Seduction as abstract expressionism, relationships as existential experiments. . . . we’re in Venus in Aquarius territory, folks, where the conversation is cool, restrained, and wonky, but the light shows are, well, lit.
Venus is only in Aquarius for a short spell, from January 2-26, when she trades Aquarius’ forward-looking, minimalist fashion for the feathers, fantasy, and excess of Pisces, her sign of exaltation.
Beautiful Aliens in the Zeitgeist
Venus doesn’t have much going for it in Aquarius, a masculine, diurnal sign that’s about as alien an environment for the nocturnal benefic as one could find. Yet, Venus works with what she’s got, and, at least, Aquarius isn’t actively hostile territory.
But essential dignity — how comfortable and able to express itself a planet is in a given sign through a traditional astrological lens — doesn’t capture everything about how a planet behaves there.
In Aquarius, Venus is ruled by Saturn, the long-game steady builder and resident grumpy old person of the planets. As a fixed air sign, Aquarius offers Venus an arid arena of intellectual ideas and social networks through which to build structures that endure the test of time, Saturn’s great preoccupation.
This leads, in Aquarius, to social and intellectual movements as artistic expression, the creative zeitgeist, we could say if we wanted to sound appropriately future-oriented and aquarian.
Venus’ harmonizing and artistic qualities draw on these themes in Aquarius, bringing together social and intellectual circles. Play, romance, pleasure, pastimes — all venusian indulgences associated with the fifth house, where Venus has her joy, turn into saturnian work, often a life’s work.
People with Venus in Aquarius can have an easygoing, “every person” type of appeal that seems quite friendly at first. Yet, get closer and Saturn’s boundaries can appear. This isn’t the hierarchal sorting of Capricorn, with its haves and have-nots, but a more ephemeral separation: you, me, us, everyone.
It all has its place in Aquarius’ inscrutable world order, the essence of which may remain an abstraction that the rest of us just aren’t up to processing.
Hence, their cool, slightly aloof, allure. Do they know something we don’t? Quite possibly.
Artistic and Relational Awakenings
“but whatever came, she had resolved never again to belong to another than herself.”
― Kate Chopin, The Awakening
As I’ve argued before, Aquarius’ cool outsider style derives from its traditional ruler, Saturn, which can find itself outside (or ahead of) mainstream intellectual and social structures, as it dreams up new ones.
19th-century American write Kate Chopin (1850-1904), with an Aquarius stellium (Sun, Mercury retrograde, and Venus; no birth time available), was certainly ahead of her time in her artistry, which fused writing and her experience as a woman (Mercury and Venus).
A mother of six, she took up writing in midlife after a series of losses. The novels and short stories she wrote in the short window of time before she died at age 54, many of which dealt with women pushing up against societal limitations, have since become classics of feminist literature. The Awakening remains a bracing work, one which always stuns me each time I return to it.
The Alien Dance Floor This Time
Venus entered into Aquarius on January 2nd, right on the heels of a conjunction with intensifier Pluto at the end of Capricorn on the first day of the year. This meeting may have carried over an intensity and heaviness to all things relational and artistic for the first several days of Venus’ stay in Aquarius.
A sextile with Jupiter in early Aires on January 4th brought positive energy, big ideas, and a social excitement towards making them happen.
On the 9th Venus trines Mars, at the tail end of its retrograde in Gemini, in a moment of social diplomacy. Mars has left a trail of miscommunications, wars of words, even an entire social network in disarray during the course of its retrograde.
This trine offers a chance to paper over any social problems that may have developed, across two very social signs. It’s a good time to extend an olive branch to anyone we may have upset or just not communicated well with this fall.
Venus runs into a square with the nodes of the moon on January 11th. The nodes are the sites of the eclipses and represent the ongoing narrative of growth and clearing out.
Venus square the nodes suggests a reappraisal of what we’ve gained and lost over the past year. In hard aspects Venus often asks: what do you value? Is this worth it?
Think back to what has grown for you over the past year (signified by the Taurus house of our charts) and what has been releasing (Scorpio house), and whether your accounting has changed.
Venus’ wraps up her tour of Aquarius with two rather strong aspects: a square to disruptor Uranus on the 14th and a conjunction with her ruler Saturn on the 22nd. This is a bit of a contradiction, with Uranus challenging through surprise and change, and then Saturn demanding work and restrictions.
There may be a tug-of-war between impulses towards freedom and responsibility. This theme is underscored by the new moon in Aquarius on January 21st, in which Venus plays a supporting role, which opens up a new six-month chapter focusing on social and intellectual structures in the Aquarius house of our charts.
Over her journey this month, Venus in Aquarius is inviting us to work towards building social and intellectual structures that support us. There may be some reassessment and surprises along the way, but the conclusion of the journey, and the conjunction with Saturn, underscore the underlying themes of relationships and artistic pursuits as abstractions that we work towards.
Human or Dancer?
As we contemplate the existential questions of what it means to be a human this month, let alone how we can relate to others, here’s The Killers Human, which seems to be asking the question at the heart of Venus in Aquarius: are we human, or are we an artistic abstraction?
On first glance the video, with its sunny landscape and big cats, appears to capture the nature of Leo, Aquarius’ opposite sign. But look again: the landscape is a wasteland, with none of Leo’s beloved crowds of fans. The big cats are spectral, a reminder of the hot-cool axis between these two signs. The band plays alone in the existential wilderness, the singer wearing feathers reminiscent of the essential airiness of Aquarius.
Grab your beautiful alien and take to the dance floor.