Venus/Saturn: Getting Real, Relationship-wise

8.23.06


Saturn's at it again… tossing tests at us to see if we'll choose impeccability and authenticity over vanity and bravado. Every choice has its consequences.

Last week, it was Mercury that faced Saturn's wrath, pressuring us to speak and think righteously—or have our words come back to haunt us. This time around, it's Venus being subjected to such treatment, moving through Leo toward a conjunction with Saturn late in the week.

Conjunctions with Saturn put a damper on Venus's pleasant charm, constraining her usual manner of attracting romance and interpersonal connection into our lives. Venus and Saturn work together to ensure we're engaged only with those people who are wholly appropriate for us in the real world, not merely in a 'la-la land' where our hungry hearts cling to whomever will have us.

When we're blinded by love, we can't see where we're going. Are we heading into the sunset toward paradise… or marching straight into a hole of doom?

If a relationship isn't right for us, it'll eventually self-destruct. Or worse, we insist on staying, only to observe our vital life-force drain right out from us, little by little, drop by drop. We doing nobody any favors—least of all, ourselves—by sticking around under false pretenses.

Saturday's (Aug 26) Venus-Saturn conjunction asks us to get real about our interpersonal involvements. Are we in, or out? Are we genuinely moved by the union, or merely keeping up appearances? Where we take the easy way or favor pride over principle, we're playing with fire. Maybe we'll be found out, and forced to confront ramifications inflicted on us by the other person. Or maybe our secret will stay safe… behind the same thick walls that keep our heart hidden away, cold and alone.

Venus and Saturn aren't necessarily a bleak combination, however, if you take your relationships seriously and don't shy away from putting in the required work. Instead, a new level of greater stability and mutual understanding is within your reach. Simply make the commitment, and put your love on the line. If it supports your increasing wisdom and maturity, it'll rise to new heights.

Sure, these words are easier to read than to live. When it comes to matters of the heart, we'd often prefer to believe what we want to believe than swallow the truth. That's Neptune complicating the scene by making the alternative to responsible relationship habits (the one that tells us 'love is all that matters') seem so appealing.

Venus also opposes Neptune at the same time she conjoins Saturn. Please recall that Saturn and Neptune are in opposition to one another, in the most noteworthy astro-aspect of the next year. Under Neptune's sway, Venus is oh-so-tempted by the illusory perfection that appears out over there, like a desert oasis promising all the fresh water you can drink, with none of the pesky grains of sand that come with a more measured, mature approach. Or is it a mirage, existing only in our mind's eye?

This push-and-pull—between Saturn's sober realism and Neptune's romantic idealism—is the major astrological theme we must contend with between now and next summer, as these two planetary players oppose each other. These current couple weeks, with first Mercury and then Venus meeting up with Saturn to emphasize this longer-range transit, are our first big taste of it. Not surprisingly, in the midst of all this, the first exact peak of the Saturn-Neptune opposition hits next Thursday (Aug 31). (The remaining two peaks are on Feb 28 07 and Jun 25 07.)

The pressure to strike a vital, sustainable balance between these two will continue to dominate the astro-scene for many months to come… ripping the rose-colored glasses right off our heads, and asking us to do something compassionately responsive with the resultant realities we face.