Venus is desire and love. It indicates the mother and nurture. It makes priesthoods, school superintendencies, high offices with the right to wear a gold ring or a crown, cheerfulness, friendship, companionship, the acquisition of property, the purchase of ornaments, agreements on favorable terms, marriages, pure trades, fine voices, a taste for music, sweet singing, beauty, painting, mixing of colors both in embroidery, dyeing, and unguent making. the inventors and masters of these crafts, as well as craftsmanship or trade, and work in emeralds, precious stones, and ivory. Venus causes men to be gold-spinners, gold workers, barbers, and people fond of cleanliness and toys. It bestows the office of supervisor of weights and measures, the standards of weights and measures, markets, factories, the giving and receiving , laughter, good cheer, ornamentation, and hunting in moist places. Venus gives benefits from royal women or from one’s own, and it brings very high rank when it operates in such affairs, Of the parts of the body, it rules the neck, the face, the lips, the sense of smell, the front parts from the feet to the head, the parts of intercourse; of the inner parts it rules the lungs. It is a recipient of support from others and of pleasure. Of materials it rules precious stones and fancy jewelry. Of fruits it rules the olive. It is of the night sect, white in color, very greasy in taste.

Vettius Valens - Anthology

Venus is a Yin planet, that is, a planet of negative polarity, as opposed to Yang, or positive polarity; the word negative does not imply difficulty or evil. The influence of Venus seldom results in positive action. Usually, it draws things to you, a process in which you play rather a passive part. Venus rules the spontaneous power of attraction between two entities that differ in such a way that together they form a higher and more complex whole than would otherwise be possible. In its highest manifestation Venus is love, the emotion that brigs people together without force or compulsion. Venus is also the power behind creativity, which stems from the recognition that components in the outer world may be combined to create a beautiful whole. When working properly, Venus always creates something spiritually higher than the original entity. But it always has to work with the power of Mars, the ego drive, the drive of an entity to be itself. Only a fully realised entity can experience the power of Venus. Only a human being who has become as perfect a manifestation as possible of what he or she is can experience love. The balance between Mars and Venus is rather delicate and easily upset. Egotism and the desire to control may become confused with love, and love may be used to manipulate. At times Venus causes entities to be brought together in a passive manner. In human terms this is manifested in the tendency of Venus to produce a mood of self-indulgent slothfulness in which one simply sits and waits for nice things to roll in without contributing any effort. The side is also seen in Venus’ indulgence of softness and luxury, which can result in the inability to maintain oneself in times of adversity. Venus is a social planet, and one of its most pleasant effects is to bring about happy social occasions. Parties and entertaining are best done with Venus transits. At least you will have fun!

Robert Hand

All diseases of the head coming of heat are caused by Mars, for Venus is made of no such hot mettle, or at least deals in inferior parts. The truth is it is under the command of Venus and cures the head by antipathy to Mars, and the privities by sympathy to Venus.50

Nicholas Culpeper

As for Venus, her nature is cooling, wet, phlegmatic, temperate, a fortune. She indicates women, the mother, younger sisters, cleanliness, clothing, ornaments, gold and silver, graciousness towards close friends, conceit, vanity, haughtiness, boasting, the love of wealth and entertainment, laughter, adornment, joy, delight, dancing, playing horns, plucking the strings of the oud, weddings, perfume and good smelling things, the gentleness in composing melodies, playing backgammon and chess, idleness, casting of restraint, going too far in what is bad, buffoonery, occupying oneself with men and children in fornication and every male or female fornication or male and female singer or one playing types of instruments, and much swearing of oaths and lying, wine, honey, drinking sweet intoxicants, having sex in various ways as well as intercourse in the rear and lesbianism. And she indicates a love for children and a love of people and showing love towards them, tranquility towards everyone, tolerance, generosity, kindliness, liberality, freedom, a good character, beauty and handsomeness, ingratiation, reception, brightness, splendor, pleasantness of speech, the feminine, flirtation, passion, ridicule, wishing good health, strength of the body but weakness of the soul, much flesh in bodies, an abundance of craving for everything, joy in everything, making demands for everything, being eager for it. And she indicates different types of clean admirable crafts and works, stringing garlands and decorating them, wearing crowns, dyes and dyers, sewing, houses of worship, virtue, adhering to religion, performing devotions, justice, fairness, scales and measuring, a love of markets and being in them, business and selling good smelling things.

Abu Ma’shar

Venus nature, feminine, nocturnal, temperately cold and moist, the lesser fortune, author of mirth and jollity, people signified are musicians, gamestars, silk men, mercers, linen drapers, painters, jewelers, players, lapidaries, embroiderers, women tailors, wives, mothers, virgins, choristers, fiddlers, pipers. When joined with the Moon, singers, perfumers, seamstress, picture drawers, gravers, upholsters, limners, glovers, all as sell those commodities which adorn women either in body as clothes or in face as complexion waters, manners when well dignified. Venus signifies a quiet man, not given to law, quarrel or wrangling, not a vitious, pleasant, neat and spruce, loving mirth in his words and actions, clean in apparel, rather drinking much than gluttonous, prone to venery, often entangled in love matters, zealous in their affections, musical, delighting in baths and all honest merry meetings or masks and stage plays, easy of belief and not given to labour or taking any pains, a company keeper, cheerful, nothing mistrustful, a right virtuous man or woman often had in some jealousy yet no cause for it. Manners when badly placed, when Venus is ill placed, then the man is riotous, expensive, wholly given to looseness and lewd companies of women, not regarding his reputation, coveting unlawful beds, incestuous, an adulterer, fanatical, a mere skipjack of no faith, no repute, no credit, spending his means in ill houses, taverns and amongst scandalous loose people, a mean lazy companion, not careful of the things of this life or anything religious, a mere atheist and natural man.

William Lily, Christian Astrology

There is restoration of equilibrium to the shattered sensitivity, the stabilization of a network of supportive emotional bonds, the development of the capacity to make an aesthetic response. The dysfunction of Venus is indolence, manipulativeness, vanity, spinelessness, chronic abandonment to sensuality. Finally, the key question of Venus is, how can I calm down? What do I need in a partner? What can I bring to a relationship?

Steven Forrest and his book, The Inner Sky,

The principle of desire, love, beauty, value, the impulse and capacity to attract and be attracted to love and be loved, to seek and create beauty and harmony, to engage in social and romantic relations, sensuous pleasure, artistic and aesthetic experience, the principle of arrows and the beautiful Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty.

Richard Tarnas Cosmos and Psyche