Venus returns to her domicile, Taurus, later today. Her journey through this part of the zodiac every year takes a path of riches-to-rags-to-riches. In classical astrology, Venus is exalted in Pisces, in its detriment in Aries, and in its rulership in Taurus.
To understand what these dignities and debilities mean, imagine Venus as a queen in her travels. In Pisces, she is exalted: treated as the highly honored guest for whom no request is too difficult to carry out. She is placed on a pedestal and revered. But upon leaving this friendly realm, she falls into enemy territory: Aries. Worse than being peregrine – traveling unknown and unrecognized – she is in her detriment, her crown stripped, her essence defied. Venus cannot behave like the true benefic it is when in Aries. After Aries comes Taurus, showing her escape from the foe and return to the land of her rule. In Taurus, what Venus says goes: she does not need to ask anyone’s permission to do exactly as she pleases.
I’ve been listening to CDs of John Frawley’s lectures about the fixed stars from a workshop he gave in San Francisco in February 2006. (Thank you, AB!) In the course of his fascinating explanations of mythology and its astrological correlations, Frawley mentions in passing the roles of cardinal, fixed, and mutable modalities in the various elements. It’s given me yet more insight into Taurus and its role in the earth triangle.
In earth, we start with cardinal Capricorn, the initial earth impulse. It is the seed buried in the earth at the winter solstice, whose teleology is to grow and push upward. From there to fixed Taurus, where Venus finds herself starting this afternoon. In the fixed modality, we explore all the possibilities of that element, so Taurus is an exploration of all the possibilities of earth, the material world. Venus wants the comfy bed, the bonbons, the 401(k), and the diamonds. One way or another – or all ways, really – Venus in Taurus explores every aspect of the sensual world.
What about mutable signs? These show where we take what we have learned and carry it forward. Virgo, the discriminating one, is the sign of the harvest. From the crops we have gathered, we separate what we plan to use now from what we will set by for future use – or reserve as seed to sow in the new year.
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Following this path through the modalities, how do you make sense of Venus being in her Fall in Virgo?
This is something that I have often thought about, too, as I have to have Venus in Virgo natally. I have always felt that Virgo Venus gets the worst rap in astrology (with the possible exception of the Scorpio Moon, which I also happen to have). My own personal take on it is this: the expressive difficulty that Venus has in Virgo has nothing to do with the element. Virgo is an earth sign, after all, and Venus does have dignity by triplicity in earth. Virgo Venus is just as sensual as Taurus Venus–both love STUFF just the same. I think the difficulty derives from how mutability manifests in earth. I understand this quality to be all about transition–breaking things down in order to begin setting up for the next stage. In earth, this involves discrimination–deciding which field to leave fallow, which crops to plant next year, what to winter over and what to discard. Venus does not like discriminating in this way–as her rulership of Taurus attests, she likes to just keep on acquiring more stuff. As her rulership of Libra attests, she’d rather have someone else do the hard decision making for her. If Venus is going to break things down for the next phase, she’d rather do it in a watery, Piscean way: just dissolve everything and absorb it. None of the hard Virgo muss and fuss involved.
In life, VirgoVenus can act out this difficulty as a funny inversion of Pisces–she has difficulty letting go of stuff. I mean, that box of junk might have something important in it! And then she might ask other people to help her sort it all out. I mean, isn’t cleaning out the junk drawers the funnest way to spend a Saturday afternoon with someone you love? Sheepishly, I must admit to having done these things.
BTW: I read somewhere that Virgo Venus LOVES to analyze herself. Can’t you tell?
Jeff – a planet in its fall is nearly as unhappy as a planet in its detriment, only the misfortune is somewhat exaggerated. Things are bad, but they’re not as bad as they’re made out to be. Think Paris Hilton on The Simple Life.
Judy – nice analysis (good word!) of how Venus copes in mutable earth. I figure, if Venus is Love, then its exalted expression is Selfless, Universal Love with no boundaries a la Pisces. It’s harder to be the goddess of love when you’re constantly making choices in the material world. As you said, Venus doesn’t want to sit around editing. That’s Mercury’s job.