Medical Venus:

“Relief”

September 2023

copyright © 2023 by Judith Hill

This article is extracted and enhanced from the introduction to Chapter 11, of the book “Medical Astrology in Action: The Transits of Health.”              

Venus Rules: Taurus, Libra

Exaltation: Pisces

Detriment: Scorpio, Aries

Fall: Virgo

Metal: Copper. Strangely, baby girls are born with 30% more copper in their bodies then infant males! Adult females also retain more copper than males. Traditionally, Venus rules female sexuality, and copper too!

Minerals: Molybdenum (Jansky)
Vitamins: Niacin, E (Nauman, Jansky), P, Rutina, Niacinamide (Jansky)

Gem & Cosmic Ray: White Diamond is said to refract the Venus’ Indigo Ray and is therefore the traditional gem of Venus (Jyotish).

Body Rulership & Organ Affinities: Venus influences blood sugar, female hormones (with Moon), the veins (with Aquarius), the ovaries and kidneys (with Libra), and the skin (with Saturn and Capricorn). She influences the “thick lymphs” of the body and holds some co-influence with the Moon over mucus. Female genitalia. Venus has a definite influence with Mars and Scorpio over testes, prostate, and seminal fluid (but not the sperm). She contributes to a healthy immune system and strength. Edgar Cayce places the Thymus gland under the primary influence of Venus.

Temperature:

Venus is “normalizing”: gently cooling (if hot); pleasantly warming, (if cold). The planetary pantheon craves this essential action, as does the body. Below, we will provide sound reasons in support of this unique designation.

Contrary to “normalizing”, traditional texts often (but not always), list Venus as “cold in the first degree,” (i.e., cool). Hence, there appears debate regarding my opinion of Venus’ “normalizing” upon the body. How might an obviously normalizing planet get relegated to “Team Cold”.

For starters, gender assignment was/is stilted in many texts, with most planets being male gendered, with all ‘hot’ planets being male; whereas the few traditionally female planets are invariably “cold.” Mercury is our exception by maintaining his hermaphroditic and chameleon like gender in some texts.

Ancient, Medieval and Renaissance physicians assigned both temperature and moisture to the known planets. In many texts, medical astrologers drifted from the ancient models, becoming increasingly habituated to binary thinking - listing signs and planets as “hot or cold” with little reference to the nuance of ‘degree’. For instance, all texts I’ve consulted ignore the sign Libra’s obvious “temperate” status.

Others maintained the older, more balanced perspective - Jupiter continued to be regarded as “warm”, and tiny Mercury as “neutral” with temperature varying according to sign and conjunctions. Venus continued to be regarded as either cool or cold (and always moist), with some renegade exceptions citing “warm”.

However, the simplest of astro-medical observations forces the practitioner to rethink some assignments, particularly that of Venus’ temperature! The below discussion supports my firm opinion that the traditional assignment of “cold” to Venus cannot be entirely correct.

The pop-rock group, Shocking Blue, aptly recounted Venus’ charms in their 1969 mega-hit, “Venus”:

“A goddess on a mountain top... Was burning like a silver flame... The summit of beauty and love... And Venus was her name.”

Nothing cold about that!

Venus presides over mid-spring, and beauteous sign Taurus, a season when the sexy magnetic forces of Earth are the most concentrated. She governs love and physical attraction, molecular action that cannot be described as cold. Indeed, May-born Taurus folks are notorious for their warm hands, attractively magnetic natures, and huge appetites. Cold? C’mon, this ain’t right!

Venus also governs Libra, the most temperate sign of all. Libra, sign of the scales, denotes middle ground, and balance. Neither hot, nor cold!

 The warm and lovely metal copper is Venus’ personal metal, and female her traditional gender. Out of respect for astrologers who disagree with gender-assigned planets, I’ll include that persons of all genders can be born with strongly “Venusian” traits, and furthermore, that these traits do not exclusively “belong” to females. Additionally, all genders have some degree of the Venus-ruled female hormones and copper in their physical makeup.

Medicinally, Venus’ ray is a wound-healing vulnerary and soothing demulcent, active in relieving pain. Her effect on the body is primarily relaxing. Venus brings relief! She famously increases the romantic libido (as opposed to Martian lust). She rules sugar, too, and her general properties sweeten our lives in so many ways. Furthermore, the physical planet Venus is a greenhouse and very warm indeed!

So, we may now ask, how can Venus be “cold?” Well, she can’t be! There is just nothing cold about her. How about pleasantly cool then? If you lived in the Sahara, yes, you might very well experience Venus that way. Conversely, if you lived in snowy Norway, Venus’ action would be sensed as pleasantly warming!

How can Venus be both pleasantly cooling and warming? Because Venus’ ray produces that one action the early medicine didn’t always envision: normalizing! Venus, the peacekeeper, is ever seeking to produce the happiest mean between any two extremes. Think again of the function of her home sign Libra, the scales!

Overall, Venus’ influence upon the physical body is gently warming and moist (whereas Luna, the Moon is always cool-cold and moist). However, lady Venus can present as happily cooling and moist, as circumstance demands!

Her temperature-normalizing actions explain why some traditions list her as cold! However, she is never cold, but gently cool-ing as needed. In sum, it would seem appropriate to re-designate Venus’ traditional temperature assignment from “cold” to “warm/ cool as needed!”

General Action: Demulcent (relieving inflammation or irritation), vulnerary (wound healing), anodyne (relieving pain), hemostatic (arrests flow of blood), relaxing, calmative, antispasmodic, normalizing, softening, soothing, magnetic, a female aphrodisiac.

Special Note: Venus’ pain-allaying properties are so strong by transit that one can readily witness an immediate pain reduction within a bodily region the day that Venus enters the sign decan ruling that zone.

Positive: Venus is the planet that normalizes extremes. She is experienced as pleasure. Neither hot nor cold, she refreshes when hot and, conversely, pleasantly warms when chilled. When we are parched, Venus brings moisture. Never drying, she is however slightly hemostatic, staying the hemorrhage of wounds. Her influence is anodyne and vulnerary.

Note: Designated as the “Minor Benefic,” sweet Venus’ transit, trine, or sextile cannot be relied upon to rescue an afflicted natal planet. The conjunction is her miracle moment! An exact conjunction of transit Venus to any natal planet in trouble is a sure helpmate and safeguard.

Negative: Being lazy and indulgent, Venus transits can bring the excesses of Venus. Envision the contented, languid person, of soft flesh, reclining in an easy chair, sampling chocolates (illustrator Duff’s depiction of Venus ruled Libra). Now, think of this same characterization directed at any other natal planet. Naturally, that planet’s function loses tone or suffers from excess sugar consumption, leading to candida. Venus builds cysts (usually benign) and is substance-addictive.

She governs venereal diseases, an honor shared with Mars and perhaps the Nodes. Her conjunction relaxes the organ or bodily sign she is transiting through or natally tenanting. In rare cases, Venus can kill. Imagine a slow, lazy heart, barely beating, and along comes Venus. True, she could help if the weak heart were due to an internal tension or stiffness (Saturn). However, if the heart is just plain lazy, Venus would increase that direction! The heart stops.

Excess: Productive of cysts in the bodily region ruled by the sign of natal Venus. Also inclines to bacterial and yeast inviting sugary conditions in the body zone where natally indicated. All the proof one needs of this fact is the astonishing frequency of correlation between genital yeast and colon candida with natal Venus in Scorpio!

Venus also tends to prolapse of bladder, uterus, rectum, etc., and lazy tissue tone. She inclines toward sugar and wine indulgence and excess blood sugar.

Deficient: Low copper, low female libido, low female hormones, dry skin and/or hair, baldness, weak kidneys (with related acne due to resultant toxins in blood), lack of sparkle, charisma, or attractiveness, low blood sugar (or too high!). Low copper can be implicated in iron deficiency anemia, thyroid dysfunction, and heart palpitations.

Transit Frame & Orb: One to three days by transit conjunction, square, opposition, or quincunx to a natal planet, longer for stations. However, Venus influences the bodily regions of the signs she transits from ingress to exit!

This chapter continues on with a wealth of detail, replete with instructive “field notes”, “herbal tips”, and “surgical tips” regarding Venus’ medical transits through the four elements, twelve signs, all major planet conjunctions, node conjunctions, and more, continues through the rest of this chapter of book.

 “Medical Astrology in Action: The Transits of Health.”

RECOMMENDED BOOK FOR THE AVID LEARNER:

MEDICAL ASTROLOGY IN ACTION: THE TRANSITS OF HEALTH