By Barbara Schermer
Love may beckon gently, like the winged babe of the Valentine card. But Love too, in the guise of the great dark god Eros, may lay a heavy hand on your shoulder, spin you around, and demand, “Where do you think you’re going?”
Astrology can give some clues about where love will take us by tracking the apparent movements of the planet Venus through the twelve zodiacal signs. Where Venus (the goddess of love as well as the planet) lies in the horoscope of your birth indicates your style of loving as well as your relationship to beauty.
In her annual tour of the zodiac, Venus arcs through the twelve signs and the four elements, as follows:
• Fire: Aries, Leo, Sagittarius
• Earth: Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn
• Air: Gemini, Libra, Aquarius
• Water: Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces
While Venus in each sign has its special qualities, her place among the elements establishes her overall character–and sets the stage for your relationship to love.
Venus in Fire Signs
Fire needs constant fuel to keep burning, and one source of fuel for a fire sign is the energy that passion brings. Fire sign people burn with excitement, hope, and the possibilities of a new relationship.
When Fire meets someone that she feels attracted to, she thrills at the thought of “the chase” and a hoped-for conquest. Things get hot fast! But just as the roaring bonfire quickly consumes its fuel, the requirement for constant thrills may soon burn out the relationships of a fire sign type. “Fine by me,” she might say, but some day she may want to learn the mundane art of the slow, controlled, well-tended fire that bakes the wedding cake!
Fine points: She’s passionate, direct, enthused and motivated. Her energy fans everyone’s flame.
Failings: A lack of control over impulses, a drive to always do instead of be, and a lack of sensitivity that can make crispy critters of would-be partners.
Venus in Earth Signs
When love is around, an Earth sign woman is all eyes and ears, as well as alive to every touch, smell, and taste. She is the sensualist of the zodiac. Reach her by appealing to her appetites,
A wonderful evening might be a quiet one at home. Make her a fabulous meal, preferably with an element of the exotic (or at least expensive) on the menu. Don’t forget the luscious berries, Belgian chocolates, and fine champagne! Follow up with incense and bubble bath – and maybe a little package with something silky inside.
Earth brings steadiness and reliability to love, a quiet, stable sort of loving that endures and shows its true worth over the long haul. But relationships with an Earth woman can suffer from a lack of fiery stimulus and can bog down in details and practicalities. Love for Earth signs needs to be periodically shaken up, to be refreshed and revitalized, or it gets too complacent and, frankly, boring.
Excellent qualities: She’s sensual, patient, dependable, and determined to work things through, even when others would give up.
Errors: She gets entrenched, resists change, and can be too easily satisfied with the status quo.
Venus in Air Signs
Venus in Air’s source of inspiration is her love of ideas and the world of the mind. This is a woman who can get swept up in the ideals, even the theories, of divine love, and you shouldn’t be surprised to find her reading Plato or swooning over Rilke. Her heart flutters when the object of her affection speaks in complete sentences about original ideas. More than any other, the Air woman needs to relate. Yet it’s often the relationship to her own inner needs and feelings that has to be established before she is ready for a good relationship with others. Continued practice of self-love, self-nurturing, allow her to develop the skills she needs to love others–and be loved by them.
Awesome features: She’s intellectually lively, versatile, loves meeting new people and. can get us all thinking about love and beauty.
Awful possibilities: Her head may be in the clouds, making practical and feelingful action difficult. She may struggle with inner contradictions and intellectualize rather than accurately know her feelings–which true love demands. Air can benefit from the sensitivity and responsiveness of Water sign friends and lovers.
Venus in Water Signs
Here’s the most responsive Venus of all, metaphorically the deep river that expresses the feminine rhythms of flow and change, the turbulence of emotions, and the depth of initiation. Venus in Water is replenished by intimate connections, and probing the depths of feeling and consciousness–constantly striving to “get to the bottom” of things is her calling. She has been accused of too much “processing,” too much emotional intensity and endless expression of feelings. The Air and Earth sign people around her can’t resist telling her to “lighten up!”
The compassion and sensitivity of Venus in Water allows relationships that are deep and emotionally authentic. Frequently her lasting relationships are “healing contracts,” for her partner as well as herself. It’s especially important for Venus in Water to heal emotional wounds of her own past; otherwise, they interfere more than usual in the current relationship. Love is always intertwined with pain, two inseparable aspects of the same cosmic principle. The Venus in Water woman, especially, must explore the depths of pain to discover her full capacity for love.
Wonderful Features: She’s sensitive, supportive, capable of nurturing, and she often has an energy that heals all she touches.
Woeful Traits: Over-sensitivity, moodiness, a tendency toward depression, and, maybe, some manipulation of others to meet her needs are her downfall.
A Pioneer in the field of Experiential Astrology with eighteen years of teaching, leadership, and production in experiential performance and theater Barbara Schermer is the Author of Astrology Alive!: A Guide to Experiential Astrology and the Healing Arts,and contributing author for the Mountain Astrologer, Dell Horoscope, and The Monthly Aspectarian and for the German magazine Meridian and the Dutch journal Symbolon. She can be reached at 773 248 7108 or 800 273 8868 or by email at bschermer (at) astrologyalive.com.
