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Finding Venus: Examples Of The World As Her Oyster
Who is Venus? What does it mean to be Venusian?
Venus is more than a planet in our galaxy. She exists in every religion across time. Sometimes described as Earth’s evil twin, one day on this planet is longer than a year on Earth. The planet’s physiology is far better at depicting this goddess’s truth than the romanticised depictions we hear in pop culture. Her mythology is mirrored in the sulfuric acid rain that pours, the volcanic plains, the pressurised atmosphere and her status as the second brightest planet in the galaxy.
Venus also received the names Aphrodite, Ishtar, Shukra, Inanna, Zohra, and Anahita, amongst others, across religions since the beginning of time – all of them beautiful. Botticelli’s painting, The Birth of Venus, is a paragon of what being Venusian is about. The painting depicts Venus emerging naked from an oyster shell like a pearl, her ochre mane cascading in waves as she delicately shields herself with her hands and tress. To the left, Zephyrus blows a shower of roses toward Venus, guiding her to shore where Pomona, the goddess of spring, awaits with a shawl. Undeniably, this is the Venus we know. The Roman goddess of beauty and love.
The Wrath of Venus
Scientists seldom explore the darker side of Venus; this glamorising of the multifarious goddess is why so many misunderstand her. Perhaps this oversimplification attests to the phenomenon of the halo effect, a mystifying flaw of mankind.
The Greeks called her Aphrodite. Once, Psyche’s beauty (a human) was said to rival Aphrodite’s. This enraged Aphrodite astronomically, so much so that she sent her son Eros (Cupid) to make Psyche fall in love with the ugliest man in the world. This only backfired as Eros accidentally pricked himself with the arrow and fell for Psyche himself. Aphrodite’s schemes also led to the Trojan War as she promised Helen of Troy, a mortal, to Paris to win the beauty contest between her, Athena and Hera.
Venus was married although she had many affairs, the most infamous was her relationship with Mars, the god of war. A patronage of contradictions, Venus ruled charm, persuasion, marriage and union. The painting by Jacque Louis David, Mars Being Disarmed by Venus, encapsulates the power Venus attained through sensuality and charm. She crowns Mars with roses for his submission as the three graces prance around with his weapons and armour.
Examples of Venus in the Modern World
American Beauty (1999)
The film American Beauty tells of a man who undergoes a mid-life crisis and becomes infatuated with his teenage daughter’s friend, Angela. When Angela realised this infatuation, she entertained it by flirting with him. His attraction to her made her feel grown and validated, silencing the insecurities she felt underneath.
The iconic Mena Suvari is the only person featured in the movie’s key art. Amongst a bed of roses with long blonde hair and florets that cover her intimates; this is the poster girl of Venus in the modern world. The film’s narrative confronts the superficiality of the American Dream, another Venusian concept. Disillusionment with the material world is one of many lessons Venus teaches in the modern world.
Alexander McQueen’s Oyster Dress (2003)
Unsurprisingly, the ever-knowing visionary that was Alexander McQueen blessed us with his own rendition of the birth of Venus. Made out of silk, it is a wonder how it so accurately mimicked the seafoam of which Venus was born. McQueen so clearly and expertly captures the diverging chasms of Venus’ patronage.
McQueen’s beauty is a bruised pearl encased in a deconstructing oyster, the tumbled survivor of the violent action of waves.
Kim Kardashian as Venus
Kim has intentionally or subconsciously imitated Venus in several of her MET Gala looks. In 2023, strings of pearls envelope her chest – a Schiaparelli piece. The train that followed her resembled the shell from which Venus had emerged and, in 2019, was adorned by Thierry Mugler, one of her most iconic looks. Dripping wet, she looked, stepping out in a dramatically cinched, translucent dress. Almost like a mermaid, a corset created by the legendary Mr. Pearl, she riled the crowd up with a garment only effectuated by Venusian strength and tenacity.
Everything about Kim Kardashian is Venusian. She is a Libra, a billionaire, famous for her looks and figure. She is polarising to the public; many people proclaim she is talentless and famous for no reason. Yet she owns multiple businesses, has chosen to work in criminal justice and reform, and her name has not left the headlines since 2007. The other week she attended a Netflix comedy roast where Tony Hinchcliff makes a crass, distasteful and misogynistic joke and yet, tall as ever, she stood (at 5’2) with beauty and poise as her armour.
Acknowledging the Omnipresence of Venus
Why is it important to recognise Venus, in all her entirety, in the modern world?
All is fair in love and war. As such, the fine line between love and hate.
The importance of recognising that we live in a Venusian world is evident as we consider the things that rule society. Money, fame, power, greed, jealousy – all of which facilitate admiration and competition. Hindus believe we live in Kali Yuga. This is known as the age of darkness, where vice prevails as mankind teeters on the edge of destruction. People have drifted far away from the divine, and idolatry is found in the material. Venus once represented godly, spiritual love. Today, she is reduced to the desires of mankind, a goddess of beauty and riches symbolising man’s greed and superficiality.
Do not be fooled by the promises of False Gods; they offer no salvation, only enslavement.
The one thing the Romans got right about their deities was their fallible nature. These tales, myth or not, epitomises humanity. This is something absent in contemporary religious figures. Imagine if the gods we admired shared the same faults that we did. Would that make their myths more didactic, or would we all just become nihilists?
