I hope everyone enjoyed Venus in Libra, when the benefic planet of love and the arts was in her diurnal air home sign. Matters involving relationships, the arts, and aesthetics in general may have felt relatively supported and well-resourced. The good hair days may have outnumbered the bad ones, at any rate.
The irony of each of Venus’ domiciles, in Taurus and Libra, is that they adjoin the signs of her detriment, Mars’ domains of Aires and Scorpio. But whereas in the earlier part of the year, Venus first descends to her exile in Aires before ascending to her throne in Taurus, in the autumn it happens in reverse: she falls from her throne in Libra into exile upon entering Scorpio. (To be fair, it happens in the same fashion for Mars, though in reverse.)
Venus will be in Scorpio from October 23rd until November 16th, when she escapes Scorpio’s dungeon for Sagittarius’ friendlier trails.
Alien Territory
In Scorpio, Venus must traverse the perils of Mars’ nocturnal water home, which is alien territory for her. Subterranean, damp, and chilly (in my imaginings), Scorpio is about fighting and assertion through strategy and stealth.
In contrast to Aires, Mars’ fire domicile, which storms the battlements with trumpets blazing under the Sun’s heat, Scorpio travels under cover of darkness, taking the castle at night without a whisper (and then probably torturing everyone, but let’s not go there).
Battles, by day or night, are foreign concepts to Venus, who excels at harmonizing, not shearing, which is Mars’ speciality. In either of Mars’ signs, Venus is lost, her diplomacy and aesthetic accomplishment useless amidst martial maneuvers and spy craft. That is, unless she learns to deploy her skills in new ways, say as an undercover super spy with a dash of seduction thrown in.
Creative Adaptations
Which leads us to the creative adaptations that planets in detriment have to make. Like any planet in the sign of its detriment, Venus lacks her own resources and struggles in an environment in which she has the wrong set of skills for the environment.
Planets in detriment must work harder than those in friendly signs, and often have results that challenge expectations, in this case for how things related to relationships, art, and aesthetics play out.
In Scorpio, Venus’ normal focus on etiquette, polite norms, romance, and courtship is challenged by Mars’ let’s say, more direct, approach. This leads to a more quick and dirty modus operandi than Venus normally adopts, similar to Venus in Aires, which is impulsive and direct.
Going There
But Scorpio is also deep, intense, and, like a primordial bog (think: fixed water), full of ancient skeletons. Venus in Scorpio. . . goes there, to the deep, dark, possibly gross depths, by the quickest route possible, via martian efficiency.
While Venus in Aires might propose skydiving as a get-to-know-you date, Venus in Scorpio may cut to the chase and just get a room. Less jumping off cliffs, more you-know-what, all with a dash of nihilistic realism thrown in — “we’re all going to die, so why not?”
Indeed. As the fall glory fades, before the last hurrah of the light, aka Sagittarius’ silly season, and before the winter solstice falls, Venus in Scorpio asks us to turn the darkness within us into fertile compost with which to nurture our future selves, which will spring out into beautiful bloom when she enters Taurus next spring.
Private and Intense Waters
Folks with Venus in Scorpio may find that their approach to relationships, aesthetics, and the arts is different than the usual or accepted ones. They may absorb the judgement that they are “too intense” in these matters.
Privacy and secrecy are also two hallmarks of Scorpio, along with the stubbornness, characteristic of all fixed signs, to do things their own way, come hell or high water. And don’t try to get these folks to articulate their deep and gothic passions — this isn’t a chatty air sign, a hail-fellow-well-met fire sign, or a practical earth sign.
The other two water signs, Cancer and Pisces, tend towards the nurturing and optimistic end of the spectrum, ruled by the Moon and Jupiter. Ruled by Mars, Scorpio has none of these niceties, with martial efficiency cooled into a somewhat pessimistic outlook, which Scorpio would probably just call “realism.”
There’s a brooding quality to Venus in Scorpio that, depending on the chart, can read as charismatic or simply menacing. How else to describe the range presented by a sampling of famous people with this placement, ranging from actors known for their smoky sensual appeal, such as Denzel Washington, Val Kilmer, Susan Sarandon, Winona Ryder, and Leonardo DiCaprio to arch villains with cult followings such as Vladimir Putin, Charles Manson, and Ted Bundy?
Paging: Mars
In Scorpio, Venus is reliant on Mars, and Mars’ condition is not typical at the moment, with the planet of war and assertion preparing to turn retrograde in Gemini at Venus’ ingress into Scorpio on October 23rd. Mars goes retrograde on the 30th at 25°Gemini, and backtracks through the sign of the twins for the rest of Venus’ time in Scorpio.
Scorpio and Gemini are signs that are in aversion; they don’t “see” each other via a traditional aspect. This is similar to a car in your blindspot - they’re there but there’s no visual connection. Signs in aversion can’t communicate with each other directly, so Venus has no help from her ruler during this sojourn.
And this non-communication is happening during an eclipse season in which Venus and Mars are featured players, with Mars the ruler of the solar eclipse on October 25th and Venus the ruler of the lunar eclipse on November 8th.
In the solar eclipse, Venus is combust the Sun, ruled by the eclipse ruler, Mars, about to turn retrograde. In the lunar eclipse Venus is still very near the Sun and drawn into a t-square with Saturn in Aquarius and Uranus in Taurus with the Sun, Venus, and Mercury in Scorpio ruled by a now retrograde Mars.
All of which is to say that Venus’ tour through Scorpio this fall coincides with some fairly disruptive astrology, namely the Mars retrograde (square nebulous Neptune) and the potent change narrative of a high-powered pair of eclipses. Things relating to relationships and the arts may feel disorganized — a hallmark of planets in detriment — but also disrupted.
Hidden Venus
Venus is traveling very close to the Sun the whole time she’s in Scorpio, obscuring Venus’ significations under the beams of the Sun, and thus obfuscating and weakening venusian matters.
This feels difficult, coming off of a period earlier in October when Venus was quite dignified in Libra and had her cazimi moment in the heart of the Sun on October 22nd, her diva moment in the spotlight.
There may have been a peak experience of some kind around this time relating to the Libra house of your chart, a moment of accomplishment or completion. To go from this feeling to one of not being seen or supported, and in the midst of changes that may feel beyond our control, is tough. As is the astrology of much of November, unfortunately. (Look for my November forecast next week.)
Dark Immersion
Some moments to look out for are November 2nd and 5th, when Venus (with the Sun) conjoins the South Node and opposes the North Node, the sites of the change narrative of the eclipses. Venus on the South Node of decrease suggests release or decluttering related to venusian things in the Scorpio house of our charts, a letting go needed to move forward.
The square between Venus and Saturn on November 7th happens just before the lunar eclipse on the 8th, and signals a preview of the tense change-it-up narrative of this lean and mean eclipse. There may be themes of limitation or restriction hitting Venus’ domains, coupled with surprising events.
After the eclipse, Venus’ aspects are friendlier, and she starts to put some distance between her and the Sun. A trine to Neptune on the 10th suggests an imaginative sheen to Venus’ pursuits, while a sextile to Pluto on the 13th invites communion with the depths in a constructive fashion that draws in the storytelling skills of Mercury, also in Scorpio and very near Venus — a great time to pen something deep and dark, maybe something along the lines of Captive Scorpio, perhaps?
This time leads nicely into a supportive trine between Venus and Jupiter, recently reentered into Pisces for its last hurrah there, on November 15th. Jupiter is co-present with Neptune, lending an expansive, if blurry, energy with an inspirational cast. Mercury in Scorpio, also part of the equation, continues its creative literary flourish. It may be that we want to escape into an immersive, possibly dark fantasy, perhaps as a distraction to the end of eclipse season. The Frida Kahlo immersive exhibit in New York, anyone?
By the time Venus reaches Sagittarius on November 16th, she’s ready for an uplifting change, and Jupiter in Pisces, her ruler in Sagittarius, provides that. Tally ho, the Scorpio caves are behind us, for the most part.
Here’s Scorpio’s Dance by Shocking Blue, a Dutch rock band active from 1967-1974. Note that the top comment on YouTube observes, “How Tarantino has not stolen that middle section for one of his flicks is beyond me!!” If that’s not an appropriately Venus in Scorpio soundtrack, I don’t know what is.
Want to learn more about your Venus in Scorpio (or any other sign)? Book a Natal Consultation with me.
Don’t forget: I’m also offering special 30-minute Eclipse Season Mini-Consultations from now through mid-November.