Venus

The primary action of Venus is in the synthesis of nutrients which it shares with Mercury.  Venus is especially concerned with the breakdown of sugars (glucose) and plays an important role in the correct function of the pancreas and the production of insulin.  In addition to controlling the levels of copper in the body, Venus also governs the thyroid through rulership of Taurus and the kidneys through Libra.  The quality of the hair, as a result of kidney energy, is very much controlled by Venus.  A prominent Venus in a chart, where the Mars principle is burdened through outer planet contacts, is indicative of hyperglycaemia or at worse type 1 diabetes where there is too much sugar circulating in the blood as a result of low insulin output.  There are many other factors involved but general pictures can be ascertained through planetary aspects.

There is a correspondence between Taurus and the throat chakra, the chakra of clairaudience which is also related with the power of the Word.  What’s also interesting to note is that Venus also rules Libra which denotes the power or quality of being able to truly listen to the vibrational energy of the words of another.

With the placement of Venus we can expect to find all issues to do with self esteem and our relationship with food in general.  Here, the pleasure and survival principle, as denoted by Taurus /2nd Libra/7th  can become confused with the value and nurturing principle of self esteem through a negative relationship with our selves. 

The interplay between Venus and Mars is also evident in the area of metabolism and the anabolic and catabolic processes within the body.  A hypo functioning thyroid (typically a Venus to Saturn aspect) will slow down metabolism with consequent affects on weight gain, water retention and depressed mood to name but a few.  A hyper functioning thyroid can cause inflammation, mood swings, sensitivity to heat and irritability – all very Martian qualities.  Whilst this is descriptive of hypo (Saturn) conditions and hyper (Mars) conditions in general, the anabolic planets build (Venus, Jupiter, Saturn) whilst the catabolic planets (Mars, Mercury, Uranus) break down.  (This describes the Kabbalistic qualities of the two side pillars, Ida/Pingala, Postive/Negative, Pillar of Severity/Pillar of Mercy etc within which the phases of the two supernal Sephirah Binah (Saturn) and Chokmah (Uranus) are reversed as the power is stepped down to the next level).  

Depending on the source of information I have heard zinc being ruled by Neptune (Marcia Starck), Uranus (Robert Jansky) or Jupiter (Eileen Nauman) but none provide convincing proof for their designations.  I’m inclined to assign rulership to Mars simply because of the antagonistic relationship between Copper (Venus) and Zinc.  Before the birth of a child, a mother’s copper levels will start to fall and her zinc levels will rise.  This is because an infant will have four times the concentration of copper at birth which needs to be balanced out with zinc.  It has been shown that incidences of high copper in young adults correlate with emotional dependencies, schizophrenia and anorexia and can lead to addictive behaviour patterns.  The correlation exists because zinc, taken in through the mother’s milk, balances out the excess copper at birth with a corresponding reduced risk of these psycho-emotional conditions.  Yet another reason to avoid milk substitutes in place of breast feeding. (see Moon).