The Many Loves of Venus-in-Gemini

3.30.12


And just when you thought you'd had enough of certain planets overstaying their welcome in certain signs (ahem, I'm talking to you, Mars in Virgo)…

… here arrives Venus into Gemini (on Tue Apr 3), where she will stay for four full months (though her average sign-visit is 3-to-4 weeks). Why such a lengthy stay? By now, you should know the answer must involve an impending retrograde.

Yes, before Mars has even had the chance to finish his retrograde, Venus will enter the shadow of hers. Venus's actual retrograde spans from May 15 through June 27, so it's a wee bit premature for our full examination. (Here's a teaser: Two main themes are revisiting unfinished relationship business and revaluing financial circumstances.) What's most important to glean right now is the proliferative, multiplicative effect of so much Venus-in-Gemini on our experience of possibility. Approach from a different angle, and see an entirely different world. No shortages of opportunity whatsoever, as long as our imaginations are put to the task.

Venus in Gemini delights in juggling various different options all at the same time. She'll never let herself become totally trapped in encounters or agreements, not with part of her still hanging out the car window, scanning the passersby for a better deal. Does that sound fickle or insincere? Only if you're trying to catch her in your clutches like a caged bird. (Birds, at their intrinsic best, fly free.) Appreciate her when she's around, but give her space to experiment with her other simultaneous incarnations, and she'll likely come back. She bores easily, and thrives from the constant stimulation of a kaleidoscope of colorful characters… each perhaps only suiting some of her needs and interests. She doesn't, however, do well when all her days start blending together into a dull expanse of sameness. That's when she'll pull a fast one.

The Gemini archetype often gets a bad rap from those who unfairly criticize it for its built-in inconsistencies… as if, somehow, the rest of us non-Gemini types are perfectly steady and internally coherent, never contradict ourselves nor change our minds, and behave in an identical fashion no matter who we're hanging with. Hogwash, I say. We are all internally (and, thus, often externally) inconsistent beings; Geminis merely accentuate this quality on their surfaces. While that may frustrate those who confront life's fluctuations with rigid expectations, that frustration is, at least in part, a projection of mistrust in one's own inherent variability onto the Gemini type, who is merely doing what it takes to remain engaged and entertained.

This fear of playing around with alternate aspects of ourselves that we don't always relate to but are sometimes curious about—even if, after test-driving them, we may decide to reject them as a lasting identity-trait—inhibits us from actively embracing evolution. After all, isn't mutation a necessary ingredient in spawning the variation required for natural selection to occur? How will we ever know if some other type of behavior might better express our interests or satisfy our souls, if we aren't at least willing to try?

Arriving during the second half of a tight, moderately-paced and precision-oriented marathon transit of Mars through Virgo (still there for another three months, yo), Venus's protracted visit to Gemini provides a breath-of-fresh-air foil. Mars in Virgo has had us pouring over the same close-up details for months, motivating us to at last masterfully get them right. Venus in Gemini will inspire us to look up and around, to see how similar concerns might be managed, as modeled by other people, in other ways. 'Yes!' to a few new ideas, though a good portion of them won't prove to work for us. You live, you learn. Mars in Virgo has spurred purification processes wherever we've turned our focus, helping us root out that which isn't working, expunging inefficiencies and methodological toxins, refining our productivity. Venus in Gemini will seek to fill some of that newly-created space with diversions and divergences. Why else would we work so hard to improve our handling of certain business, if not to buy ourselves the extra time for tending to our curiosities about what else we could be doing?

Within this very first week of her travels through Gemini, Venus moves into a square with retrograde Mars in Virgo (exact on Apr 7)… one which will be revisited during the astrological hot-spot of early June, though, by then, Venus will be retrograde and Mars direct. This speaks to the tension between the two manners of being represented by Virgo and Gemini, two signs ruled by mind-master Mercury—practical, analytic yin intelligence (Virgo) vs. social, speculative yang intelligence (Gemini).

In fact, because both the Mars and Venus retrogrades occur in the same middle-degree sector of mutable signs, they end up forming parallel aspects to any natal placements we may have in these zones. In other words, in many cases, if Mars has been making a protracted conjunction to one of our natal planets, for instance, Venus will make a prolonged square to that same planet. This phenomenon directly links whatever Mars-retrograde experiences we've had over these past few months with what we might expect from Venus in the coming few: Top everything off by opening up to additional elements, alternate perspectives, and a grab-bag of outside input (all non-committally, of course).

Venus's domain includes personal relationships (romantic and otherwise), economic dealings, and aesthetic occupations… all of which can be united under the umbrella of 'what we find value in and/or affection for'. So Venus in Gemini, then, promises an influx of variations on these themes—multiple prospective love-matches or flings, multiple ways of earning or spending money, multiple possibilities for remaking our image or our art. As long as we steer clear of deceiving those who are affected by our straddling the line between this and that (a pitfall of Gemini's drive to play to everyone else's varying perceptions all at once), we should feel free to enjoy our exploratory sampling of the diverse offerings available at this smorgasbord of modern existence. More than that, we may even be triggering our best luck with our willingness to dabble, sample, taste and/or take a stab. ('And/or' itself would serve as a wonderful rallying-cry.)

One more sneak peek: You'll be hearing plenty more about Gemini as our astrological beacon for tapping into good fortune, once the other benefic planet Jupiter also enters Gemini midway through Venus's stay there (on June 11). As this advantageous ultra-Gemini magnification of multiple possibilities progresses during the months ahead, we may even find ourselves a bit overwhelmed by the simultaneous multitudes. If you've dared to lament your lack of potential options anytime recently, prepare yourself for an antidote as potent as the condition it's here to treat.