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A planetary meditation for Venus

a planetary meditation practice addressed to Venus

What the tradition reads

The Western planetary tradition treats a meditation to Venus as an appeal for love rightly given, beauty noticed rather than chased, and harmony between people, worked in Venus's own hour, the first hour after sunrise on a Friday, dressed in white or another of the colours Agrippa's own chapter gives the planet, with red roses burning or set out if they can be had, roses being named among the fumes Agrippa's chapter on planetary fumes gives to Venus. The tradition reads Venus as governing attraction and pleasure, and warns that Venus taken to excess, vanity, or love that only wants to be admired, is as much a part of the planet's tradition as its gifts, so a Venus practice asks for affection that gives as freely as it wants to receive. The Vedic remedial tradition reads the same working through Shukra, teacher and preceptor of the asuras, and prescribes it most often for whoever stands in a Venus dasha or whose lagna lord is Venus: the name mantra recited on Fridays, charity of white cloth, rice or sugar given on the same day, and, where a jyotishi has examined the whole chart and prescribed it, a diamond or white sapphire worn on the ring finger in silver, for a trial period, removed if the trial does not go well. Both traditions read the practice as opening the heart rather than only decorating it.

The story

The fifty fifth hymn in the standard Orphic sequence addresses Venus under the names Cyprus born and Aphrodite, calling her heavenly, illustrious and laughter loving, sea born and of an awful mien, the source from whom harmony joins the world and from whom all productions spring, asked at its close to incline to the rite whether enthroned in the heavens or presiding over Syria or Egypt; the hymn does not name a fumigation of its own beyond the general aromatics common to the sequence. Thomas Taylor's English translation of the whole collection, made at the close of the eighteenth century, remains the version most commonly read. The Vedic tradition's parallel verse, from the Navagraha Stotram attributed to Vyasa, calls Shukra supreme teacher of the daityas and expounder of all scripture, a description that names Venus, in this tradition's oldest layer, as a teacher of considerable learning rather than primarily a figure of romance, a reading Wikipedia's own account of the deity confirms in telling how Shukra alone possessed the secret of reviving the dead. Two unrelated hymns, Greek and Sanskrit, each address the same planet as a source of harmony that reaches well beyond romantic love alone.

The practice

1. Begin with the blessing of the room, cleaning the space, setting out salted water and an unlit lamp, and asking the One who made the lights that the place be clean, quiet and kept. 2. Sit in Venus's own hour, the first hour after sunrise on a Friday, with white set out and a red rose, fresh or dried, placed nearby. 3. Breathe in for four counts, hold for four, out for four, hold for four, twelve rounds, letting the shoulders soften. 4. Say the address aloud: in the name of the One who made the lights, turn to the light of Venus, and to its angel or deva, asking for love rightly given and harmony between people, and that it be given in the light and harm no one and ask nothing against anyone's will. 5. Recite the mantra, Om Shukraya Namah, one hundred and eight times on a mala, or read the Orphic hymn to Venus slowly three times instead. 6. For the sitting, bring to mind one person to be treated more gently in the coming week, and picture one small, freely given kindness toward them, asked for nothing in return. 7. Sit for five to twenty minutes, then give thanks, put out the lamp, and offer that kindness before the week is out.

Written from

Corpus key practice:Venus.