Expecting the unexpected: Venus opposite Uranus

Young women with a body-painted message, about to protest the repeal of free public education in favor of privatization, at the University of Antioquia, Colombia. Photo by Nicole Hanhan. www.facebook.com/NicoleHanhanPhotos

Today is Thursday, Sept. 15, 2011. The Moon is in Aries until about 3:25 pm EDT, when it enters Taurus. It will be there for a couple of days, where it is said to bring out the tendency toward acquiring material things — especially if they are a mix of beautiful and practical. You’ll want to balance the shopping urge with some attention to the non-material, more ‘spiritual’ plane with regard to your relationships since Venus, ruler of Taurus, is still not yet visible in the sky. Hmmm… does your local sex boutique happen to carry hand-crafted toys blessed by the local Tantric shaman?

Earth & water - photo by Eric.

More seriously — but along that wavelength — now that Venus is in Libra, it is opposing Uranus in Aries. The energy of an opposition between these planets is a bit different from a square, which we experienced in early July with Venus in Cancer. Oppositions tend to be more externalized than a square; we’re more likely to see them play out between us and another, rather than within ourselves.

So with the goddess of love on one side and the cosmic light socket on the other, be ready for spontaneous changes in mood and/or erotic encounters. According to Robert Hand, such encounters under this transit may not be meant for the long haul. But as long as you are not too bound to rigid habits, any frisky and flirtatious interactions could provide a really fun escape. The opposition is exact on Saturday, so keep your weekend plans loose and remember that saying ‘yes’ may be the only thing standing between you and a new adventure with a new friend — and not just the sexual kind.

Gary noted that Venus and Uranus have opposing natures: Venus is wet and brings things together; Uranus is dry and separates things. He writes, “there is a push/pull or approach/avoid feel to this aspect. It may appear on the surface that you want things that are mutually exclusive — you want your freedom but you also want to get laid regularly, for instance. You can have both, but you and the other person may just have to start out with a little less than you like, until a balance can be struck. Insisting on having your way all the way and all the time is either delusional or a deal breaker.”

Eric, on the other hand, thinks these two planets are actually more similar than we tend to think. For one thing, both have the most extreme angles of orbit in the solar system. That is, the planets themselves are quite tilted with respect to the plane along which they travel around the Sun. Venus is a bit more eccentric than we tend to think of it; Uranus is actually a bit more charismatic than we give it credit for. There is an unusual aspect of mirroring between the two. Perhaps even more unusual is how the two mythical figures are related. Uranus mated with Gaia each time he brought night to her, but he hated her offspring and kept imprisoning them, causing her great pain. Gaia asked her sons to castrate Uranus with a special sickle she made. Aphrodite (the Greek version of Venus) was the resulting offspring when Uranus’ testicles were cut off by his youngest son, Cronus, and thrown into the sea.

So, um… keep some condoms with you this weekend. As they say, better to have one and not need it than to need one and not have it. Better yet, do get that hand-crafted, shamanically-blessed sex toy after all — and see how spontaneously you can use it.

Looking for insights on how this week’s astrology affects your personal Sun and rising signs? Try out Planet Waves Light, our streamlined horoscope service. For deeper cultural context and astrological investigation, the standard Planet Waves subscription includes the same horoscopes, plus extensively-researched articles on Fridays.

7 thoughts on “Expecting the unexpected: Venus opposite Uranus”

  1. “you want your freedom but you also want to get laid regularly, for instance.”

    That sounds exactly like my husband. Amazing how accurate these things are.

    The “get laid regularly” sounds like ME.

  2. Amanda and Gary,

    Thank you for the education. Or should one say thanks for the entire pan-cultural cosmological curriculum? This is complex material. There are layers, interpretations, variations and sophistications. What is easily called up is not always easily called away. We are living with the consequences of what was invoked long ago. Hopefully the valuable material you offered today will turn that around and begin a chain of events that will be for the greater good of all. Perhaps someday, you, Gary and Amanda will be remembered for initiating a new and better world. Such is the power of this piece today.

  3. what happened next was war, between the castraters (Olympians) and the castratees (Titans).

    This is called the Titanomachy, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanomachy
    which is really just the Greek version of a kind of archetypal war or struggle against chaos inherent to the cosmogony of many western cultures. The broader mythic theme is called Chaoskampf

    Examples of the chaoskampf in religions of the Ancient Near East include Marduk against Tiamat in the Babylonian Enuma Elish, and Yahweh against Leviathan in the Hebrew Bible (particularly the Book of Job). The Near Eastern myth was adopted in Greek mythology, as reflected in the fight of Zeus, the Olympian against Typhon.

    Typhon attempts to destroy Zeus at the will of Gaia, because Zeus had imprisoned the Titans. Typhon initially overcame Zeus in their first battle, and tore out Zeus’ sinews. However, Hermes recovered the sinews and restored them to Zeus. Typhon was finally defeated by Zeus, who trapped him underneath Mount Etna.

    this also explains why there simply had to be a Rocky II and III

  4. “It may appear on the surface that you want things that are mutually exclusive — you want your freedom but you also want to get laid regularly, for instance.”

    Ha ha! Um, yes. 🙂

  5. I feel completely blessed as I have a toy bag filled to the brim with “shamanically-blessed sex toy(s)” sitting in my bedroom right now. And hand-crafted by my partner at that! The world of BDSM looks so scary for those on the outside, but once one experiences it from the inside, “eyes wide shut”, flying through tantric wormholes of mandalas, there is no turning back. Sounds like a great weekend for a dungeon party!

  6. whoa! had the most unique dream last night featuring my long passed father. the first time ever he’s appeared to me and he’s in sharp imagine vs the rest of the group. this comes to me as I realize how cruel and harsh I am toward my own need for emotional closenes — a real split of Sun/Moon that feels very much what I learned at home. Sorry this sounds so random but I’m getting the sense that I’ve castrated myself in my father’s stead … castrated females? I reckon so.

    mm.

  7. Funny how this post reflects something I saw in my email this week: http://darkgreeny.com/2011/09/13/overlaps-pussy-power/

    I’ve always felt kind of guilty about my castrating fantasies…not that I really fleshed them out, haha, but I do notice a certain language that comes up particularly when I am angry with men or my man in particular and then there is just the general humor between men and women about masculine castration fears. But maybe there’s some evolutionary advantage involved with certain males and castration??? Hmmm….

    I hadn’t heard the myth about Gaia castrating Uranus before. Just for moving on and governing? Seems a little harsh to me. But then, on the other hand, he was mean to their children and she was a mother too. I gather Uranus didn’t mate with Gaia after that. I wonder what happened next.

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