Connecting with Venus Series: Part 2

Venus in a world of Patriarchy

This month we are exploring the archetype of Venus in a series. In part two we will look at Venus in Patriarchy, Venus in our Culture, Connecting to Venus and the Evolving trends of Venus.

Venus in the Patriarchy

In our culture (especially for women) we don’t have a healthy model to explore and express the Venus themes of pleasure, esteem, and value.  Venus is one, if not the most damaged archetypal force in the culture.  Venus is feminine Goddess that is not offered a seat or place at the Patriarchal table. Most of us have been conditioned as to what we value, by what our culture depicts as value.  The cultural influence on what we value and what beauty is so powerful that we don’t have an understanding of how to discern this for ourselves.

Venus in our Culture

We live in a culture in which our Venus has been very shamed. The culture does not support a healthy way to explore our passion and what truly feels good to us in a balanced form.  Our connection to our Venus archetype has been shut down.  This is why we see overindulge with food and rise in obesity, eating disorders, obsession with being fit, and even increasing plastic surgery procedures.  Most women in America are culturally conditioned by what is beautiful, be lovable and are shamed into needing to fit that mold.  There are industries that market and profit to these culturally conditioned themes and provide services and products for them.  Open any women’s magazine to see all the products, services and looks shown in the pictures and ads and told to in the articles of what is expected. None of these individual things are necessarily bad, but it is very important to know and understand the intention behind why you are doing it.

Ask yourself these Venus questions? Is what you are doing affirming your esteem? Is what you are doing connecting you to what you most value?  Does it authentically support your truth?  Many people may be driven by shame or perfectionism to meet a standard that was taught outside of themselves. If your intention is driven by shame, then it isn’t healthy or affirming for you.

Connecting to Venus

Connecting with the true sense of the Goddess Venus is loving yourself by your own definition of what is beautiful and what you value. It is love for yourself and value system that is lead from within. It doesn’t feel shame in truly enjoying pleasure in a balanced way.  It also is in touch with genuine traits of who you love based on your true values and not what the culture says is desirable or beautiful in a partner.

Evolving Trends of Venus

Often as culture we just adopt the passing trend, of what Venus embodied looks like. We see Venus in the style of clothes we wear, accessories we purchase, hair and make up, even body types that are honored. All these change over time.  What was considered beautiful in the Ancient Greece (c. 500-300 B.C.) was very different than in Italian Resonance (c.1400-1700), which was different than in the Roaring 20s or the Golden Age of Hollywood (c. 1930s or 1950s) or today.

We often adopt socially conditioned values as our values without truly knowing the difference between what our real values are and what they aren’t.  Your Venus is very important to get in touch with.  If you don’t know what your real values are, what kind of choices are you going to make in your life? What kind of self direction do you really have in your life?  Have you become high jacked by the trends and the fads of the time? Have you build your life on a false sense of values?  If so, where do you need to change to re-connect you to yourself?

(Want to see part 1 of this series?  Find it here StacyQuast.com/connecting-with-venus-part-one/)