by Maya del Mar

Mysteries of Venus by Mark Lerner. The Great Bear Press, Eugene, OR 1986.

This book is now out of print, but it is worth looking for (and can often be found used at used bookstores including Amazon). Mark Lerner once published a wonderful, exciting, astrological magazine, Welcome to Planet Earth. He now has a web site, http://www.mcn.org/greatbear/.

Mark Lerner is a student of esotericism, a la Helena Blavatsky and Alice Bailey. Venus has a special place as a guide to Earth in esoteric astrology, and Mark discusses this role and its many fascinating ramifications. He begins one chapter with a quote by Blavatsky: "Venus is the most occult, powerful, and mysterious of all the planets."

I will further quote Mark:

There is a lot more to Venus than just love, art, and harmony. When introducing new students to astrology, I make it imperative that they ‘lay off’ the outer and lesser known planets until they master their understanding of Mercury, Venus, the Sun and the Moon.

Amen.

And more: "Venus is not just the planet of love, creativity, magnetism, the lesser benefic. In many ways Venus is the great mystery. The occult literature is filled with references to humanity’s origin spiritually from Venus, Venus as the Earth’s alter-ego or solar systemic partner."

Mark says that Venus, closer to the Sun, is the answer to Earth’s greatest need—for LOVE. Venus is sometimes called the Lady of the Garden, particularly when in the sign of Taurus. Nature is an organic receiving station to receive the Sun’s energy, or blessings, or love. Mark expands on these concepts.

Mark discusses Venus in relation to numerology, also fascinating. In this context, he points out that five Venus-retrograde periods cover eight years, and that each succeeding one is very similar. This is shown graphcally in computer mandalas created by the late computer whiz, Neil Michelsen. The first mandala illustrates one eight-year period of Venus, with its retrogrades. The second one is for 16 years, and it’s hard to tell that it is for two periods rather than one. These cycles move very slowly back through the zodiac, and it takes more than 1800 years to complete that trip. This would be a fascinating study. In terms of our values, perhaps we compare now with people of the 600's!—the middle of the Dark Ages, now that I think of it.

Venus as Evening Star and as Morning Star (when it returns from the dark period of retrograde) are often considered in two different lights. Morning Star was considered by many ancients to be more ferocious and warlike, and Mark goes extensively into these two roles. I’ve looked for that, but haven’t been able to really observe that that’s the case. Pay attention, and see what you think. We still have the Evening Venus through the end of this month. Then Venus plunges into the light if the Sun, transits it, and rises a week later, in mid-June. She is Morning Star for the rest of the year. In a natal chart, a morning Venus is rising before the Sun. This means that its degree is earlier. I have this, and despite my natal Venus being conjoined with my Mars, I don’t (usually) feel warlike.

Mark also discusses Venus and rays. (Venus is Fifth Ray—the Ray of thought, medicine, science, and psychology). It is considered the esoteric ruler of Gemini, where it is retrograding right now.

We also read about Venus and mundane charts, and Venus and spiritual communities. This book is chock full of Venus lore, with much good material for meditation. I’ve only touched the surface. It is written in a popular and interesting style, and if you can find it, I highly recommend it.