Oh my Gods!- Deity of the Month: Venus
- spoiled bean dip
- Apr 5
- 5 min read
Venus, goddess of desire, queen of victory, and bestower of fertility; to many even her name strikes love in those who feel empty and unwanted. For this month we will be discussing about Venus as our chosen deity in this newsletter and see how she may be applied to us modern practitioners today. Despite Venus being a native goddess of the Romans they adapted a lot of her attributes and roles from the Greek myths and legends about Aphrodite, with their similarities being so blurred together that to these ancient people the two deities were sometimes even recognized as the same being. For that reason I am going to be discussing about both interchangeably in this article but will focus mainly on Venus.
To start off let's begin with her name, the latin name Venus is believed to have come from the Proto-Indo-European word '*wenh₁-os,' which means desire. This denotes her role as one who entices one's body with desire and passion, leading them to seek out and obtain what they wish to have. As I mentioned before she is heavily borrowed from Aphrodite, in which both heavily borrow from the Mesopotamian goddess Ishtar, who is the goddess of love and war. Further I should mention that her name was pronounced as "Weh-noos" in latin and not "Venus" since the letter V was pronounced as a long "u sound" or as in "w".
Historically it is believed that Venus originally started off as a local Roman fertility goddess until she was syncretized with Aphrodite during the expansion of the Roman Empire. This original Venus was said to have been a Goddess of gardens and crops but her original myths seem to have been lost since we don't have any original roman myths of her until the greek myths where adapted into the greater Roman religion. Another interesting thing that I found was Venus was even sometimes syncretized with Egyptian deities Isis and Hathor during Rome's expansion in Egypt!
Mythologically she is said to have been created after Caelus (or Ouranos) was castrated by his son, where his severed ballsack fell into the ocean below resulting in the spontaneous birth of the goddess who was fully formed. In mythology she is often paired with Vulcan (or Hephaestus), god of the forge and metalworking, but since he is also known to be ugly and deformed she often found herself under Mars instead! Mars however was probably regarded as one of her main consorts since Venus was known to have all kinds of different relationships with various mortals and gods, with one of her most popular myths involving the tragedy of her former lover Adonis. It's said that he was gored to death by a wild boar (who some say may have been a jealous Mars in disguise) during that hunting trip, and when he laid in Venus's arms she wept as he bled which mixed together and fell to the ground. Some ancient myths say this mixture created the anemone flower, or that it spilled onto clear quartz which produced rose quartz.
To the Romans Venus also held an important role since she was responsible for the creation of the Roman empire! If you are familiar with the Aeneid you'll understand that it was Aphrodite's son Aeneas who was responsible for the founding of Rome, which would make her the mother of Rome. This Venus was known as Venus Genetrix (who we'll explore later on) and even figures like Julius Ceasar himself would claim to have been a descendant of her!
Now even though Venus is often regarded as a goddess of love she was also used for victory and prosperity! Here is a small list of some of her most popular epithets from ancient Rome and their functions:
Venus Caelestis (Celestial or Heavenly Venus)- An epithet denoting a goddess as the supreme ruler of the heavens, under this title you could call unto Venus for divine interventions or blessings.
Venus Felix (Lucky Venus)- This epithet is called upon to have Venus bestow the devotee with good fortune and blessings.
Venus Verticordia (Venus the changer of hearts)- This title was used to transform virgins and sexually active women from dissolute desire into sexual virtue, resulting in fidelity and modesty between married couples. Because sex can be given and received by anyone willing to perform it, but to keep yourself committed to a single person (especially when there were wartime upheavals and social crisis in the republic) was deemed as an honorable trait back in ancient Rome. Call upon this epithet to invite that wonderful sexual spark into your relationship with your partner to form closer bonds and to maintain a healthy sex life!
Venus Genetrix (Venus the mother)- This epithet denotes her role as a goddess of motherhood and domesticity. This version of Venus also shows her as the mother of Eros (the god of love) and the direct ancestress to the Julian line, she was also an important figure to the Roman emperors as they used her as a way to establish their political power.
Venus Barbata (Bearded Venus)- An interesting epithet I found during my research, this epithet was said to have originated in Cyprus which depicted a statue of a bearded Venus statue with a penis! These figures were also known as Aphroditos or Aphroditus and they were known as the masculine form of Aphrodite/ Venus. So this epithet could be invoked for those who are coming out as transgender or those who perform in crossdressing like in drag shows!
Venus Libitina (Dreadful Venus)- And lastly I wish to reveal this lesser known epithet of Libitina. So the epithet Libitina was orginally the name of an ancient Roman goddess of funerals and burials, with her name just being a metonymy for death. Now its not exactly clear as to why a goddess of love and sensuality became linked with Libitina, with some ancient scholars like Varro attempting to explain that her name is linguistically connected to the word lubere (to be pleasing) and is related to the word libido. But this epithet could be applied to the comforting embrace that Venus provides as we slowly pass on into the otherworld, or the love from those who will miss us as we transition. I would argue that this epithet could be called upon when a loved one is dying and we want to bring ourselves closure with them and reconcile from the past with Venus Libitina.
Some of her associations and offerings include (but are not limited too):
Colors: Pink, red, green, and white.
Beasts: Dolphins, swans, geese, doves, bees, and sparrows.
Plants and herbs: The rose, myrtle, honeysuckle, apples, limes, strawberries, oranges, cypress, vanilla, pomegranates, and mint.
Symbols: Sea foam, sea shells, mirrors (especially hand mirrors) , the morning and evening star Venus (which was named after her!)
Offerings: Heart shaped items, candies and sweets, honey, wine, milk, seashells, bath salts, bath oils, perfume, make-up, consensual sex, and even some self pleasure (if you catch my drift). Online I also found a wonderful hymn sung in classical latin to invoke the goddess during your rites or rituals, here's the link for it https://youtu.be/iutwj-U4tFg?si=jlZybxM_Ii7_EXg9
But overall the best way to invite Venus into your life is simply by promoting self love within yourself and treating yourself once in a while. For there is no better love than finding and accepting yourself for who you really are, and this goddess knows that best! Online we also offer an array of different spiritual items to promote self love as well as general offerings for this wonderful goddess of the month!
Sources: http://www.novaroma.org/nr/Venus
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