Venus Love Potion

This is the third year in a row I have made this Venus love potion, shown in the glass as an offering to my ancestors, the cosmos, and Venus of course. I collected and mixed the ingredients on the libra new moon intending to bestow as much love and lust and romance as I could until the Aries full moon, when I planned to strain it and seal it. But I strayed away from it yesterday, not finishing until tonight and I feel immensely rewarded for sealing it on this Venus kissed, Taurus moon.

I pulled a card to embody this medicine and ended up picking the 6 of pentacles. I’m used to associating the words of Rachel Pollack(author of 78 Degrees of Wisdom) with this card, who studies the Waite Smith deck. She speaks of a stable balance between give and take. As an ability to see what the other is willing to offer us and what we have the capacity to accept. Also as giver, of a measuring of what is appropriate to offer, what the other is ready to receive.

Though relevant, today I am more drawn to the words of Alejandro Jodorowsky who says,

“This number [six] synonymous with beauty and realization of what one loves… the beauty of the six can be considered to be the root of reality. In the six of pentacles, we clearly detect the addition [4+2]. In the center of the card are four coins representing the reality principle and stability, which open up to the top and to the bottom. In the six of cups we saw the meeting of two trios, the number 3 being an idealist. Here, in contrast, we start from a material center that will seek its ecstatic realization in these two extremes.This refers us back to pairs o complimentary notions like past and future, higher consciousness and subconscious, macrocosm and microcosm, light and shadow, and so forth. it is a card that opens up to the world, which arrives to open itself to the other. It’s motto could be: ‘I leave in search of everything that surpasses me and is already in me.’”

So mote it be.

Tarot Reading

My inclination is to describe this spread as being about intimacy and connection. On the left is connection with history and the present. On the right is connection with the other and the self.

The high priestess at the center is telling you what the universe wants you to focus on within these relationships. She wants you to look into the unseen, the shadows, the mysterious parts that tend to evade you understanding.

Starting on the bottom right we have your connection to romance and the other. Here is the page of cups, reversed. It’s a new beginning of exploration and understanding of the emotions. Its playful and receptive. But here it is not directed out at engaging and experiencing the other in romance, it is primarily offering a reflection of the self.

The card above, representing relationship to self, we have the sun. This typically shows clear skies and clear vision but it is also reversed, leaving the vision more clouded. There is confusion or insecurity when looking at the self directly. There isn’t self delusion or deceit per say, but a struggle to focus here directly. The inclination seems stronger to look at the other. So here is an opportunity to see who you are by what you project. And you can learn to interpret what you see in the other as understandings of the self.

On the left side we look at past and present place. On the bottom left, relationship to place, stands judgement. You have been waiting for an answer and a transformation has arrived but you struggle to accept or see it, you may not be ready for it. Time needs to be taken to integrate expectations with what is being offered, what judgements are you putting on your environment that is blocking acceptance of this opportunity to transform your relationship to place.

And above it we have the moon, representing relationship to the ancestors. Here the moon is able to illuminate the shadows, the mysteries. There is an acceptance of the shadow self when seen from this angle of lineage and ancestry. It also speaks to receptivity, having enough space and stillness within self that you can hear the story being shared.