Libra is dominated by Venus, the planet which also rules Taurus. Venus was named for the Roman Goddess of Love and Beauty. In its highest form, Venus provides the finest of all planetary influences. It denotes a kindly and harmonious nature, possessed with a desire for happiness and comradeship. Beauty, charm, love of music and gaiety all belong to the make-up of a Venus individual. Those under the influence of this planet will spare no effort in the creation of comfortable surroundings. They enjoy home life and form firm and lasting friendships. Such are the positive aspects bestowed by Venus. In contrast, however, lack of harmony is disturbing to natives of Venus, causing them to become emotional over disputes. Being kindly souls, they are easily offended and will resent even slight neglect. Unless those ruled by this planet are careful in their choice of friends or those upon whom they shower affection, the result may be misunderstanding.

Those whose ruling planet is Venus do have a tendency to become careless and indolent. They can give way to useless pleasure and love of show. The affairs of Venus are affairs of the heart, not the head. Unless such affection is reciprocated, Venus subjects may turn to new friends and new fields. These negative aspects cause those ruled by Venus to apear paradoxical to people who do not understand them. This side of the Venus character may place too much value on appearances and too little on true human worth. There is a slack and indecisive side to those ruled by this planet which can lead to hesitancy in the face of danger.

Parties, social functions, gifts, adornments, fashions and all sorts of luxuries fall within the jurisdiction of Venus. This is a planet of good taste and proper balance. Thus, the social graces and vanities come under its guidance. Venus represents the world of values. What is liked, what is disliked, how a person feels about others, the way in which a person is capable of being happy...of giving and receiving love...are all governed by Venus. Although these natives may be well aware of their own attractiveness and charm, they are not necessarily vain. They are companionable people and, indeed, probably need company more than any other Sign of the Zodiac. These are usually artistic souls, but ones who possess a passive quality which is not always desiring in a lustful way, being quietly receptive to all the good things in life.

In an astrological sense, the influence of Venus is associated chiefly with things admirable and desirable...love, beauty (together with the love of beauty for its own sake) and appreciation of the arts. It is also aligned with harmony, unison, peace, reconcilliation and the enjoyment of pleasure. The influence of Venus is felt in all types of relationships concerning business and social ties, as well as love and sexual bonds. Venus is also associated with marriage, fertility, good food and drink, and all the creature comforts which make Earth a pleasant place to live.

It was once traditionally believed that males whose ruling planet was Venus would be threatened by death at the hands of a woman. Later interpretations suggested that the male might, instead, be destined to domination by women. In the astrology of politics, Venus rules victory in war.

Physically, many Venus subjects possess what has been termed as "the ideal," having finely-molded features and a well-proportioned physique. They take pride in their appearance and have an ease of manner and natural charm by which they display themselves at their best.

The metal which correlates most closely to Venus is copper, which mixes easily with other metals and tends to the pastel in colorization. In other words, it changes to pink, green and purple when heated. Copper is considered the perfect alloy. In an anatomical sense, Venus is closely related to the kidneys and also to the sensory organs...the body's receptors. This is hardly surprising since these are the areas which tell a person what does and does not feel good and Venus is synonomous with pleasure, satisfaction and contentment.

Items particularly associated with Venus are: daffodils and daisies; ash and birch trees; fruits (anything from apples to apricots); swans; dolphins; salmon and doves. The semi-precious stones linked to this planet are: cornelian; lapis lazuli and sapphires. Friday is considered a particularly lucky day for those who fall within the jurisdiction of this planet, while the special associated colors are shades of pastels...such as pinks and blues.

The great moral lesson to be learned by the children of Venus is that there are benefits to be reaped when one is decisive.
However, they also need to learn that thinking with the head is a desirable trait and should teach themselves
to become more centered, thus giving direction to their lives.

Once thought to be two separate bodies (named "Hesperus" as an evening star and "Phosphurus" or "Eosphorus" as the morning star), Venus is the second planet from the Sun and the sixth largest. Venus has been known since prehistoric times. Viewed from Earth, it is the brightest object in the heavens, except for the Sun and the Moon, and was formerly referred to as the "Jewel of the Sky," so named because it was the brightest of all planets known to the ancients. Venus traces an orbit which is closer to a perfect circle than any other planet, but with a retrograde or backward rotation. Therefore, on Venus, the Sun rises in the West and sets in the East while the wind travels always westward. Venus cannot be missed when it is well-placed in the evening sky, being by far the brightest "star" of all. In fact, if one knows exactly where to look, Venus may even been seen in broad daylight. Like the Moon and Mercury, Venus has phases and when it presents a crescent phase, is known as the Ashen Lights. With a very few exceptions, all of the surface features of Venus (such as Guinevere Planitia, Sif Mons and Aphrodite Terra) are named for female figures. There is also a crater which honors the famed jazz singer, Billie Holliday.

Venus is sometimes regarded as the Earth's sister planet and, in some ways, they are quite similar. Venus is only slightly smaller than Earth, both have few craters indicating relatively young surfaces and their densities and chemical compositions are comparable. However, in many important ways, the two planets are radically different. The atmosphere of Venus is composed mainly of carbon dioxide and there are several layers of thick clouds consisting of sulfuric acid. These clouds completely obscure Venus' surface and the dense atmosphere creates a runaway greenhouse effect. The surface temperature of Venus is inferno-like, being hot enough to melt lead and even at night, the temperature barely drops. The surface of Venus is actually hotter than that of Mercury, despite being nearly twice as far from the Sun. It seems likely that Venus once had large amounts of water which boiled away. The majority of the surface now consists of gently-rolling plains with little relief. There are also several broad depressions and two large highland areas in the Northern Hemisphere. Both day and night, lightning and continuous thunder flash and boom across a rainless sky. The oldest terrains on Venus appear to be approximately 800 million years old. Extensive volcanic activity at that time has obliterated the earlier surface, including any large craters which may have featured in the initial history of Venus' formation.

The first spacecraft to visit Venus was Mariner 2 in 1962. It was subsequently visited by many others. Most recently, the orbiting U.S. spacecraft Magellan produced details maps of the surface of Venus by means of radar. Magellan unveiled a planet with a tortured surface shaped by a history of geological violence, tectonic deformation, volcanism and impact cratering. At least 85% of Venus is covered by volcanic rock...mostly lava flows which form the planet's vast plains. Because there is no rainfall, oceans or strong winds existing on Venus, little erosion occurs. The planet has no magnetic field (perhaps due to its slow rotation) and has no satellites or moons.

NOTES:

1. Among astrological circles, it is believed that the true planet which governs the
sign of Taurus is one tentatively named Pan-Horus (Pan being the Roman/Greek God of
Shepherds and Ruler of Earth Forces, and Horus being the Egyptian Sky God responsible
the restoration of immortal bodies) which will, in time, become the Bull's official
planetary ruler, leaving Venus with domination over the sign of Libra only.

2. On March 15, 2004, it was announed that in November of 2003, astronomers had
discovered a potential new planet beyond Pluto which could become the Solar System's
tenth. Given the name Sedna in honor of the Inuit Goddess of the Ocean, it is believed
to be composed of half-rock/half-ice, to possess its own moon (which is very red in
color) and similar in size to Pluto. Whether this is the same heavenly body
referenced in "Note 1" above is a matter for debate, as is whether Sedna will
ultimately become the governing planet of Taurus. Indeed, there is much controversy
among the knowledgeble as to whether Sedna is a true planet at all, or simply a
planetoid or so-called Kuiper Belt object.

Venus is the Roman Goddess of Love and Beauty. Known to the Greeks as Aphrodite, that nation was not the first to name such a Goddess. Her origins can be traced to similar deities of other ancient civilizations and may have developed from Ishtar Astarte, the old Semitic Goddess of Love, brought from Phoenecia to Greece by way of Cyprus. The birth of Venus comes complete with two versions. In the first, Venus sprung from Uranus, who refused to allow his children to emerge into the light and perpetually embraced the Earth, otherwise known as Gaia. Cronos, the son of Uranus, castrated his father and then tossed the dismembered body parts into the sea, where a white foam formed around them from the immortal flesh and Venus sprang forth, fully-formed, near the Island of Cythera. From there, Zephyrus, the West Wind, carried her gently upon a shell to Cyprus, where she was met by the Hours who clothed her and escorted her to Mount Olympus. This story of Venus' creation is known as Aphrodite Urania or Celestial Aphrodite, and she was a Goddess of pure and spiritual love. This particular version associates the Goddess with the creation of the world and establishes her as one of the most ancient divinities. Since she was born from the act which separated Heaven and Earth, she created the world in between and is present from the very beginning of time. The second version of the birth of Venus depicts her as one of the younger divinities and is more closely connected with her later reputation as a minor goddess. According to Homer's Iliad, the Goddess of Love was born from the union of Jupiter (or Zeus as he was known to the Greeks) and the Titan Goddess named Dione. This incarnation is referred to as Aphrodite Pandemos or Common Aphrodite and, being a more base goddess, is associated with physical satisfaction.

In Roman mythology, Venus was married to Vulcan, the ugly and lame Blacksmith God of the Forge who built her a magnificent palace on Cyprus, but she was hardly the faithful wife, indulging in numerous extramarital liaisons with many gods and mortals. She was instrumental in the initiation of the Trojan War by giving Helen of Sparta to Paris, Prince of Troy. In return for this gift, Paris judged Venus to be the most beautiful of the Goddesses.

Venus was sometimes referred to as the "Dark One" because of the tragedies which resulted from the passions she inspired. One ascetic named Hippolytus offended Venus by declaring that he would remain celibate. She punished him by making his stepmother fall in love with him, for which he was killed by his father's curse. In another tale, when two mortal lovers failed to pay her homage after she had made it possible for them to marry, Venus caused them to vex the Earth Goddess, Cybele. The unforgiving Cybele turned the newlyweds into a lion and lioness, fated forever to draw her chariot. However, perhaps the most renowned myth of this woeful genre is that of Venus' rivalry with Proserpine, Queen of the UnderWorld, for the love of the beautiful Greek youth named Adonis. Hearing that Venus preferred the handsome mortal to himself, the jealous Mars transformed himself into a wild boar and gored the young Greek to death. In her grief, the Goddess changed his blood into a flower known as the anemone. Prosperine, however, agreed to restore Adonis to life on the condition that he spend six months of every year with her in the Lower World. The other six, he was free to spend in the arms of the Goddess of Love.

Venus was the mother of Cupid, winged God of Sensual Love (sired by Jupiter) and Anteros (sired by Mars), punisher of those who failed to return the love of others. By Mars, she also bore the twins Phobus (Panic) and Deimos (Fear), who always accompanied their father on the battlefield. By Mercury, the Messenger God, Venus was the mother of Hermaphroditus, who was welded with the bestotted fountain nymph, Salmacis, into a single body which possessed both male and female sexual organs. By Bacchus, Roman God of Wine and Revelry, Venus had two sons, Hymen (God of Marriage) and Priapus, an ugly monstrosity who represented human lust. The most prominent of Venus' mortal children was Aeneas, her son by the shepherd Anchises. A great Trojan hero, Aeneas survived the fall of Troy and lived to become the founder of the nation of Italy and the mythical ancestor of the Roman people. Many Romans also believed Aeneas to be descended from Romulus and so worshiped Venus as the mother of their race.

By and large, Venus was considered to be a great friend to lovers and often helped them with their problems. She was even known on occasion to lend them her magical girdle, or sash, which had the power to make its wearer irresistible. Although worshiped chiefly as the Goddess of Human Love, Venus was also widely venerated as a nature goddess and, because she originated from the sea, sailors would pray to her in order that the winds might be calmed and the waves quelled. This goddess has been the subject of both ancient and modern artists and artisans. She is often pictured sitting or riding upon a variety of animals...particularly birds such as swans or geese. There have also been many statues created in honor of Venus. The most celebrated was carved by Praxiteles at Cnidos on the coast of Asia Minor, but this ancient statue has yet to be unearthed by archaeologists. The most famous carving is the Aphrodite of Melos. Made of magnificent marble, it is better known as the Venus de Milo. Although its creator and the exact date it was carved is unknown, it is believed that the Venus de Milo was probably made during the First or Second Century B.C. Presented to the Louvre by King Louis XVIII of France, it is one of the great treasures on display at this Paris museum.

Each of the astrological planets has its own ancient symbol or glyph, created from different combinations of three basic elements that the early astrologers referred to as the Circle of Spirit, the Crescent of Soul and the Cross of Matter. The glyph of Venus...Circle above Cross...indicates the ascendance of Spirit over Matter. However, some authorities interpret this symbol a little differently, stating that it represents life over spirit. Also described as "Venus' Hand-Mirror of Vanity," this glyph has come to be recognized as the universal symbol for the female.