Thursday, May 9, 2013

Planetary Fishing: Venus





 © 2013 by Joyce Mason
All Rights Reserved 


Today it’s time to fish for beauty. We’ll be exploring Venus, the planet of relating, everything lovely and the craving for peace and justice. If you’re coming in during the middle of the movie, so to speak, and wonder what we’re up to, here’s the background about our May Planetary Fishing Trip.

Sit back, relax and enjoy the excursion.

Venus Fishing Instructions

1.   With Venus I’d like to start with a simple but deep question: What is your relationship to beauty? Some people aren’t that big on fashion, art or ambience. Others can almost become ill when their surroundings aren’t lovely and harmonious. Where are you on this continuum?

2.   Now let’s get a line on the Goddess Venus. Tap into your search engine and explore Venus mythology. What do you learn that stands out to you? That you’d like to explore deeper when you’ve got more time?

3.   The beauty aspects of Venus are very visual, so while you’re searching for her online, check out Venus images. What image or images of Venus appeal to you most? Why?

4.   About your Venus and its sign:

a.   Does your Venus sign, in your opinion, make the realm of Venus easy to navigate or is it more challenging? Why?
b.   Which aspect of Venus is “your thing?” There are several major ones to choose from: relationships, beauty and the trio of peace, justice and fairness.
c.    What’s the element of your Venus? (Earth, Air, Fire or Water) Is it simple or challenging to do Venusian things with this element?
d.   How does your Venus blend with the planets we’ve explored so far?
e.   How many planets make a major aspect to your Venus? [1]
f.    How many of the planets are in close aspect, within 3 degrees or less?
g.   Do these aspects make “doing Venus things” easier or more challenging?

5.   What were your earliest experiences of the facet of Venus you chose in 4b?

Extra Experience: Whatever your favorite Venus topic was in 4b, choose a different one for this experience. Here are your choices:

Relationships – Remember your very first, foundational relationship. What were the most important things you learned?

Beauty—Two choices: Explore when you feel beautiful and how feeling beautiful makes you feel. Or explore some artwork today and write about its emotional impact on you.

Peace/Justice/Fairness—Which if these three words is most important to you? Recall an incident where one of these words was the “star” and briefly tell about it.

Hope to see you on the pier next week when we fish for Mars and Jupiter.

~~~

Photo Credit: © zwiebackesser - Fotolia.com

Note
[1] This is often easiest to find and view in summary in a matrix on the chart wheel page or in one of the “reports” offered, if you have astrology software.


Don’t forget to Comment and let us know what insights you catch! Every person who comments on these May fishing posts will be entered into a drawing for a free copy of Joyce's Chart Interpretation 101 e-book.

6 comments:

Mads Elung-Jensen said...

Hello Joyce,

I have enjoyed the fishing expedition this month quite a lot.

Venus is very special to me, I have a Libra ascendant, and Venus is in 1st house Libra widely conjunct my ascendant, and totally unaspected from all other planets.

So when she fishes she is extremely visible and totally on her own. Peace, justice and fairness are my things, I'm not immune to physical beauty, thank God, and I am also aware that I have been given my share in abundance, but funnily enough it never meant much to me, more like a practical accessory.

I can never totally find out whether you call it peregrine, feral or simply unaspected. But I'd love to hear any comment of yours so generally on unaspected planets.

Hope all's well in California, in Berlin we finally have spring, it is beautiful!

Joyce Mason said...

Mads, glad you're enjoying the planetary fishing trip! I'm delighted it has hit a chord with so many readers.

Since we've published your chart in an article you contributed to The Radical Virgo, Chiron in Pisces: A Healing Story (a very popular one I might add), I took a look at it to refresh my memory. I'm not sure I'd consider your Venus to be unaspected, even though there's technically no link-up with other planets. Your Venus conjuncts the ASC, so it of course also squares the MC (5-6 degrees). It also aspects the nodal axis (trines North Node, sextiles South Node within 2 degrees). While these are not planets per se, they are connections to very sensitive points in the chart.

Generally, my take on unaspected planets is that they become either overemphasized in their quest to find linkage in the chart--or their influence is hidden and can drive their owner from the unconscious, sometimes in unproductive ways, as he or she seeks that linkage without realizing it. Your Venus seems very front and center to me! A quick Google search yielded a ton of reading on this topic, starting with this one, if you want to learn more. The term peregrine is a classic one and is described here by Noel Tyl. I prefer the term "unaspected planet" because it says what it means, and I'm all for communications clarity. When I hear peregrine, I keep thinking of the peregrine falcon, then I think of the Maltese Falcon, the movie with Humphrey Bogart--then I'm onto The Birds by Hitchcock. Pretty soon an innocent term has become a horror movie! I wouldn't want that in my horoscope, or a feral (wild) animal. Knowing you appreciate my sense of humor, just sayin'! :)

Mads Elung-Jensen said...

Thanks for a bit of clarification. There's a lot of scary doomsday writing around.

The last article i read about unaspected planets was this one http://chirotic.wordpress.com/2013/01/10/planets-unaspected-feral-peregrine/

Jeremy in that article only takes into account aspects to planets and not to angles. The article you link to has the same opinion, but I guess everyone does it his way.

I do know that my Venus is not alone, if you count the asteroid Pallas Athena, she's part of a grand trine with my North Node. So they do fish beautifully together.

But since all my other personal planets are in aspect together I do think she stands a bit apart. But she's chosen it herself, I'm sure...

Joyce Mason said...

You make a great point about the asteroid Pallas Athene, Mads. When many of the interpretations of aspects and other astrological basics originally were written, we were only dealing with the visible planets through Saturn ... and a much less complicated world (and fewer possibilities of how things played out because people had fewer choices and tools for life.) Just like all of us, astrology is evolving to consider many other bodies and potential interactions within our horoscopes. It's almost impossible to have something that's unaspected now; there are so many newer possibilities. We're discovery what that all means in practical terms by sharing, just like you're doing here in the Comments. Thank you for that!

I think it's important that the language we use leaves room for people to encompass not only their personal experiences with a planet--or not in case of unaspected planets--but also their level of evolution. We are complex beings now with millions of choices and experiences for handling any astrological phenomenon. Many people see astrologers as authorities, and to see only the negative possibilities in any astrological signature is not fair to "the consumer." At worst, it can contribute to self-fulfilling prophecies. The worst case I know of was an astrologer who predicted the exact time of a client's death--and he died at that very moment. Was she such a great seer or did she scare him to death with her prediction?

Lots of layers to your questions and comments. It's great to continue learning with you.

Mads Elung-Jensen said...

Yes, I try to honour the KISS-principle, but sometimes it is necessary to go through a lot of layers of complexity to find a way to keep it simple stupid...

And I (and my Venus) do find the whole theme of the power of predictions interesting and scary. I prefer to predict the past. I was predicted dead at 32 and I almost did die. But death is of course also transformation, and I certainly feel very much alive and kicking. Correct me if I'm mistaken :)

Joyce Mason said...

Sure glad that prediction was wrong about your dying at 32, Mads. You're definitely alive, well, kicking and commenting. Blessed to know you and have you participate often on The Radical Virgo!