Love and Like: Upward Spiraling with Venus and Mercury

"Number one, like yourself. Number two, you have to eat healthy. And number three, you've got to squeeze your buns..."

Welcome to Quiet Light! In this exploration of Venus and Mercury, we’ll first take a brief and fun look at Richard Simmons (because I’m currently inspired by him), and then we’ll check out how these two planetary archetypes permeate your daily interactions with others. More importantly, we’ll see how choosing to like or dislike someone or something affects everyone around you. At the end of this writing, I’ll show an easy way for you to know how well you can hear the inner whispers of Mercury and Venus guiding you from within.

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I’m in the middle of doing research for my paper on the astrological chart and life experience of Richard Simmons. You know, the fitness “guru” from the 1970’s through the 2000’s. I don’t know how he popped into my head as my focus for this assignment, but so far I’m having a blast seeing the confluence of how he showed up in the world and what I see in his chart.

A lot of people made fun of Richard because of his overtly public display of eccentric mannerisms, seemingly endless energy, sparkly workout attire and his huge sappy heart. This all made him an easy target to become a laughing stock by mainstream comedians and the general public. He would play into it sometimes too. Richard had a really good nature—not perfect—but he seemed to understand how show business worked and rolled with the punches, even at his own expense. He’s been more reclusive for several years now, but that’s not for this discussion here.

Photo from Rolling Stone Magazine

As I’ve meandered along the internet for some of his interviews on talk shows and earlier workout videos, I’ve found myself truly appreciating this human being for what his main intention was: to be of service to overweight people and get them inspired to lose their weight so that they could lead healthier and more joyful lives.

At 5 foot 6 inches, Richard was at his heaviest weighing 268 pounds (122 kg). He moved to Beverly Hills to become an actor in his 20s. While there, he noticed that there were only gyms for people who were already in shape, so he started his own gym to help overweight folks like himself. There was certainly a demand to shed the excess pounds—and I believe, perhaps deeper down—a demand to be seen and loved.

Richard went on to write many books on eating healthily and created video workouts for anyone to try at home. Because he had suffered himself, seeing his ability to successfully overcome his obstacles with food and exercise gave other people hope and inspiration. He had been on a journey similar to their own.

As I’ve scrolled around, I’ve found many quotes from Richard. In particular, this one stood out to me: “Number one, like yourself. Number two, you have to eat healthy. And number three, you’ve got to squeeze your buns. That’s my formula.”¹

Like and Love: Planetary Style!

I like that Richard Simmons used the words “like yourself.” And that he made it number one. Because, after you do number one, aren’t two and three a little easier to accomplish?

This statement also caught my attention because I’m really used to hearing the words “love yourself” these days. Maybe it’s just the feeds I subscribe to or the people I surround myself with, but the emphasis is more on love. I don’t hear as much about liking oneself. Obviously both “like” and “love” are important.

I’m reminded of a line my mom used to say to us four kids when we were young and misbehaving: “I love you, but right now I don’t like you very much.” She’d say that when we were being especially horrible to each other, as siblings tend to do from time to time. I remember being surprised, then appalled, and thinking, What? My mom doesn’t like me right now? But I’m the best! Why doesn’t she like me? I’m glad she still loves me, but…

With that line getting repeated once in a while in my family, I had to get introspective at an early age. It really taught me something about distinguishing between “love” and “like.” Pairing those two words together and then opposing them in the same sentence was a true show-stopper for me as a kid. It created a solid safety net of still being loved and yet a teetering uncertainty of being momentarily disliked for my actions and attitude.

Venus is “Love,” Mercury is “Like”

Pondering astrological archetypes in our human makeup is one of my favorite past times. Upon reading Richard’s statement of “like yourself” I thought… that sounds like Venus because Venus is all about self-care. But then something else popped into my head: Wait… no, Venus is about love. Venus is about comfort and being soothed. Venus helps us get off of our butts to go to the gym because Venus a) loves form and beauty and looking good, and b) encourages us to make better decisions right now for a better tomorrow. Venus is love. The Venus archetype runs deeply in our heart chakra and fills us with love for ourselves and compassion for others.

Venus is the energy that can involuntarily leap out from within you so that you can still love someone even when you dislike them.

That’s how it hit me: “Liking” somebody is a preference. You may think liking is involuntary too, but hear me out for a second.

Richard Simmons on Whose Line is It Anyway. Photo from Youtube

Ultimately, you can like someone or something because you choose to like them, and it depends on how much effort you put towards the notion of liking them. You may not like the way your blue algae smoothie tastes with an extra shot of shilajit, but you choose to keep drinking it daily over time because you know it’s good for you (enter Venus making great decisions for you! Yesss!). Over time, your taste buds begin to adjust to it and after a month or so, you really like it. You can’t go through the day without it! And you feel like a million bucks. Wheee!

You may have a coworker who you strongly dislike. Guess what? They’re mirroring something in you that you dislike about yourself. You get to choose to start integrating that repressed part of you, change your attitude towards them, start treating them kindly (enter Venus again! yay!) and then see how your relationship and interactions with that person begin to evolve over time. You never know what you might learn about them later, such as a childhood trauma that they survived, that helps you have more compassion and understanding of who they are now.

My point is that liking is an intellectual thing that we do. And Mercury is the archetypal energy of intellect. It’s the smarty pants in all of us that goes around thinking things through, conceptualizing, finding witty things to say. Mercury is also our communicative abilities and how we manage our lives. Mercury is the friendship archetype. Venus can go any spectrum from agape (love of God) to brotherly love to eros (romantic love). Mercury is the friendship piece that works with Venus. For example, you can love your friends and you can be friends with your lover. Mercury is the jokester, the punster, the one who thinks things are funny and keeps humor in your back pocket to help smooth over something that could be really hard to say. (Venus also rolls in with its capacity for diplomacy). Mercury energy lets you see someone else’s point of view even if you disagree.

You may notice that I keep bringing Venus up as I talk about Mercury. They’re quite different from each other, and yet they go hand-in-hand as we walk on this Earth interacting with each other and dealing internally with ourselves.

Art by Meakoee

Both Venus and Mercury are personal planets. What do I mean by that? Think about how they’re positioned in our Solar System. We’ve got the Sun shining in all of its glory in the center. The Sun is figuratively, fundamentally your Soul; it’s your inner light, your guiding light for having vision, direction, command, commitment and the ability to shine outwardly in this world.

This Earth represents your physical body. It’s your Ascendant or Rising degree in your astrological chart. Spinning between your body and your soul like Whirling Dervish Dancers are Mercury and Venus!

Both are considered rajasic planets. Rajas is a Vedic term that basically means there’s a lot of doing, going, and making things better. Rajas is one of three gunas (energies of consciousness) and refers to “I” when we think about it here. “I’m the Doer” is the motto of Venus and Mercury. Some people who identify as being more “spiritual” may think, That can’t be good. Shouldn’t God be the Doer through me? Well, yes… AND… it’s a both/and equation. We all need each of the gunas. “I’m the Doer” isn’t bad or wrong. It’s simply a mode of motivation, and it can be very effective and necessary.

Open Your Heart …and Your Preferences!

So when Richard Simmons said, “Number one, like yourself” I found that to be a very direct sentence with a lot of punch. Liking yourself is a choice, and it’s a very powerful personal choice to make.

Just like Mercury and Venus are so intertwined in your archetypal makeup, and so close to each other in our planetary family, the concepts of “like” and “love” have to hold hands if we want to start spiraling upwards in who we are personally and with others.

The Foundation of Love

Love is a heart-based energy that conducts itself at its own pace. Love can be at first sight or developed over a long stretch of time. Both timeframes are possible; love revealing itself can sneak up on your waking mind when you least expect it.

Your heart is its own entity that has a subliminal line of communication to other people’s hearts. While the ego-driven part of the brain above the chest is walking around like it owns the place, maybe ignoring certain people, and thinks it knows what it’s doing, your heart is making contacts left and right, saying things like, “I love you. And you! And you! Oh, and you! …You love me too?? Ahhh I knew it!” Your heart is a secret agent for the Divine.**

**Please take note that this isn’t to imply romantic or lustful love. This is speaking more to divine love and friendship love. We must have boundaries and discernment: Mercurial things that give us a sense of appropriateness!

This Divine Love, whether you realize it or not, is foundational to everything. Everything. It’s penetrating and pulsing through all beings autonomically, like your heart beat going on and on without you having to stop and think about it. Pure Love is, therefore, foundational for Like.

The Leverage of Like

Like is a throat chakra energy. Think of Mercury representing communication, voicing your humor, delegating out responsibilities so that you can manage your projects or your schedule, etc. It communicates who you really are to those around you. It sits between your heart doing its undercover connectivity work and your prefrontal cortex making decisions for your next behavior.

Your Mercury archetype builds on the ongoing divine love energy within you and then, like the next step, brings in your preferences.

This is the blast-off point for spiraling upward!

Bring this Mercurial energy inward… and choose to like yourself, right here and right now. As you are. How empowering is that? You may think you don’t even love yourself. I’ve fallen into that false trap, but quieting into meditation again and again has shown me that love is permeating everything and everybody constantly without end. Even the “bad guys” in your life or on the news... We get to love them too, even if we don’t like them in the moment.

Liking—upgrading your preferences even if it takes time—is an empowered upward spiral in an actual, on-the-ground way to positively change the world. It starts with liking yourself. The love is there…I know it. All Life knows it. Prefer who you are in this moment as you are, and watch the subsequent events of your life unfold with magic. Watch the people who you’ve disliked for eons start to become less disagreeable.

Your Astrological “Default Settings” for Love and Like

You know yourself better than anybody. However, sometimes we can have blindspots about ourselves because we’re just too close to ourselves and not objective to what’s going on.

Have you had issues being in touch with how easily you can love or like yourself within? Or outwardly with others? How truthful are you with expressing who you really are? How content do you feel even when life has ups and downs?

In Vedic Astrology, we have a very basic way to look at how much you can hear that inner archetype of Venus and Mercury speaking to you.

If you don’t know your astrological chart, here’s a free way to find it using Tropical calculations. (I’m not a traditional Vedic Astrology student utilizing Sidereal at this time, so I recommend Tropical calculations.)

Your Natal Mercury Placement

Notice where Mercury is in your chart. The closer Mercury is to your Ascendant or Rising Sign, the more you may be able to hear that archetypal energy call up to you from the depths of your inside saying, “I’m giving this person the benefit of the doubt. I don’t know what they’ve been through.” or “I can see their point even though I don’t necessarily agree.” or “Some humor right now could be appropriate.” or “I like who I am today.” or “I’m liking how this situation is turning out even though the outcome is still unknown.”

Your Natal Venus Placement

See where Venus is in your chart. Venus can most strongly be heard in your 4th house. If it’s closer to that area, more than likely you’ll naturally soothe, comfort and care for other people. You can easily be diplomatic and nurturing with your speech towards others. You may realize that self-love comes fairly quickly too when you call it in.

If Mercury and Venus Seem “Quiet” to You…

If for some reason, Mercury and/or Venus are not near these areas, never fear! Just because you’re born with one blueprint doesn’t mean that you can’t be malleable and shift your life in a new direction.

I like to think of each person as a guitar. In this metaphor, you’ll always be a guitar, but do you still have your strings and play “music?” Some of you are guitars, but you (metaphorically) have your strings removed and fill up the guitar body with soil and plant flowers. You’re still a guitar—you’re still the general manifestation of your life—but it’s what you do with your life that expresses your free will. Does that make sense?

Turning Up the Volume on Mercury

So anyway, if Mercury is near the opposite point of your chart from the 1st house (maybe it’s near your 7th house), that’s not a bad thing. You may have some really other amazing things going on with that Mercurial energy of yours. Remember that astrology is complex stuff. Nothing is ever black & white… just like you.

Generally, however, to improve being able to hear your Mercury archetype, try these suggestions:

• lighten up whenever you make a mistake

• start getting in touch with what you want and speak it honestly and sincerely to others (without making it sound like a joke)

• make a play-date with yourself and a friend for 30 minutes

• do something that brings a smile to your face

• You can also watch this link below…and maybe even do some of the moves!

Richard Simmons’ Blast Off! 20 Minute Workout

Upping the Volume on Venus

If Venus in your chart is closer to your 10th house (M.C.), which is the furthest point from your 4th house, still it’s not wrong. There are so many amazing things that are probably going on with your Venus! To better hear that energy within you, however, do something nice for yourself once in a while. Because Venus helps you make better decisions for the future, it could be as simple as making sure you’ve done the dishes before you leave for the day. When you come home, your kitchen looks nicer than you remembered leaving it. Or buy yourself some flowers to put in your work space. Perhaps do this for someone else in your life who you know would appreciate the gesture.

Sending You So Much Love and Like

Dear reader, thank you so much for taking the time to read this piece on loving and liking. If you’re new to astrology, I hope this article helped give you more clarity around Mercury and Venus. If you’re a seasoned astrologer, thanks for coming along for the ride! Perhaps there were some good reminders in here for you.

I’ll end with another quote from Richard Simmons:

“Count your blessings. You are one of a kind. There’s no one in the world like you. You are amazing.”

With that in mind, I send you love! I send you like! (Haha, ‘like’ sounds funny.)

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Please note that I’ll be taking next week off from posting here. I have a ‘date’ with writing the aforementioned astrological paper on Richard Simmons and really need to focus on finishing it. I’ll be back the following week with more planetary archetypal insights, perhaps Mars or Jupiter will want some of the spotlight!

Be well! Blessings!

1. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0799873/bio/