Pagan Astrology

Chapter 5

Venus Magic

Synastry and Love Spells

Of  all  the  spells  that  people  ask  for when  they  visit  the  local hedge-witch, the most frequent ones are love spells. They want that  perfect someone  to  appear  out  of  the  blue  and  love  them. They want  the  stalker-lover  to give up on  them. They want  to  rekindle  love that has gone  sour or cold. They want  to be  free of  the dead  lover,  so that they can  love again. And so on. There’s nothing quite so tortuous as love when it comes to people attempting to wrestle the universe down and force its laws to bend for their convenience.
    Venus understands  all  this  and has  sympathy with  every  one  of them. She’s  the  force of  love  itself. She’s also  the  force of beauty, aesthetic  considerations,  and  art--all  things  that  you  can  fall  in  love with. She deals  in  feelings and  images, not rules and ethics. In every culture,  the Love Goddesses have  similar characters:  they value  feelings and aesthetics over all else, including right and wrong. Aphrodite is just fine with cheating on your spouse to get your needs met. Ishtar sees nothing wrong with  cruelly discarding  your  lovers when  you’re tired  of  them.  Inanna  sends  her  lover  to Death when  he  isn’t  glad enough  to  see her  come back  from  the Underworld. Eros  shoots his arrows  randomly,  taking delight  in mismatched  couples. Ezili Freda is  the  archetype  of  the mulatto mistress who wants  to move  up  in social  class  by marrying  her  already-married white  lover. The  cow-eyed Hathor turns  into  lioness-goddess Sekhmet when she  is enraged and devours entire cities. The love deities are all unapologetically irrational, as is Love itself.
    As  a  diviner,  you will  have  to  deal with  people who  have Love Problems, and you will have to make peace with the fact that Love is not reasonable, and sometimes there will be no reasoning with them. From  the  starry-eyed  second-dater who  thinks  that  their  lover walks on water, to the one desperately trying to make an unsuitable relationship work out,  they will often be unable  to  see  their  lover and  their situation  clearly. Sometimes  they will  ask  you  to  salvage  something that  is  clearly  unsalvageable,  or  to manipulate  someone  into  doing what they want. It can be difficult not to fall to the extremes of either empathizing with them and agreeing to something that is in no one’s eventual best  interests, or being horrified or disgusted and  lecturing them with words  they will probably not be able  to hear  through  the clamor of Love. It can be difficult to maintain a detached compassion to  say, “Yes, I know  that you  feel helpless, but part of  the mystery of Love  is that  it makes us helpless,  if only  for a time. But the more we thrash around, the harder  it  is to hear the real message. Love tells us to  live  in the moment, but  let’s try to  look ahead of the moment and see if that makes things clearer.”
    The  first  thing  that  you’re  going  to  look  at when  someone  comes in with  love  issues  is, of course,  the Venus placement  in  their chart.  If you’re not a professional, but  just  someone who  is having  love  issues of your own--and  it’s  rare  to  find  someone who’s made  it  to  adulthood and not had any--the first thing that you want to do is to look at your own Venus. What sign is she in? Is that the energy you want in a lover, or would you rather embody that Venus and have your lover be someone different?
    Below is a sample invocation for Venus in Aries. Later in this chapter I have provided invocations for each of the 12 signs and each of the 12 houses and you  should  look  them over  to  see which one  jumps out at you.  If  there  is more  than one,  that’s all  right. You might also  look at  the  sign on your descendant,  the  line opposite your ascendant. This often  indicates people that we are attracted to. Find the  invocation  for that sign and see if this appeals to you. If the one that you like best isn’t a sign that’s found much in your chart, that’s not too unusual; it might be an energy that you are missing in your life, or one that is in harmonious aspect to some of your important planets.

Venus in Aries Invocation

[Light a candle or torch and speak  into the flame:]
Hail the Power of Love!
I call into my life Fire Love,
First morning’s love, adventurous love,
Love that is fearless in the face of adversity,
Ardent love that blows the ashes
Once again into a dancing blaze!
With your vital spirit bless me,
With your courage take my hand,
With all your boundless energy love me now.

Synastry

Two Charts in One

The second  likely thing that you’ll be  looking at with  issues of Love  is chart comparison. Place one person’s chart over  the other by  lining up the houses with each other  to  see how  the planets  fall. You  should be able to see conjunctions between the charts  instantly, places where the planets pile up on top of each other.
    Looking at the comparison between the charts, you’ll read them just like you would a transit chart. In fact, you can think of  it that way  .  .  . two people, when they come together, are “transiting” each other, for as long as they are in each other’s presence. If they form a strong full-time relationship, those transits overshadow each other’s lives. The difference is  that  two people  are  theoretically  equals, or  at  least when  compared to a human being and a giant cosmic force. While the planetary forces don’t  take much notice of us mere mortals,  two people will always be affecting  each  other  at  the  same  time. While  your  critical  Saturn  is squaring his cranky Mars, that Mars is giving it right back to you.

Author’s Note Regarding Planet Pluto

Introduction: Stars and Stones


Part One
Charts

1    Deciphering a Chart: For Beginners
2    Using Your Chart: For Astrologers


Part Two
Planets in Motion

3    Planetary Gifts: Those Glyphs in Your Chart
4    Moon Magic: Lunar Cycles
5    Mercury Magic: Words of Power
6    Venus Magic: Synastry and Love Spells
7    Mars Magic: Anger Management
8    Jupiter Magic: Laying It On Thick
9    Saturn Magic: Black Stones
10    Uranus Magic: Changing the World
11    Neptune Magic: Lifting the Veil
12    Pluto Magic: Into the Darkness


Part Three
Magical Prescriptions
Tools, Holidays, Altars, and Practices

13    The Astrology of Magical Tools
14    The Astrology of Pagan Holidays
15    Planetary Altars
16    Magical Prescriptions for Westerners
17    Planetary Hours: Shortcuts to Scheduling


Recommended Reading

Index

Raven Kaldera is a Northern Tradition Pagan shaman who has been a practicing astrologer since 1984 and a Pagan since 1986. The author of Northern Tradition for the Solitary Practitioner and MythAstrology and coauthor, with Kenaz Filan, of Drawing Down the Spirits, Kaldera lives in Massachusetts.

“Raven Kaldera has created a treasure trove of magical lore blended with solid astrological knowledge. Kaldera explains everything from lunar cycles, planetary profiles, and healing gemstones to divination for your astrology sign, hundreds of animal totems, and more spells than you can shake a wand at. An inspiring, poetic, and fascinating book that is highly recommended.”
Susan Levitt, professional astrologer and author of Taoist Astrology

“Finally someone is restoring the rich magical tradition to Western astrology! I highly recommend Pagan Astrology for pagans, witches, and magicians seeking to use more astrology in their magick, and for those looking for a different approach to working with the forces of the heavens.”
Christopher Penczak, author of The Temple of Shamanic Witchcraft and cofounder of the Temple of Witchcraft

". . . Kaldera does a good job explaining every detail, making it easier for astrology amateurs, like myself, to catch up. . . . For anyone interested in pagan astrology, Pagan Astrology is an excellent resource for spells, altars, and magical prescriptions."  Elizabeth Stannard Gromisch, Feminist Review, Feb 2010

"Raven Kaldera has given us a completely unique and refreshing view of astrology.  First of all, there are the eight lunar phases and a discussion of the actual lunar cycle of 29.5 days.  He stays away from interpretations in favor of discussions that inform and educate and provides a huge amount of planetary-specific tabulations.  This data allows the reader to create personalized responses to the various aspects and transitions of the planets in his or her chart. . . . If you have any interest in astrology, this is a book you want."
Lisa McSherry, Facing North, August 2010

"Kaldera provides an extensive compendium of modern magical remedies to counteract negative astrological influences and shows how to use planetary energy to aid Pagan worship and green magic practice through spell casting, love magic, and shamanic stargazing."
Frater Puck, Behutet Magazine, issue #46, September 2010

PAGANISM / OCCULT

“Raven Kaldera has created a treasure trove of magical lore blended with solid astrological knowledge. Kaldera explains everything from lunar cycles, planetary profiles, and healing gemstones to divination for your astrology sign, hundreds of animal totems, and more spells than you can shake a wand at. An inspiring, poetic, and fascinating book that is highly recommended.”
--Susan Levitt, professional astrologer and author of Taoist Astrology

“Finally someone is restoring the rich magical tradition to Western astrology! I highly recommend Pagan Astrology for pagans, witches, and magicians seeking to use more astrology in their magick, and for those looking for a different approach to working with the forces of the heavens.”
--Christopher Penczak, author of The Temple of Shamanic Witchcraft and cofounder of the Temple of Witchcraft

Traditionally, magically oriented astrology has focused on Sun-sign horoscopes, whereas modern Western astrology has focused on attempting to become as “scientific” as possible in hopes of aligning with its sister science of astronomy. In Pagan Astrology, Raven Kaldera, a practicing astrologer and Pagan shaman, uses the commonalities and strengths of Western astrology and Pagan green magic to introduce a hands-on astrological practice that incorporates intuition, spells, and other modes of folk magic.

Kaldera includes an extensive compendium of modern magical remedies to counteract negative astrological influences and shows how to use planetary energy to aid Pagan worship and green magic practice through spell-casting, love magic, and shamanic stargazing. Kaldera also explains how to create planetary altars that enhance the astrological correspondences of traditional Pagan holidays using the tools of folk magic. Practitioners of green and folk magic and those who love traditional astrology will welcome this unique approach to planetary magic.

RAVEN KALDERA is a Northern Tradition Pagan shaman who has been a practicing astrologer since 1984 and a Pagan since 1986. The author of Northern Tradition for the Solitary Practitioner and MythAstrology and coauthor, with Kenaz Filan, of Drawing Down the Spirits, Kaldera lives in Massachusetts.