To explain if Love be born of Venus, or if he were only born
contemporaneously with his mother, we shall have to study something
about Venus. What is Venus? Is she the mother of Love, or only his
contemporary? As answer hereto we shall observe that there are two
Venuses.[123] The second (or Popular Venus) is daughter of Jupiter
and Dione, and she presides over earthly marriages. The first Venus,
the celestial one, daughter of Uranus (by Plato, in his Cratylus,
interpreted to mean "contemplation of things above"), has no mother,
and does not preside over marriages, for the reason that there are none
in heaven. The Celestial Venus, therefore, daughter of Kronos,[124]
that is, of Intelligence, is the divine Soul, which is born pure of
pure Intelligence, and which dwells above.[125] As her nature does not
admit of inclining earthward, she neither can nor will descend here
below. She is, therefore, a form of existence (or, an hypostasis),
separated from matter, not participating in its nature. This is the
significance of the allegory that she had no mother. Rather than a
guardian, therefore, she should be considered a deity, as she is pure
Being unmingled (with matter), and abiding within herself.