What’s so Venus-retrograde-in-Gemini about Venus Williams? More than just her name, it seems. This is the fourth in our series of profiles of famous people with Venus retrograde in Gemini in their charts, and it looks like a pattern is emerging. Johannes Brahms, Brigham Young and Julie Nixon-Eisenhower all have something interesting going on in their personal, romantic relationships: a famous love triangle and otherwise avoidance of women (Brahms); large-volume polygamy (Young’s 50-plus wives); functioning simultaneously as ‘First Lady’ / ‘Daddy’s defender’ and actual wife to another (Nixon-Eisenhower). How does Venus Williams fit the pattern?
Born Venus Ebony Starr Williams (her name just keeps getting better, doesn’t it?) on June 17, 1980, Williams is a champion tennis player known as much for her boasting and masculine stature (she’s 6’1″) as her playing. Her 21 Grand Slam titles tie her for 12th on the all-time list, and are more than any other active player except her younger sister, Serena. Her Wiki page is full of impressive stats — and contains some clues about her life off the court.
You don’t have to look any further than her Mars-Saturn conjunction in Virgo in the 12th — square her Venus — to see where it comes from. That conjunction is her essence as an athlete: powerful, masculine, disciplined, a little rigid, and pissed off. Despite her first name, Williams isn’t known for her elegance — though that may come through in her secondary career pursuits, where her Venus guides her eye for design.
With an Associate’s degree in fashion design and working on a business degree, Williams has launched an interior design firm (located in Jupiter, Fla. – insert astrology punchline here) and a clothing line. She and Serena have become part owners of the Miami Dolphins. In 2005, she was credited with finally persuading Wimbledon and the French Open to pay women equal prize money – a goal of former champ Billie Jean King and others. So she has business smarts, knows how to handle her resources, and doesn’t shy away from initiating and leading in the public sphere.
What about her personal life? Details here are a little slimmer: she credits her faith as a Jehovah’s Witness as helping her cope with her sister Yetunde Price’s murder in 2003. As a young player, her father insisted she and Serena still ‘get to be kids’ and focus on their schoolwork and, aware of racist overtones at competitions, pulled both girls from national youth tournaments – later taking over their coaching himself.
Her love life seems only to have one press-worthy notation: a long-term relationship to pro-golfer Hank Kuehne. From at least 2007-2010, he was a “visible presence” at tournaments, and Williams once described him as, “a great guy” who “understands competition” and is “very supportive.” At one point rumors of an engagement were in the air, but in 2010 the couple split – and the following year Kuehne married someone else.
So why doesn’t the woman named after the goddess of love have more visibly going on in the romance department? It must be more than Venus being retrograde – after all, that didn’t stop Brigham Young from gettin’ plenty. Williams’ Venus seems to be making the most aspects of any of the people we’ve profiled so far; perhaps that further complicates a feminine side already ‘split’ or ‘doubled’ by its Gemini placement and focused inward.
Notably, Venus makes a sextile to a collection of planets in a busy 11th house. That’s the house of the larger community beyond the family, the place where ‘the general public’ intersects with the personal public (i.e., family). The planets in this house are mostly in Leo: a snug stellium of the Moon, North Node, Juno and Transpluto.
It’s tempting to say Williams has a narrow or highly focused idea of ‘relationship’ thanks to Juno-Transpluto, and then wonder why she hasn’t been married since she was 20. But the pairing is in Leo – the sign of the Self — and in the 11th. It seems on one level, her Self is so highly identified with the public – and her public role – that it may be the only relationship there’s room for. When you date Venus Williams, you’re dating her and her wider world – and it could be she only ever plays for keeps thanks to that Juno. Just like her tennis game.
With the North Node there, she may sense that her relationship to her public (and her public identity) truly is her higher mission in life. The Moon ensures that she feels passionately about it. Retrograde Venus sextile the whole Leo stellium plugs her feminine energy, dual as it is, into something much larger than a simple one-to-one pairing can easily contain.
True, she seems to strive to keep herself in balance with her world, thanks to her Libra ascendant. But with Pluto right there — trine Venus — ‘balance in relationships’ may be a concept ‘under construction’ in Williams’ life, and rather fluid.
It’s a construction project that looks like it has trouble finding its footing due to two retrograde outer planets talking to that Venus: Uranus in Scorpio in the 2nd making a quincunx, and Neptune in Sagittarius making an opposition. The former looks like Williams has some pretty hot, deep, dark sexual energy informing how she feels about herself – but it’s unpredictable and tends to be turned inward. With Venus on the other end in Gemini, she may feel like she’s constantly trying to adjust between two erotic poles, never quite finding the happy middle ground.
The latter, Neptune in opposition, asks her to choose between satisfying her own desires or serving love – and may come with some rose-colored glasses with regard to her choice of partner. That sounds like it may have been the case with Kuehne – though we can only speculate. As for serving love, perhaps that’s what going on with that Leo stellium in some sense
Williams’ Venus is just past a conjunction with her Sun: her very life force / ego sense is dual and also playing off that Leo Moon. Call it solar fuel for both versions of her, in relationship to her public self and her personal self. As mentioned, Williams has too many planets talking to her Venus (to say nothing of non-Venus aspects) to cram into this post, but I wanted to point out some others and invite readers to tell us what you see:
— Venus sextile Pallas in Aries
— Venus trine the South Node in Aquarius
— Venus square Mars-Saturn in Virgo (applying to both)
— Venus semi-sextile Mercury in Cancer
Sina,
What a beautiful history lesson, all the more so because it is from a personal perspective. Thank you for sharing.
be
Thanks Amanda xx
sina — what great news about samoa! i love your ability to see the venus Rx “twin reconciliation” theme in the new relationship between samoa and american samoa. what a beautiful metaphor and reality — happy 50th to your country.
🙂
Katie Scarlett,
Describing someone as “masculine” or “feminine” could hardly be a racist slur. It’s more about their energy. I for one have very strong masculine energy, and am often told off by Mum for walking and behaving more “masculine” than being the gorgeous girly girl my mum would have preferred. Having so many planets in masculine sign, Leo, would surely strengthen William’s masculine energy, rather than her cultural energy.
Thanks PW for all the Venus information and articles & all the PW bloggers for your interesting perceptions and insights. I always wish I had more time to contribute.
Our Pacific island nation, Samoa, just celebrated 50 years of Independence on 1 June. Our official date of Independence is midnight on 1 January 1962, but we always celebrate it on the 1 June when the weather is better. Many are here to help us celebrate our independence from our colonial past connections. We have had war ships in our harbour from Australia, New Zealand and the USA right alongside the NOAA research ship, and seven vaka ( traditional sailing vessels ) from Samoa, Fiji, Cook Islands, Tahiti, Aotearoa(New Zealand), Pan-Pacific vessels with crew from all the other Pacific Island nations. The Vaka have been sailing as one across the Pacific Ocean developing awareness and preservation of the ocean environment and recapturing the Pacific traditions of ocean voyaging between island nations using traditional navigational methods – http://www.pacificvoyagers.org. We have had dignitaries from all other Pacific Island nations also here to honour us, as the first Pacific island to gain independence 50 years ago. While the celebrations were fun, and peaceful, and UB40 rocked us with their cool reggae beats, the highlight for me was knowing that our American Samoan brothers and sisters want to open up and strenghten their bonds with us again. The politics that divided us 113 years ago were not of our making or desire. Germany, Britain and the US all wanted a piece of us for decades, and brought war ships in to fight over us. Karmically, a cyclone came and wiped out 5 of the 6 battleships so the Treaty of Berlin was quickly signed in 1899 dividing Samoa between Germany and USA, with Britain pulling out. While our American Samoan families were happy under US rule, we were not and campaigned peacefully during the German rule, then throughout New Zealand rule when they claimed Samoa for Britain during World War 1. In the late 1930’s the UN finally agreed to our request for self-governance, and together with the New Zealand government, we worked towards our independence. Now at our 50th Birthday, our brothers and sisters from American Samoa want to come home to their culture, their language, their dance and their people – it is a truly beautiful time of reconciliation for us, a true reflection of Venus Retro in Gemini – our other half has returned and is recognised, not as us and them, like it has for decades, but us as one.
With deepest love and respect,
Sina
i *think* “J-Dub” is a jehova’s witnesses joke? i don’t get where the “Dub” comes from…
OH –WAIT — maybe that’s for “W” — like how we refer to George W. Bush?
that’s had me confused all day. so glad i finally got it….
I know what you mean Amanda; that WOULD be a handy button to have on a computer. I wanted to comment on the Venus in Gemini sextile Pallas in Aries forming a yod to her Uranus but was afraid I would be in delicate territory, what with Salacia trining it these days.
I don’t know what the j-Dub thing is Eric.
be
katie scarlett —
perhaps i should have used the words “physique and features”. it’s just an impression i have — and no, i don’t think that all tall and/or athletic black women have this particular aesthetic i am responding to.
i don’t use it because she is black. i use it because i have seen many photos of her — and her sister serena — even in gorgeous evening gowns and makeup, where they both look distinctly masculine to me, rather than *my* idea of “feminine.”
i have seen plenty of white women — athletic and not — who also have, in my opinion, very “masculine” features and physiques. the one i happened to be writing about for today is black. and i have never seen photos of Maria Sharapova to be able to compare. i’ll go look now.
and: women over 6 feet tall are still rather uncommon compared to the number of women who are shorter than 6 feet — it’s still a height more often found in men. just because other writers have not used the phrase to describe sharapova does not mean that it would not apply…
Maria Sharapova (who is competing in the French Open even as we speak), is 6’2″. I have never heard her stature described as “masculine”. That’s a racist slur.
thanks be!
i soooo wanted to get into eris in the 7th as well as her 5th & 8th more thoroughly, but i couldn’t find the “succinct” button on my computer…
🙂
She is hell in sneakers.
Her angles are covered by Pluto/BML, Nessus and Eris. Everything else comes back to that Mars/Saturn, which is in her 12th — she is a tortured soul, and paranoid. Tennis is simple. It’s what she can do.
We might well ask about this J-Dub thing. It’s not exactly a well-thought-through cosmology. Just 144,000 of them are ever going to get into heaven.
Romance would be one thing, marriage another for Venus. . .like the rest of us. As for marriage, start with her 7th house ruler; it is Mars conjunct Saturn making it likely that wedded bliss is a desire she would delay. Then having warrior woman Pallas-Athene and who-needs-marriage Eris in the 7th house doesn’t seem to invite a search through websites looking for a perfect partner. Add to that her south node in Aquarius and in the 5th house of romance could indicate she is comfortable with and prefers platonic friendship over romance, plus her south node is the focal point of a yod from Saturn (Mars) in Virgo sextile Mercury (Nessus) in Cancer. This might be indicate that she is capable of critical verbal expression and a controlled but nasty temper feeding that aloof Aquarian south node. I mean, where’s the love?
Uranus may be in Scorpio, but it’s square the north and south nodes, just as Chiron in Taurus is. Venus wants to be able to have independence in getting and spending her own money (Uranus in 2nd house). She could have been “wounded” through some partnership resources (Chiron in 8th) and since the ruler of the 8th house is planet Venus who is opposite Neptune in the 3rd house, it could have something to do with her sister (3rd house of brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles) or another close relative. She probably feels she was deceived. Her strong Leo Moon is sextile her Gemini Sun and rules her 10th house of reputation, so she’s known (I assume) for family ties. However, it wasn’t so very long ago that Neptune was opposite her natal Moon and as it was transiting her 5th house of romance, etc., it’s possible she could have been deceived or betrayed by someone she loved.
Since Juno is conjunct her north node and trines independent Eris, I think Venus will eventually get married when she’s no longer so directly involved in her athletics and other pursuits. I suspect it will be an older man, someone she trusts, and it may be done in secret as the ruler of her 7th house is in the 12th house conjunct Saturn.
be