venus is a planet that is first and foremost associated with war. not diplomacy, not love, not money—war.

for the romans and caesar, venus was all about victory. the sex and wealth and political domination that venus stands for were all won through war, the instrument of empire building.

for caesar, venus was a legislative principle that extended the powers of his empire to all of his conquered lands. the roman venus was about law. pax romana was an empire sustained by war.

in the renaissance, venus was femininized through images of the fetishized female body. this version of venus was still seen as an object that can be acquired.

additionally, venus as a femme body was seen through a morality complex. beauty stood for goodness but sexual attraction for worldly temptation. if the roman venus stood for roman law, the sexual complex associated with the renaissance venus was about morality.

venus is gendered because gender is a war technology. venus, as a feminine planet, stands for the spoils of war and the civil society that must be protected through war.

mars, on the other hand, always stands for the enemy. that’s why ares and eris were so hated and never invited to stuff with the other gods. they were outsiders.

so, both venus and mars are about war. it’s just that venus stands for the warring tribe that’s “on your side” while mars stands for “the other side” or the enemy.

this is why venus stands for civil society, or worlds already colonized and domesticated by power. mars stands for enemy combatants, bad guys, or political outsiders who cannot be integrated.

in a personal chart, venus stands for your desires to assimilate into the majority. mars stands for your tendencies to remain marginal, on the outside, and looking in.

too much venus makes you too conformist and complacent to power. too much mars makes you treat everyone and anyone like your enemy, like the world is against you.

in other words, venus is foucault’s biopolitics of normal and mars is agamben’s states of exception.