About Venus' Nudity

Venus is a complex Divine Force, probably more complex than one could expect at a first sight. Surely she represents the sacred power of Love as a Force capable to "attract" all the entities (in a very broad sense). She moreover describes the sacred force of "uncovering", "unveiling", "disclosing" (also in this case in a very broad sense) or a "veil removal".

For this reason, we have to deal with a complex problem: how interpret the Venus' Nudity as expression of this "unveiling", denudation, always shown in the statues (but frequently totally misconceived by the profanes).

The Ancient Magistri (i.e. Porphyry), say that Venus, being the Force of Water, is the symbol of generation, procreation: she is therefore linked to Desire (Eros - Love for what we are missing - is often represented with Venus) as "attractive force". Being a generating power, thus a feminine power, she is represented as a woman because "Source of Life".

Venus is related to the sea because, being a moist and warm element by definition, it represents the motion, the agitation, the continuing generation. Her astral symbol is Hesperus-Evening Star- Lucifer (this explains also the absolute opposition of the monotheistic religions against Lucifer as symbol of feminine power): this star symbolically influences the generating power of the Earth being also linked to the dew, fecundating the Land and stimulating the generation of all the beings.

Venus nonetheless covers her breasts and her vagina because these organs are linked to procreation and generation, but this gesture doesn't indicate any form of shyness or shame. This gesture expresses generation as occult, concealed force which the Nature - Magna Mater - tends to protect from profanation.

In this perspective, Venus is a symbol of a Great Force of Life. But the Venus' nudity, this water generating force, is also expression of "purification" or a process where one leaves his/her impure parts. We are dealing therefore with a symbol of Death, but surely not in a profane meaning. Our Ancestors define "nude, naked" those who "abandoning the life and participating the Immortality, can contemplate the ineffable misteries" (Philo of Alexandria Legum Allegoriae). Abandoning the cloths, abandoning the human body, become the symbol of palingenesis, initiation death, soul sublimation: nudity thus means the simple Purity of Soul.

All the complex symbology of Venus is therefore involved in these issues. The Tradition (Proclus, Numenius) indicates that Souls "descend into generation", the Soul "lay on waters", "the incarnating Souls tend to the moisture". Venus, and her nudity, describes the great cycle of generation. It's important thus to note, in the picture above, how Venus is a) placing the veil (the body) over a b) vase (the Vase of Life).

a) The body as Soul's Veil drives to the consequence that the Death is Nudity. Moreover, the body-tunic related to Venus has to be preserved pure, as the Venus' purity: "keep your body, you have received from Gods and Goddesses, pure as you try to keep the tunic covering your skin pure" (Sextus). I just remind that the image and symbology of weaving is the expression of the feminine force generating bodies (just as an example: Penelope).

b) Vases, kraters, amphoraes are always typical feminine symbols: growth, abundance, life "The vases indicate Life". This is the reason why in the antique graves you can find many vases (i.e. in the etruscans graves). The Vases represent the "Den of Life" (in many roman funereal steles you can find the figure of a vase). These vases are open upward because they can receive influences from the sky. In particular the stone vase is a symbol of fertility. The terra-cotta vase, joining water and fire, represents the symbol of the union between the male and feminine forces.

In this (very common) picture, it is possible also to note that Venus, while dropping the veil, is touching her left foot. She is touching her left foot: the foot is a part of the body linked to the feminine energy and to Desire. In addition, in particular the heel, the foot is the symbol of the "Attachment to Life". Having lifting up her left foot, any further consideration is unnecessary and redundant. Just consider that someone still labels Venus as the "Goddess of Love"...

Anyway. I don't want to be too long. I would like just to mention, as conclusion, that it is possible to find this very complex symbology also in other representations. For example, let's examine a typical etruscan sarcophagus.

The so-called experts say that a sarcophagus represents the dead person during a sort of funereal banquet, having in his/her hand a plate with the offer for Charon to access the underworld. Yet, now we have the interpretative keys to better understand the sacred synbols involved in this imagine.

In about any occasion, the dead person is represented laying on the left side, with the head placed on the left hand-left arm: this is the arm of the Heart, the arm of Apollo, the Arm of the Sun. The  lower part of the body is covered by a tunic, while the upper part is naked (women have always the breasts covered: as for Venus, there is no shame or shyness just "the conceiling of the generating forces" and "protection from profanation"). This is to say that the dead person is leaving is mortal part and his soul is leaving the body. In addition, being placed on the left arm, this imagine is representing: "I'm not dead. I'm waking up, I'm raising up towards a new life". The "plate with the offering" is a typical cosmic symbol of the Third Sun, Centre of the Universe, the point where all the existing entities are generated. This is the final destination of the dead. Not accidentally he keeps the thumb (the Venus Finger) close to the centre (or over the centre) of the plate: generation, re-birth, death-new life.

I could add other datails, but I think to have written enough. As usual, I emphasize that I'm just a Cultor. If you need more detailed and complete information about this issue, it's better to contact an augur or a pontifex.