According to classical mythology, Venus was the Goddess of Love and Beauty. Although Homeric poems say that she was daughter of Dione and Zeus, supreme ruler of the gods, legend has it that she was conceived from sea foam fertilized by Uranus, first ruler of the universe. To the Greeks she was Aphrodite, a name which means "born of sea foam". Much later, in the 15th century, Botticelli would paint The Birth of Venus, showing her arising out of the sea in a huge scallop shell. Whatever her exact origins, she cavorts throughout ancient myths as wise counselor, dangerous seductress, and inspiration to men, women, and gods alike. She was worshipped and petitioned in matters of sensual love, creation and procreation, as well as for her protection and blessings in artistic endeavors. Tended by the Graces, she reveled in laughter and pleasure.

For most of us, this picture of Venus fits in with our general awareness of ancient cosmography. According to astrology, even the planet named Venus bestows an emotional and creative influence on our lives. So it made sense to me when an astrologer explained that my life was rich in romance due to the nine Venus aspects of my chart. And I was flattered but not surprised when James took to calling me his "Venus with arms" (after the statue Venus de Milo), in tribute to the loving impact our relationship was having on him.

Once called to my attention, my Venus characteristics were impossible to deny. In spite of my conservative upbringing, I had always been independent, creative, and sensual. I liked initiating romances and falling in love, even if they sometimes resulted in pain or dissolution. I always had the confidence I could pick myself up and begin again. Relationships for me were my medium for growth, and learning love in all its forms attracted me more than anything else. My boyfriends used to accuse me of using my temptress wiles to make myself irresistible to them, and I never understood what they meant. I was simply being myself. When they called me "Princess", "My Queen", and "High Priestess", I would deflect them with the socially-demanded modesty that springs from insecurity, until I gradually stepped into those titles. I came to realize that such false modesty keeps us in denial of our true potential. Besides indicating our maladjustment to reality, it makes it easier for others to manipulate or dominate us. Inanna, Venus' earlier Sumerian incarnation, was the regal and powerful "Queen of Heaven". When I championed social and environmental causes, I was pulling strength from my Inanna roots. I was as at home by the ocean as if I, like Aphrodite, had been born of the sea. With my practices of gardening, flower arranging, and writing, I was celebrating the Venusian love of beauty, fertility, and art. The astrologer was right when she told me my ruling planet was Venus! The Goddess of Love had always been within me, but it was when I engaged a Mars lover that she exuberantly came out to play.

Astrologically, James' ruling planet is Mars, and his life has been wrought with emotional struggle and physical hardship. Long before becoming aware of the Mars archetype, James had identified with the image of the triumphant warrior, which stood him in good stead as he overcame obstacles throughout his life. Due to a congenital handicap, even the ability to walk had been an uphill road of hospital stays, leg braces, body casts, and bitter trials. The Mars boy watched other children run and scamper like puppies, while he drew on his inner reservoir of self-will to take his careful steps. As a result, James does not hear the word "cannot". It is not in his vocabulary, and he sees no place for it in others' vocabularies, either. Mincing no words, James' direct style doggedly pursues the truth. At times I have seen people put off by his unpolished manner, but I appreciate the shining gem within such an authentic man. Whatever the mission, he takes the offensive to accomplish his goals. Once he decided to see the world, then off he went! Throughout his adult life as a traveling artist, nothing held him back - not his physical disabilities, nor his unsupportive parents, nor his shoestring finances. Though he walks with a limp, he has carried his heavy load of canvas and paints into the mountains of Jamaica, up the narrow stairwells of Amsterdam, and even swam them across the Mekong River. He has painted his way across Asia, Europe, and the Americas. Impulsive, adventurous, assertive . . . that's Mars. His natural warrior skills (and mine, too) were to come in handy during the difficult or imponderable times producing Venus and Her Lover.

As the mythological story goes, Zeus obligated Venus to marry his lame and ugly son, Vulcan, God of the Forge. Having a mind of her own and repulsed by his appearance, however, the Goddess of Beauty spurned Vulcan and chose instead the handsome Mars, God of War. While her calling as Goddess of Love led her into love affairs with others, her preferred lover was Mars. Renaissance paintings depict him as robust and dashing in his armor and helmet. The Warrior of warriors, he was fearfully worshipped for success in battle. As father of Romulus, he was revered as father of the Roman people. In conflicts, whether on Mt. Olympus or among earthly mortals, Mars always sided with Venus. This alliance sprang from their passionate union. The patron deities of love and war had several children - among them a daughter, Harmony.

Once I had left behind the lame and ugly behavior of my previous companion, I vowed that my next relationship would be equal and evolutionary. This opened the door for James. Venus spurned Vulcan, and, some time later, chose Mars. James could not resist our new love. After all, my name, Rebecca, means "temptress". James, being a man of the sea, may have also detected a whiff of Venus' natal "sea foam". In James I found a poignant mirror to my own identification with the warrior archetype. Out of our passionate union, the wars within ourselves yielded to the power of Love and Beauty. The natural consequence has been art. This book has been our offspring, our "Harmony". Sometimes upon finishing a poem or a painting, we swear we can hear Venus' capricious and knowing laugh.

Greek and Roman myths influence Western language, symbology, and literature. What has transpired with James' and my partnership, however, goes beyond cultural erudition or even metaphor. The parallels between James/Mars and Becca/Venus were not contrived nor sought. James did not one day decide "OK - I'll play Mars and you play Venus." It was with hindsight that we saw the unfolding of the myth. This led us to the questions:

"Who is Venus? Who is Mars? How can their tales have become our own? Aren't the old myths just made-up stories with imaginary characters?"

On the trail of these questions, James and I came to examine archetypes. Carl Jung, the founder of analytical psychology, kept running across common elements in diverse cultures, which he called "motifs" and "primordial images" until he appropriated the term "archetypes" for them. In his final work, Man and His Symbols, Jung describes how archetypes affect all human beings: "[Our] inner motives spring from a deep source that is not made by consciousness and is not under its control. In the mythology of earlier times, these forces were called mana, or spirits, demons, and gods. They are as active today as they ever were. If they conform to our wishes, we call them happy hunches or impulses and pat ourselves on the back for being smart fellows. If they go against us, then we say that it is just bad luck, or that certain people are against us, or that the cause of our misfortunes must be pathological. The one thing we refuse to admit is that we are dependent upon "powers" that are beyond our control. . . [Our] motto "Where there's a will, there's a way" is the superstition of modern man. Yet in order to sustain his creed, contemporary man pays the price in a remarkable lack of introspection. He is blind to the fact that, with all his rationality and efficiency, he is possessed by "powers" that are beyond his control. His gods and demons have not disappeared at all; they have merely got new names. They keep him on the run with restlessness, vague apprehensions, psychological complications, an insatiable need for pills, alcohol, tobacco, food - and, above all, a large array of neuroses."(1)

Mars and Venus are not arbitrary characters; they personify the qualities of Warriorship and Love. Being devotees of these concepts would yield the corresponding life circumstances. But to such detail? Here I was living on an island, dipping my toes in sea foam regularly, raising my gentle yet mischievous son, and feeling enlivened by an exciting love affair. It was not so hard to imagine Venus watching her son Cupid playing by the sea, or Mars disporting with his wolf (James enjoys dog companionship and considers the wolf his spirit animal).

James is an artist whose message of love has been exalted on his canvases since encountering Big Love, Venus-style. Throughout our relationship, we have felt the nudging and at times outright supervision by unseen forces.

Who are these forces? Venus? Mars? Cupid? As Jung writes in Essays on a Science of Mythology, "An archetypal content expresses itself, first and foremost, in metaphors. If such a content should speak of the sun and identify with it the lion, the king, the hoard of gold guarded by the dragon, or the power that makes for the life and health of man, it is neither the one thing nor the other, but the unknown third thing that finds more or less adequate expression in all these similes, yet - to the perpetual vexation of the intellect - remains unknown and not to be fitted into a formula."(2) Since we were identifying with Venus and Mars, the archetypes presented themselves to us in those forms.

Venus - or rather, what she represents - was not confined to superstitious Romans, for she existed elsewhere as Aphrodite Urania (the Greek Queen of the Heavens), Astarte (the Middle East), Ishtar (Mesopotamia), Inanna (Mesopotamia), Shakti (India), Parvati (Hindu), Kamala (Hindu), Rati (India, Bali), Isis (Egypt), Ala (Nigeria), Ochun (Africa), Erzuli (Afro-Caribbean voodoo), Freya (northern Europe), Arianrhod (Celtic), Xochiquetzal (Mayan), Chalchiuhtlicue (Aztec), Chicomecoatl (Aztec), Pachamama (Incan), Benzai Tennyo or Benten (Japan), and Su Nü, Hsuan Nü, and Ts'ai Nü (the Three Lady Immortals of China) - to name but a few! Before the violent imposition of the androcracy, the Triple Goddess appeared universally among different peoples of the Earth, with her love/sexuality/fertility aspect always enjoying great popularity. In native astrologies, the Goddess of Love was often linked with the evening and morning star, the planet Venus. In fact, ancient Sumerians, who were excellent astronomers, astrologers, and navigators, used the name Inanna to refer to both the Morning and Evening Star and the Goddess of Love, War, and Fertility.

If we open our minds to the forces behind the archetypal images and expand our awareness beyond our three-dimensional reality, the interplay of forces on the Earthly plane reveals a drama manifesting across the Universe. This concept is in accordance with one of the seven Hermetic principles, as put forth in the ancient Egyptian treatise, The Kybalion. The Principle of Correspondence states: "As above, so below. As below, so above." This can best be envisioned not as a linear hierarchy of planes of reality, but as structures that are replicated up a spiral to the infinitely large and down a spiral to the infinitely small. Using this fractal geometry perspective, we might say that whether we focus on the complex details of our lives or the grandiose intricacies of the Universe, we are studying the same phenomena. It is no accident that if I sketch a circle with rings around it, it accurately depicts an atom, a solar system, and a galaxy. We can look at it another way through Vedic mythology; from the Avatamsaka Sutra of Mahayana Buddhism, we learn that the god Indra has stretched a net across the cosmos, and at each intersection of the weaving is a shiny jewel or pearl. Each gem reflects all the other gems, and within each reflected gem are all the other reflected gems, ad infinitum. Indra's net allows us to comprehend how we are all connected in a holographic way. Our own struggles and triumphs, then, are important to all of Creation, which is discovering and evolving itself through us. We can behold the mythic stature of our lives when we turn our senses inward; through meditation, prayer, shamanic quests, or meaningful ritual. Like jewels in Indra's net or fractals in the space-time continuum, we embody Life asserting its glorious self.

Applying the Principle of Correspondence as depicted in The Pleiadian Agenda by Barbara Hand Clow, consider the following scenario:

In the 3rd dimension: Becca and James make love.

In the 4th dimension: the archetypal Venus and Mars feel the sexual energy, and respond in kind, which could trigger Becca and James into any number of reactions, such as lust, pleasure, guilt, anger, surrender, or ecstasy.

In the 5th dimension: 5D beings feel the kundalini fire and experience cosmic orgasms.

In the 6th dimension: 6D entities expand the fields of passionate pulsations throughout the galaxy.

In the 7th dimension: 7D entities carry the feelings of love via galactic information highways.

In the 8th dimension: 8D beings can organize new morphogenetic fields out of the sexual seismic waves.

In the 9th dimension: 9D entities can birth new biological forms from black holes, and new creation springs forth.

Such concepts boggle the mind, which is exactly how James and I felt when the above scenario dawned on us. On a nighttime walk on our Caribbean beach, on the Taurus full moon (I am a Taurus), when the sun was in the house of Scorpio (James is a Scorpio), we strolled under palm trees in quiet conversation and comfortable silences . . . when all of a sudden the multi-dimensional picture exploded into our awareness. The sea placidly lapped the shore, but our minds were merengueing on silvery sparkles and moonbeams beyond the sea's horizon and across the vault of heaven. We glimpsed the archetypal forces at work. With that momentary illumination, our partnership was cast into a new light, so we could make sense of our earlier questions: Where were these new paintings coming from that seemed to have a life of their own? Why the feeling that someone was not only watching but was invested in the course of our relationship? Why the unfolding of the Venus and Mars story? Why me? Why him? Why us?

Even if the multi-dimensional view is pure fantasy, it has nonetheless served to provide a sense of humor and cooperation when James and I experience the attendant pitfalls and pinnacles of a daily relationship. We see this world through a glass darkly anyway, and to be reviving an ancient legend in the present day bestows a sense of wonder to life. Carl Jung would have known what we are feeling, for he said that engaging archetypes brought about synchronicities (what the skeptical call "coincidences"). Jung wrote in Man and his Symbols (page 79): "We can perceive the specific energy of archetypes when we experience the peculiar fascination that accompanies them. They seem to hold a special spell."(3) Yes indeed!

Living the archetypes infuses our lives with heightened inspiration. Since our joining, James and I have experienced a quantum leap in our creative work. His paintings took a completely new turn upward, appearing in a hitherto untried style: photo-realism. This is not so surprising, considering that we had composed the scenes with the camera. But James had not painted like that before; in fact, he had vowed to avoid figurative work. But he knew this project was bigger than him or me. So now here he was, thrown into a crash course on figurative painting, and reaching for his reading glasses and smaller and smaller brushes. The Venus paintings lashed him to his studio. This realistic erotica was such virgin territory that if he were away from the canvas for a day, he forgot all the steps in painting them! He was showing up at my door with finished canvases, though, and as we studied the tableaux on my bedroom wall, James would say, "I have no idea how I'm doing this!"

Meanwhile, my writing was manifesting as never before. Elemire Zolla writes, "The poet is 'possessed' by the archetype. The approach of the archetype creates the thrill of poetry."(4) Thrilling is right! My sessions contemplating Venus and Mars and the many other characters were transporting me "behind the looking glass" of ordinary reality. Zolla goes on, "Poetry is born from the shaman's experience of controlled possession; he is perfectly alert while his whole being feels the god or archetype, while his imagination hallucinates to convey the figures that help gravitate towards the archetype. Poetry is, in Keat's words, a 'rich entanglement' - so rich that it brings into play even the unnamable, silent stirrings of the unconscious. It is always more than the poet controls."(5) (Archetypes, p.105).

Is this what happens when the power behind the God of War unites with the loving energy of the Goddess of Beauty, patroness of the arts? To be sure, Harmony had asserted herself in our lives. Our creativity blossomed, but James and I both sensed that it was only a thread of a much grander tapestry. I remember in a ceremony with an Amazonian shaman that he kept repeating, "La Gran Misteria! La Gran Misteria!" My lover and I now followed the multi-colored thread into what that native medicine man invoked: the Great Mystery. And like Hansel and Gretel leaving behind a trail of bread crumbs that was eaten by birds, we were entering the deep, dark wilderness, and there was no turning back. Into the mythological realm we ventured, where "Surrender", "Death", "Ecstasy", "Initiation", "Creation", and "The Quest" were the names of our way-stations. By agreeing to the journey, we agreed to taste the flavors along the way - some bitter, some refreshing, some sweet - which made us feel more and more alive. What is the process of invoking archetypes? It is the process of coming fully alive, of finally arriving at oneself. We all can do it. In fact, we cheat ourselves if we do not. Stretching out fully into our archetypal selves allows us to bound across the Universe, to conjure sparkling ideas and place them in the heavens. Then viewing the unfolding dramas from our vantage point on Earth, like dust specks in a night sky, we can sink into the insignificance of it. Paradox is the order of the day in the Great Mystery. Once you get used to it, it becomes comfortingly humorous.

The more practice I got in invoking Venus in my life, the more deeply I dove into the archetypal pool. Her manifestations and her symbols revealed wonders within me and in the outer world. Venus' sexual allure, which had always come natural to me, I now unselfconsciously played out. Tantra's artistic expression of sexuality provided plenty of tips, so that our lovemaking welcomed music, sensual dance, flowers, incense, fresh fruit, and chocolates. Astarte, who was sometimes depicted in mermaid form, took over my body as I swam joyfully in the tropical sea, calling to the dolphins (Astarte's totem). The dolphins responded, and in their presence my heart swelled with their boundless love. Doves, another Astarte/Aphrodite animal, though rare where we lived on our Caribbean island, awoke us one morning with their cooing. Where had they come from? Here they were, to accompany my journey into Venus. And by the time of our move to Hawaii, a choir of doves settled outside our bedroom window to begin our days with their gentle warbling. As I dug my hands into the earth, I prayed that the Fertility Goddess would bless my garden. As I raised my son, I let the Great Mother's compassionate wisdom guide me. Before writing a poem, I often invoked her creative power. James and I dedicated ourselves as artists to see this project through, infused with the creativity of the Goddess. When times were tough, I called up Ishtar as Goddess of War. Her image standing upright with one foot on top of a lion assured me I had the strength to triumph over the forces that threatened our success. Sometimes you need a fierce protectress.

The Venus archetype, accordioned back through her earlier incarnations, provided me with a palette of colorful and useful talents. But she could not supply the full range of qualities I needed as a woman, nor as a human being. Viewing Aphrodite as part of the Triple Goddess introduces Athena, who uses her intellect to strategize and can stand alone in battle, and Hera, who, having lost her earlier powers, maintains the home depending on her man. In the myth of the Judgment of Paris, Eris (Goddess of Discord), an uninvited guest at a wedding, rolled an apple into the group of Olympians attending the event. The apple was marked "For the Fairest". Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite all reached for the apple, arguing why each one deserved it. Zeus was called in to settle the dispute and cleverly passed the job onto a Trojan prince, Paris. Then, according to this Greek patriarchal story, each goddess tried to bribe Paris. Hera offered him the power to rule over the kingdoms of Asia; Athena, victory in battles; and Aphrodite, the most beautiful woman in the world. Paris, heeding the direction of his inner phallos archetype, bestowed the apple on Aphrodite. She made good on her promise by insuring his abduction of Helen, the gorgeous wife of the Greek king Menelaus. This set the stage for the destructive decade of war between Greece and Troy.

The historical significance of the myth is of little consequence compared to its cultural significance. The three aspects of the Triple Goddess are cast into competition, and Paris, an alpha male of the androcratic system, values one over the others. The sexy, romantic vixen wins the prize in our society. This value is projected onto all women by men; that is how they invoke Aphrodite. Women, too, still clutch after the golden apple as they cram themselves into tight clothes, balance themselves on high heels, and gamble their health and pocketbooks on facelifts and silicon breast implants. Sex appeal, according to Madison Avenue, comes in only one youthful package, and women strive to fit the picture of the model in the glossy magazines. If they do not, they internalize Paris' judgment, and carry out the sentence through diets, anorexia, or a struggle with low self esteem. Thus we, as a society, invoke Aphrodite in her seductive form - excluding Hera, Athena, and the many Triple Goddess attributes - to our collective and individual detriment.

Just as Venus is not the only mythological role model for Woman, Mars the Warrior, is not the only one for Man. So even though the plots of our classic literature and Hollywood movies center around the Hero, a man had better have more guises in his repertoire to be healthy and successful in life, for example: the Lover [Cupid who loved Psyche (Greek), Vertumnus who loved Pomona (Roman), Ollantay who loved Cusicollur (Incan)]; the generous, self-sacrificing Father [Osiris (Egyptian), Dionysus (Greek), Jesus (Christian)] whose symbol is the Tree of Life; the Destroyer [Shiva (Hindu), Susanowo the Storm God (Shinto), Ah Puch (Mayan)] who clears the way for transformation and rebirth; the Magician [Merlin (Celtic), the Shaman/Medicine Man (Native American), Thoth (Egyptian)] who guides us into other realms.

When we visualize Jesus as the compassionate shepherd who protects us or take courage from Ollantay's undying devotion to his beloved, we externalize archetypal characters that are actually internal. True, it is helpful to dialogue with Green Man in the forest trees, but we must realize that we call to the Spirit of Nature within us, not outside of us. Although, as Jung said, archetypes reside in the collective unconscious of the human race, we should also remember that their home address is within our individual souls. So it is important to hear our inner voice(s) and learn to trust them. Since this takes time and devotion, invoking the archetypes is best seen as a practice. The more you do it, the more you recognize the signposts along the way, the more you learn the lay of the mythological land. Thus you forge a path. The power is in being fully present throughout the process. This life voyage is not unlike the one described by Carlos Castaneda in Journey to Ixtlan - The Lessons of Don Juan, in which Castaneda finally comes to understand that Don Genaro's protracted tale about his trip to Ixtlan has no ending. As Genaro states, "I will never reach Ixtlan." He is always on the way there.

The way there has snake pits and gateways, not the least of which is the mindset installed in us by 5000 years of androcratic domination. For example, our journeys of self-realization are certain to include the unveiling of our shadow aspects. We may invoke a goddess or a god - say, Inanna or Dionysus - to escort us into our personal Underworld. But if we lug with us the notion that the Underworld is a dark, evil place of damnation and punishment, we can be swallowed up or scared off of our quest. The patriarchal gods have but a few tools in their tool box - a sword, a hammer. With the sword they drew a line in the sand: on this side, the good, the light, the heavenly; on the other side, the evil, the dark, the bottomless below (whose satanic forces require the hammer). From this line sprang our schizophrenia and our dualistic perception of the world. But . . . is duality reality? Does a hell of fire and brimstone exist beyond the boundaries of our minds? To get to know the denizens of our Underworld - our fears, urges, and emotional wounds - we may prepare (as Inanna did), take the first steps, and then let go. We can then open to receive these orphaned parts of ourselves, heal them, and reintegrate them into ourselves. Under cover of darkness is when we can perceive Kali's blood-stained lips and knowing smile as she cuts away the self-defeating forces within us. After such drastic therapy, we feel disencumbered. A new agility attends the ongoing journey.

Invoking the archetypes may seem at first like a safe pursuit, done in the comfort of your favorite reading chair with a thick book of mythology in your lap, but as the archetypes leave the pages and sink into your being, you meet their counterparts by sinking into your own Underworld. So be prepared. As James and I have established relationships with these characters, we have come to recognize them as parts of ourselves - male, female, human, and cosmic.

James and I undertook Venus and Her Lover by letting ourselves be carried away by our passion. We were having fun. Once we realized that new myths were manifesting through us, we figured we were doing what painters, sculptors, and poets throughout history had done. Then we discovered that Carl Jung had predicted that the New Age would bring with it new myths. He wrote, "In reality we can never legitimately cut loose from our archetypal foundations unless we are prepared to pay the price of a neurosis, any more than we can rid ourselves of our body and its organs without committing suicide. If we cannot deny the archetypes or otherwise neutralize them, we are confronted . . . with the task of finding a new interpretation appropriate to this stage, in order to connect the life of the past that still exists in us with the life of the present, which threatens to slip away from it."(6) Were James and I subconsciously answering a call to update the archetypes?

To the ancient Romans, Venus and Mars were real characters. When the Roman legions marched onto victory, they were infused with the authority of Mars. When a man delivered a daily bouquet to his beloved, he was not struck by an obsessive-compulsive disorder but by Cupid's arrow. The more we invoked the archetypes, the more our daily lives shimmered with synchronicities and sense of purpose. We asked Ganesha (Remover of Obstacles) to clear the way for our art, and the powerful elephant boy within us did so. After concentrating on Lakshmi (Goddess of Abundance), we held more money in our hands than we ever had in our lives. Tangling with Kali (Goddess of Death and Transformation) left us both emotionally in pieces. Ah yes . . . be careful what you wish for! Through our experiences, the arbitrary nature of reality has been laid bare. Our lives are like blank books. It is up to us to fill up the pages. What a beautiful story we had agreed to write together! Accepting our roles humbly and playfully, and with a nod to the apparently long line of interested parties, James and I were bringing out a new vision of Venus and Mars and the love that immortalized them.

(1) Jung, Carl G., with M.L. von Franz, Joseph L. Henderson, Jolande Jacobi, and Aniela Jaffé, Man and his Symbols (Anchor Books/Doubleday, 1964) p.82
(2) Jung, C.G. and C. Kerenyi, Essays on a Science of Mythology, p.76
(3) Jung, Carl G., Man and his Symbols, p.79
(4) Zolla, Elemire, Archetypes - The Persistence of Unifying Patterns (New York & London: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Publishers, 1981) p. 105
(5) Zolla, Elemire, Archetypes - The Persistence of Unifying Patterns, p. 105
(6) Jung, C.G. and C. Kerenyi, Essays on a Science of Mythology, p. 76