Celebrating Venus

Today is Friday the 13^th, always one of my favorite days. Every Friday is dedicated to Venus, and she’s all about love, beauty, and delight.  Thirteen is the basis of much women’s magic, based on the fact that it takes the moon approximately 28 days to orbit the Earth, and there are 13 such cycles in the calendar year. 

In any case, thirteen has been held sacred by many traditions and cultures, including the ancient Egyptians who described thirteen steps on the ladder leading to eternity – the thirteenth step was where the soul reached the source of itself and attained spiritual completion.  For some reason, I’m entirely fascinated by ladder imagery and metaphors at the moment, and I’m really loving this one.

Because I think 13 is lucky (and sacred) and because Friday is dedicated to Venus (who encourages all expressions of love and beauty), I’ve decided to forge ahead and offer a list of thirteen things that I’m currently delighting in.

• I like to think Venus approves of some of my devotions, including my love of fragrant flowers. At the moment I’m enjoying the last days of some blooming paperwhites. I do have another batch of bulbs I’ll plant once these are finished so I can continue to have a perfumed winter which feels especially indugent. Also smelling sweetly at the moment is a bouquet of lilies, and I have a pot of tulip and muscari bulbs beginning to sprout and hopefully will bloom soon.
• I’m finishing the last of a fabulous box of holiday chocolates from a local artisan chocolatier. The collection was called Ultima Materia and came in one of their always amazing boxes, which I’ll keep and reuse. The whole experience has felt alchemical, and what better way to start a new year?
• I’ve gotten a strong start on my reading for 2023 and have a robust list of books I’m looking forward to immersing myself in. There’s a delight in knowing I have a stash of interesting things to dig into.
• Already something I’ve read (Your Illustrated Guide to Becoming One with the Universe by Yumi Sakugawa) has sparked an inspiration for what I’ll pursue in The 100 Day Challenge which will start later this year.
• I’m being called to immerse myself in the exploration of color. I’m already having fun with it, but I’m also excited to see how it unfolds throughout the year (and likely beyond).
• I’m amused that Pantone’s color of the year is Viva Magenta. I love magenta. I recently lost one of my favorite ruby earrings, and I’m tasking myself with finding a replacemt pair. I definitely prefer rubies that lean to the pinker spectrum rather than blood red, and magenta is a perfect shade.
• I’m hopelessly enamored with accordian-fold booklets, and I’m currently playing around with constructing and filling several.  I’m in the sweet spot where the more I play the more other ideas to explore arrive. How does it get better than that?
• I discovered the existence of Poets House in New York late last year when I was looking for places to donate a large portion of my poetry book collection. I swear just knowing there’s a Poets House in the world just somehow makes me feel better, as though the world tipped into better alignment. I find myself imagining all kinds of hidden-to-me treasures that I’ve yet to find and it makes me shiver with delight.
• The lunar new year doesn’t begin until January 22, which ushers in the Year of the Water Rabbit. But already rabbits are populating my awareness, both waking and dreaming. Things are definitely hopping.
• I probably wouldn’t qualify as poster child for “use it up, wear it out, make do, or do without” (and I don’t suppose Venus is either) but I recently re-discovered a stash of work in my studio I’d totally forgotten about. I’m excited about finding ways to recycle and re-energize these things. It feels like so much energy is in motion now.
• I’m going to make more time this year to write love letters. I think the world needs them and I want to be part of an unstoppable wave of love acknowledging how grateful I am for all the wonderful people populating my life and this world. I think beloved Venus would approve.
• I’ve been using Pocket to bookmark online articles and sites for a number of years now, and sometimes I like to go back and look through the vast collection. I randomly selected an article on figs I was fascinated with when I first found it. It’s still fascinating. But this time around I also noticed the mention of a book, the title of which I’m listing here specifically for someone whom I’m sure will want to check it out. It’s a little shoutout of love for my tree-loving friend. A kind of hello-I- see-you-lurking-there-and-I-love-you kind of thing. Love letters can take all manner of shapes can’t they? In any case the book is entitled The Arbornaut by Meg Lowman.
• I’ve entered this year feeling remarkably curious and ready to look at things with new eyes. I found a deightful children’s book (Neruda Book of Questions) that is filled with delightful questions posed by poet Pablo Neruda.. I’m taking them to heart – to both ponder and to invite in my own questions. My first is, how can we each create more love and beauty and delight in the world? I can feel Venus smiling.

What about you? What questions are you pondering? What Venusian thing is capturing your attention? Is there something you’re celebrating? Do tell – you know I love to hear.