Subliminal Spending | Filling The Void With Venus & The Moon

Lately I’ve been thinking about the series ‘Mad Men’, a period drama based on the fictional advertising firm Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce in 1960’s Manhattan.

The main character is Copywriter and Creative Director, Don Draper (played by Jon Hamm). Intensely astute, Draper is able to tap-in to the core of the human condition to conjure emotive advertising campaigns. If you haven’t seen it, definitely check it out.

I’ve been ruminating over a number of quotes from the show, but this one in particular prompted me to explore why we value how something makes us feel above any kind of rationale:

Thought provoking isn’t it? It prompted me to think about the nature of the Moon and Venus in marketing and advertising and how both planets relate to consumerism.

When I really trust a brand, when I find a product I love, what is it about that product that appeals to me? And what is the driving force behind the impulse to spend money? 

Is it the solution it provides? Or having an object which defines who I am, or who I want to be? Do these things offer me the illusion of control in the chaos of life?

But It’ll Complete Me…

If you’ve ever uttered words similar to the following: “If only I could have xyz, I’ll want for nothing more; It’ll complete me” then you’re probably well aware that this statement is a self-bargaining statement which often precedes parting with a large sum of money (speaking from experience).

But the search for a solution or sense of completion, is to pacify ones emotional state. Firstly, this very revealing statement describes a void which is demands to be filled. But filled with what exactly? You can’t put an object into a sense of lack! To fill an emotional void with stuff is impossible!

Feeling safe and secure is a Lunar quality, and problem solving is a process caused by a stressor resulting in a lack of ease. Will we ever reach the stress-free utopia we crave? Likely not. As the saying implies: solutions bring new problems.

So is the burning desire to purchase something more to do with the way we feel, than the product itself?

Well, yes, actually…

What we value, what we want to give my money to, the product we want to buy, is essentially something that provides us with a sense of fulfilment, completion, satisfaction, joy and happiness. Again, words. But what does it mean to be fulfilled? And what is completion?

Feeling is Believing

Carefree, content, unthreatened, secure, safe… all incredibly regressive and womb-like language which conjures that nostalgic comfort a child gets when their mum scoops them up, cuddles them and feeds them with food/love/attention. What happens with all the fear, stress, and uncertainty? It’s gone. Mother giveth (nourishment), and mother taketh (anxiety) away.

Personally over the years I’ve learned that objects don’t actually provide me with the sense of completion I search for – I learned a long time ago that my annual pilgrimage for the winter coat to complete me will always be futile! I might be satisfied for a month or so, but my tastes inevitably change. Regardless, the annual pilgrimage continues…

Don’t get me wrong – I’m not a shopaholic. In fact, I don’t have much ‘stuff’. Since Pluto’s foray to my Sun I’ve scaled back significantly; my watery and sentimental Lunar placement in Scorpio retained a lot of clutter prior to being ‘Plutoed’!

➡️ Read My Journey into Astrology

Yes, trinkets, ornaments and objects look pretty. But why are we filling our local space with this stuff? From the second house perspective, these objects act as an ego-extension; items that make a statement about who we believe we are. In a sense, they symbolise the value we place outside ourselves when in fact the true value can’t be satisfied with material objects. It’s something intangible which lies within – our relationship with how much we like ourselves.

Venus and the Moon

So what prompts us to part with our hard earned cash, and how do advertising and marketing executives manipulate us to consume their products?

The answer can be found in our Venus and the Moon placements in the natal chart. These placements describe our relationship between financial and emotional security, and what we’re prepared to exchange for objects that give us the warm and fuzzies. 

Remember: time is our most precious commodity (says the Capricorn). There is no guarantee, no refunds and no clear end date. What we exchange our time for – our price tag; our worth; our hourly wage – is very valuable indeed. Money is the main thing we exchange for our time and is how we afford the things that make us feel good. Be it that coat, that flashy car, those Louboutins…

However, it’s highly unlikely ‘stuff’ will ever make us feel complete. Anyone who has made a lot of it will tell you money is not the answer.

“I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that it’s not the answer.”

Jim Carrey

Essentially, completion is a feeling. Perhaps more than that, it is a longing. Something that all humans experience. A state of stillness and calm among the chaos. Or perhaps surrendering to the chaos. What we long for is something we seldom achieve, but works as a subconscious driving force throughout life. 

There’s No Place Like Home

We feel our longing in the same way we feel everything: through our Lunar placement. The Moon is our emotional state, our habits, our regressive nature, our innermost self. It is our ability to feel. It indicates what makes us feel safe and what nourishes us physically, emotionally and spiritually.

Venus represents what we value, how we experience pleasure, our particular artistry, our powers of attraction, our feminine wiles, our attitude toward companionship.

Could Venus be where we look for completion outside the self? Is Venus our point of projection where we find feelings of worth, happiness, pleasure, completion, love and fulfilment onto objects and people?

Transitional Objects & Psychological Projection

It’s widely acknowledged that the Descendant/seventh house cusp (being the relationship/not-self area of the natal chart) represents areas where we project the qualities or traits that we don’t want to acknowledge or recognise as part of ourselves.

The second house is known as the area of worth, wealth and possessions, but perhaps the principle of worth in this sense describes more accurately the areas of our life where we subconsciously transfer emotions and ideas onto objects that bring us comfort, also known as transitional objects in modern psychology.

Whether Venus rules these areas of the chart is of no consequence here, these houses are Venusian in their nature and ultimately describe the realisation of self through relationships and the development of personal values.

Ouroboric Longing

Our Lunar longing. That physical and emotional hunger we constantly attempt to satisfy. That nostalgic and carefree existence that feels more distant as each day passes. That cyclic maternal longing for creation which triggers women to literally embody their Lunar nature though becoming a mother. The Ouroboros.

Is the externalisation of worth – the searching for someone or something – to dull the persistent ache of longing?

Are our Moon and Venus placements the true areas of life where we experience insecurity and lack the most as we long for comfort, security and satisfaction?

Perhaps they are.

Market Manipulation

Advertising and Marketing experts have developed strategies targeting our insecurities and subconscious fears using emotional manipulation since the dawn of the industrial revolution. With time they’ve turned this money-making technique into a fine art.

Tapping into fear is Saturnian. And those big, scary corporations know all too well how to do that. As do the Jupitarian spin-doctors, journalists and media outlets who fill us with doubts and fears about the future.

The route in which we access that lack is through our feelings and worth. Perhaps someone with a prominent Saturn placement will have a strong sense of grounding and those with hard aspects from Saturn to the Moon and Venus will resonate more with my musings (I speak as a Venus–Saturn native, myself).

Don’t Worry – Be Happy

Next time you’re about to click ‘buy now’ it’s worth asking: what does this item fulfil in my life, physically, emotionally, and spiritually? And where is my impulse to buy really coming from?

Ultimately, it all comes down to one thing which Don Draper sums up so well in yet another thought-provoking statement: