West Asia: Birth of Venus
Al-Biruni and Abu Ma'shar assigned Persia, Mesopotamia and parts of the Arabian Peninsula to the joint rulership of Venus (Al-Zuhara) and Jupiter (Al-Mushtari). they stated that this planetary combination gave the peoples of these lands their intense disposition toward exquisite perfumery, high courtly etiquette, beautiful garments, legal-religious sophistication, and soulful music. i was able to catch the venusian structure of the near east before i even took a look into the official sources because it is just extremely obvious.
i find it very fitting that venus' birth place is located in west asia and it is indeed a very venusian region. one of the most common snacks of the region is lokum wrapped in rose petals. rose & rosewater arent some niche luxury ingredient there; it's in desserts, drinks, perfumes, religious rituals, cosmetics, household traditions.
if you think about what people associate with a "Venusian" culture; perfume, gardens, flowers, hospitality, sweets, ornamentation, poetry, beauty woven into everyday life, west asia is overflowing with it.
scents and perfumes are big part of the culture. the arabian peninsula is literally famous for its perfumery and introducing oud to the world, and hosts bakhoor's birthplace. in many west asian societies, good scent is associated with cleanliness, dignity and beauty. hammam culture being extremely common in nearly all of west asia attests to this.
while hygiene has virgo association, the part of it that has to do with self-care, grooming and beauty is in the domain of venus.
in traditional astrology, mercury rules the dry, intellectual mechanics of hygiene, venus rules the pleasure and restoration of hot water, steam and oils. the hamam is the manifestation of venus in the water triplicity: it is a temple of stone and steam where cleansing becomes a slow, highly social, sensory ritual of massage, exfoliation and aromatic oils, rather than just a quick, functional chore.
Islam, born in west asia, also emphasizes cleanliness repeatedly in Quran (cleanliness is next to godliness).
perfumery was highly regarded in the Islamic world. scholars such as Al-Kindi wrote extensively on perfumes and distillation methods while Ibn Sina helped refine techniques for extracting floral essences like rosewater. the region became famous for ingredients like rose, jasmine, amber, musk, saffron, especially oud.
in many Gulf households, offering guests coffee and burning bakhoor are acts of hospitality.
the Safavid court elevated this obsession with perfumery to an almost mystical, highly sensory ritual. Shah Ismail I, the founder of the empire, was himself a mystic poet who wrote passionately, weaving the fragrance of the beloved and the spiritual essence of flowers directly into his verses. in Safavid courtly life, scent was treated as an active element of hospitality and prestige. guests were routinely sprinkled with pure rosewater upon crossing the threshold, while royal garments and heavy silks were stored in chests layered with ambergris, musk, and dried jasmine. they considered this to be dignity and spiritual purity.
it's a region where people regularly scent their homes with incense, wear layered perfumes, flavor sweets with roses, value cultivate fragrant gardens has a cultural emphasis on sensual aesthetics that's unusually strong by global standards.
alongside with rose, tulip is one of west asia's signature flowers. while tulips originally grew in central asia, the Ottoman Turks started the tulip era by cultivating them extensively and introduced them to europe. ottomans turned them into art forms, frequently used in Turkish iznik ceramics, tiles etc. ottomans even had a historical era literally called "the tulip age", which was a period of time associated with having fun and leisure and artistic renaissances.
notably, tulips in west asia are a meeting point of mars and venus, as tulips are considered a marsian flower, and came from central asia which is a marsian region. it ottoman culture, they were symbols of wealth, power, and even divinity because the word for tulip,"lâle" shares the same Arabic letters as the name of God (Allah) when written in Ottoman script, giving the flower mystical and spiritual associations as well. so tulip simultaneously became a symbol of earthly beauty, imperial grandeur and luxury as well as divine order. although tulips and Turkic people are both primarily mars influenced, the venusian geography did its own spin
Ottoman court textiles were also among the most coveted luxury goods of the early modern world and heavily influenced european fashion and decorative arts.
traditional jewelry in west asia likewise tends toward exuberant ornamentation: elaborate goldwork, gemstones, filigree and coin jewelry designed to display wealth and beauty. combined with perfumed oils, embroidered garments and floral motifs, adornment becomes a multisensory aesthetic experience rather than a simple accessory. coin jewelry, although found in other parts of the world, is not merely as common and woven into everyday wear as in west asian women's attires as well as marriage customs. it's very much a taurean adornment.
social behaviors
another distinctly venusian aspect of near east culture is the structure of social gatherings themselves. greetings in much of west asia tend to be remarkably warm and affectionate. friends and relatives often greet one another with embraces and two cheek kisses, usually cheek-to-cheek or air kisses rather than direct contact).
celebrations are intensely sensory experiences centered around abundance and pleasure: tables overflowing with food, elaborate displays of sweets and fruit, music, fragrance, communal dancing. it's important to note, it's standard to do these points in extravagant ways.
dancing occupies an unusually central role in many west asian gatherings. even if it's a mere family gathering, usually after eating there will be dancing. at celebrations, whether through line dances, circle dances, folk dances or forms of Raqs (dance traditions that include what became known in the west as belly dance), participation is often expected. refusing to dance at a gathering or celebration practically invites being dragged onto the dance floor by relatives or friends.
even simple gatherings are almost ritualized cycles of feasting, dancing, and then returning to sweets, tea, coffee and fruit.
the distinction between public and private beauty is often less rigid than in many western societies. in casual home settings included, doing a full glam make up and wearing a nice dress and bringing heels/nice shoes specifically to wear inside the house when you're visiting someone's house is standard.
mesapotamia
the deepest Venusian connection is that west asia not only became one of history's great centers of perfume, gardens, flowers, hospitality and sensual aesthetics but it was also the birthplace of the first civilization (mesapotamia) and the homeland of both Aphrodite (descendant of Inanna myths) and Inanna-Ishtar, humanity's earliest great goddess identified with the planet Venus itself. she was simultaneously a goddess of love and war, beauty and conquest, sexuality and political power. in Sumerian literary tradition, the goddess Inanna has been an inexhaustible source of inspiration for poets.
in mesopotamian myth, Inanna tricks Enki (the god of wisdom) into giving her the Me, which included the blueprints for writing, law, strategy, priesthoods and mathematics. mesapotamia is also where literacy first emerged. in traditional astrology Venus processes geometry, metric poetry, synthesis. in the Islamic golden age, Adab was the concept of high cultural literacy, refinement and polite letters. To possess Adab meant you kou knew how to write with exquisite etiquette, metaphor and beauty. Venus rules this elevated cultural literacy. calligraphy also became an important visual art form due to aniconic religious practices in Islamic cultue.
civilization itself in a way is a venusian project in the sense they allow for gardens and ornamental architecture, luxury goods and jewelry, music, dance, poetry, literature etc. and the first place where these things became institutionalized on a massive scale was Mesopotamia.
