Scheherazade's Tales to the Harem: Aphrodite, Goddess of Sexuality

Today's episode of Scheherazade's Tales to the Harem explores Aphrodite's role as Goddess of Sexuality.

 

Scheherazade's Tales to the Harem: Venus, Goddess of Beauty

Today's episode speaks to the power of Beauty in our lives.  America especially needs a lesson in beauty, since we seem to cover the land with our ugly strip shopping malls and our untamed need to ravish the Earth of her beauty.

Scheherazade's Tales to the Harem: Aphrodite/Venus as Creator Goddess

During this Venus retrograde in Gemini, I'm going to tell stories every Friday -- Venus' Day -- about who she is and what energies she evokes in us.

Here's the first video -- not great technologically since I couldn't get the slide show to work, but it's the first.

I forgot to mention the photo of Aphrodite is by Kersten Zettmar.

Venus Retrograde: Discovering a New Feminine Ideal

Venus Retrograde: May 13-14 to June 24-25, 2020

Listening with the Heart

Aphrodite's Bath

All archetypal images transform over time, although the basic archetype stays the same. When it is no longer relevant, the archetypal image becomes a stereotype, which in turn needs to die so the archetype can be reborn in a new image. This is true of all archetypal energies – they want to be continually moving and transforming.

When planets retrograde, it indicates a time to stop and take a breath and reconsider what we're doing. Retrograde planets give us the opportunity to re-think, re-do, re-novate, re-consider, re-structure and re-view what's been happening. With all the retrogrades this week, we are heading into the real season of transformation. Our isolation was just the setup.

While Saturn and Jupiter speak more to our collective life, Venus is subjective and personal, especially for women. So while we'll talk about the collective energies of Pluto, Jupiter and Saturn challenging Venus retrograde, let's concentrate on Venus first.

Venus goes retrograde when her orbit brings her between the Earth and the Sun. She is closest to us as well as being an Evening Star. Once she disappears into the glare of the Sun, she will emerge about 5 days later as a Morning Star. 9 months later, Venus will slip behind the Sun (furthest away from Earth) and become an Evening Star.

Evening Star Venus

The Morning Star energizes a new feminine experience while the Evening Star gathers the wisdom she has gleaned from the Morning Star and dispenses it to us. Other astrologers say that her Morning Star phase is the Warrior while her Evening Star phase is the Lover. The alternating rhythm is one of extroversion/out-breath and introversion/in-breath.

As you can see, the heavens are always declaring the need for transformation, and this month we'll be experiencing it both personally through Venus and collectively through the Saturn, Pluto and Jupiter retrogrades. The Saturn, Pluto and Jupiter retrogrades will be a time to re-focus on societal issues like power dynamics, social structures, work and opportunity. Through our Venus retrograde, we can work to decide what social structures are valuable to us and which are not. 

Aphrodite & the 9 Muses 

Venus rules the arts and those are suffering under this global shut-down, just when we need them more than ever. Artists everywhere are shut off from the places where they can share their work. This is another issue that Venus in Gemini wants to re-consider.

The planet Venus was always important to the ancient astronomers because of it's consistent orbit around the Sun but especially because it makes a perfect 5-pointed star (a pentagram) every 8 years. This pentagram geometric pattern Venus makes in the heavens evokes feelings of harmony, beauty, love and peace. It is also associated with the 'golden mean' of the Fibonacci Series as Venus moves from a Morning Star to an Evening Star then back to a Morning Star.

Arielle Guttman has written a book on this cycle called Venus Star Rising where she describes the Venus cycle.  In our present cycle, Venus changes from Morning to Evening to Morning Star in these 5 signs beginning with this Gemini (MS), Capricorn (ES), Leo (MS), Aries (ES), Scorpio (MS) then back to Gemini as an Evening Star in 2024.

Venus crossing the face of the Sun

Every 130 years or so, Venus aligns twice in 8 years on the same plane as the Earth and Sun and we see her passing over the face of the Sun, This happened in 2004 and 2012, both in the sign of Gemini, and to me it indicates that we are heading into a new connection with the Divine Feminine, one that wants us to be knowledgeable and wise, socially responsible, confident in our self-expression and creativity, courageous with pioneering new visions and possibilities, and capable of transformation and deep change.

The New Feminine for our times. Open to deep listening and learning, open to courteous conversations using both the left and right brains, open to all possibilities until the one which is our truth comes to live in us.

Mercury will be in Gemini for part of this Venus retrograde cycle, from May 11^th to May 28^th, when Venus disappears into the rays of the Sun before emerging in the morning sky on June 11^th. This can help us communicate the values that Venus is re-considering. Is going back to 'normal' the best thing for Mother Earth and for our health? Is money more important than Love? Do we want partnership relationships rather than hierarchical ones? Can we create a world that embraces the feminine values of love, harmony, equality, peace and community rather than our present society based on war, greed, rampant consumerism, environmental destruction and inequality?

Venus has been traveling through Gemini since April 3, 2020 and will finally go into Cancer on August 7, 2020 – a 4 month stay rather than her usual 4 weeks visit. So what can we learn about the value of love, beauty, wisdom, sexuality and the arts during her stay in Gemini?

Gemini is the sign of the Twins. In Greek mythology, it's about Castor and Pollux. One twin was mortal while the other was immortal. To me this symbolizes the need to balance our intuitive immortal brain with our rational mortal brain, since our right brain picks up our relationship with Mother Earth and life, while our left brain develops separately in each of us.

Mercury is the ruler of Gemini and is considered the Messenger God. So we can say that Gemini is about communicating and delivering messages. With Venus in Gemini, the hope is that we can do it kindly with wit and style, when people are so radically separated by their beliefs, and learn to have conversations with an open mind.

This is the energy of the lunar nodes now being in Gemini-Sagittarius: we need to step away from our limiting beliefs (Sagittarius) and be open-minded about information (Gemini) so we can embrace new beliefs (Sagittarius) that will bring harmony and peace to a fearful society.

This is also a time to look at our relationships. The old patriarchal form of relationship was a patriarchal dominator model – meaning that men had some right of ownership over his wife and children. We say not anymore, but that's not true for so many women around the world.

Gemini is so androgynous that it can help us imagine all sorts of relationships that are partnership based. This is a great time to examine our unconscious behavior regarding our partnerships and our 'obligations' to them.

Dana Gerhardt, a great astrologer, has a 40 day meditation to do during this retrograde.  You can check it out here.

I've decided that during this Venus retrograde cycle, I want to look at the ancient stories of Venus/Aphrodite/Astarte/Isis/Inanna. The Stories of the Archetypal pattern of the divine feminine. The 40 day journey of Venus in the underworld is a quest to reclaim all those parts of the feminine that have been repressed, disregarded and controlled. 

Botticelli's Venus

 

I'll be telling stories about Venus/Aphrodite online every Friday, Venus' own day, through July, which I hope you'll tune into.  I'll be posting them on FaceBook and on this Wisdom blog:

http://ladywisdomchronicles.blogspot.com/

Venus symbolizes the power of connection. With all the social distancing, we still need to stay connected, otherwise we lose the most important part of our humanity. So find new ways to express your love, your hopes and your ideals.

Blessings on us all!

Cathy