How do Venus and Netzach go together?

Zephyros

Trying to find an "angle" that allows me to connect the sephiroths with planetary attributions, but I'm having trouble with this one. Is this a suggestion that the trials of Netzach are out of Love? Wikipedia mentions her association with Vulcan and Mars, and that she represents their soothing and feminine aspects. Still, can't make it work for me, although the others I have done up until now have worked for me.
 

Ross G Caldwell

Trying to find an "angle" that allows me to connect the sephiroths with planetary attributions, but I'm having trouble with this one. Is this a suggestion that the trials of Netzach are out of Love? Wikipedia mentions her association with Vulcan and Mars, and that she represents their soothing and feminine aspects. Still, can't make it work for me, although the others I have done up until now have worked for me.

I think it's a forced fit, but anything can work if you jiggle it enough. How about this:

"Next comes a description of the procession, with its statues of the gods, entering the Circus... Ovid dismisses many of these gods as irrelevant to his quest... but he prays to the first of them, Victoria, that his love will be victorious, and to the last of them, Venus, that he will conquer the girl... The ancient pseudo-etymologies linking Venus with vinco and Victoria are overt and meaningful here."

(Francis Cairns, Roman Lyric: Collected Papers on Catullus and Horace (De Gruyter, 2012), p. 70)

http://books.google.fr/books?id=9--...edir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=venus victoria&f=false

Now you've gotten me interested in this question of the ancient pseudo-etymologies linking Venus with vinco and Victoria.
 

Aeon418

Trying to find an "angle" that allows me to connect the sephiroths with planetary attributions, but I'm having trouble with this one. Is this a suggestion that the trials of Netzach are out of Love?
Love is the law, love under will.

Netzach is the first emanation of the microcosm below Tiphareth. It's our first point of contact with the greater macrocosm. In one way it is the reflection of the Will of Chokmah down the Pillar of Mercy. Also reflecting through Tiphareth into the microcosm of Netzach is Geburah-Mars, hence the attribution of Fire to Netzach. But our subjective experience of the influx of this dynamic macrocosmic force is through it's polar opposite - Venus. (I think it's the polarity flip that throws people here. As Dion Fortune points out the Martial-Fire aspect is macrocosmic force projected into Netzach. The Venusian aspect is the manifestation and experience of this force in the microcosm. But there is a flip-change of state between Macro and Micro.)

The Fire of Netzach goes under all sorts of names. Sex Force, Desire force, Kundalini, etc. Whatever you call it it is that burning flame within us that urges us to reach out and unite with others through Love. (Note the polarity flip.) But there's a problem here that relates to the Tarot 7's and why three out of the four cards are decidedly negative.
Aleister Crowley said:
Yet let it not be forgotten that though She be love, her function is but passive; she is the vehicle of the Word, of Chokmah, Wisdom, the All-Father, who is the Will of the All-One. And thus they err with grievous error and dire who prate of Love as the Formula of Magick; Love is unbalanced, void, vague, undirected, sterile, nay, more, a very Shell, the prey of abject orts demonic: Love must be "under will."
Let love decide a course of action in matters strictly practical and you have the 7 of Disks - Failure. (GD title: Success Unfulfilled.)

Let love sway the intellect with emotions and feelings that burn hot and cold according to fluctuating moods or the volatility of momentary whims of fancy and you have the 7 of Swords - Vacilation. (GD title: Unstable Effort)

Let love consume you, let it rule you, and you will end up seeing whatever you want to, or not. Love is blind. Instead of sailing this sea you liable to drown in it. And yet, even amid all the blind floundering and wallowing it is proclaimed as glorious success. Open your eyes and wake up to the harsh reality to the 7 of Cups - Debauch. (GD title: Illusory Success)

But have the courage and strength to place Love under Will and you may yet win through to the ultimate Victory of Netzach. 7 of Wands - Valour. (GD title: Lord of Valour)
 

Zephyros

Thank you for your thoughts, Ross and Aeon, and you actually gave me an idea. I haven't checked it anywhere, so please tell me if I'm misguided, but it seems to work for me.

The aspect of Love from Venus actually, contrary to what I thought, illustrates Netzach beautifully, especially if both Netzach and Hod are considered. This low on the Tree the love implied here isn't the boundless outpouring that is Chesed or the abstract creative urge of Chochma, but an actual need, or shortage of something; love in its experiential aspect. This kind of love implies want and imperfection, and suggests the suffering that comes merely from being alive. In essence, merely toasting a pop tart is a struggle from Netzach, as we would die without it. If someone has a problem, they solve it by outpouring "love" at it (in essence, a lot of concentration). Everything we do is an act of love. Hod on the other hand suggests temptation and the other side of being human, sex.

I reached these conclusions by looking at the paths through their Tarot cards and it seems really evident to me that this area of the Tree tells the story of Adam and Eve and the apple. We have Tiphareth, the perfect Yetziraic manifestation of the unmarred plan of creation with everything in its proper amount and measure. However, the inevitable descent down the tree as the third trinity manifests causes the snake (in this case represented by the Devil) to tempt Eve (Hod) with the idea of sexual union; that is, the same universal mechanics of union, but this low on the tree only the semblance of union is possible between the degraded father and mother. It is said in Genesis that after eating the apple Adam and Eve opened their eyes and sewed fig leaves to hide their nudity, bringing the Devil's Ain (he is the cause of their eyes opening) and suggesting sexual awareness, or consiousness that they are separate at all, into effect. Adam (Netzach) on the other hand learns what it means to be human and this means being cast out of Tiphareth and getting to know Death (Nun) and the hardships inherent in earthly love. It could also be said that Adam fell and allowed himself to be tempted out of love (Venus) for Eve.

Seen in this light, the actual consumption of the apple implied in Peh (The Tower, Mouth) visually looks like an atomic bomb fell right in the middle of the tree, separating Tiphareth and Yesod that kind of look as though they were once one emanation (just before the apple, I'm guessing there was nothing lower than Eden) and continuing the descent. The act of leaving the ideal toward the manifest is traumatic, to say the least. In essence, Adam isn't sustained any longer by the unity of Paradise, but has to work for a living.

In any case, this came to me trying to understand Netzach better, I hope I'm not completely off track.