For Astrologers Only
The Behavior of a Planet in a Sign Depends on Its Ruler
The conditions of Venus during the first half of summer dramatize one way the affairs of one planet influence the expression of another.
The condition of the ruler of a sign has a strong influence on the way that sign “works” in a given horoscope. Venus is the ruler of Taurus and between late June and early August, the period during which Mars occupies Taurus, she goes through three clear and distinct phases, each of which will have a different influence on Taurus, and therefore the expression of Mars. The aspects Mars beholds also influence whether his expression will tend to produce “good” or “bad” effects. A third consideration is whether or not Mars is brought to power and prominence in the specific chart, something which depends largely on the time of birth, and which will determine whether Mars is a prominent feature in the personality and a powerful factor in determining the life path.
When the King has a cold, the kingdom sneezes
The first of these considerations is the condition of Venus, Ruler of Taurus. When the King has a cold, the kingdom sneezes. Likewise, if Venus is found to be in a favorable condition in the chart, her sign of Taurus will tend to influence Mars in a more positive and gentle way than if the opposite is found to be the case.
Let’s take a look at what Venus does during the early summer. When Mars first enters Taurus on 24 June, Venus is in the 18th degree of Leo, approaching the exact opposition of Saturn to Neptune, with Saturn in Leo. Venus is already beginning to slow down as she approaches her upcoming retrograde station, and she is “slow in motion”. Without going into details, the situation is not a particularly good one, and the tendency is toward deterioration. By the end of June the opposition involving all three planets has become exact, that is, critical and at its culminating point. Venus moves on through Leo, and away from melancholy Saturn until the 14th of July, when she enters Virgo.
Dignities and Debilities and their kin are full of meaning
Each of the signs, because of its nature, provides either a good “home” for a planet, or a not-so-good one, depending on which planet is in the sign. Mars, for example, is said to be in his “debility” in the sign of Taurus - Venus would be in her “joy” there - because the slow, restrained, enduring nature of the sign is not in harmony with the fiery, impetuous and active nature of Mars; Mars cannot express his natural energies freely there. In Virgo, Venus is said to be in her “Fall”, and the Fall from grace of Adam and Eve in the biblical story of the Garden of Eden portrays this situation pretty well. Not favorable; if you wish to understand the meaning of “fall” on a deeper level, consult your dictionary and accept every definition, or nearly all of them, as pertinent and descriptive of the condition. The ancient astrologers were very cunning in their choice of words.
So Venus has moved from Leo, a more or less neutral sign for her, into Virgo, which is a very bad sign for her. She has gone from better to worse, and this occurs on the 14th of July. Astrology is not some magic mirror in the sky, but is simply a charting of reality as we live it, and depicts the flow of events and experiences that we are living each day in a continuing progression. What Venus is saying is what we are living, provided that the actual events in the heavens touch our own personal charts in some special way. In this discussion, we are examining the condition of Venus from the perspective of interpreting the chart of a person born during the early summer of 2007, and every detail of the chart is pertinent. The conditions of Venus in the chart will depict actual events in the life of this person, with the exact meaning and timing dependent on the date, time, and place of birth. These events and experiences will have their echo in the sign of Taurus and the response of Mars.
