Venus in Capricorn

  Wringin Lawang, a 14th century Majapahit split gate in Trowulan

 (photo credit: Gunkarta, September 2007)

The bare bones here are that Venus enters Capricorn on Wednesday, January 9th at 4:12 a.m., UT/+0 time. And Venus will be in Capricorn until early on February 2nd.

So we have the whole of January in which to do our Venus-in-Capricorn thing.

But what is that ‘thing’ about? Knowing all the popular concepts of Venus as love and Venus as pleasure (and how people far prefer such concepts to anything else one might say about Venus), if the metaphysical Venus means anything, it’s all about getting what you want out of life.

Venus represents results. And how we relate to what ‘results’ tend to be in life, that’s our natal Venus. All the pluses, all the minuses of disappointment and elation, they’re all read through our natal Venus placement.

That said, Venus is results because Venus speaks to how we go about getting or generating results. So Venus isn’t “fate,” per se. By placement, sign and aspect, Venus shows how we will tend to go about trying to get the results we allegedly want – and how realistic we are about how that works.

Or not.

Given whatever your natal tendency is, and that natal tendencies tend to be a life-long ‘habit’ we can only change through acknowledging and ‘retraining’ ourselves (think of it as quitting a really bad nicotine habit), planets through the signs represent ‘transiting times’ when aspects of our lives are up for understanding and when change can be more effectively and easily mastered.

Which is why we pay attention to transits, capiche?

Known as the sign of ‘achievement, social status, and success’ Capricorn is the most worldly of all zodiac signs in that it stresses everything which happens in the world and our need to understand that, learn about it and utilize it in our life.

What that buzzword list doesn’t convey is that effort is required. Social standing (or social status) is only partly that which we might otherwise refer to as ‘class and caste.’ Yes, that’s the ‘static’ reading of Capricorn, but especially as planets transit through this sign, it’s more about building our lives and what having aims and goals requires of us to know and understand. Everything has pluses and minuses, as we know. And that Capricorn is the sign of law as a ‘regulating force’ should tell us that Capricorn is a sign of consequences.

An old gavel and book of court minutes from the 1800s on display at the

Minnesota Judicial Center (photo credit: Jonathunder, April 2008)

This leads us back to Venus, a planet which on the metaphysical level could be thought of as something like a hinge. If the universal law is for every action there is an opposite and equal reaction, Venus represents the moment where one turns into the other, where what we do turns into how others react to us, or where what we do generates results.

Or doesn’t.

Ruled by Saturn, Capricorn is all about the time we have in life, the time it takes to get anything done, the rules of the road which we need to observe in reaching our goals. All things Capricorn remind us that we don’t exist in a vacuum. So while your ‘group’ may be all about a certain set of standards, your group’s standards are also – at some point – going to meet up with feedback from the world.

That would be your group’s Venus ‘hinge,’ which as we see Venus moving through Capricorn is likely to get activated…along with all the other places in the world and in your life where the public-and-private sectors are likely now to intersect.

For instance: January is a natural month when new laws, codes, rules…and other sorts of Capricorn-ish things go into effect. So to have Venus doing it’s Capricorn transit during January really emphasizes this fact. And that Pluto is also in Capricorn tells us that there are some rather significant changes in the works.

In fact, if we remember that Pluto is all about those obsessions, those passions, those cravings which seem to be about what others think of us. But they’re not. Pluto is really about the illusion we have that others can make us feel better about ourselves and all we go through trying to make that dream into a reality. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. And when it doesn’t…

Let’s just put it this way: there are hardly any ouches worse than Pluto ouches. Neptune is close, but where Neptune pits us against our own feelings, there’s always some sort of public twinge to the Pluto aspect, which raises the really awful specter of humiliation.

We should have known. But we didn’t because we didn’t want to know. That’s the Pluto lesson in a nutshell: knowing, whether you like what you learn or not, is always better. Forewarned is forearmed.

Venus conjuncts Pluto by transit on January 16th, having come into orb of Pluto on the 12th and not leaving Pluto’s orb until January 20th. So despite the fact that the Sun and Mercury are also in Capricorn as Venus toodles its way into the sign (on the 9th), this is probably the crux of this Capricorn Venus transit and thus when we’re likely to feel maximal Venus effects (courtesy of Pluto).

But there’s another factor here named Juno. Juno is also in Capricorn as Venus shows up, and while the Sun and Mercury scoot on ahead (both reaching Aquarius on the 19th), Juno lingers in the Pluto environs, giving us to know that discipline of self is really critical or called for during this time. Those who will not exert that effort for their own part (or who haven’t) are likely to be those who get notified that there are rules – new or otherwise – which are now going to levy the discipline which hasn’t been mustered.

 Juno and Argus

by Peter Paul Rubens (c. 1611)

Oh yes…Tantalus is in on this act. So some will be tempted to try and get away with something. Or maybe this is when bad choices, bad manners, bad acts all get slammed in that singularly Saturn/Capricorn way.

That as Venus enters Capricorn it also comes into range to square Uranus (in Aries) only doubles down on the idea that these are changing times and that we need to change with them.

This is also a signal that there will be three distinct camps: those willing to change, those against change and those who are going to get changed.

The rule with squares is all about the ‘measured’ response and the grappling not as much with the problem as with ourselves when it comes to approaching the problem. Astrological squares tend to represent situations or habits where we so favor one side of the question or the thing we like doing that we neglect a balanced approach.

Once we learn that we need to do what we need to do and that all must stay in balance, then we become the architects of our lives. There are more structures built on the principle of square angles – the 90 degree angle – probably than anything else. Look at almost any room. The walls and ceiling meet at a 90-degree corner. Engineering is the science which teaches us how to balance structure against load…the wall against the ceiling, so that what gets built doesn’t just stand, but becomes stronger for the unity.

Astrology’s square aspect is just like that. And when we favor one thing over the other…the not changing or the trying only to favor our desire to escape effort, responsibility, change or having to see ourselves as part of some ‘whole’…then we run into problems when the ceiling caves in!

This Venus-Uranus effect is strongest from when Venus enters Capricorn on January 9th through January 17th, with a ‘high point’ (when the square is perfected) on January 13th.

Considering that all these squares and conjunctions occur in 1st decanate degrees (that is, degrees between zero and nine of a given sign) whatever goes on during this period is about what we do, don’t do or have/haven’t done…or some physical circumstance which pertains to our life. With Capricorn being part of any and every chart, obviously there are things which will pertain to everyone. But it’s also safe to say that anyone with chart placements (planets, nodes or axis points) between 5 and 9 degrees are going to ‘feel’ things more acutely.

They also have a better chance of being able to change things. Or start something new. Or be a ‘mover and shaker’ in something – large or small, public or private – which happens or is under way.

Venus transits are not thought of as ‘major’ in terms of life events. But our feelings about ourselves and our lives are often reflected by Venus passages. Accomplishment and achievement are Capricorn issues. How you feel about yourself in this regard is likely to be tested during this time. Particularly in the chart of women (don’t ask me why, it just works this way!) marriage is a Capricorn thing. And considering how the happiness of one partner plays out in the life of the Significant Other, unless you’re a male in a homosexual relationship, this Venus passage may spell a whole period of effort, reassessment…or maybe just planning for the future, particularly if a change is sorely needed.

On the whole, Venus in Capricorn is thought of as a good time for steady progress, though the Uranus and Pluto aspects which go along with this Venus passage tend to say a light hand on the tiller and a willingness to flex are likely to be needed. With Pluto also transiting Capricorn, we are all already on notice that old ways and old standards are in transition. It’s a whole ‘old guard’ on its way out, making way for new ways of being, doing and regarding life as a whole.

Don’t expect huge shifts here. With the indicators we have talked about happen during the waxing phase of the Moon we know that these factors pertain more to the new than the old, telling us that old ways, old habits, old concepts of power and functionality are still pretty much entrenched.

But change is in the wind and sweeping in upon us. Uranus in Aries is a very personal sign of change. Pluto in Capricorn is a sign of changes in the public, cultural and commerce arenas.

And let's not forget that Venus is making this shift into Capricorn the very day after dwarf planet Eris goes direct. Given what we've learned about celestial stations, this means Venus' Capricorn ingress...and to some degree the entirety of Venus' transit of Capricorn (i.e., the rest of January) is going to either be about dealing with Eris effects in our life...learning from Eris effects...or trying to move past Eris effects.

(If you missed the Eris post, it's the one right before this one.)

 We have very few images of Eris, but here's one of Eris and its moon Dysnomia as imaged

by the Hubble Space Telescope.

(photo credit: NASA-JPL)

The standard astrology here is that any 'event' which happens after the actual station is about dealing, coping, evolving from what we've learned or what we're learning in the moment of the station. (Events prior to the station would indicate things yet to occur.) So at some level, Venus' transit of Capricorn is about those unexpected, unanticipated, unheard of 'Eris Effects' in our life...just as Eris' station, in leading into this Venus-Capricorn ingress has been about restructuring, starting anew and the care needed in order to not just 'do the quality thing' but have a quality life.

Maybe we're questioning what that word 'quality' really means, too.   

The smart mentality now takes stock of what’s coming down the pike. If you use this time to imagine, plan and assess, you’ll do well. Paying attention to the broader indicators and – especially as the Sun and Mercury reach Aquarius – the mass market, the public mood, the word on the street…while it’s not what you should bet the farm on, it is worth thinking about as a sign of what lies ahead. And where you want to be not just in terms of 'how it looks' but in the sense of what life is...and really should be.
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