Of late I've been thinking of doing this series of post called Becoming Venus. In part it is my journey in becoming a woman and in part it is a guide for my daughter (when I have her) on her journey in becoming a woman. Among many things, it will visit the themes of self love and acceptance, finding one's path in life and tapping into one's inner wisdom.
I know there are many blogs that speak on these themes and I questioned if I should even add my voice to the chorus. Then I figure what the hey, why not? If anything it will clarify my runaway thoughts and give structure to what I would share with my mini me or myself when I was younger.
Why Venus
Whenever I think of the goddess Venus, I think of this image,
Granted this painting depicted the female body of that time as the ideal, and truth be told it is a true depiction of the female body today, despite what fashion magazines tell us about how we are supposed to look. The reality is we are supposed to have some flesh on our bones, a little pot of a belly and it does not take away from our femininity or our ability to be desirable.
In Roman mythology, Venus was the goddess of love, sex, beauty, and fertility. She was the Roman counterpart to the Greek Aphrodite.
However, Roman Venus had many abilities beyond the Greek Aphrodite; she
was a goddess of victory, fertility, and even prostitution.
In this respect, becoming Venus is about cultivating love, embracing one's sexuality, beauty and fertility, as well as being victorious in one's endeavours. All of these is what makes a woman a woman, in my estimation anyway. I am all for equal rights, but not to the degree that we lose what makes us different from the other sex.
Now I know that there are those who are not interested in cultivating their feminine wiles, those who accept themselves as they are, and to them, I say "Do you". But there are some of us who were just wondering around in the wilderness trying to figure out how to be a woman and/or trying to develop into the woman we were meant to be. Not a woman sculpted by the outer world but one developed by the inner being.
- A woman who understands and loves her body,
- A woman who continues to grow and develop mentally and spiritually.
- A woman who meets and exceeds her expectations for herself
- A woman who knows her strengths and weaknesses
- A woman who can nurture and support her significant other and children, ensuring that they are assets to society, not liabilities
Now I don't have all the answers, I don't think anyone does. I'm still on my journey, and although in society, I am considered a woman, it does not mean that I am one entirely. There is still room to grow, to become the kind of woman that is not only beautiful, inside and out, but wise and confident. That is my personal aim. That is when I will become Venus.
pic sources: 1, 2
