Venus, like Morta the Roman Fate, is inevitable. Everyone experiences her. To the Italians she was a spirit of beauty and vitalization evident in nature. Every spring she returned with Flora and Feronia, blessing flowers and gorgeous plant life. Venus is beautification and regeneration. She is the eternally stimulated woman, a patron of painters, whores and emperors. Eventually she attained the stories of Aphrodite and became the patron of human love and beauty as well.
Charles Leland believed she evolved over time from the Etruscan Turan. Turan supposedly became the more popular Turanna, a faery of chance and fortune similar to Fortuna. Leland claims she divined and blessed with cards. Her totem was the Queen of Hearts.
Scholars are quick to point out Venus's lack of worship in early Rome. Unlike Jupiter and Juno she had to gain strength slowly. By the time of Julius Caesar, however, she became the Roman Genetrix or "Begetting Mother" of the imperial race. Hadrian completed a temple to her as late as 135 AD.
In modern times Venus is snyonomous with love. As a planetary spirit she is easier to recognize in nature than Aphrodite. She rules love, romance, beauty, sexuality and lust. As the mother of Cupid she rules erotic and emotional impulses. Her sacred colors are yellow and red, easily translated into candle magic and ritual. When working with her, remember you are dealing with the mother of regeneration. Venus changed her form several times to become the presence we know today. In the end, she's retained her core character.
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