A Preamble, Followed by Venus & mars
The Preamble
My love of astrology began in earnest in 2015. Recently married, recently freelancing, I was an overwhelmed mid-20s-something trying to navigate my changing identity, relationships, and reality. And I wasn’t doing the best job of it, honestly. Into this mix, I was gifted my mother’s copy of “Linda Goodman’s Sun Signs”, a remnant from her passing interest in astrology as a college student in the 1970’s. I doubt she knew how impactful this one little hand-me-down would prove.
It’s not a book I’d recommend for the modern astrology initiate, but even for all its hyper gendered and dated references, it gave me one thing that I desperately needed; a language for discussing my interior reality. I began reading everything I could online about zodiac signs, pulling my chart on every astrology website to see if it would reveal something new, looking up every Facebook friend’s birthday in hopes it would make these patterns clear in a way I could understand.
At its core, it was a very affirming obsession. It began to make me believe that maybe I wasn’t a problem to be solved, but an equation to be admired and appreciated. Maybe there was a reason behind my preferences, my fears, my strengths, and my foibles. Maybe I wasn’t wrong or bad, but just an Aquarius, or just a Libra Rising, or maybe it was my Gemini Chiron, or my Capricorn stellium, or or or…
My journey isn’t much different than that of many fresh astrology converts. Astrology is a powerful, ancient system that has been nicely simplified and commodified in recent times, often into digestible self-help quips and easy to apply stereotypes. I have a love-hate relationship with this modern iteration of astrology, as it was my therapeutic drug for so many years, and, like a party-drug, can still be fun when the mood is right and people just want a little pick-me-up.
But the deeper I went down the rabbit hole of astrology, the more the planets and zodiac signs began to demand a different approach. I found my way to psychological and spiritual astrology, and then Mesopotamian cosmology, and before I knew it I was spending hours pacing my floor and talking to myself as I worked out my thoughts on this or that placement or energy or mythic archetype. You know, like a normal person.
I guess this is but a preamble to explain to you why I feel the need to start sharing some of these astrological musings in this humble online format. Although I have taught some classes on these topics, and intend to continue to work with these energies in various ways, I have no intention to offer astrology services. I feel my role as a psychic and energy worker is how I’m meant to serve individuals, and I’m sure I’ll write about that work soon enough, but sharing these astrology musings is how I’m meant to serve the old gods in making them fresh and approachable once again. Which is but a minor act of rediscovery, as they’re still in you and still in me, we just need to see them again a little more clearly.
So with your permission and grace, let’s get to my most recent mini-obsession, Venus & Mars.
Photo by Jackson David via pexels
REFRAMING Venus & Mars
When one mentions the planets of Venus and Mars, the first thing to come to many of our minds is gender and sexuality. The 90’s bestseller “Women are from Venus, Men are from Mars” culturally cemented this idea into the zeitgeist, but this was only a new iteration of an old story. Greek & Roman mythology had already created the perfectly gendered pairing of the beautiful, hyper femme Venus and the violent, hyper masculine God of War.
This is the first astrology “myth busting” episode I’d like to conduct. And that is that no planetary or zodiac energy is gendered. None. Not even Venus, not even Mars. In a broader spiritual sense, I believe we are collectively being invited to move beyond dualistic thinking, and this includes moving beyond the one dualism that many still find “fundamental” to our nature, male vs female. Now this is a longer conversation for another day, but we must start here if we have any hope of seeing Venus and Mars energy clearly.
Next, we must face these archetypes’ historical origins. Some of the earliest mythic depictions we have of the planets and of the zodiac archetypes come from ancient Mesopotamia, specifically from the east-Semitic peoples of the Akkadian, Babylonian, and Assyrian cultures, and speculatively from the even older Sumerian culture as well. This was the birthplace of Western astrology, and, in my humble belief, is where we should always start our astrological inquiries from.
Venus was the planetary representative of Inanna or Ishtar, the Queen of Heaven and daughter of Sin, the Moon god and head of the pantheon, and brother to Utu/Shamash, the Sun god and divine witness. The trifecta of the Moon, Sun & Venus as a family unit really speaks to the important role of Venus in this cosmology. Yet there are some hints that earlier Semitic tribes actually held Venus as male and Ishtar is thus understood as a blending of both male & female influences, so her depictions and areas of rule are much broader than the goddesses of later Greek & Roman cultures. She is a fierce warrior and easily angered, fiery and demanding and uncontrollable, while still being a feminine deity of beauty and sexuality. She seems to quite easily straddle our assumed Venus & Mars gender split, bringing them into a single entity.
Mars in this cosmology is represented by Nergal, the Lord of the Dead, and brother to Ninurta, the Saturn god. He insults and tries to kill Ereshkigal, Ishtar’s sister who rules the underworld, who herself in some ways can be understood as Ishtar’s (Venus’s) shadow side. Yet when attacked, Ereshkigal convinces Nergal that it’d be better to marry her than kill her, and thus he comes to rule alongside the feminine in the subconscious underworld. He is also considered a god of war, but more so in that he is the source of death and disease, those terrifying unknowns, and is the judge of the dead. Many of his and his brother’s roles as Mars & Saturn later got blended into our understanding of Pluto once that planetary energy was added to the astrological debate in 1930. Yet even still, denying Mars its underworld energy is a deep disservice to this planet's power.
So here we have a very above ground Venus, who is full of fresh energy and fire, paired with a shadowy Mars, who is full of deep subconscious power and death work. And now here is where we must re-examine the psychological implications of these two planets.
To see Venus only as an Aphrodite like figure, all soft and feminine and sensual, is to deny that part of yourself its strength to make decisions, act and go after one’s desires, and to fight for that which brings you joy.
To see Mars only as a warrior-like figure, all rough and masculine and fierce, is to deny that part of yourself its ability to sit within the deep subconscious and hear the wisdom or judgements it wants to bring to our actions.
In my own sitting with the energies and trying my best to simplify their roles within our internal psychological systems, I’ve narrowed it down even further.
I believe Venus represents our response to a safe situation. When we feel safe within ourselves, our relationships, and our world, we can show up in our full Venusian power, being fully seen as our uniquely powerful selves. In this state, we can celebrate, enjoy, and fight for our needs effectively. Often what we associate with Venus, beauty and art and romance, and ultimately love itself, are all only possible within a context of feeling safe, both physically and emotionally.
And I believe that Mars represents our response to an unsafe situation. When we feel unsafe within ourselves, our relationships, and our world, it is our Mars power that steps in to help clarify, judge, and, if needed, bring an end to that which is threatening our safety. In this state, we can seek wisdom and protection. And our typical Mars associations, violence and drive and seeking power, are only activated when we are feeling unsafe and are attempting to get back to a place of safety.
Both of these energies are strong in their own right, and both of these energies can show up in intense or soft ways, but both are absolutely needed and fundamental to the human experience.
As is the goal in psychological astrology, we are always aiming for balance within ourselves and our planetary or zodiac energies, and this is no exception. Too much Venusian energy can make us greedy, egotistical, or even inactive if we’re putting our personal safety above all else. Too much Mars energy can make us dogmatic and divisive, or constantly fearful of the next existential threat that needs suppressing.
Yet when they are in balance, Venus provides us with the knowledge of what we want and how to get it, and Mars provides us with the ability to reevaluate and protect us on that journey. And when this balance is achieved collectively, as one can only hope one day it will, Venus offers us love and respect of life in all its forms, and Mars helps us see and dismantle the systems that keep us from this shared safety & peace.
And no matter your sex or gender, you have both of these energies within you, and both are asking to be seen, loved, and brought back into balance.
Revisiting the more gendered view of these planets though, as our modern depictions of these energies ultimately require us to, we are still provided an opportunity for healing. It is sadly very true in our world that women are deeply unsafe, so the need to bring safety to the feminine is absolutely necessary as we heal this very old anti-woman wound. Simultaneously allowing masculinity to re-embrace the deeper implications of soul directed action, thus allowing men to connect to their shadow sides in healthy ways, is necessary if we are to heal and move away from a fearful, patriarchal, and dominance based worldview.
So may I lovingly ask:
What does safety mean to you? When you are safe, how do you act or how do you feel?
What does being unsafe mean to you? When you are unsafe, how do you act or how do you feel?
In celebration of these energies, I made some spotify mixes, like my younger self loved to do. (A little victory of my Venusian self honestly, letting myself enjoy what I enjoy, and being safe to do so.)
The “venus worship” mix is chill and a bit groovy, with themes of love and self-love, safety, goddess veneration, and soft sensuality. The “mars worship” mix is darker and louder, with themes of reevaluating world systems, reclaiming power, and seeking collective protection. And the genres are all over the place, which is probably my Aquarius sun ;)
xxx,
L.
