[Rec] VENUS – Challenging the Zeitgeist with A.M. Penn

VENUS – Challenging the Zeitgeist
Rec Oct 2025
Teacher: A.M. Penn
Prerequisites: None

Although considered a benefic planet in astrology, classical characterizations of Venus contain not only her virtuous aspects, but her vices as well, including jealousy, temptation, hunger for power, and painful sacrificial demands. Venus is a love goddess – but she is love with conditions – and her depictions in literature, art, and culture show her in varied and nuanced ways. This is not just another class on Venus in astrology, this is a class about love goddesses and surrounding themes in conversation with topics such as the soul, the erotic, empowerment, and disempowerment.

22 Teachings faculty astrologer A.M. Penn is curating a new series of astro-adjacent lectures selecting examples from classical to contemporary culture, and in this first class, we will focus on Venusian energy in myth, music, and more. Together we will travel from Greco-Roman antiquity to the mid-century poetry of Maya Deren, to the academic theories of Audre Lorde, to the courtroom trials in today’s headlines.

Recommended Explorations Prior to Class:

• Watch: Grant Morrison on Chaos Magic, the occult & Sigil creation.
• Read: Cupid & Psyche from The Golden Ass/Metamorphoses (Book 4.28 – Book 6.24 or pg. 59-88)
• Listen: Audre Lorde: Uses of the Erotic and/or READ
• Watch: Beyonce: Lemonade
• Read Divine horsemen, the living gods of Haiti (Erzulie – Goddess: The Tragic Mistress pg. 137-145)

A.M. Penn views oracular interpretation as an artform – each astrologer and tarot reader bringing their own unique frame of reference, lived-experience, and point of view. This is a class for open-minded evolutionary artists who are ready and willing to expand their symbol set in potentially new and novel ways – acknowledging that artist create art, but it is equally as true that art creates artists.

Please Note:

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