The Lover's Path: Queen of Arrows - Venus

Sophie-David

Venus, the Queen of Arrows (equivalent to Swords), rests on an orange bed laid upon a field of flowers. It is an interesting bed, like an big inflatable air mattress, or the pupa of a very large butterfly. The flowers speak of a mind full of creative ideas, and the clouds are deep and brooding. The Queen herself has a confident penetrating look, her refined beauty under powerful self-control. A red jewel at her forehead gives the impression of her inner eye by which she exercises an intuitively guided analysis. Two small birds, symbols of the suit of air, hop upon her arm as if they would be fed by her insight. She wears a sensuous golden-white dress trimmed with green and holds one of the arrows of Eros in her hand. These arrows convey the deadly love potion: she is armed and she knows how to use it.

Venus could have been logically associated with Cups, but I believe that placing her in Arrows helps account for the highly developed manipulative control that she exerts in the stories of The Lover's Path. But in most decks I find myself very attracted to the Queen of Swords and this is no exception. From Mary Greer's The Complete Book of Tarot Reversals, page 200, I find this is a good insight into this character type:
While intelligent and discriminating, she is also reserved and aloof: an ice queen. Her no-nonsense self-reliance can be intimidating, yet you can count on her to speak frankly... She has gained wisdom by courageously learning from her pain and dealing with tragedy and loss, as symbolized by the hanging clouds in the background of the card.
She is indeed very much like my internal Venus in Aquarius - I can relate!

Venus is listed as Aphrodite in our mythology reference site, although it is worth noting that astrologically Venus and Aphrodite are quite distinct influences. From the same site, this interesting reference to Adonis suggests that he loved both Aphrodite and Persephone, the light and dark feminine. Adonis was eventually killed in a hunting accident and died in Aphrodite's arms. On page 105 of the text, Kris Waldherr suggests that
This loss, painful as it was, granted the goddess a wisdom greater than beauty.
Venus is traced to one of the aspects of Inanna of Sumer at Dr. Bernard Butler's Pagan Queen site and more concisely at Inanna. In Chapter Seven of Bernard's unfinished doctoral thesis he describes
the Homeric Greeks' problem with a Goddess too big for them to comprehend in one piece. Inanna has three aspects: Love (Aphrodite), War and Wisdom (Athene), and She is the Queen of Heaven (Hera.)
Not only did they split the dynamic feminine goddess into three, and reallocate many of her powers to male gods, they arranged for several of the Greek deities to avoid the humiliatingly inconvenience of being born of a goddess - Aphrodite included. Sexism knows no bounds!
 

irisa

Originally I think Venus was thought of as goddess of the cultivated field/garden. And her image was changed by the Romans through association with Aphrodite. Her image was once again changed during the middle ages when she became sweet and coy as in Botticelli's The Birth of Venus.

In fact I think Venus is about emotion, desire, jealousy and attraction... the whole package... a part of which is love... and we all know...

'all's fair in love and war' :)

irisa
 

Sophie-David

Yes, Venus became a rather all encompassing archetype, or group of them. Traditionally astrology had only two feminine principles, the Moon and Venus. Concurrent with the origins in the feminist movement in the nineteenth century, modern science and astrology has brought forth the asteroids, creating more of a gender balance in the stars. The Moon and Venus remain very large feminine complexes, but the asteroids allow a focus on more specific influences. I have found great benefits in working with the asteroid archetypes in my continuing journey of self-discovery.

Kim Falconer has an excellant and concise discussion of the differences between astrological Venus and Aphrodite here. Kim notes that
Asteroid 1388 Aphrodite does not cover such a range in her rulership. She like a pure drop of “aphrodisiac” from the hem of Venus’s robe.

1388 Aphrodite relates to "impulsive love and attraction, love inspired by fated events, animosity turning to magnetism, charisma."
What I really appreciate about the Tarot is that there is a great deal of inherent balance between the feminine and masculine, and different decks can pull this balance one way or the other. The Lover's Path is intriguing and perhaps unique in that every one of the Majors uses a contra-sexual duality. This will take a bit of getting used to, but I think it has the potential to be a very powerful working model.
 

irisa

Sohie-David said:
The Lover's Path is intriguing and perhaps unique in that every one of the Majors uses a contra-sexual duality. This will take a bit of getting used to, but I think it has the potential to be a very powerful working model.

I think this is what's refreshing after all... what appears to be wholly male or wholly female aren't... there's always a spot of ying in yang and yang in yin.

This deck is certainly much deeper than it appears at first.

irisa
 

irisa

I just noticed in her Goddess Tarot Kris Waldherr does indeed associate Venus with Cups and with Love [Traditional card: The Lovers]. Interesting that she changed her mind for this deck :)

irisa
 

Sophie-David

Yes, placing Venus in Arrows or Swords does seem a bit problematic; Kris is really making me stretch the metaphor, making me think about it. Venus in the aspect of testing Psyche does makes sense for a Matriarch of Swords. Several other myths depict Venus as testing mortals too. There are inevitable compromises in fitting any theme to the Tarot, and in wishing to include the profound story of Psyche and Eros, this implied having a Venus in Swords. Having The Lover's Path mythological Venus placed in Swords puts her "outside the box". But making me think outside the box is not necessarily a bad thing! ;)

Astrological Venus is natively expressed in Libra or Taurus, and I would naturally place the Tarot Venus in Taurus, and the Tarot Justice in Libra. The Queen of Swords does connect well to both Justice and to Libra, and so in an astrological sense there is a solid connection from this Queen to planetary Venus.