Timely Tarot: The Embrace of Venus By Lisa De La O Wyman
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The Autumn Equinox on the 22nd welcomed the beauty of autumn and beginning of Libra season. No sign better symbolizes the balance of darkness and light achieved at the peak of the equinox, that moment of perfect alignment. In pagan traditions, it is known as Mabon and signifies the second harvest in the cycle of the planting year. Light and life are dwindling, and it is a time of gratitude, reflection, and preparation to ultimately clear away the fallen fruits, dead leaves, and other detritus that will go into the bonfire. Our own lives, like the earth, have these cycles of planting new seeds in the form of dreams and goals. We tend to them lovingly, then harvest as much as we can of their bounty until accepting that not everything made it.
Speaking of love, it is also the time of Venus, Libra’s planetary ruler. We all know a bit about Venus, or Aphrodite, and her stance as the supreme Goddess of Love is ubiquitous. But what does that mean for your life? How does she show up? How do you embody that energy? Let’s take a lush, languid stroll through her perfumed gardens and find out.
As the hottest and brightest planet in our solar system, smoldering Venus is the second planet to the Sun. It is similar to Earth in size, mass, and gravity. Since antiquity, it has been called “the shining one”, and the morning or evening star. Like the moon, Venus has phases, a fundamental complexity. Perhaps that is why both she and the Moon are connected so closely to the emotions - ever-shifting, obscuring, and highlighting varying versions of their natures. The planet was named after the Roman goddess of love and beauty. To the ancient Greeks, she was Aphrodite (aphros means “foam”), born upon the sea foam from the severed testicles of the primordial deity Ouranos. From an act of great violence came the manifestation of love and harmony. Instead of separating or cutting down, she binds. Also called the “queen of heaven”, she is associated with deities like Isis, Lakshmi, Inanna, Freya, Hathor, Ceres, and Nike – goddesses not just of love, but also of conflict, justice, and underworld journeys. Strangely enough, love goddesses are often also war goddesses – why? The drives for sex and aggression are both fueled by testosterone . . . something to ponder.
The domains of Venus are all about connection – love, sex, reproduction, beauty, prosperity, creativity, and the growth of spring. In a natal chart, your Venus placement can tell you a lot about how you give and receive love. In the Orphic hymns, we are told that she likes “the nightlong revel . . . oh scheming mother of necessity . . . you have yoked the world”. Through sexual desire and longing for companionship with others, she keeps us going. There may be wars, disputes, and separations, but we ultimately always seek each other out again – that need to connect, to feel together, to be in relationship of some kind, prevails. In her most evolved state, she is unconditional and boundless love – mother, lover, friend, caretaker, and peacekeeper. In a lesser form, she is uncontrolled sensual appetite, a scheming seductress, dark mother, warring queen, and greedy materialist.
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The Empress is the primary card of Venus in the Tarot. She is mother and consort to all. Her very being is the source of creative energy from which all growth springs. She is ripe, juicy, receptive, sensual, and magnetic. She rules attraction and pulls towards her that which she desires. She also governs beauty, but not just in the aesthetic sense – beauty, in whatever form, can uplift and inspire. It has spiritual powers. Venus rules the signs of Taurus and Libra, symbolizing both spring and autumn, planting and harvesting - so much fertility. It’s not just the fruitfulness of motherhood through childbirth, but the fecundity of creation itself. She’s the power of the body and mind to initiate a spark of something and bring it through to material reality and harmonize it with the other energies around her. It’s through this earthly sense of abundance that she expresses through Taurus. This energy is grounded, practical, and deeply connected to the cycles of nature. Creativity, consummation, sensuality, wealth, and artistry all find expression here. Libra is focused on harmony, balance, the beauty of symmetry, the conceptual arts, law, diplomacy, social graces, and fair partnership. Attractiveness, charm, and the quest for mental balance are also part of Libran energy. Libra is focused on the unique opportunity relationship with another provides. Through these polarities of earthly body and airy mind, the Empress embodies the Venusian quest for abundance and unity.
So how does Venus seductively saunter through the other cards of the Tarot? Let’s trail her tantalizing steps . . .
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The cards of Taurus (The Hierophant and the 5, 6 & 7 of Pentacles) bring in the fixed energy of the bridge-builder and conduit. In ancient Greece, a hierophant meant “revealer of mysteries,” a priest of the Eleusinian rites and keeper of rituals surrounding agrarian Venusian deities like Demeter and Persephone. His very body was the bridge between the divine and the people. His voice carried through mystical information, higher knowledge, and teachings that could be applied to everyday life. The Hierophant translates spiritual enigmas into practical applications. He can teach us how to embody this role in our lives and relationships.
This trio of Taurean cards teaches us about stabilizing our efforts. Here is where they take deep root, grow stronger, and begin to connect with the environment around them. They develop stamina, heartiness, and long-term potential. Part of our work here involves careful planning, preparation, and anticipating what might go wrong so that we can build alternative methods for success. Taurus is ruled by Venus, the great connector. She loves uniting things! Her influence encourages us to see the relationships between resources, ideas, and options so that our work will have the greatest potential for a positive outcome. If we’re blessed, we enjoy great success. It all comes together and we’re fruitful, prosperous, and living it up. Sensual joys and bountiful resources! The Six of Pentacles in particular knows how to have a good time and savor the sweetness.
However, sometimes things go wrong and we have to bear the disappointment and take stock of what got us to this place of failure or challenge. Was our planning sound? Did we forget anything? Were we ready? Did we fuel our efforts with love and optimism? Perhaps we did everything right and just got the booby prize this time. Sometimes it just is what it is. We can start again and ground our dreams and hard work in the promise of a new cycle. We’re bringing spiritual beauty to earth through practical application and sharing it with others. We’re building those bridges of connection on many levels.
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In the cards of Libra (Justice/Adjustment and 2, 3 & 4 of Swords), cardinal energy initiates a process of delineating information. Libra is concerned with equality, balance, ethical decision-making, and right relationship. Symbolized by the scales, it’s seeking symmetry in all things, a harmony found through constant focus on refined adjustment. The scales are a means of identifying where true balance resides. In going deeper, Justice invites us to employ discernment, recognize our accountability, and take responsibility for the reality that our intentions and actions have created. Justice is intimately connected to the concept of karma, which simply means momentum. Karma is the law of cause and effect – what results from your actions.
In Justice, the sword is a tool of discrimination. It can cleave something in half, separating one part from another. It breaks things into smaller pieces for deeper examination. The sword dissects. Rather than taking something at face value and labeling it based on an initial emotional reaction, it encourages a closer look, varied perspectives, and mental space for discernment. On this leg of the journey, we find ourselves at the crossroads, where adherence to a path will demand commitment and yield consequences. To arrive at an aligned, balanced decision, we must try to reach that still point in the mind where clarity can be attained. As with the practice of meditation, we are seeking the calm at the center of the mental storm, that place of temporary peace in a sea of chaos.
Can you quiet your mind long enough to calmly discern? What might help you with this? We also learn that choices yield consequences, that commitments require sacrifice, shifting our priorities, and painful lessons that can result from decisions made too hastily or without the benefit of hindsight. There is, however, great wisdom that can result from this kind of suffering – the transformative realizations we can take away from the agony of a broken bond, actions not taken, and promises not kept. We still seem to need to learn the hard way at times, through profound imbalance.
We also find Venus dancing through a handful of other zodiacal cards:
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With Two of Cups (Venus in Cancer), maternal, nurturing energies are lovingly encasing the precious thing. It is the initial spark or connection of something, the conception of a new relationship of some kind, a child, or an impassioned cause. We are beginning an emotional journey and the seeds of that must be safely held and tended. That first meeting with an intriguing stranger, sexual union, or that first art project that makes you realize you want to become an artist. Hold that new dream in a loving embrace. Protect and nourish it as it continues to grow and thrive.
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In Four of Wands (Venus in Aries), Venus is in partnership with her lover Mars. The gods of love and war, temporarily, are in a state of harmony and joyful celebration. This is the wedding, not the marriage. It’s a fleeting moment of unity and delighting in the commingling of opposed energies. There is often a ritual surrounding a union or point of achievement (graduation ceremony, retirement party, etc.). However, it’s a plateau, the launching pad for imminent change. Take that time to rejoice and revel, but know that something new is right around the corner. Don’t try to hold onto it. Recognize the special occasion, the marker of success or bliss, and be ready for it to evolve in real-time.
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In Five of Swords (Venus in Aquarius), we see the mind in conflict and just wanting everyone to get along. There is a passivity and tendency to be conflict-avoidant here. We are encountering other people and their ideas and it’s getting dicey. Competitive attitudes are arising and there’s a need to defend ourselves on some level – and we don’t want to. It feels scary and hard and perhaps the confidence isn't there. Yet there are moments in life when our desire for peace is out of place. Part of relating well to others is representing yourself with integrity and honesty, which requires you to stick up for yourself if that’s being threatened or silenced. Venus is rather uncomfortable in the mental realm of Aquarius, which has no patience for her more emotional instincts. She may need to step into warrior queen mode here and defend with honor, using her words and mental clarity as righteous weapons that reestablish balance.
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With Seven of Cups (Venus in Scorpio), Venus is at her most imbalanced state. Love, passion, and sensual appetites are wildly amplified by intense Scorpio. Here Venus drinks too much, gets sick on sweets, sleeps with the toxic ex, and maybe . . . creates a great work of art from her experience. When this card shows up, there’s a possibility of overindulgence or unhealthy escape through illusions. This messy space can also be the birthplace of great vision and possibility. Out of the muck the lotus blooms, right? Noxious swamp water yields tremendous growth due to its fertility, much like manure feeds a bountiful harvest of food and flora. The trick of this energy is in finding the balance between the excess that poisons and the just-right amount that spurs healing and new potential. It’s the difference between a fantasy consuming you or becoming the inspiration for a more beautiful reality.
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In Nine of Pentacles (Venus in Virgo), we’re experiencing the reward of material gain. All that hard work and patience is yielding a bounty. Or it may have been a windfall of some kind like an inheritance. There is increased independence and we are cultivating autonomous success. We finally have more resources to make things the way we want them in our environment. There may be tendencies towards perfectionism and over-cultivation. Nothing can be perfect, nor should it. Loneliness can sometimes show up in this card. You’ve spent time and effort getting to this place, perhaps on your own. Has your dedication isolated you a bit? Did you get here through a loss of some kind? Create space for renewed connection and affection. Love, after all, is our most precious resource.
So how is Venusian energy showing up in your everyday life? Well, do you let yourself take pleasure in things? Are you comfortable with pleasure? Do you take joy in your body and all its functions? This isn’t just about sex but joy in our earthiness and how much we can do with our glorious instrument. Even when it’s sick, broken, or tired – can you still love and treat it with affection? What does the word beauty mean to you? Is it all about “looks” or does it have a deeper expression? Then there’s the scorching-hot topic of money and prosperity. Do you feel like you deserve it? Do you think it’s good, evil, or just plain out of reach? What role does it play in your life? Could you develop a better relationship with it? And LOVE. What is it? Does it scare you? Do you long for it? How does it get expressed in your relationships – could it be kinder, lusher, more reciprocal?
Venus lives in every nook and cranny of our beings. She’s a huge presence. She’s lascivious and loving and she wants us to be together. She wants us to come together and create new beauty and balance. Venus brings us back to each other, binds us across oceans and time, and swells our hearts with the desire to see, feel, hear, taste, touch and unite with it all. She is the connective tissue of the universe.
Lisa De La O Wyman is a Tarot reader and writer based in Redondo Beach. At Tarot for Empowerment, she works with individual clients, private parties, and special events. Through her work, she seeks to connect people with their innate power as well as encounter the mystery in everyday life. She can be reached via Instagram and Facebook at @tarotforempowerment, email at info@tarotforempowerment.com , and website www.tarotforempowerment.com.
