{"id":57862,"date":"2012-06-07T01:00:58","date_gmt":"2012-06-07T05:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/?p=57862"},"modified":"2012-06-07T11:56:28","modified_gmt":"2012-06-07T15:56:28","slug":"from-the-venus-rx-in-gemini-files-venus-williams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/astro-daily\/from-the-venus-rx-in-gemini-files-venus-williams\/","title":{"rendered":"From the Venus Rx in Gemini files: They Call Her Venus"},"content":{"rendered":"

What\u2019s 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<\/a>, Brigham Young<\/a> and Julie Nixon-Eisenhower<\/a> 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\u2019s 50-plus wives); functioning simultaneously as \u2018First Lady\u2019 \/ ‘Daddy\u2019s defender\u2019 and actual wife to another (Nixon-Eisenhower). How does Venus Williams fit the pattern?<\/p>\n

\"Venus
Venus Williams at the 2009 U.S. Open. Photo from Wikimedia Commons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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. <\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

With an Associate\u2019s degree in fashion design and working on a business degree, Williams has launched an interior design firm (located in Jupiter, Fla. \u2013 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 \u2013 a goal of former champ Billie Jean King and others. So she has business smarts, knows how to handle her resources, and doesn\u2019t shy away from initiating and leading in the public sphere.<\/p>\n

What about her personal life? Details here are a little slimmer: she credits her faith as a Jehovah\u2019s Witness as helping her cope with her sister Yetunde Price\u2019s murder in 2003. As a young player, her father insisted she and Serena still \u2018get to be kids\u2019 and focus on their schoolwork and, aware of racist overtones at competitions, pulled both girls from national youth tournaments \u2013 later taking over their coaching himself.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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 \u201cvisible presence\u201d at tournaments, and Williams once described him as, \u201ca great guy\u201d who \u201cunderstands competition\u201d and is \u201cvery supportive.\u201d At one point rumors of an engagement were in the air, but in 2010 the couple split \u2013 and the following year Kuehne married someone else.<\/p>\n

So why doesn\u2019t 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 \u2013 after all, that didn\u2019t stop Brigham Young from gettin\u2019 plenty. Williams\u2019 Venus seems to be making the most aspects of any of the people we\u2019ve profiled so far; perhaps that further complicates a feminine side already \u2018split\u2019 or \u2018doubled\u2019 by its Gemini placement and focused inward. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Natal chart for Venus Williams. Click for larger image.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Notably, Venus makes a sextile to a collection of planets in a busy 11th house. That\u2019s the house of the larger community beyond the family, the place where \u2018the general public\u2019 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.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s tempting to say Williams has a narrow or highly focused idea of \u2018relationship\u2019 thanks to Juno-Transpluto, and then wonder why she hasn\u2019t been married since she was 20. But the pairing is in Leo \u2013 the sign of the Self — and in the 11th. It seems on one level, her Self is so highly identified with the public \u2013 and her public role \u2013 that it may be the only relationship there\u2019s room for. When you date Venus Williams, you\u2019re dating her and her wider world \u2013 and it could be she only ever plays for keeps thanks to that Juno. Just like her tennis game.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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 — \u2018balance in relationships\u2019 may be a concept \u2018under construction\u2019 in Williams\u2019 life, and rather fluid. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s 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 \u2013 but it\u2019s unpredictable and tends to be turned inward. With Venus on the other end in Gemini, she may feel like she\u2019s constantly trying to adjust between two erotic poles, never quite finding the happy middle ground. <\/p>\n

The latter, Neptune in opposition, asks her to choose between satisfying her own desires or serving love \u2013 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 \u2013 though we can only speculate. As for serving love, perhaps that\u2019s what going on with that Leo stellium in some sense<\/p>\n

Williams\u2019 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:<\/p>\n

— Venus sextile Pallas in Aries<\/p>\n

— Venus trine the South Node in Aquarius<\/p>\n

— Venus square Mars-Saturn in Virgo (applying to both)<\/p>\n

— Venus semi-sextile Mercury in Cancer <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What\u2019s 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 … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":191,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":""},"categories":[1734],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57862"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/191"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57862\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}