Venus In Aries March 12 - April 5, 2007

Venus is the planet of beauty, love and compromise. This makes Venus the main planet of relationships. Most of our relationship desires revolve around things ruled by Venus. In many ways you can say simply that Venus is the planet of our desires.

What do we really desire? Actually, we all desire the same thing ultimately, to be happy. Venus is the planet of worldly happiness. It is what makes the senses feel good -- what makes love feel good -- it is what makes God alive in us. Our first experiences with God are usually through beautiful experiences in nature or with other people, or some other uplifting and powerfully enjoyable experience. Of course there is also the connection to God that comes through difficulty. Yet while our mind is tormented with difficulty, we are not seeing God. Difficulties are often the catalyst that leads us to truth, and that which is beyond our smaller ego. Yet the moment of a God experience comes as a moment of deep surrender and love. This is the magic alchemy of Venus -- turning personal pleasure into divine love.

In Vedic astrology the planets rule two signs. Usually one of those signs is what's called the mulatrikona sign. It is through this sign that the planet derives its worldly power. For Venus, the mulatrikona, is Libra -- the sign of compromise and choice. Through the sign of Libra we learn to value the desires and wishes of others equal to our own. This is exactly opposite the sign of Aries, where our own inspirations and individual drives take precedent. Ultimately, the more of our own individual desires we are willing to let go of, the more happiness we will have, in the less drained we will be in pursuit of it.

This is simply because most of our suffering is due to our ego and our limited self projected onto our infinite nature. In Libra there is indecision about how everyone's needs can be met. This indecision is more intellectual in nature as Libra is an air sign. Air is related to discrimination and thinking -- not feeling (water), not action (fire), or form (Earth).

The mulatrikona sign shows the origin of earthly power a planet expresses. Yet there is an even higher expression, an otherworldly one, shown by the exaltation sign. Venus is exalted in Pisces, the sign of mysticism and the cosmic mind.

Venus had been exalted in Pisces for a month until today. This exalted Venus had given the promise of many renewed spiritual insights as well as increased love, devotion, art and appreciation for our self and others.

Now that Venus has left Pisces, and entered Aries, we may expect a more selfish direction toward our desires. Also, we will tend to dissipate our vitality and energy in pursuit of those passions. Generally, when Venus is in fire signs passions are very high. The passionate nature of Venus is not one so given to her highest goal of compromise and fairness.

Fire is the element of action -- it's direction is forward -- it's motivation is personal -- it leads to anger when frustrated. Air is the element of thinking -- it's direction is side to side -- it's motivation is social -- it leads to indecision when frustrated.

Not only does the nature of fire signs disrupt Venus, but Venus disrupts the nature of Aries as well. Aries is ruled by Mars and shows the nature of personally inspired actions moving us forward in life. As was mentioned, Venus is not the planet of personal inspirations, is the planet of personal gratification -- they are different.

Our fiery inspirations are oriented towards a long-term goal, aligned with our principles. Hopefully there is disciplined sacrifice and clarity involved. None of those things are important to Venus. She is not disciplined; she tends to be lazy. Venus is not interested in personal long-term motivations, she's interested in the present moment and other people primarily. Venus is not interested in our individual principles and sacrificing worldly happiness for them; she's interested in worldly happiness and adapting to the principles of others and creating harmony out of chaos if possible.

Thus, for the next month we must be careful with our individual desires disrupting our personal, long-term goals -- and also we must watch our self willed motivated nature disrupting our relationships.

This would be a good month to become disciplined about your relationship and implement practical strategies to improve things and courageously face some issues in your relationship. Especially for spiritual couples, doing Yoga or other types of sadhana together could be very powerful. As for your long-term goals, with Venus in Aries you can bring more of a personal element to them. Connect your personally inspired vision to the inspirations of others and see where you can compromise and be more inclusive. Become motivated and focused toward compromise and being inclusive.