Our Magical Solar System: Venus

 Our Magical Solar System

The Enchanted Veil of Venus: A Mystical Odyssey Through Love, Beauty, and the Cosmos

In the velvet expanse of the night sky, Venus gleams as the Morning and Evening Star, a celestial beacon that has captivated humanity for millennia. Known as the brightest planet after the Sun and Moon, she embodies the divine feminine principle, weaving threads of desire, harmony, and transformation across cultures and epochs.  

As both a astronomical wanderer and a mythological goddess, Venus transcends the mundane, inviting us into realms of mysticism where love is a cosmic force, beauty a sacred art, and folklore a tapestry of eternal truths. Her essence pulses through astrology, magic, and ancient tales, reminding us of the delicate balance between passion and peace, creation and rebirth.

Mythology and Folklore: The Goddess’s Timeless Tales

Venus’s folklore is a rich mosaic, drawing from ancient civilizations where she was revered not merely as a deity of romance but as a multifaceted force of life and renewal. In Roman mythology, Venus emerges from the sea foam created by the castration of Uranus, her father, by his son Cronus (Saturn in Roman lore). 

This violent yet generative act sees her born fully formed, floating ashore on a scallop shell, symbolizing purity, fertility, and the alchemical transformation of chaos into beauty.   The iconic depiction of this birth, immortalised in Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus (below) captures her ethereal arrival, windswept and attended by zephyrs and nymphs, evoking the mystical union of sea and sky.

Her Greek counterpart, Aphrodite, shares this origin but expands into stories of love’s triumphs and tribulations. Aphrodite’s affairs with gods like Ares (Mars) highlight themes of passionate desire intertwined with conflict, while her role in the Judgment of Paris—where she promises Helen’s love to secure the golden apple—sparks the Trojan War, illustrating love’s potential for both ecstasy and destruction.   

Yet, Venus’s roots delve deeper into Mesopotamian lore as Inanna (or Ishtar), the Sumerian goddess of love, war, and the underworld. 

In the epic Descent of Inanna, she ventures into the netherworld to confront her sister Ereshkigal, shedding her garments and powers at seven gates, symbolising a profound initiation into death and rebirth. This journey mirrors Venus’s retrograde cycles, where she “descends” below the horizon, vanishing for days before reemerging transformed—a celestial metaphor for introspection, shadow work, and renewal.   

An ancient relief of Inanna, holding symbols of power like the rod and ring, underscores her as a warrior-queen, blending sensuality with sovereignty.

Across Norse mythology, echoes of Venus appear in Freyja, goddess of love, fertility, and seidhr (a form of shamanic magic), who rides a chariot pulled by cats and weeps golden tears for her lost husband.  

In Egyptian traditions, she aligns with Hathor, the cow-headed deity of joy, music, and motherhood, while in Yoruba lore, Oshun (below) embodies rivers, love, and sensuality. These global folklores paint Venus as a rebel against patriarchal structures, born from rebellion (as in her mythic origins) and overthrowing old powers to foster new life.   Her stories whisper of the mystical: love as a portal to the divine, where desire awakens the soul’s hidden depths.

Symbolism: The Radiant Heart of the Divine Feminine

Symbolically, Venus represents the quintessence of attraction, pleasure, and aesthetic harmony, often seen as the heart’s perceptive lens through which we behold the world’s sentience and beauty.  As the Morning Star, she heralds dawn’s hope and intuition; as the Evening Star, she guides twilight’s reflection and balance.  

In astrology, Venus governs love, relationships, and values, embodying grace, charm, and the pursuit of what delights the senses.   Her glyph—a circle atop a cross—signifies spirit elevated above matter, the eternal soul’s triumph over earthly duality. 

Mystically, Venus symbolises the divine feminine’s complexity: not just tender love, but fierce creation, darkness, and rebirth.  

She is associated with the number seven (linked to Inanna’s gates), intuition, fertility, and the cosmos itself.  In esoteric traditions, Venus evokes the nourishing mother, the seductive lover, and the harmonious artist, fostering emotional desires and magnetic pull.   Her symbolism extends to prosperity and victory, as in Roman lore where she was the ancestress of the Julian line, blending personal passion with societal flourishing. 

Correspondences: Magical Alignments and Enchanted Elements

In magical and astrological correspondences, Venus rules Taurus (earthly sensuality) and Libra (harmonious partnerships), exalting in Pisces for transcendent love.  Her day is Friday (from Norse Freyja or Roman dies Veneris), ideal for rituals of affection and beauty.  Colours  vibrate with her essence: emerald green for growth, bright rose for passion, sky blue for serenity, and pink for tenderness.  

Stones like emerald and turquoise channel her energy, enhancing love spells and emotional balance.  Plants are lush and alluring: roses for eternal love, myrtle for fidelity, jasmine for seduction, and apple for temptation—perfect for philtres or altars.  Animals include the dove (peace), swan (grace), and sparrow (playfulness), while scents like rose, jasmine, and vanilla invoke her voluptuous aura.  Bodily, she governs the genitals, kidneys, and senses, aiding in healing grief or fostering harmony. 

Magically, Venus correspondences fuel love magick, garden rituals, and immortality workings, countering Mars’s aggression with soothing talismans like the heptagram or girdle.  In Vedic astrology, as Shukra, she links to Lakshmi for luxury and romance, her pink hues amplifying abundance. 

Venus, the luminous enchantress, continues to weave her magic in our modern world, a reminder that love is the universe’s most potent spell. Through her folklore of rebirth, symbolism of balanced desire, and correspondences of sensual harmony, she invites us to embrace the mystical dance of the heart. In gazing upon her starry form, we glimpse the divine within, where beauty eternal reigns.

Number: 6

Sign: Taurus and Libra

Color: Green

Day of the Week: Friday

Plants & herbs:  Roses, pink peonies, cherry blossom, orange blossom, damiana, all types of flowers

Incense & scents: Any fancy perfume, rose, sweetgrass, vanilla, violet, sandalwood, ylang-ylang

Crystals & Minerals: lodestone, rose quartz, jade, emerald, copper

Food & drink: Red wine, kava-kava tea, hot chocolate, damiana tea, chocolate, nuts, oysters, clams, lavish sweets (like these chocolates)

Other correspondence:

Copper

The Empress

Dalet (Door)

Deities of love, female sexuality, motherhood, fertility Akka Aphrodite Erzulie Estsamatlehi
Freya Frigg
Ilmatecuhtli Ishtar
Isis Lalita Medb Qetesh Renpet Sukra
Selket Tauret Yolkai Estan