Venus in Astrology: Zodiac Sign, House and Meaning
Venus is the archetype of love and beauty and rules over our desire to love and be loved, form bonds of romantic and platonic connection, and the sphere of social relationships. Venus rules our powers of attraction, our personal style, and all aesthetic and artistic experience.
In a birth chart horoscope, Venus represents how and where we connect with others and the qualities that we’re attracted to in our romantic and platonic relationships. Our Venus placement or Venus sign signifies what holds value for us and the ways that we enact those values.
Key Concepts
Venus rules the zodiac signs Taurus and Libra. A Taurus Venus represents sensual beauty and earthly pleasure. A Libra Venus represents the drive for relational harmony.
Venus is exalted in Pisces, as it takes on a higher artistic and spiritual significance when placed in the sign of unconditional love and boundless connection.
Venus has its joy in the 5th house of Pleasure, where she can lend an abundance of creative energy, relational charm, and enjoyment of life’s pleasures.
Venus is related to the Major Arcana tarot card The Empress, which signifies the ability to attract one’s desires with ease and live in reciprocal abundance with others.
Astronomical Features
Venus spends 3 weeks to 2 months in each zodiac sign.
Venus cycles through the entire zodiac once every 1–1.5 years.
Venus retrogrades once every 18 months for 40 days.
Venus Symbolism and Meaning
Aside from the two luminaries (the Sun and the Moon), Venus is the brightest and most luminous celestial body in the night sky, which is why it has always been associated with a kind of otherworldly beauty whose power to charm and attract inspired ancient astrologers to call her “the Queen of Heaven.”
Venus represents the impulse towards harmony and beauty of all kinds, whether through romance, friendship, social bonds, matters of justice and equality, or aesthetic and artistic expression. Venus is symbolic of our ability to experience the varied pleasures of being alive in a physical body.
Venus in Balance
Venus in balance can be seen as the ability to establish bonds of social and romantic connection, attract one’s desires, and establish harmony, love, and balance within one’s love life and relationships.
Venus in balance can also manifest as the ability to give form to one’s creative or artistic impulses, channel one’s personal style with confidence, and the ability to live in alignment with one’s values and ideals.
Venus out of Balance
Planet Venus out of balance can manifest as relational disharmony, impulses for connection and love becoming warped, and the tendency to either become overly dependent or otherwise avoidant within partnerships.
The Venusian desire for social harmony can become distorted by social pretension or shallow concerns, the desire to maintain appearances and avoid depth, as well as the tendency toward indulgence, vanity, or laziness.
Psychological Aspects of Venus
Because Venus is the planet of love, it represents the psychological need and capacity to relate to others, attract our desires and be attracted to that which magnetizes us, and form bonds of love, friendship, and compatibility. It relates to our need for social interaction, beauty and pleasure, and aesthetic experience and expression.
Venus in Mythology
Since ancient times and throughout many different cultures, Venus has been regarded as a deity of love, romance, beauty, and pleasure. She has been conceived of as Aphrodite (the Goddess of Love and Beauty) and as a Goddess of Sexuality. Often depicted as the feminine counterpart to Mars, Venus represents the archetypal feminine sexual energy, also known as Eros.