Venus, goddess of love and beauty, ruler of artistic refinement, social skills and all things sweet and nice, has a darker under-side when lust, greed, laziness and insincerity take precedence.
Mythology has a variety of associations relating the Roman Venus and her Greek counterpart Aphrodite to pleasure, passion, procreation, fertility, prosperity, and victory. Hesiod writes that Aphrodite arose from the sea out of the foam produced by Uranus’s genitals, which his son Cronus had severed and thrown into the sea. In one tale Aphrodite was married to Hephaestus (Vulkan), the god of fire, blacksmiths and metalworking. He worked tirelessly while she played, partied and was frequently unfaithful.
Cupid is supposed to be the son of Venus and Mars, the god of war.
Venereal diseases from the Middle English “relating to sexual intercourse” or “sexual love.”
Though oddly the first known temple to Venus was supposedly funded by fines imposed on Roman women for sexual misdemeanours.
Aphrodite’s major symbols include seashells, myrtles, roses, doves, sparrows, and swans. The cult of Aphrodite was derived from the Phoenician goddess Astarte and the Semitic goddess Ishtar, whose cult was based on the Sumerian cult of Inanna. Aphrodite was worshipped as a warrior goddess and in some places known as the patron goddess of prostitutes.
In astrology not surprisingly Venus figures largely in charts from the arena of fashion (often with Jupiter in aspect = surface appearances matter) and design, as well as in public relations for the Venusian skill of accentuating the positive, putting sparkle on the surface (lipstick on a pig) and airbrushing out of sight unpleasantness and difficulties.
Courtesans and the sexually promiscuous also figure largely with Venus in hard aspect to chilly Saturn (which sounds counter-intuitive but is a pattern); passionate and manipulative Pluto; revved-up Mars; and rebellious Uranus.
Some like Pamela Harriman, 20 March 1920, whose romantic involvements were legendary had her Venus conjunct Uranus in Pisces in a Water Grand trine to Mars in Scorpio and Pluto and opposition Saturn.
Lady Jane Digby, 3 April 1807, equally renowned for her scandalous love life had her Venus in Taurus opposition Saturn and Uranus, trine Mars, inconjunct Neptune and square Jupiter.
The Duke of Windsor had his Venus in Taurus conjunct the destructive Fixed star Algol as did Princess Diana.
John Travolta and Roger Moore whose early marriages were with older wives both had Moon Venus aspects which astrologer Richard Idemon associated with a sexualized mother relationship. Travolta Moon Pisces opposition Moon square Mars. Roger Moore had a Moon Gemini opposition Saturn square Venus. [Oddly enough Emanuel Macron does not.]
While Venus conjunct Mars can have its positive side is also remarkably frequent amongst those with a less than restrained approach to sex/romance – Jeffrey Epstein, Prince Andrew, Bill Clinton, Ghislaine Maxwell. In addition to ‘passionate enthusiasm’ Ebertin says it can have – ‘a strongly emotional and sexual life with disharmonious tendencies’; ‘in some cases inclination to polygamy.’
Reynhard Sinaga, named as the world’s worst serial rapist, has an exact Venus Mars conjunction in Pisces square Neptune and inconjunct Pluto. But that is an extreme version.
An unaspected Venus is self-contained, less sociable, can be single-minded and wobbles between not connecting emotionally and being intense, being undemonstrative yet reacting strongly when personally challenged.
The main drawback to Venus apart from its rampant sexuality is its need to put an outer sheen on events. So desperate to maintain a harmonious atmosphere and sweep unpleasantness out of sight that it denies reality and comes across as insincere or hypocritical.
If ever there was a cautionary tale of a Venus twisted by life events and dysfunctional mothering it is Brooke Shields. She started modelling at 11 months old. Her first big film role, aged 11, was as a girl raised into sex work in Louis Malle’s Pretty Baby. A cover story from a 1977 issue of New York magazine was headlined, “Meet Teri and Brooke Shields: Brooke is 12. She poses nude. Teri is her mother (an alcoholic). She thinks it’s swell.” At 14, she starred in Blue Lagoon, playing a teenager coming of age on a deserted island. She said the director wanted “to sell my sexual awakening”. Amazingly she has turned out married with children and seemingly together.
Born 31 May 1965 1.45pm Manhattan, NY, she has a Moon Venus conjunction in Gemini conjunct her Midheaven (mother who flaunts her child’s sexuality to promote her career) in a tumultuous, cold-hearted square to Saturn opposition a ruthless Mars Pluto (Uranus in Virgo).
“Venus conjunct Mars can have its positive side is also remarkably frequent amongst those with a less than restrained approach to sex/romance”
My brother’s chart has a stellium including both Mars and Venus in conjunction, so there is something there for both your most recent topics.
I had jokingly told him that he would have a very lively sex life when he was getting married (Mars Venus conjunction and his wife has Scorpio Ascendant with Mars (extreme masculinity in a female chart) almost exactly bang on the Descendant).
I have a question about relocated charts and stelliums. My brother has his stellium of five planets in the 11th House in his natal chart. Unsurprisingly, he had a large friends circle. Having relocated himself, the stellium is now across his 2nd and 3rd houses.
Which chart do I read for which aspect of his? Do I read his having a stellium in the relocated chart as meaning that he will be wealthy (2nd) and communicative (3rd)? Does that mean that the stellium in the original 11th House does not count any more?
Another quick question. How do I read Venus in a yod, either at its focus or at it’s base? I saw somebody who’s Venus is sextile Pluto (so probably they will be empowered by their sexuality?) at the base of a yod with the Moon.
I also saw somebody, who is out, and their chart had Venus almost exactly square their Uranus. Quite apart from the word play (though to be honest, Mars being conjunct Uranus would be funnier word play), would that Venus configuration suggest homosexuality?
I have Venus in Leo conjunct my ascendant and trine my MC. It’s also opposite both my moon in Capricorn and my Saturn in Aquarius and square Neptune.
I come across as soft and charming but with defensive walls. Those walls do mean I keep my distance a bit – but once I know I can trust someone, I will bridge that gap. Those walls scare off the bad ones – they go and find someone more pliable. I am liked by most people though I am sure I can come across as insincere at times. I don’t mean to be. I can see both sides to arguments and like to find common ground with people. I do like to be liked.
I have had a series of long term relationships but always avoided marriage. I have never been convinced that marriage would work for me. I am not promiscuous though men do tend to like me and I like them. They have to get through those defensive walls first though!
B Shields has an interesting chart. Moon/Gemini square w/ Saturn, Pluto/Mars.Wow, she survived all of that trauma/turmoil and came out on the other side of it. Her Gemini Sun square Pluto/Mars, could point to her being a survivor, fighter and w/ Pluto/Mars 12th, amazing resoures of inner strength and regeneration.
I suppose you could also argue that without Venus there is no Saturnian reality or Martian progress. Because unless you can reach an agreement, negotiate, make things pleasant for others – you are stuck. You are locked in. Only with Venus can you move forward and that is a reality some don’t always like, because there is a price to pay and concessions to make. It might even feel insincere, but in the long run it makes things happen.
Venus is not at odds with reality but is a vital part of it. Harmony, beauty, and agreement are not “extras” – they are the foundation upon which all meaningful progress is built. Saturn and Mars may be the forces that construct or conquer, but without Venus, there is no shared vision, no cooperation, and no reason to move forward at all.
I must admit to a slight prejudice about Venus since I react badly to ‘putting a good face on things’ and dishonest ‘niceness’. You’re right about Venus having a harmonizing social function which is necessary. Too much turns into marshmallow schmaltz which is poured over realities that some prefer not to see.
So yesterday I came across a reading on Instagram which said that Venus and moon conjunction means marriage broken by mothers interference.
In paternal side of my family , many of us have such conjunction. I was warned to not make mistake of choosing wrong partner as this gives me choice.
Seems where men are concerned , it can be moon mother interfering Venus wife in marriage and as they say 2 swords can’t live in same holder…so..
My Venus is too much aspectrd yet I relate to the one alone.
Apart from that at times Venus aspectrd might show its effects after many years in life ..maybe due to other planets malefic etc effects gets over then
And for men…Venus and moon connection gives 2 wives..even a divorce
No…it’s not that..saturn rules money as in assets so in negotiations it’s more about need and security and not pleasantness hence business world which is ruled by Saturn is called cut throat .no niceties behind closed doors…all smiles r only in public
Mars is same…it has soda kind energy .fizzles out so if alone then it gets defeated by Saturn
I have Venus in the first in its fall in Virgo which thankfully just misses a conjunction with Pluto, absolutely hate confrontation and will tend to walk away and withdraw rather than continue any disharmony. Plus, with my moon in Scorpio, if I do have an argument, it takes me about 3 and a half years to calm down.
Thanks for this, I find Venus in charts fascinating, especially that it appears to have been let ‘off the hook’ by Astrologers compared to Mars or Pluto echoing it’s surface detail/keeping everything shiny reputation!
I do have to counter one point though Marjorie, I accept that there is a known pattern of promiscuity or prostitution with Venus/Saturn but I think with this aspect ( and Venus in general) the sign, house is paramount. This interpretation just does not work with all signs in my experience; Aquarius stood out to me. I think that the ability to do crafting arts work and mentorship with an older person that may or may not develop into something else can come up instead, after all it’s a fairly common aspect, they can’t all be courtesans lol
Concerning promiscuity, it’s Venus in Gemini, Mars/Venus conjunct and Libra or Scorpio stelliums I steer clear of.
Agree ..in architecture students Venus and Saturn r there…i have same in Leo . Maybe in Pisces or Gemini kind indecisive air and water signs that effect might be there
Regarding the cautionary tale of Brooke Shields’s Venus being twisted by life and dysfunctional mothering:
Would it not be equally true -or even more so – that a Dysfunctional Father* twisted around her Venus (+ moon) ? Saturn & Mars oppose each other as they sq her Venus.
Do male/malefic planets also function on a Patriarchy level? Her 1970’s patriarchy’s sick side “loved” promoting her as a sexy little girl.
I ask this bc Teri Shields is highlighted so much in Brooke’s story, whereas Frank Shield’s remains largely uncriticized – in media coverage, and even more so in Brooke’s own writing and interviews.
*Moon Venus conj in Gemini conj Midheaven (mother flaunts child’s sexuality to promote career) squaring cold hearted Saturn opposite ruthless Mars Pluto.
The name ‘Venus’ meaning ‘love’ or ‘charm’ comes from the Indo European ‘wenos’ meaning ‘desire’. There’s a possibility that the word ‘venerate’ also stems from the word and also ‘venom’, the Latin ‘venenum’ – ‘poison,’ ‘drug’, ‘medical potion,’ also ‘charm,’ ‘seduction’. This brings to mind the idea of ‘poisoned arrows’
The ‘Housebook of Wolfegg Castle’, created in 1480 depicts each planet with its ‘children’ and shows them noble and peasant alike playing music, dancing, nude bathing, courting, conversing and having sex, while a crowned Venus rides across the sky with her signs, Libra and Taurus. A poem accompanies each illustration and this for Venus mentions Venus’s exaltation and fall in the signs Pisces and Virgo – translated from the German:
I am Venus, fifth planet above
the world, and am the light of love.
I’m moist and cold and in my hour
men feel my great and awesome power.
Two houses are mine, in which I fare:
the Bull and Scales. And when I’m there
I live in joy and jollity,
and Mars can never frighten me.
In the cold wet Fishes I’m glad to rise:
in the Virgin’s sign my power dies.
In just one year and then one day
through all the signs I gently play.
The ancients placed great emphasis on whether Venus was a Morning or Evening star as that very much changed its influence on humanity. The planet rotates 180 degrees in the period from the Inferior to the Superior conjunctions so that it quite literally shows two faces to earth when it shifts from one mode to another.
Just to add the other oddity of Venus is that it moves anti-clockwise round the Sun but rotates clockwise. All the other planets move anti-clockwise and rotate anti-clockwise.
Is that why a day on Venus is longer than a year? Another oddity!
Yes, but only if you were standing on the surface. Venus has a super-rotation meaning the atmosphere is rotating 60 times faster than the surface. If you were looking down at Venus from space where only the atmosphere is visible, it would seem to take about 4 earth days to rotate. But on the surface things are much as lower.
I suppose this ground/atmosphere decoupling, just like the morning and evening star, gives the planet a conceptual split that perhaps suits a planet that rules two signs.
From what I’ve briefly read, the planet is a boiling, volcanic mess below that atmosphere! This wasn’t discovered until the NASA probes reached it in the 60s/70s. So again, in line with Marjorie’s comments about the astrology, you have that duality of the superficial beauty from a distance and the reality when you get close up.
So contrarian AND slow rotating? Not that it rules Libra and Taurus or anything 🙂
With the Sun rising in the west I suppose your 7th house would be your ascendant on Venus. And the Sun would probably change sign faster than the ascendant?
Uranus technically also has a retrograde orbit, but since it’s rolling on its side it’s not quite the same. It also spins a lot faster, completing a rotation in 17 hours.
Obviously these two oddballs would be conjunct in my chart..
^^This should be under Hugh’s comment, I forgot about the formatting
In Greek mythology, the morning star was known as Phosphorus (Latin: Lucifer) and the evening star, Hesperus.
I think this is lucifer in its “light-bringer” meaning, rather than any devilish connotations? Like the chemical element used in matches
Poor old Lucifer, bringer of light is indeed the unfortunate victim of a smear campaign which begins in the Old Testament and continues in Christian mythology, until Lucifer becomes the Devil. But the idea of a heavenly being rising to heaven, only to be then cast down to the underworld is rooted in the motions of Venus and goes back to ancient Babylon.
What about unaspected Venus?
These are the thoughts of Noel Tyl on unaspected planets:
“Being unaspected can make the planet a more powerful force, as it screams for attention among all of the other planetary aspects. The individual might not realize its expression in their behavior, but others recognize it unmistakably. Unaspected planets can function as strong talents. They can also express as excessive, over-compensatory habits.
Unaspected Venus
Venus is seldom unaspected in a chart since it’s never very far from the Sun and Mercury. With an unaspected Venus in the natal chart, there can be alternating outbursts of emotions and heightened material and sensual desires. Venus’ charm and kindness are less pronounced than with a well-aspected Venus.”