venus.
- Desire holds the power to entrap or liberate.
- Our sexual will begins as a crude, unformed drive through which things of the world quickly compete to take hold. The ordinary person has little command over it and allows external influence to shape what they desire before they can decide for themselves.
- Occult traditions rooted in the mysteries of venus use its symbolism to communicate something profound. Desire itself can become an instrument of transformation.
- Venus symbolizes the perfection of sexual will, the narrowing of infinite possibilities into something capable of being embodied.
- At the center of devotion to venus is higher-order desire, rooted in actual sensory experience rather than abstract ideas.
- Higher-order desires hold the power to alter the course of one’s life because of their ability to monopolize attention and draw energy toward that desire and thus away from distractions.
- Humans tend to orient themselves toward either the abstract or the embodied, either chasing symbols of fulfillment or fulfillment itself.
- The trap is that no transformation is required to chase symbols. We can circle the abstract all day long while keeping the same habits.
- When it comes to embodied desires, however, we yearn for all five senses to be immersed. Imagination and daydreams alone will not suffice. These desires hold immense power to transform us because the desire to grasp the object of our desire forces us to rearrange our lives around it.
- Too many spiritual teachings have an uneasy relationship with the body. They place tremendous emphasis on the unseen dimensions of existence while treating the senses as distractions from higher spiritual pursuits. Yet the body is not separate from spirit. It is the place where desire becomes consequential.
- The desire to see, touch, taste, hear, and experience something has motivated people to travel great distances, acquire difficult skills, endure discomfort, take risks, and reorganize their lives in pursuit of it. This is something fantasy alone cannot fulfill.
- Spiritual communities that circle the abstract rarely translate theories into lived experience, and this can drive some toward mental burnout. The mind becomes full of possibilities while life remains unchanged.
- Higher-order desires, those rooted deeply in experience, can protect us from endlessly drifting, because when the senses ache for an experience, everything that does not serve it begins to lose its appeal.
- The collective suffers from a malnourished sensorium and overleveraged mind.
- Sometimes the overleveraged mind is mistaken for intellect. Yet there is a difference between genuine understanding and endlessly thinking about what has never been directly experienced.
- The qualities venus symbolizes, like pleasure, beauty, comfort, and enjoyment, goes beyond the superficial. These experiences regulate the nervous system.
- A regulated nervous system supports higher-order desire because it allows us to remain devoted to a desire without constantly abandoning it.
- There is a reason venusian symbolism flourishes during a civilization’s golden age. The golden age is what emerges when embodied enjoyment has been cultivated into the fabric of life.
- Venus teaches that freedom is not found in desiring less, but in discovering what is worthy of devotion.