spirit” and “individ­ual soul,” with Mars and Venus (the next stage of yang / yin development) we have the spirit forcefully interacting with others (Mars) and the soul intimately uniting with others (Venus). (Again, intimacy has its own quality of energetic force: one often ignored in descriptions of the “passive” qualities associ­ated with Venus.) While the Moon’s energy or “moonlight” is diffuse and repre­sentative of a general emanation of emotion into the environment, with Venus we have an additional focus, as Venus challenges the soul to enact its destiny on the interpersonal stage through the vehicle of romantic love. By this we do not mean the unrealistic fantasy of projecting one’s internal qualities outwardly, onto another person, but rather the maturation of the soul through realistic expressions of union. While Mars actualizes the self by counterpointing it against the sur­rounding physical and psychological environment (in order to realize, through separation and discrimination, one’s distinctive self-borders), Venus is expressed through actions that engender interpersonal harmony.
        Symbols of romance that express love, respect, and devotion are all included in the Venusian rulership. Through love, a sense of meaningless separation (produced as a result of “separating from the primal oneness” and “creating a self-identity” [Sun / Mars]) is replaced by the experience of the self as a complementary unit of balance with the “other.”
        Just as Mars symbolizes an aggressive interaction with the immediate environment, with Venus, the romanticized soul will create unions of pre­viously separate elements (not only in romance but, for example, in creative or artistic expressions of harmony). Unlike Uranus, which, through invention, unites seemingly disparate ele­ments in order to achieve a new order or avant-garde dynamic, with Venus the creation of outer harmony resonates internally with core aspects of the psyche. An example: an artist who communicates his experience through harmonious arrangements of elements (soulful unions), which, in turn, evoke an inner harmony in the viewer (through the medium of color, form, and spatial and contextual harmonies).
        For a variety of historical reasons, Venus has traditionally been associated with women’s psychology or manner of experience while Mars has been associated with men. But the Mars / Venus energies are consciously experienced by both sexes in varying degrees. Although the determinants of gender-based behavior probably lie some­where in between the forces of biology and culture, astrologically speaking, Mars and Venus operate in each of us.
        To the extent that the Venus principle is consciously integrated in either a man or a woman (e.g., the ability to be emotionally receptive to others; to express intimacy; to express oneself creatively), there will be less of a need for Venus to find cryptic expression through psychological projection or through the (unconscious) acting out of dramatic situations. Indeed, as the “goddess of love,” Venus may appear in a variety of guises. She may be projected upon a woman to whom the native feels unaccountably drawn, par­ticularly a woman who seems to reflect soulful qualities (qualities that may or may not exist within such a “woman of mystery”). When someone embodies a characteristic that evokes such a classic Venusian trait–personifying divine beauty or the alluring and mysterious object of desire (the soul) and triggering, through her presence, inspiration (the femme inspiratrice) or feelings of romantic intimacy–then we may speak of someone who personifies the anima or soul, i.e., Venus as the so-called goddess, seemingly embodied in human, incarnate form.
        Through all such projective expressions, the Venus energy is attempting to lure the soul to broader levels of receptivity and (yin) awareness. The soul is harmonized through its encounter with the “beauty of the forms”; it is sacralized through “love”; it is further refined through an expression of “artistic cre­ation”; it attains its final goal when, through the “personification and incarnation of the feminine,” it is delivered to the next level of yin development: sagacity or higher wisdom, symbolized by Jupiter.
        It was in this sense that Goethe spoke of the eternal feminine leading us “forever onward, forever upward.” Venus as anima incar­nates in forms such as Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom; Shakti, the Indian goddess; the Shulamite in the Song of Solomon;3 or in a form composed of purely per­sonal symbolism (e.g., a feminine dream figure). These symbols have at their core an eternal archetype: one generating a highly refined soulful energy. Just as the persona (social mask) provides us with a means of interacting with the world-at-large, the anima as personified soul image assists the solar consciousness in navigating the inner realm (e.g., Beatrice leading Dante through the soulful depths of The Divine Comedy.)
        In whatever cul­tural guise she assumes, through her intervention we emerge from the primal yin darkness, as the personified soul lures the “lover” onto the next stage of development: encountering the “collective soul wisdom of the ages” (Jupiter: the col­lectively codified body of philosophy, religious doctrine, art, ethics, myth, and culture, preserved through social and philanthropic institutions).

Improper manifestation of the energy:

The possibility of meaningful interpersonal union will be problematic in unintegrated Venus natives. Relationships may be based merely on utilitarian expressions of Venus, especially in her rather base and primitive forms (e.g., “commercial” beauty or the “beauty queen,” instead of the more individually tailored expression of the soul). In her negative manifestation, Venus will appear as threatening or monstrous, because instead of being understood (integrated) she is feared. Therefore, the essence of the soul remains incomprehensible and is “darkly” (unconsciously) imagined. For example, Venus may be personified as the séductrice or femme fatale, threatening the solar ego with tempting offers of sensuality–enticements that bear such a dark intensity that they may overwhelm and destroy the light of consciousness. Here, the native’s inability to integrate Venus will lead to fears that she will drain the solar form of consciousness (e.g., a fear of losing the energetic “edge” embodied in the Mar­tian principle of separateness; a fear of the solar ego being eclipsed because of the attention craved by the “significant other”). Or, an encounter with the beauty of Venus may prove to be too powerful an enticement to integrate safely or properly. An example of this is found in Homer’s Odyssey, when Odysseus orders his men to bind him to the mast of his ship so that he may listen to the entrancing song of the Sirens without being endangered by their overwhelming–and ultimately debilitating–beauty of form.3
        Often, Venus incarnates in the form of a romantic partner who mirrors one’s own level of emotional development. Rather than learning to nurture one’s feelings and to refine one’s inadequately developed emotions, these inadequacies of soul may be per­ceived only in a projected form–as the perceived inadequacies of the romantic partner. This may lead to leveling criticism against the soul mate or to emotional or physical abuse. Instead of serving Venus by developing one’s feelings, an attempt is made to punish, discipline, imprison, or entrap the emotions: to contain the “irrational” sphere of life and, thereby, remove its “threat” (e.g., the threat of forcing a funda­mental transformation in the solar ego). Threatening to “fix” or “kill” the soul mate is simply a symbolic way of saying that one’s potential for development is destroyed. As a result, Venus remains personified only in her “darker” form: the experience of “abysmal” emotions and tragic relationships. Such phenomena are typical of the depressed anima. The suppression of the creative soul and a subsequent personal depression occur, instead of the soul elevation signified by properly expressed yin consciousness.
        When one is overidentified or inflated with Venus, this results in excessive yin behavior that denies expres­sion to the other planetary forms. The personified soul (the keynote Venus equation) may take the form of a person who has a tendency to allure or magnetize others into their field and to entice them to serve and worship the so-called goddess, who is now impersonated rather than appropriately personified (e.g., an anima woman; a “female impersonator”). Here the native is possessed by the goddess image, rather than working to consciously integrate her. Such improper soul expressions may also take the form of epicurean pleasures that trigger a false sense of interpersonal intimacy and harmony. The “orgy” of physical pleasures is a classic form of such hyperidentified Venusian behavior. This foreshadows the next stage of inflated or hyperidentified yin behavior: that of the Jupiter-identified native. A personal identification with the Jupiter principle may result in the abuse of larger social roles (e.g., a judge who is identified with his role of personifying the ethical soul of a soci­ety). Such abuse usually involves issues of personal gain and egoistic gratification.

Transcendental potential:

When enhanced through relocation, Venus promotes a union between the inner and outer expressions of harmony, whether such harmonies are expressed through interactions with others or through the harmonious play of elements within the immediate environment (e.g., aesthetic interaction in the “landscape” of one’s surroundings). For example, the need to live in aesthetically pleasing surroundings is something that makes no “rational” sense, yet it is a fundamental yin reality that affects everyone in a direct, imme­diate manner. Surroundings perceived as “ugly” may provoke emotional discomfort or discord, while an aesthetically harmonious environment will enhance the expansion of soul.
        For many artists, the presence of soul is indeed palpable. It may be experi­enced through an internal muse whose cooperation will either guarantee or forbid inspiration in the formal expression of artistic values. Her abiding and willful manner (a decidedly yin will, expressed through an autonomous and magnetic lure) is experienced as a relentless need to lend creative form to an invisible, intangible, nearly inexpressible dimension of soul.
        The expansion of this higher yin awareness into a realm of transpersonal imagery finds its final expression in the Neptune complex, which symbolizes the union of the personal soul (anima) with the anima mundi or world soul. The lure of this final union (one often experienced by artistic personalities) spans the entire yin spectrum of symbolism, progressing from Venusian “soul harmony” through Jupiterian “soul expansion” to Neptunian “soul diffusion.”
        Admittedly, such a full spectrum of yin consciousness is not available to everyone. Unless one has experienced the soul as a creative force that lures the ego to a higher expansion (Jupiter) and a final dissolution (Neptune; a dissolution of constricting socially-condoned beliefs and values (Saturn) that stress interpersonal aggression and separateness [Mars]), the anima-less or soulless universe is experienced as a terrifying, nameless (i.e., not personified) void through which no soul orientation or -perspective may be felt.5 Examples of this include Existentialism or the ultimate nihilistic condition (e.g., Sartre’s nausea.)
        A positive Venus experience is crucial for those with a poorly integrated Venus, as the foundation for soul-personification and -incarnation (espe­cially concerning the exchange of intimacy) may be lacking. The inability to express one’s personal feelings (Moon) in a more intimate fashion (Venus) will lead to dangerous levels of alienation and to an inner stagnation and dissocia­tion.
        Relocation to the Transcendental Venus region may enhance the keynote Venus effects, such as soulful intimacy with others; environmental harmony triggering and reflecting internal psychic har­mony; and the personified soul “leading” or “luring” the solar consciousness to deeper levels of feeling. Venus awakens the soul through encounters with those who personify her most positive aspects, especially her potential for interpersonal meaning and union. She pro­vides a means of extending the soul into the fabric of the surrounding environ­ment, ultimately blurring distinctions of inner and outer through the unifying power of love. Such things are the sin qua non of soul development; without them, the soul cannot fully incarnate or consciously realize itself. Oddly enough, even a basic belief in the reality of soul has been lost on many of those living in the modern era. Relocating to the Transcendental Venus region may help to engender such an understanding and to trigger vitalizing, soul-enriching experi­ences.

Personalities with Primary Transcendental Venus:

Joan Baez (“pacifist” and “creative” performer who worked for “world peace” and estab­lished the Institute for “Nonviolence”); Marlon Brando (talented “artist” and “charismatic” actor whose work displayed a “sophisticated level of craftsmanship” and a mastery of “feeling-toned expression”; relocated to Tahiti under his Primary Venus / Sec­ondary Mercury Transcendental Midpoint-Field); Sir Richard Burton (with John Speke, the first European to discover Lake Tanganyika, which lies directly under Burton’s Pri­mary Venus line; renowned for his attempts to introduce ancient Eastern “erotic arts” to the West, even risking arrest and imprisonment for his translation and printing of the Kama Sutra); T. S. Eliot (poet whose “artistry” was expressed through “creative” writing [with Secondary Transcendental Mercury]); Peggy Fleming ([with Mercury]; winner of an Olympic gold medal for ice figure-skating; widely acclaimed for her “skillful / grace” and “personification of beauty / in motion” [Venus / Mercury]); Ernest Hemingway (renowned for the “craftsmanship” in his “creative” writing); Robert F. Kennedy (“hand­some and charismatic” politician who used his “charm” as a political asset); Herman Melville (“creative” writer whose South Seas adventures–fictionalized in books such as Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life; Omoo: A Narrative of Adventures in the South Seas; and Moby Dick–occurred directly under his Primary Venus / Secondary Mercury Transcendental Midpoint-Field, in the Pacific South Seas); Michelangelo (master of the “beaux arts,” born near his Primary Venus line); Ringo Starr (musician whose “grace, charm, and diplomacy” proved an asset in his lifelong “creative” profession).

* * *

Keynote phrases for Venus:

•The “feminine” or yin energy expressed in human form, especially through intimate, interpersonal union.
•The anima, personified as soul mate, lover, inspiratrice.
•Romance and the interpersonal aspect of the Romantic Movement in art.
•The goddess as symbolizing love, art, balance, charm, charisma, proportion, perspective, and feeling-toned evaluation.
•Maintaining symmetry, balance, and grace with the intimate “other.”
•The divine as experienced through beauty. Artistic beauty: belles lettres; beaux arts etc.
•Aesthetic Epiphany.
•Sophisticated craftsmanship; knowledge of the symmetry of forms.
•Personification of the feminine principle, e.g., the goddess. Woman experienced as a divine form, in a divine light.
•The Eros principle in its refined human form.
•The further evolution of the Moon’s emotive realm. The development of sophisticated levels of feeling. The harmonious play of emotion in romantic expressions of love.
•Feeling as a mode of evaluation. Judgments arrived at through the careful weighing of feeling.
•The secondary manifestation of yin consciousness (following the Moon) in the symbolic solar system.
•In Indian astrology, Venus corresponds to “one’s capacity for giving and receiving love.”6
•Yin expressed as intimate union and the romantic soul.

1. Just as Mars propels the yang consciousness through its forceful interaction and interplay with others, the yin consciousness is enhanced by Venus through inti­mate interaction with others. But here the goal is interpersonal harmony and union, rather than an interactive Martian experience of separately focused energies working in relative isolation from each other.
2. “Venus is the daughter of the Moon and is symbolic of the many forms which issue forth from the Great Mother.” “Just as Venus ... represents the active female life, Mars, as son of the Sun, is the active male force.” Oken, As Above, So Below, p. 273.
3. Marie-Louise von Franz, “The Process of Individuation,” in Jung (ed.), Man and His Symbols, pp. 185-188.
4. The “dark” or destructive aspect of the yin energy is qualitatively different from the shattering, explosive quality of the yang force. Yet the overwhelmingly blissful allure of the eternal–the mysterium fascinans–may just as thoroughly destroy through a delightful yet dangerous sense of merging (Moon); harmonizing (Venus); expanding (Jupiter); and dissolving (Neptune) the ego-complex past the point of no return.
5. “Absence of anima opens one to the soul’s immeasurable depths ... revealing those depths as an abyss. Not only is the guide and the bridge gone, but so too is the possibility of a personal connection through personified representations ... Without her the depths become a void, as the existentialist von Gebsattel says. This happens because the anima who ‘personifies the collective unconscious’ [Jung] ... is not there to mediate the depths in personified images with personal intentions.” James Hillman, Anima: An Anatomy of a Personified Notion, p. 109. See also my essay, “Jungian Social Neglect,” in Spring: A Journal of Archetype and Culture, 1988.
6. Dreyer, Indian Astrology, p. 93.

Additional Venus quotes:

The cosmos works
by harmony of tensions,
like the lyre and bow.
(Heraclitus.)

Friendship is a single soul dwelling in two bodies.
(Aristotle.)