Venus in Astrology
Venus is the planet of beauty, love, desire, art, virtue, and pleasure. She brings joy, rapture, harmony or themes surrounding these experiences. Venus speaks to lust, sexuality, relationships, social experiences, diplomacy, companionships, reciprocity, and supportive emotional bonds. She works with aesthetics whether that be how you decorate your home or how you decorate yourself, and your style and preferences in beauty and cleanliness. She likes sweet things and enjoyment of the senses, luxury, comforts, elegance, the finer things in life. Venus shows us how one gives and receives love and affection, and the nature of our social experiences, artistic impulses, and values. Venus is the artisan, the diplomat, our likes and dislikes. She is a benefic planet considered to bring relaxation and comfort. Venus can represent women in your life or feminine influences. In a birth chart, Venus may speak to what one finds or experiences as beautiful, and in a higher, more spiritual way, she could speak to what is absolutely beautiful or abstract. She attracts, allures, and seduces. She entertains, nurtures and cares, creates, eroticizes, laughs, rejoices, enjoys, socializes, and unites. In her unhealthier expressions, she may also lust, greed, manipulate, corrupt, compete for attention, cheat, prostitute, retaliate, and emotionally betray.
Venus speaks to a spectrum from laughing, joyful, decorating, but also vain, conceited, jealous, or greedy. Venus can signify marriage and/or sexual experiences. She can comment on our physical experiences of beauty and pleasure, our devotion and love for other people, and devotion or love for God or a higher, more spiritual form of love. Devotion is a Venusian word, but what one may be devoted to varies depending on Venus’s placement and her relationship with other planets. Venus can show us whether one is tasteful or tasteless, religious or not religious, good mannered or ill mannered, overly attached to physical pleasures or balanced with them. Venus could be entangled in love affairs or quite chaste, she could spend money carelessly or responsibly, she could be hardworking or lazy.
Venus ruled professions may include artists, musicians, actors, performers, creators, beauticians, poets, and diplomats. Socially, Venus governs the unwritten rules that a society lives by, the norms that are accepted and the moments when one goes against those norms and thus draws potentially negative attention by society as a result. Questions Venus asks are: what do I love? How do I feel appreciated? What brings me joy or pleasure? What calms me? What fulfills me? What do I need in a partner? What do I find beautiful? How do I decorate myself or my home? What is my style? What do I enjoy? What do I desire? What should I desire?
Venus is a sensitive, vulnerable, and emotional planet. She is receptive, attractive, and sometimes self-indulgent. Venus’s expression of all of these qualities is affected by its placement by sign and house and its aspects to other planets. When Venus is harshly aspected, for example, one may struggle to experience self love and/or love from others.
Venus’s significations seem to stand across from Mars, and they seem to have a connected relationship as their opposing tendencies need each other. Venus seduces, allures and creates peace, embodies grace and charm, and Mars takes the action towards what is alluring or conflicting and brings single mindedness or tension. Most people would say we need a balance of Venusian and Martian qualities, so her significations could at times be in relation to Mars’ influences as well, where perhaps, in a way, they respond to each other, as a lover/warrior relationship may play out.
On the human body, Venus rules the throat, face, neck, lips, nose, and the front part of the body. We notice this includes parts of the body that have been commonly adorned for a long time in human history. Vettius Valens also says Venus rules the lungs, and astrologer Becca Tarnas suggests this relates to the Venusian experiences of love and spiritual devotion where the breath is notably at play, ie, the breath during love making, in finding a lover “breathtaking”, and the breathwork often accompanied with spiritual practices.
Venus acts from the heart, from the relationship itself, rather than from ideas and intellect. Venus attracts, magnetizes, desires and manifests what is desired. Venus also influences our receptivity to love and the way we express affection. It symbolizes our capacity and ability to form harmonious relationships and partnerships. Venus holds sway over our values, self-esteem, self-worth, sensuality, intimacy, social skills, emotional fulfillment, our ability to maintain equilibrium in various aspects of life. Venus influences how we present ourselves to the world and the feminine aspects of all of us. Venus can also shape our relationship to the natural world and our ability and desire to be creative.
Venus has been known throughout history as the brightest planet and thus the planet of beauty signifying those people and things we find most beautiful and who seem to shine the brightest in our sight. Being the brightest planet could have played a role in its benefic interpretation. The malefics, Mars and Saturn, appear to the naked eye as red and brown and a bit darker than Venus.
Venus is one of the inner, personal planets that moves faster across our sky, which means her movements may have a greater impact on your day to day life. The outer planets may affect greater periods of time and generational traits more so than individual traits. She is the closest planetary neighbor to Earth and is found between us and the Sun. Venus’s orbital period is just shy of 225 days and she is always located near the Sun with a maximum distance of 48 degrees away. From our perspective, she spends 4-5 weeks in each sign, always either in the same sign as the Sun or an adjacent sign, occasionally two signs away. She rotates far slower than Earth and her rotation is backwards to ours. A day on Venus is 243 Earth days!
Venus’s synodic cycle is 584 days. Synodic cycle refers to the time between two conjunctions of two celestial bodies in the sky, more specifically the amount of time between two inferior conjunctions of Venus with the Sun. A full Venus synodic cycle would be 9 months as a morning star, 50 days invisible in superior conjunction, then 9 months as an evening star, followed by 8 days in the inferior conjunction. Venus appears as an evening star in the west following the sunset. As she gets closer to the Sun, we lose sight of her as she is caught “in the beams” of the Sun, invisible to us. As she starts to move ahead of the Sun, she is visible again in the east rising before sunrise as a morning star. Over the course of ten of these meetings with the Sun, Venus shapes out a pentagon shape. The pentagon is traced in 5 synodic periods, just about 8 years, and Venus returns to the same part of the zodiac after these ten conjunctions, over the course of these 8 years. Following this cycle provides a wealth of Venusian patterns in one individual’s course of life or in the lives and times of a society.
Venus’s retrograde cycle is a much discussed topic in astrological circles. Nick Dagan Best and Shu Yapp have influenced much of my understanding of Venus’s synodic cycle and retrograde patterns, and I would highly suggest looking them up to learn more in depth. Venus stations retrograde every eighteen months for a period of about 42 days where it seemingly retraces 15-18 degrees of the zodiac. When the retrograde starts, Venus is in her evening star phase setting after the Sun in the West, and then during retrograde conjuncts with the Sun where she’s not visible. As she approaches her direct station, she becomes visible as a morning star rising before the Sun. During her cazimi or conjunction with the Sun, it’s thought that perhaps this is Venus starting a new phase, recycling the old and welcoming in the new since she comes out of the retrograde in her morning star phase. Venus retrogrades over the same part of the zodiac every 8 years shifting by one degree each time which creates for a longer period of cultural patterns to notice. Like with Mercury retrograde, Venus retrograde creates a longer and more intense Venus transit than her usual transits because she passes over a number of degrees, retrogrades back over them, and then stations direct to pass over them again.
When Venus is retrograde, issues around love, beauty, money, and relationships may seem to go through a reevaluation or struggle. We commonly see celebrity relationships either end or the reports of their ending meet the public during Venus retrograde. Sometimes old lovers or older situations resurface. This time may feel uncomfortable, but it can be an excellent time to take a step back, evaluate the situation at hand, and seek any missing clarity. This may be a good time to rest for an artist and creative, to continue with your usual routines without starting any new projects, a time to look back and see how your routines and plans have been working out. It’s a time to be cautious and thoughtful around topics related to relationships, art, beauty, aesthetics, and money as we might not be seeing the full picture. Everything Venus stands for tends to play out in a more inward or psychological way during its retrograde period. We as a collective or as individuals may have our thoughts surrounding issues of the senses, material possessions, love, fertility, justice, harmony, relationships, and negotiations. We may experience delays in these areas of life, and we may need to turn our love and attention to ourselves so we know how to recognize the clarity outside of us with others.
Venus retrograde occurs about 7% of the time, so it is not a common placement to have in a birth chart. When it does occur in one’s birth chart, it may imply a strain or struggle with interpersonal relationships and love. These natives may need to look back at their upbringing and what was taught and learned regarding values, tastes, and self-esteem. Venus retrograde natives may struggle with self-worth and self-love which really forms the core of our interaction with others. These natives may feel awkward in social situations or secretive or shameful about their love life or money or other Venusian themes.
When Venus is cazimi (under the beams of the Sun), we can sometimes see a bit of an internalizing experience, or a dark night of the soul kind of experience, because she’s hidden. There may be a moment in this process where something we are reflecting on is less clear, or perhaps we struggle to see ourselves in it, waiting for her transformation into her next stage. Looking at what house in your birth chart these transits occur in may give you some insight into what area of your life Venus is touching.
Astrologer Becca Tarnas goes on to speak of how our understanding of the cosmos is actually quite Venusian, the word “cosmos” means ordered and harmonious perspective of the universe. So even just discussing the cosmos must reference Venusian principles of harmony and balance. The astrological system itself came from these Venusian experiences of seeing order and harmony underlying the all.
Mythologically, Venus’s influence draws on the gods and goddesses of beauty and love such as Aphrodite, Frejya, Hathor, Isis, Lakshmi, Sita, and Saraswati. And if we look at the etymology, we see aphrodite is related to the word “aphrodisiac,” that which creates desire. And Venus is related to the word “venereal” which means “of lust.” Venal or Venial refers to unethical behavior with intent to get what you want, based on desire. So we see even in the etymology of its associations, Venus is signifying desire.
She is also called Phosphorus, a Greek God, which means “light-bringer” or “dawn-bringer” as a phosphorescent is a substance that glows in the dark without burning. The Latin word for Phosphorus is “Lucifer.” Lucifer is the “light-bearer” or Morning Star, and the modern Christian understanding of Lucifer as a “fallen angel” seems to be referring to the rising and falling nature of Venus, how she rises as a morning star and then sets as an evening star, falling into the underworld darkness. Venus is notable for these two phases in which she is brightly visible in the sky. Morning star Venus is associated with a war goddess and evening star Venus is associated with a love goddess, possibly correlating to aspects of light and dark feminine. The stories of Inanna and Persephone and the descent into darkness trace Venus’s synodic cycle, and are closely tied into her mythology, significations, and our understanding of the feminine.
The ancient Sumerian myth of Inanna correlates with the story of Venus’s synodic cycle, her path in connection with the Sun and Earth, as ancients watched her in her morning star phase, evening star phase, conjunction, and retrograde phase. Astrologers have referenced this mythological story as a way to more deeply understand Venusian influence. There are many variations of this myth, some of which are quite similar to the Greek myth of Persephone. Inanna enters the underworld to attend funeral rites for Gugalanna, her sister Ereshkigal’s husband, who has recently died. Ereshkigal is queen of the underworld and is unhappy at Inanna’s arrival. A few scholars say this displeasure is because Inanna may have been responsible for Gugalanna’s death. Inanna is the Queen of Heaven. She comes to the entrance of the underworld adorned in 7 pieces of clothing representing her 7 powers. Ereshkigal orders for the 7 gates to be cracked and for Inanna to have one piece of clothing removed at each gate removing the designated power. She finally arrives before her sister and the judges naked without any of her powers. The judges find her guilty and punish her by killing her and hanging her on a meat hook. Inanna had left instructions before leaving home for her servants to come look for her if she didn’t return in a designated amount of time. The servant goes to Inanna’s father Enki and asks for help. Enki sends sexless servants or insects, depending on which version we’re referring to, who arrive to find Ereshkigal in labor pains. They stay with her through the pains and earn her attention and gratitude. They ask for Inanna to be released, and Ereshkigal agrees as long as someone takes Inanna’s place. They give Inanna a potion that causes her rebirth. This coincides with Venus’s cazimi (conjunction with the Sun). When Inanna returns, she prevents many of her servants and companions from being taken in her place stating that they were properly mourning and thus should be spared. She then finds her husband not mourning and sitting proud and gluttonous on her throne so she sends him to take her place.
When Venus is in her morning star phase, that’s when Inanna descends into the underworld and each conjunction of Venus to the waning crescent Moon in the morning sky is one of those seven gates leading down into the underworld. The superior conjunction is when she is finally there in the underworld, hidden behind the Sun, invisible. When she comes out, she’s reborn at the conjunction again and becomes the evening star, and each conjunction with the waxing Moon is her gaining back her 7 powers.
Venus is in her domicile in Taurus and Libra, her detriment in the signs opposite, Scorpio and Aries. Her exaltation is in Pisces and fall is in the opposite sign Virgo. Taurus and Libra are both associated with rather colorful times of the year with Taurus being in the thick of spring when everything is blooming and Libra being in the autumn season when the leaves change colors. This seems to fit Venus’s significations around beauty rather nicely. Scorpio and Aries are also the domicile signs for Mars which, as we spoke of earlier, sets up a bit of an opposing experience between these two planets, or as astrologer Chris Brennan puts it, “the reverse side of the same coin in some sense.”
Taurus is the sensual and sensuous experience of pleasure in the material world. Taurus is the nocturnal placement for Venus, meaning its influence is more feminine and inward. Taurean Venus enjoys art, food, nature, hard work, staying grounded, and enjoying life. Taureans value comfort, practicality, and reliability. Through Taurus, Venus is the ruler of the second house of finances, material resources, values, and self-esteem as Taurus is the second sign in the order of the zodiac. Taurus energy is strong yet mellow, powerful and easygoing, slow to arousal and sometimes lazy or stubborn. Attraction and depth of character might take some time to notice and appreciate as Taurus is not an immediately lively persona. Taureans have level headedness with resilience and endurance coming from being a fixed sign. Taurus honors its word and is loyal through thick and thin.
Libra enjoys the pleasures of Venus in a more sophisticated, elegant, and luxurious way, perhaps in fashion or fancy parties. Libra Venus appears neat and attractive with a refined sense of taste. Libra has a bit of the diurnal Venus associations where she is more visible and draws more attention to herself. It rules diplomacy, balance, and grace, and works towards equality and fairness in relationships. Libra has a strong sense of justice. Librans can be popular but may be too easily persuaded by charm and good looks and feel uncomfortable when the boat is rocked. Libra is the natural ruler of the 7th house as it is the 7th sign in the zodiac wheel. Librans have a reputation for shying away from extremes and excesses, with skills in comparison and evaluation. Libra has good communication and middle man skills.
Scorpio, opposite Taurus, is one sign where Venus is in detriment and is also weakened with few resources. Being in detriment means a planet’s energies are scattered, disorganized, and struggle to hold themselves together. It is a debilitation. Scorpio’s dark intensity smothers Venus’s bright and pleasing nature. Whereas Venus’s natural inclination is to express love and affection outwards, Scorpio’s emotions dive deep inwardly into the self which can create for a guardedness and sense of mystery around the native. Scorpio can take Venusian desire and intensify it, potentially into possessiveness and jealousy. A Scorpio Venus will be in touch with their own darker depths and might be attracted to mysterious people.
Opposing Libra is Aries, the other sign where Venus is in detriment. Aries is a fast, impulsive, fiery, sometimes conflicting sign ruled by Mars. We have already spoken of the polarities of Venus and Mars. When Venus is in Aries, we have those polarities meet. An Aries Venusian person might impulsively and aggressively chase after their desires and behave in a more individualistic way which can be an uncomfortable experience for the relationship oriented Venus. Venus is a feminine planet while Aries is a masculine sign. The complexities of expressing a feminine quality in a masculine way could create obstacles or even self-destruction for the native with this placement. Or perhaps it expresses in a way that just isn’t the social norm or expectation. Aries isn’t really about harmony or balance as much as it is about impatiently seeking excitement or even competition. An Aries Venus might be enthusiastic, thrill seeking, and passionate.
Venus is exalted in Pisces and thus has the greatest ease and strength here. Venus’s best qualities are enhanced here. Watery Pisces is compassionate, understanding, forgiving, creative, imaginative, and spiritual, a wonderful place for Venus to express her devotion, artistic endeavors, and decor. It makes sense that Venus, the planet of love, harmony, balance, and relationships, would find great strength in Pisces. A Pisces Venus can express unconditional love, seek the highest ideals in romantic connections, create spiritually fulfilling art, empathize more deeply, and seek soulful experiences beyond the superficial.
Virgo is where Venus is in its fall. Being in fall means a planet is ignored or is not listened to. She is weakened and has fewer resources here. Virgo, the opposing sign to Pisces, is critical, judgmental, picky, and struggles with expression. Whereas Venus in Pisces is boundless love, Venus in Virgo is picky and conditional about love, art, and beauty. Virgo is an earth sign so a Virgo Venus will value reliability, practicality, and grounded efficiency. Whereas a Pisces Venus might experience a lack of boundaries and an inclusive experience of love, Virgo Venus might speak more to the doors that are shut than the doors that are open which is a limiting experience for the planet of relating, creating, and loving.
Thank you so much for being here. If you would like a reading or even just to chat or ask a question, please feel free to email me at saramariepersons@gmail.com. I look forward to exploring with you!
Sara Marie