The Venus Kiss & Natural Art
by Anna Duval

"This is June, the month of grass and leaves . . . already the aspens are trembling again, and a new summer is offered me.  I feel a little fluttered in my thoughts, as if I might be too late.  ...Our thoughts and sentiments answer to the revolution of the seasons, as two cog-wheels fit into each other.  ... Each experience reduces itself to a mood of the mind."

- Henry David Thoreau, Journal, June 6, 1857

As the month of Gemini comes, we have hoed and sorted and planted. Now Nature takes her course toward the fulfillment of high summer days and heat that is not yet here, only a promise. There is a sense of lightness, with alternating coolness and warmth, our breath refreshing each moment like dreams. Art is happening spontaneously, everywhere around us.

Venus Aphrodite is the goddess who is the source of all this beauty. She needs Mercury, though, the messenger, to to deliver it through to us mortals. This June is upon us now with a special gift! Venus will kiss us in Mercury’s home sign, Gemini. An especially powerful Kiss this time, Venus, in retrograde, will pass directly over the Sun (a cazimi conjunction) on June 8th, thus creating a powerful alchemy between Venus Aphrodite, goddess of Harmony, Love and Beauty and Mercury’s realm of mind and perception. Magic, art and creation are afoot!

Venus Kisses happen when She retrogrades, every 18 months, and Her pattern over an 8 year period forms a 5-pointed star in the zodiac, (infusing, now, through Gemini, Leo, Scorpio, Capricorn and Aries.) The cazimi conjunction, however, happens only twice in approximately 110 years (2 in a row; this June and again in 2012.) So the powers of Venus toward harmony, peace, healing and understanding are being infused into our world at this time, especially through Gemini. On the personal level, the Venus Kiss brings more creative potential after a time of evaluation and awakening during the retrograde phase. A deepening of what we love (our values), and expression through art naturally evolves.

According to Greek legend, Venus Aphrodite was born long before Zeus’ clan of gods and goddesses. She was a primal prodigy of Mother Sea and Father Sky. Uranus, her Sky Father, had been unwittingly castrated by Saturn, taken over by the limitations of Saturn’s Time/Space/Dimension. Uranus’ seed fell to Her Mother Sea, and from that realm Aphrodite emerged. She is, therefore, The Primal Connection, the link between our feeling world of the sea and the divine images of sky. (In the old tales, Eros (Roman Cupid) was not Venus Aphrodite’s son. He existed long before any of them, as Eros is pure Divine Desire. He was instinctively drawn to Venus at her birth, and followed her forevermore.)

Flowers sprang forth wherever Venus Aphrodite placed her delicate step. Song and harmonies entranced themselves around her, while contentment and satisfaction were borne from her lips.

I take these stories seriously. We collectively dream them and live them. As our late friend Joseph Campbell told us in The Way of Myth (Shambhala; 1994):

"Myths are public dreams, dreams are private myths."

And,

"...the gods are not out there somewhere. They live in us all. They are the energies of life itself."

So if you’d like to gather peace and harmony, grace and beauty around you... if you prefer contentment and satisfaction, look to Venus. Now’s the time, with Her Kiss, to discover Her ways.

Being born as a primal goddess bestows on Venus a special assignment. Jean Shinoda Bolen, in her book The Goddesses In Every Woman, (Perennial; 1985) dubbed Venus The Alchemical Goddess. Add a dose of Venus to any of your other deities, and a beautiful transformation occurs. Warrior Mars calms down, wises up, and becomes The Protector, The Counselor and The Purifier. With Venus, Pluto’s visits to the underworld lessen in violence, and will deepen our spiritual understanding and values. Jupiter’s world becomes a celebration of heart-sharing, prosperity and wisdom.

What of the alchemy between Venus and Mercury? Alice Bailey dubbed Venus the esoteric ruler of Mercury’s traditional rulership, Gemini. She believed Gemini to be the sign of true soulmates, wherein Venus experiences the perfect match of her heart as twin. Both planets rule different aspects of the powers of association. Physically, Mercury rules the nervous system, which associates thoughts and nerve-impulses, while Venus rules the hormonal system, which links up a more feeling-level directive between our organs. Both rule different aspects of our social connections, Mercury drawing us to others intellectually, Venus through our feelings and comfort-level.

And creatively, Mercury and Venus must work together to produce art. Nature does this naturally now, in Gemini’s June. How else can art manifest? We translate our sensitive and sensual venusian experience into mercurial words and images. Musicians will tell you that music, an emotional art, is rooted in mathematics, a mercurial realm. Work with design, shape and color integrate Venus with Mercury. In Sacred Geometry we study the universal design of life. All arts relate mind and feeling. The artist trusts the process, providing space for the unnamable magic that the alchemical goddess brings. Unsure of the final outcome, the artist looks on in awe to witness the final birth of creation.

Consider this poem by Berta Friestadt. Both her subject and her creative process sing of the natural alchemy between Venus Aphrodite and Mercury.

We are descended from trees
It is easy to tell
Looking at fingers
As they emerge from crevices
Gnarled with oil
And spread toes
Horny with hard skin
Sisters to roots
Beneath mossy bowls
Straining both to hold on
As they spread and stretch
And wrap like vines
We are related to the trees
I can tell you
As you bend over me
Supple. Weathered
By waiting
Sweet sap singing
As our branches
Tangle storms.

- reprinted from We’Moon ‘99, Mother Tongue Ink, Estacada, Oregon 1999

© 2004 Anna Duval
All rights reserved