Love and Self Love
ZODIAC THEME
Libra Season is ruled by Venus, and is a season where we focus on love magick and harmony. Honesty, self-love and self-care will help create trust and harmony in your relationships in the long run. And most of all it will help strengthen your own self-trust. This is a time to heal the relationships in our lives; especially the relationship we have with our self. What better way to tap into the energy of love and relationships, than by setting the intention to call love in. You can perform this ritual whenever your intuition calls your awareness to it, when your 7th house is illuminated, or on Fridays (ruled by Venus). You can learn more about Libra energy and Libra Season in Foundation 3.
INTRODUCTION
Venus is the Roman goddess of love, beauty, sexuality, abundance, desire, fertility, and finances. She is known as Aphrodite in Greek mythology. She is the Goddess of Love, the Goddess of Money/Abundance and the Goddess of Inspiration. She is associated with the lush fertile greenness on our planet, the life-giving force it provides.
Venus gives us the power to attract what we desire. Manifestation and Abundance is a powerful gift of Venus. She is the Star of Ishtar, Star of Inanna, the ancient Sumerian goddess Inanna (also called the Star of Venus), the 8 pointed star that you see within The Star, Major Arcana Tarot card. Venus is our wish.
The Star depicted in the Major Arcana
The Golden Eclipse Tarot Deck
Sharing an example of a communal love altar to Venus
What you Need
Altar to Venus
1 or 7 White or Pink Candles (7 being the planetary number for Venus). With the word or sigil for love or self-love carved into the candle.
Offering to Venus (see Libra Season Foundation Video): Fresh natural water, wine / campaign, chocolate, floral essential oils, flower essence.
Pen - Pink or Red (you can use a regular pen too, however, if you can align with the appropriate color correspondence of Venus it is more powerful).
Magick Square to Venus [photo .png] left on your altar.
Journal
Paper to write your petition and intention (optional: with the sigil for love using the magick square of Venus or self love drawn onto the paper. See below.)
Optional:
Rose Water - Create your own from organic roses, or you can buy online, from your local bodega, Indian food supplier, and sometimes can be found in the international section of your local grocery store.
Rose Quartz - Rose Quartz teaches love in many realms, expanding the heart chakra and connecting to self.
Tarot Cards - The Empress & The Star (optional)
Create a Sigil for “love” using the Venus Kamea
You can carve the sigil “Love” or “Self Love” using the method above into your candle, or you can write the sigil on the paper of your intention. If drawing or carving the sigil is complicated at this time - you can write or carve the word itself.
Sigils & Candle Rituals: To understand more about working with sigils and planetary magick, listen to my lecture on Candle Magick & Workshop
Suggestion: Keep your ritual to Venus for a few weeks. An internal shift is gradual and needs your dedication and commitment. You can work deeper with the energies of Venus & Love by performing a ritual and sacred space as a spiritual container to accelerate the shift in your inner mind to welcome abundance.
DIY Ritual Rose Water
Rose water can be left as an offering on your altar, placed in your bath water*, anointing your candle, floor wash, room spray, etc. (*use organic roses if you are to place the rose water on your skin or bath in it).
To prepare for this ritual:
As with any meditative practice or ritual, turn off your phone and create space to not be disturbed.
Cleanse yourself (bath) & cleanse your space. Choose a ritual area in your home that is ideally free of clutter, distractions, and technology. You can use sage, palo santo, or even incense to smudge the air. You can also pour sea salt around the area, then sweep it up and discard outside of your home.
Prepare a Libra/Venus Altar (see Libra Season Guidebook). If you have a Venus altar, clean it and create a space for offerings.
Take a cleansing spiritual bath (below) prior to sitting down to write your intention.
Meditate on her symbols, and channel her energy into your body.
Optional: Meditate on the meaning behind The Empress, the Star. Take notes to what symbols, emotions or information comes to you.
Set and write down your intention to heal and attract love. Leave the written intention on your altar.
Light 1 or 7 white or pink candles - (7 being the planetary number for Venus). These can be tea-lights, pillars or 7-day glass ritual candles.
Invite in Venus, the goddess of love. Give gratitude to any blessing and offerings she has already given you. Allow that feeling of love to grow in your mind, until you’re full with the feeling of expansion.
Take notes to what symbols, emotions or information
When finished, close down the ritual. Never blow out the candle. If you need to extinguish it, either snuff it out or pinch it out with moistened fingers. Whenever you relight the candle, remember the feeling of the energy of love and self-love.
Suggested Timing:
Work with this ritual meditation and ritual for a few weeks. An internal shift is gradual and needs your dedication and commitment.
Use this guided meditation throughout the entire month of Libra Season.
Use this guided meditation for each Friday (Venus rules Friday), or Monday nights after sunset (hour of Venus).
When the moon is in her sign: Libra
Spiritual Bath:
Spiritual Baths & Cleansing Baths are part of Spiritual Maintenance - washing away any unwanted energies that do not belong to us. Or, to literally bathe ourselves and immerse ourselves in the energetic waters of abundance. A Spiritual bath can be performed prior to a ritual, to remove any unwanted energy, center the mind, and to clean our temple prior to asking the Divine for one’s intention. A bath can be done either in a traditional bath or by standing in a shower (and pouring the prepared bathwater over one’s head).
Sweetening Bath:
Ingredients (7 items - Planetary Number for Venus):
(1) Apple: Red Apple or Pomegranate
(1) Honey
(2) Flowers: Roses (White or Red) or Rose Water
(3) Cinnamon, Nutmeg & Rosemary
In a small pan of water (bottled water or rainwater), heat the roses, rose water, honey, cinnamon, rosemary, and nutmeg - awaken the spirit of these ingredients. When the ingredients in the pan have heated, let cool, cut up the apples and add them to the mixture. Follow the directions for taking a cleansing bath. Take some of the herbs, put some on your third eye, some on your heart. Allow yourself to feel the herbs clearing out your head and your heart. The honey opening up and adding sweetness to your life. You can also place some of the herbs on the back of your neck. When finished let yourself air dry, or pat yourself lightly with a towel.
Suggested Journaling Prompts:
What does love mean to you?
When was the last time you avoided a relationship due to fear or insecurity? If you made a decision based on the feeling of loss, would you have avoided this decision if you had felt love or the option of choice (ex: I avoided entering this ______ because I was afraid of getting emotionally hurt)? What age were you and describe the situation? What steps could you have taken to prevent that situation?
Self Love & Relationships
What tools and strategies I can lean into to cultivate a better relationship with myself?