Venus spends 96 days in Aries in 2017, due to her retrograde in Aries/Pisces. This is about three times as long as she normally spends transiting a sign. Since Venus will be spending such a long time in the sign, I thought it would be fitting to explore the charts of people with Venus in Aries, to see what I can see. Aries is the sign of Mars, and when Venus is here there is an impetuousness to her, a rashness, a healthy sense of competition to light her fire. There is much demonstration and assertion when it comes to love. Aries is the sign of identity, the individual, the lone hero, the warrior, the leader, the pioneer and the conqueror. Here the planet of love, beauty, and art dresses in Aries garb to perform Venus’ function of joining and bringing together.
Trigger Warning! Some material below may be difficult or challenging for some readers. You know yourself best, so please proceed with care.
Ralph Waldo Emerson was an essayist, lecturer, and leader of the transcendentalist movement in the 19th century. His Venus in Aries is in the 7th house, so it is strong in terms of bringing its significations to pass. It is also the ruler of his Libra ascendant.
The idea of individualism was woven into Emerson’s immense body of work. Individualism is a philosophy that values the individual, self reliance, and the interests of the individual over those of the group, state, or societal structure.
To examine Venus’ realm of love, Emerson was married to Ellen Louisa Tucker for 2 years before she died of tuberculosis. In his chart Venus in the 7th house of relationship rules the first house of himself, as well as the 8th house of partner’s resources, death, fear, and psychological and emotional depth. Ellen came from a wealthy family and after court proceedings her inheritance was passed on to Emerson, and then used to finance his writings and those of other transcendentalists. He was haunted by his wife’s death and visited her grave often, even opening her coffin.
Emerson’s second house by derived houses would be be the marriage partner’s 8th house of their inheritance. Mars is the ruler of this house and it is found with the Moon in Leo in Emerson’s 11th house, which describes supporting the creativity of self and others through its placement in Leo and by house.
Pytor Tchaikovsky was a Russian composer during the 19th century. He has Venus in Aries conjunct Mercury in Aries.
He was trained in a Western style of composition which at first incited disdain from Russian listenership. Later, by reconciling his Western training with native musical practices he, with tremendous effort, pioneered a new style of Russian music. This process of creative development generated problems in his personal relationships which took a toll on his self confidence. He rejected engagement in socializing and public life until the season of his Uranus opposition in 1884, around which time he was honored by Emperor Alexander III.
Today he is generally believed to have been gay. He was tormented by this during his life and kept it as a private part of himself for most of his life.
The broader pattern of the time and place in which Tchaikovsky was living is that Russia was going through an identity (Aries) transformation. This was mirrored in the Russian people’s reception of Tchaikovsky’s mixed styles of composition that mirrored both his training and heritage. The criticism he received was based on his music not being nationalistic enough, and not exemplifying native musical values of the land and cultural identity.
Venus is with Mercury in the sign of Mars. Mercury is genderless and gender fluid, moving between male and female and occupying that crossroads and many such other ones. It is interesting to note that through his own creative development, he helped to midwife a new creative identity for Russia.
Critic’s review of Tchaikovsky’s music follows. Can you hear the fiery and demanding Venus in Aries here?
“Tchaikovsky’s music demanded active engagement from the listener and, as Botstein phrases it, “spoke to the listener’s imaginative interior life, regardless of nationality.” Conservative critics, he adds, may have felt threatened by the “violence and ‘hysteria’ ” they detected and felt such emotive displays “attacked the boundaries of conventional aesthetic appreciation—the cultured reception of art as an act of formalist discernment—and the polite engagement of art as an act of amusement.” Source.
Adrienne Rich was a poet, essayist and radical feminist. From Baltimore! Her Venus is
also in the 7th house and the ruler of the Libra ascendant. This is another example of a Venus in a strong angular house that plays a prominent role in the life. Angular planets are said to be most able to bring about their significations. Since Venus is the ruler of the ascendant, Venus represents Rich herself.
Rich brought her personal life into her politically charged poetry. Her poetry made significant contributions to broadening the dimensions of the feminist movements of her day. In a June 1984 speech, she discusses the concept of being located within place and a body as influencing self concept and self representation through language, very Venus in Aries as ruler of the self and the body. In a broader way, here we see the self and the self’s experiences as the springboard material that pioneers advancement of women’s issues, a description pointed to by Venus’ applying trine to Saturn in Sagittarius in the third house. It is also interesting that Saturn, one symbol for father in the chart, is in Sagittarius in the third house, and Rich’s father deliberately shaped Rich’s mind, wanting to produce a prodigy. She pored over his library, and finding inspiration there and encouragement from her father to write her own poetry. The Sun, the other symbol for father in the chart, is conjunct Jupiter in the 8th house, which repeats the symbolism of Saturn in Sagittarius but also brings a body-centered, earthy and extraordinary depth and staying power to Rich’s existence (Sun), and substantial support from her father.
After the end of her first marriage and death by suicide of her former husband, Rich started a lesbian relationship which continued to her death in 2012. She wrote of the suppressed lesbian within her beginning to stretch her limbs, and explored demonstrating leadership in sexual equality in relationship through exploring herself in this new space of sexual identity.
