Her skin is golden, her hair is golden - she shines like the Sun.  She also seduces men in daylight.

How does one decide whether a person, or a building, or a piece of music, is beautiful?  It is a great mystery. 

Choices in love are really our unconscious statements about what we value most - that which we first perceive outside us and desire accordingly.  However, we must realize that that the true symbolic meaning of Venus should represent a quality of absolute self-love and self-value, which we can give joyfully to others but which does not depend upon others for a sense of worth.  

We discover ourselves through reflecting upon what we love and find beautiful because the object of desire is a hook for the projection of what is of greatest beauty and highest value within oneself.

Of all the ancient pantheon who personify the inner planets, Aphrodite-Venus is perhaps the least integrated into our present society. This is due to our Judeo-Christian ethos of sin and punishment and Aphrodite-Venus usually constitutes a rebellion against Victorian morality.  

One of Aphrodite's dominant characteristics is her extreme vanity, which we are taught to believe is a terrible thing.  One must not look in mirrors too often or spend an excessive amount of money on self-beautification. Aphrodite is not ethical in the Saturnian, social sense or in the Jupiterian, religious sense.  Her ethics are those of beauty, which possesses its own innate logic.

It is the planet Venus which symbolizes our capacity to form and identify what we value - the basis for authenticity in our personal choices.  Sometimes we are presented with a dilemma where we must choose one person over another and then must stand by the consequences of that choice. This helps us to make better choices and form happier relationships.  Many of us try to make choices based upon intellectual formulae, or upon what other people think we should do.  Or - we do not choose at all but are driven into a course of action by our  unconscious hungers and fears.  This is compulsion rather than choice.

Sadly, some people really do not know what they truly desire and value.  It is possible that they are so disconnected from their needs and desires - they are not aware that they do not want anything at all.  There is a kind of emptiness instead, an apathy which results in mere survival rather than any sense of deep pleasure in life.  Oh, there may be a veneer of so-called values, which are really mere copies of what is acceptable to one's family or social circle; or there may even be an ideology or philosophy which justifies the lack of individual desire.

Sooner or later one will be tempted or even fall from the "straight and narrow".  Invariably, if one has betrayed his/her true desire nature, the more likely he/she is to fall.   In myth, Aphrodite is always provoking adulterous mischief among mortals.  Indiscretions  usually reflect the person's lack of recognition of some value absolutely essential to his/ her development.   Aphrodite's victims generally break their vows to somebody, not out of cold calculation or even "bit-on-the-side" greed, but because they cannot help it - this is the grand passion of poetry and drama, and one feels alive as never before!  The passion is an instrument by which the individual discovers a deeper and more authentic set of values.  Whether the relationship becomes permanent or passes away depends upon the individuals and circumstances. 

Aphrodite is very threatening to the collective.  She is an amoral goddess by conventional standards and people suffer through her passions.  Yet it is really a question of which brand of suffering one takes on for the denial of Venus results in equal if not worse misery.  Triangles are a characteristic Venusian theme, and no one emerges unscathed, yet nothing constellates our growth so powerfully.

Some very important issues may be found when analyzing a personal horoscope:

Loss of self-worth - depression - lack of spontaneous joy and  pleasure - lack of confidence - lack of or obsessive drive for sexual pleasure - one's personal  environment -  mother/daughter rivalry - male confusion towards women - feelings of inferiority - inability to create or translate fantasy into beautiful form - feeling unworthy of being loved - excessive projection - dependency. 

Venus symbolizes the ability to attract love and money.  If you are experiencing difficulty with your relationships and/or money situation, you may need to clear up some issues.

For an in-depth consultation:

email:  astdome@aol.com