While hunting through the stacks to decide on a book to feature for this blog, Erin Sullivan’s Venus and Jupiter: Bridging the Ideal and the Real truly jumped off the shelf. I was a bit startled by such obvious synchronicity — both benefics stationed this week — and their respective planetary significations are infusing the airways and landscapes.
But, I also remembered what a vibrant, in-love-with-learning presenter Erin Sullivan is; she has Venus and Jupiter conjunct in Sagittarius in the 1st house. (No breach of confidence here, her birth data is on AstroDatabank.) I lived near London in the 1990s and attended the live webinar which comprises the first part of the book.
Published by Wessex in 2021, this is a new edition. Originally published in 1998, it contains transcriptions of two seminars Erin Sullivan offered through the Centre for Psychological Astrology (CPA): Venus Aphrodite: Dual Goddess and The Justice of Zeus and the Astrological Jupiter.
Erin Sullivan was articulate about cultural and gender issues and bias in Greek and Roman culture before many, but nothing interferes with her deep knowledge and enthusiasm for multiple layers and versions of the myths connected to Venus and Jupiter. Her knowledge is wide and her delivery is beguiling. After many years as a consulting astrologer and established author, in midlife Erin began a serious study of the philosophical underpinnings of the Western worldview. She writes: “I became immersed in the experience of the ancient mind, forming an intimate relationship with it.”
The book is full of countless wonderful discourses — love and creation, the delicacy of the creative impulse, sacred and profane love, the longing to heal, the tyrannical, the Dionysian, the travelers and journeyers to mention just a few.
These are live seminars and with Erin’s fluid imagination, the topics are broad. Along with extensive exploration of mythology and articulation of core themes, Venus and Jupiter’s natal aspects to the other planets are covered. There are moving contributions from the live audience as well, displaying Erin’s enormous astrological skill.
Her intimacy with ancient philosophy brings a unique quality to Erin Sullivan’s astrological view, beautifully recorded in Venus and Jupiter: Bridging the Ideal and the Real.
You may wish to treat yourself to a copy from a great astrologer at the top of her game. Available from the usual sources.
4 Comments
Thank you so much for your wonderful review. I was deeply touched by what you said, and how. Yes it has been a long long work of mine! And I love it . . . astrology is so inclusive!
Dear Erin,
I am so glad you found the review! I will send it to Margaret (assuming we are all drowning in bits of data & she may not have seen it).
Lots of Love to you,
Mary
The title alone sent me searching to see if Venus & Jupiter made an aspect in my chart via a minor aspect. Unbeknownst to me, I found a Novile 40 degree contact. The next quest was to determine what influences one might expect. Thank for the inspiration.
Hi Kimberly!
Thank you for commenting, I’m glad you found a new way into your horoscope..
Best,
Mary