One thing that might be fun, as we all navigate this Venus retrograde in Gemini that leads up to some big events, is to look at the charts for some famous people who have Venus retrograde in Gemini. The software I use has given me a bunch of names. So far, I don’t see a clear connection between them all, but I’m working on them one at a time. Here’s the first one – and I’m sure you’ve heard of him: Johannes Brahms.
Brahms was born May 7, 1833 (Sun close to the midspring cross-quarter) in Hamburg, Germany, but spent most of his professional life in Vienna, Austria. (You can see his natal chart here.) A master composer and virtuoso pianist of the Romantic period, he was both a traditionalist and an innovator — a master of counterpoint and development who used highly structured forms to move forward new approaches to harmony and melody that have been characterized as ‘bold’. He began playing as a boy in taverns, dance halls and brothels.
Interestingly, Brahms’ retrograde Venus in Gemini makes one major aspect — a strange, out-of-sign trine to Neptune in late Capricorn. This is an image of his extremely complex melodies and use of harmonics, as if he is trying to work out the tension of the out-of-sign trine through his compositions. It’s as if they must pass through a filter in order to be in harmony — but they get there sure enough.
It may also indicate why he was not married, though through history there have always been people who have opted out of householding and marital bonds. Other aspects indicate that his energy was being focused in other ways. For example, his Mars — the other planetary half to sexual/romantic relations – is conjunct his North Node in mid-Cancer. His drive and libido are already married – to his mission of artistic expression, in the emotionally moving realm of the Romantic orchestral movement. However, it’s important to remember how little we really know about the private life of anyone, much less someone born nearly two centuries ago.
Meanwhile, his Moon is just past a conjunction to Pholus in late Sagittarius: his inner, emotional landscape is tuned more to the Galactic Center than anything else (which seems to support his Mars-North Node conjunction in Cancer). Brahms is expressing the music of something much larger than himself.
Over in his Aries ascendant, Mercury conjoining Jupiter ensures that this creative expression of his soul will be big, clearly broadcast, and expand far beyond himself. Pluto on the ascendant in the 12th house adds some evolutionary push, although it seemed to come from a corner of his psyche he may not have been fully conscious of.