Venus is the second planet from the Sun and it is named after the Roman goddess Venus. Sometimes Venus is called Earth's" sister planet", as the two are very similar in size and bulk composition. While all planets orbits are elliptical, Venus's orbit is the closest to circular, with an eccentricity of less than 1%. Venus is nearer to the Sun than the Earth, for all time it appears roughly the similar direction from Earth as the Sun (the greatest elongation is 47.8°), hence it can be seen usually a few hours prior to sunrise or a few hours after sunset. Venus is the one between the two heavenly bodies that can be seen both day and night (the other being the Moon). It is sometimes referred to as the "Morning Star" or the "Evening Star", and when it is visible in dark skies it is by far the brightest star-like object in the sky.
A Venusian day is 243 Earth days and is longer than its year of 225 days. Oddly, Venus rotates from east to west. To an observer on Venus, the Sun would rise in the west and set in the east.
Because Venus and Earth take different times to complete their orbits, it takes 8 years before the two planets arrive back at the same initial point. In that time Venus has completed 10 orbits and the Earth 8. There have thus been ten conjunctions five “superior” and five “inferior” in the 8 years. The next step is to imagine two circles, each representing the zodiac as followed by the sun, and mark on one the position of the superior conjunctions and the order in which they occur and so on. The result is more than interesting: We have the shape of a pentacle. This is a stunning fact, but there is more. Mercury, like Venus has a shorter orbit than Earth, in the case of Mercury, very much shorter. Mercury completes three orbits in just less than 50 weeks, so that there are six conjunctions three inferior and three superior in each year. If all six are marked on the circle of the zodiac and the three inferior joined by lines drawn 1-2-3-1 and the three superior joined 1-2-3-1. The result is a hexagram.
In astrology Venus preserves, nourishes, and rebuilds and all who come fully under the influence of this planet are capable of living purely and appreciating beauty and goodness to the full. She is the planet of creation, ever tending to act through the soul and not the senses. The love shown by Venus always sanctifies and makes for harmony through conjugality, friendship and soul union. The vibrations of Venus directly affect the higher part of the nature through the human soul and the higher mind. In esoteric astrology the three decanates of Aquarius are Saturn, Mercury and Venus. It is in this sequence that they affect the man and carry him forward on his desired way, thus giving opportunity through conflict, the illumination of the mind and eventually the achievement of brotherly love, which is wisdom.
Venus was well-known to ancient Babylonians around 1600 BC, and to the Mayan civilization (the Mayans developed a religious calendar based on Venus's motion) and it is known in the ancient times, specified that it is the third brightest object in the sky after the Sun and Moon. The Goddess was known as Atargatis by the Philistines, Ishtar by the Assyrians, Astarte by the Semites. She is also the Lakshmi of Hinduism. Venus was called Lucifer by St. Jerome, who is the fallen angel "cast out of heaven" in the Christian scripture.
According to the Homer she was the daughter of Zeus and Dione. According to Hesiod Venus was born from the foam impregnated by the sexual organs of Uranus, which Cronus had severed and thrown into the sea. The woman "born of the waves” was thus one of the first goddesses. As soon as she came out of the water she was transported by the Zephyrs, first to Cythera and then to the shores of Cyprus. From these two different origins Plato identified two Aphrodites: one, the noble goddess of pure love, also called Urania, and the other, the daughter of Dione, called Pandemos.
