The planets in astrology represent different parts of our personality and perception, and none of them can stand alone. As the planet of structure, discipline, and conservatism, having too much focus on Saturn in a chart leaves one cold, rigid, and lacking in social tact. Too much emphasis on the sun makes one extremely egocentric. Likewise, when Venus is overemphasized, it makes one hedonistic, materialistic, and superficial. At its low manifestation, Venus is the wild woman who merely uses men and the world for her own pleasure and resources. She needs the sun and Saturn (a father and grandfather), for example, to maintain her sense of identity and to have discipline for what is sustainable, respectively.
The signs of the zodiac possess an intrinsic evolutionary quality. Each sign has something that the one before it lacks, but it overcompensates for that trait. For example, Aries is often too fast and impulsive, and Taurus over-corrects by being slow and stubborn. It follows, then, that by the time we get around to Pisces, the last sign of the zodiac, ultimate balance has been found. We are able to observe this in those with strong Pisces in their charts. There tends to be something spiritual about them. They’re typically patient, good at listening, creative, and unique. A conscious Pisces seems quite evolved, albeit otherworldly.
Although dominant or ruling signs are often heavily emphasized in descriptions of the planets, and having such placements catches one’s eye in observing a birth chart for the first time, the exalted signs of each planet indicate a more developed and well-rounded expression. Just because someone has Mars in the ruling sign of Aries, for example, doesn’t mean that they’ll maximize the potential of Mars. Rather, they’re more likely to naturally express the negative effects of it, and in many cases, it will take extra work to temper that planet’s energy. We think of Venus as being much softer than Mars, as it is the more feminine surface expression, but the ruling signs of Venus can produce difficulties of their own – ones which are much more covert, being as femininity per se is more covert in its expression than masculinity. For example, someone who’s natal Venus is in Libra will have a softer, more compromising social style as opposed to an Arian one that takes a deliberate, “me first” approach.
The darker sides of Venus are more difficult to detect than those of the sun, Mars, or Saturn. This would be the case, for one, because of the things that Venus represents – e.g. love nature, social style, likes and dislikes, etc. Paradoxically, they are exemplified most clearly in their two ruling signs of Taurus and Libra, even though the planet’s strengths are also exemplified by these same signs. They are so, however, in a way that is more narrowly focused, much like how Mars’ blunt, warrior energy is most clearly expressed in Aries.
We look to the qualities of each ruling sign of Venus to understand the scope of its strengths and weaknesses. Taurus is the fixed earth sign, and appropriately, we can observe that Taurus reveals the “mother nature” side of Venus, and the native’s connection to the physical, sensory realm. Nature is fixed in its ways of being as it will whether we like it or not. Changes come slowly and incrementally, through an evolutionary process of proving that they’ll serve the whole of nature over time. Taurus is cautious in matters of change, and while this can serve as a useful vetting process for new functions, it can also express itself as sloth, stubbornness, and refusal to change due to lack of foresight beyond the physical.
Libra has a very different set of qualities, showing the other spectrum of significations of Venus. As the cardinal air sign, it expresses itself through the mental realm. It initiates change more consciously from a need to achieve balance in its social environment through connection in relationships. They’re more likely to flow with fashion trends than to dress in a way that is simply comfortable as Taurus does. Both Venus rulers seek comfort: Libra seeks comfort through acceptance while Taurus seeks comfort through sensation. The danger of appealing to social acceptance is that Libra sacrifices its sense of self and becomes superficial in its expression.
As one of the traditional “feminine” elements, it seems fitting that Venus would be exalted – and therefore produce its most ideal form – in a water sign. Because the combination of Taurus and Libra express the things of Venus in rather specific ways, and neither shows the full potential of social, romantic, and value expression, it is imperative that Venus travel through the entire zodiac to prevent itself from becoming too pleasure-seeking, superficial, and in lack of sustainability. It needs to learn higher values through the lessons that each of the other signs provide. For example, fixed Leo shares the quality of stability with Taurus, but with its fire inspires Taurus to grow and be more creative. Cardinal Capricorn shares the quality of initiation and leadership with Libra, but it provides a framework of logic, practicality, and discipline to Libra. A water sign, however, offers a quality of being able to fill a container – not just any container, anytime, but the right container, in the right way. As a mutable sign, Pisces has that trait of adaptability in detailed tasks, but it is also big-picture focused enough to know when and how to adapt. Venus is about what we want, but without the broader framework within which to manage our desires, what we want lacks tact, purpose, and life.
It also seems fitting that the rawest expression of the masculine planet of Mars – i.e. Aries – is placed first in the zodiac, just before Taurus, the first ruling planet of Venus. Aries is, perhaps, the one sign that Venus does not need to integrate on its own – that it doesn’t “pass through” on its journey to Pisces – but it rather serves as a complement to the things that Venus provides. After all, women are from Venus, and men are from Mars. As it turns out, Mars does quite well in Pisces too, depending on its house placement.
By evolving into Pisces through the other signs, Venus is learning how to value and organize its desires in a more conscious way. It learns that neither Taurean sensation or Libran fairness can serve as the highest value in any realm, whether social, natural, aesthetic, or moral. Venus is enlightening itself with a sense that all of the signs offer value to its otherwise singular ones. Pisces’ being, in a way, the most evolved sign of the zodiac gives a home for Venus to seek comfort in the most important way of all – the way of higher truth, thanks to daddy, granddaddy, and the rest of the family.
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