Venus’ Pleasure State
Photography by Tim Walker
As the first planet to outrun the Aries stellium, Venus' sashay into Taurus today grounds our freshest initiations in the body by reconnecting us deeply to our senses. Here what we feel inside translates the wisdom etched on our bones as sentient beings and relegates heady conclusions back to their place.
Venus' home state is the realm of the sensualist and the ardent pursuit of the pleasure principle as guide to life. Pleasure as a state of being is woefully misunderstood courtesy of a porn culture that commodified it into sex and a rape culture that wilfully misunderstands the word no.
Pleasure, from the Latin that describes the sensation of feeling pleased, is a function of inherent consent. The bridge to the pleasure state is composed of permission that begins within. If you do not give yourself permission to feel pleasure or experience joy, both fundamentals of the human condition, you are inexorably tethered to its polar opposite: pain.
Venus knows that pleasure is felt in the body through sensory engagement and in the mind through unbridled delight in its experience of the world. Both are intricately connected to our values. The paradox of hedonism ensures its constant lesson to heat seekers and meat merchants alike.
Venus in the little bull's lair is indulgent and lavish and finds absolutely nothing wrong with such fecund abundance. She knows that from this place the heart's generative creativity works at its magical optimum, in sensory alignment to the world it shares.
The Aries new moon begin-again must take root in the body first, if it is to stick. Nurtured and nourished as holy temple and divine vessel for this revolution of hearts and minds. It isn't anyone else's role to provide such pleasure; it is deliciously yours alone.
Beware obsession and stubborn possession during this transit towards the Scorp supermoon, the achilles heel of too much else dressing itself up as love. Desire is a compass but honest loyalty to your sweet self first is ultimate guide. Cultivate appreciation and wonder as Venus smiles upon us, feasting on all your world has to offer.
Take your pleasure seriously
~ Charles Eames
Words c. Kerrie Basha 2021