Oldest Goddess: The Origins of VENUS

Venus encourages ancient orgy (Joachim Anthonisz)

Venus a Vishnu figure, rising from the sea as Aphrodite (mythology)

Our Oldest Gods: The origins of Venus

(Crecganford) Venus (Aphrodite, Inanna, Astarte...[maybe even to Radha, Saraswati, and Vishnu) is one of the oldest and most beloved deities of all time.

Syncretism

From her earliest beginnings arising from the communities of Neolithic farmers to her evolution into the ancient Greek Goddess Aphrodite, to her eventual worship as the Roman Goddess Venus, this video goes on a journey through time and across cultures.

Podcast: ► Spotify: open.spotify.com/show... Social media: ► Twitter: crecganford ► Instagram: crecganford ► Facebook Fan Page: crecganford Patreon: ► crecganford. Contact: ► Send mail to: hello@crecganford.com ► Business enquires: biz@crecganford.com (for business inquiries ONLY).

References

Allegory: Cupid, Mars, Time, Venus (Guernica)

• Black, Jeremy and Green, Anthony. 1992. Gods, Demons, and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia. British Museum Press.
• Puhvel, Jaan. 1989. Comparative Mythology. John Hopkins University Press.

Explore podcast's  84 episodes: Crecganford Podcasts of all the videos

• Crecganford, Feb. 4, 2023:; Pat Macpherson, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Venus transiting across the Sun

Ashley Wells, Dhr. Seven, CC Liu, Pat Macpherson, Wisdom Quarterly

Barring interference by carcinogenic chemical irritants, Venus will visibly travel across the face of the Sun as seen from Earth today. Protect the eyes with special viewers; anything else will cause harm and not allow viewing.

TransitOfVenus.org explains how to watch Venus moving through heaven (i.e., space) safely. The Sun is so bright and Venus, the second planet from Sol, is so small that it is not visible to unprotected eyes. Sunglasses are a good way to go blind or at least do great damage to the retina's rods and cones that lace pain receptors to alert us that damage is being done. Viewers can ascend the hills behind Hollywood and get help from amateur-experts at the Griffith Observatory. But most any school will do.

• Southland gets rare chance to see Venus move

This has been a strange 2012 with many more sky anomalies than an average year. Moons, eclipses, strange lights, alignments... could the Maya have been onto something? And who told them of the heavens from the viewpoint of incoming craft rather than primates looking up from the tops of pyramids?
  
There are strange bird people (suparnas, garudas), avian-human hybrids, and there are feathered serpents (nagas), reptilian-human hybrids. With plant-helpers, they told the indigenous Amazon Jivaro and neo-shaman anthropologist Michael Harner that they were the "true gods" of this world. What did they mean?
  
There is more to this world, beings seen and unseen, than meets our two ordinary eyes. An extraordinary "third eye" -- or what the Buddha called the dibba cakkhu and other supernormal powers -- is needed sometimes.
  
A meditator near Boston, at Barre's Insight Meditation Society, told Wisdom Quarterly of developing the absorptions then turning attention toward designated areas and seeing the "unseen beings" there. There were devas above the trees, suffering beings beneath the ground, ghosts cowering, and humanoid beings in space. This was our first hint that what the Buddha taught about cosmology and cosmography is personally verifiable. It may not be very important or pertinent to serenity-and-insight. But if it verifiable, it is not something taken on faith.

“I began to open my eyes, which led to a terrible tendency to question authority because authority that cannot be questioned is tyranny, and I will not accept tyranny -- any tyranny -- even that of heaven.”

- Terry Pratchett

There are natural born "seers" who, knowing nothing of Buddhism, describe the same sort of beings. This plane is full of them. Could it be the planets have titular entities associated with them: Surya (Sun), Chandra (Moon), Bhumi (Earth, Gaia), and Shukra (Venus). The world is much stranger and wonderful than most of us ever imagine.
 
According to the world's only functioning "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" (a.k.a. Wikipedia), Venus is Shukra and the titular entity for the first planet from the Sun is Budha. Astrology and horoscopes used to be powerful tools before the information was suppressed and turned into an inane pastime and ludicrous endeavor.
 
(13Orcun) Conductor Gustav Holst may be most famous for his "The Planets." But he arguably created a much greater and profound work he called the "Hymns from the Rig Veda." That is, he understood the links between the Sanskrit Vedas ("Books of Knowledge") and proto-European languages and mythologies/astrology. Sir David Willcocks, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

 

Venus as a Boy

Shukra represents the planet Venus. It is a Sanskrit word for "clear, pure" or "brightness, clearness." It is the name the son of Bhrigu and Ushana, and preceptor of the Daityas, and the guru of the Asuras, identified with the planet Venus  (with honorific, शुक्राचार्य Shukracharya). He presides over "Shukra-var" or Friday. He is rajas in nature and represents wealth, pleasure, and reproduction.
 
In Astrology, there is a dasha or planetary period known as Shukra Dasha which remains active in a person's horoscope for 20 years. This dasha is believed to give more wealth, fortune, and luxury to one's living if a person has Shukra positioned well in his or her horoscope as well as Shukra being an important beneficent planet in her or his horoscope.

Bjork's "Venus as a Boy" live with Indian influences

Budha (Mercury)

Budha is the deva (literally, "shining one" or "god") associated with the planet Mercury, the son of Chandra (our Moon) with Tara. He is the "saint" or "god of merchandise" and protector of merchants. He is of Rajas Guna and represents Communication. Budha presides over "Budh-var" or Wednesday. In modern Hindi and other Indian languages, Wednesday is called Budhvar; in Tamil and Malayalam it is Budhan.

Venus the Comet and its Serpent tail (video)

In ancient times, the planets themselves were the "gods" (Image: redicecreations.com)

“From the smallest particle to the largest galactic formation, a web of electrical circuitry connects and unifies all of nature, organizing galaxies, energizing stars, giving birth to planets, and on our own world, controlling weather and animating biological organisms. There are no isolated islands in an electric universe” (David Talbott and Wallace Thornhill, Thunderbolts of the Gods).

(Tbolts Interviews) The Thunderbolts Project's Wallace Thornhill (holoscience.com) is an Australian physicist. His work on The Electric Universe provides the broadest synthesis of electrical principles to date. It covers solar system history, planetary cratering and scarring, the electrical dynamics of the Sun, and the nature of galaxies. He is co-author of Thunderbolts of the Gods.

Multicultural Mythology Explained

RedIceCreations

The Vedas [India's ancient scriptures] said that the star Venus looks like fire with smoke. The star had a tail [a flying serpent], dark in the daytime and luminous at night. This luminous tail, which Venus had in earlier centuries, is mentioned in the Talmud: "Fire as hanging down from the planet Venus." Described by the Chaldeans, the planet Venus was said to have a beard. "Beard" is used in modern astronomy in the description of comets.

The Mexicans called a comet "a star that smoked." What was the illusion of the ancient Toltecs and Mayans? What was the phenomenon, and what was its cause? A train large enough to be visible from Earth and giving the impression of smoke and fire hung from the planet Venus.

Venus, with its glowing train, was a very brilliant body. Therefore, it is not strange that the Chaldeans described it as a "bright torch of heaven" that "illuminates like the Sun" [a second, lesser sun]. They compared it with the light of the rising Sun.

At present, the light of Venus is less than one millionth of the light of the Sun. "A stupendous prodigy in the sky," the Chaldeans called it. The Hebrews similarly described the planet: "The brilliant light of Venus blazes from one end of the cosmos to the other end." Chinese astronomical texts refer to a time in the past when "Venus was visible in full daylight and, while moving across the sky, rivaled the sun in brightness." More

Sri Lakshmi in Buddhism, Goddess of Luck

Amol N. Bankar (edited by Wisdom Quarterly)

Lakshmi on a lotus (eaglespace.com)

In Buddhist literature Sri (Siri) or Lakshmi (Lakkhi, possibly related to "lucky") is the goddess of fortune and beauty. "The Questions of King Milinda" (Milindapanha), a later Theravada Buddhist work, mentions her cult and and her followers.

In the Dhammapada Commentary (Atthakatha) she is simply the goddess that gives luck to the kingdom (raja siridayika devata). In the Siri Jataka ("Rebirth Story"), Siri is the personification of Luck.

The rebirth story is told in reference to a brahmin who tried to steal Anathapindika's good fortune (his siri). Lakkhi -- the Pali equivalent of Lakshmi, the goddess of beauty and fortune -- is a name found usually only in later works. The word Lacchi, however, is probably equivalent to Lakkhi.

In the Sirikalakanni Jataka, Siri -- also known as Siri Mata (Mother Siri) -- was the daughter of Dhatarattha, King (or regent) of the Eastern Quarter, one of the Four Great Sky Kings (Catummaharajika). He is chief of the lowly celestial musicians (gandhabbas).

(Terri/Flickr)

She is identified with Uppalavanna, an extremely beautiful Buddhist nun who was one of the Buddha's two chief female disciples. She is connected with the east, in association with Asa in the South, Saddha in the West, and Hiri in the North.

In the Sarabhanga Jataka Sakka's four daughters are mentioned. Sakka is almost always described as Sakka Devanam Indo, Sakka King (chief) of the Gods (devas). He reigns in the Celestial World of the Thirty-three (Tavatimsa) as well as ruling the Four Great Kings in a subordinate celestial world. His daughters are named Asa, Saddha, Hiri, and Siri.

The Sudhabhojana Jataka recounts a rebirth story when the four daughters went to Anotatta to play in the water. There they saw Narada under a paricchattaka-flower, which he was using as a sunshade. Each asked him for that flower. Narada said he would give it to the best of them then referred them to Sakka. Sakka sent a cup of ambrosia (sudhabhojana) to Kosiya.

He proclaimed that the daughter who succeeded in persuading Kosiya to share his special drink with her would be judged best. After listening to all of their claims, he decided in favor of Hiri.

When Kosiya died and was reborn in Tavatimsa (the second celestial world where Sakka reigns as lord among the devas there). Sakka gave him Hiri to be his wife and also a share of the kingdom.

In Maitribala Jataka we find her association with the lotus. In past lives she was frequently performing meritorious deeds with various buddhas involving blue lotuses, which led to remarkable anomalies related to flowers as her good karma came to fruition in later lives.


Buddhist nun Uppalavanna as Sri Lakshmi on the coins of the Licchavis in Nepal

Sirikalakanni Rebirth Story
The story related in the Sirikalakanni Jataka is that the Bodhisattva (the buddha-to-be) was once a merchant of Benares named Suciparivara ("pure household"). He kept an unused couch and bed for anyone who might come to his house whom he deemed purer than himself.

One day Kalakanni, the daughter of King Virupakka, and Siri, the daughter of King Dhatarattha, went to bathe in Anotatta. A quarrel arose about who should bathe first. As neither any of the Four Great Kings nor Sakka were willing to decide the matter, they referred the two goddesses to Suciparivara.

Lakshmi emerges from a water lotus like the Indian version of the "Birth of Venus."

Kalakanni first appeared before Suciparivara in blue garments and jewels. Being asked to state her qualities, she told him and was then dismissed. Next came Siri, diffusing a yellow radiance. The Bodhisattva, discerning her identity and virtues, welcomed her and offered her his unused couch. Thus, the dispute was settled. The bed used by Siri came to be known as the Sirisaya [possibly referring to a vimana, a platform, palanquin, or spacecraft used by devas, a "UFO" in modern terms], hence the origin of Sirisayana ("royal bed" or "state couch").

Uppalavana: a historical Lakshmi?

Amol N. Bankar (Sri Lakshmi) and Dharmachari Seven (Ven. Uppalavanna)

India art depicts a female deity (devi) -- generically associated with Lakshmi (the beautiful "goddess of prosperity"). There is reason to believe that the historical character of Lakshmi is based on legends of the Buddha's foremost female disciple, Uppalavanna. The popular deity is worshipped by Buddhists, Hindus, and Jains.

Her appearance on coins (as shown here) is of a female in the popular meditation pose of Buddhists and Jain ascetics atop a lotus. This imagery is widespread in Shramanic ("wandering ascetic") and Brahmanical traditions, which adopted many of the motifs and ambitions of this populist new wave of religious expression away from priests and temples to actually attained individuals. (This echoes what was to happen in Israel centuries later when the vibrant Shramana Jesus (just back from India) took on the staid established Jewish orthodoxy and caused a revolution that continues to influence the West.

Like Krishna, a historical figure elevated to mythic proportions, the move from her origins in history to being associated with Lakshmi are not accidental. It behooves institutions to adopt popular traits and integrate them with established figures for fear of being displaced by them.

Another example is the Indian god (deva-raja) Indra,* who like Zeus or Thor is imagined to hurl lightning bolts in the sky. It is well known that Indra is in fact an amalgamation of the pre-Vedic and Vedic gods. And Buddhists refer to Indra as and Śakra (Pali, Sakka), the "king of the devas" who is at war in the heavens with the Asuras. He therefore has come to be regarded as the "god of war" as if he were more than a deva ("godling") or for war.

The Uppalavana/Lakshmi figure is seen on coins of Saurashtra Janapada, local coins in Buddhist and formerly Buddhist part of the Indian empire: Kausambi, Ujjain, Mathura, Ayodhya, Kashmir, Sri Lanka , Nepal, and coins of Yaudheya, Kuninda , Arjunayana, Agodaka.

The popularity of this goddess transcended the religious beliefs of the issuers like Azilises and Mohd Ghauri.

Who was the Vedic Lakshmi?
Ananda Coomaraswamy believes that Aditi is analogous with Lakshmi. She is Great Mother (Mahi-Mata) the imperishable goddess. She is the mother (or sister) of Adityas (including Mitra and Varuna) and daughter (or mother) of Daksha. The honorific "Sri" (a noun and adjective) is used in Rig Veda and also in Avestan literature to denote "that which is beautiful." The word Lakshmi first appears in Rig Veda in the sense of an auspicious or pleasant quantity. Her origin is traced to fifteen verses known as the Hymn to Sri (Sri-sukta) found appended to the regular collection of hymns of the Fifth Book of the Rig Veda.

The Rig Vedic hymns of Sri Sukta associate her with the lotus. It describes her as Padma Sthite ("stands on lotus"), Padmavasa or Padmagriha (residing in a lotus). Hiranyavarnam (one who shines like gold reminiscent of Uppalavanna's skin tone), Adityavarnam/Pingala ("radiant as the sun"/"yellow in hue"), Hemamalini ("wearing a gold garland"), Chandram ("blossoming like the moon"), Suvarna ("whose luster is that of burnished gold"), Devajushtam ("worshipped by devas"). She is blazing with splendor, and is the embodiment of the fulfillment of all wishes. She is said to drive out all misfortune and poverty. She is unfailing and blesses with wealth and plenty, not only gold but also cattle, servants, horses, and men.

Indra/Sakka

*INDRA: in Hindu mythology, the "king of the gods." He is one of the main gods of the archaic Sanskrit collection of hymns, the Rigveda, and is the Indo-European cousin of the German Wotan, Norse Odin, Greek Zeus, and Roman Jupiter.

The Rig-Veda frequently refers to him as Śakra -- the mighty-one. In the Vedic period, the number of gods was assumed to be thirty-three and Indra was their lord. (The slightly later Brihad-aranyaka Upanishad enumerates the gods as the eight Vasus, the eleven Rudras, the twelve Adityas, Indra, and Prajapati). As lord of the Vasus, Indra was also referred to as Vāsava.

By the age of the Vedanta, Indra became the prototype for all lords and thus a king could be called Mānavendra (Indra or "lord of men") and Rama, the hero of the Ramayana, was referred to as Rāghavendra ("Indra of the clan of Raghu").

Hence the original Indra was also referred to as Devendra ("Indra of the Devas"). However, Sakra and Vasava were used exclusively for the original Indra. Though, modern texts usually adhere to the name Indra, the traditional Hindu texts (the Vedas, epics, and Puranas) use Indra, Sakra, and Vasava interchangeably and with the same frequency. "Of the Vedas I am the Sama Veda; of the demigods I am Indra, the king of heaven; of the senses I am the mind; and in living beings I am the living force [consciousness]" (Bhagavad Gita 10.22).