The Sun and Venus

Understanding planetary pairs through the decans and stars

Venus and Adonis, Peter Paul Rubens, mid-1630’s

Understanding the planets is the key to understanding astrology. Though signs get a lot of attention in our current culture, they really get their power and attributes from the planets that rule them, fuel them, shape them. I wrote my series on Embodying the Planets to help people bring that information into their bodies through ritual activities and what I saw as the most important attributes of each planet.

If you don’t know the basic attributes of the 7 visible planets, start there:

• Embodying the Moon

• Embodying the Sun

• Embodying Mercury

• Embodying Venus

• Embodying Mars

• Embodying Jupiter

• Embodying Saturn

But here’s the thing: in charts and in our lives, planets rarely show up by themselves. A rose, for example, may be of the nature of Venus for its color, smell and association with love buts its thorns are of the nature of Mars. You may have a really sweet Cancer Moon, natally or by transit, but if it’s opposed by Saturn, you can’t get the nurturing, protecting qualities of Luna without the scarcity and struggle of Saturn.

Again and again in client consults, I find that by solely talking about the planetary combinations in someone’s chart, you can get to the heart of the foundational dynamics of their heart. And if you start looking around, you see planetary duos, specifically between two planets, show up all over astrology. Lots, or calculated points of fate, are determined via the relationship between two planets in your chart. Signs are defined by both their domicile and exaltation rulers. All fixed stars are assigned a planetary duo that reflects their nature.

By beginning to understand what it means when two planets come together, you see the relationships between them and the common ways they manifest in our mixed-up, varied lives.

In our charts, a planet is considered in combination with another when they are in the same sign, in opposing signs, or in mutual reception (a swapping of rulerships, i.e. when the Moon is in Leo and the Sun is in Cancer. Terms, exaltations and decans count here too).

So today, I begin a series exploring these planetary combinations in part because I find them so interesting. This work is heavily inspired by Austin Coppock’s “36 Dramas: Essential Planetary Relationships” Lecture from NORWAC 2022, so please check that out if you want to learn more! Going beyond his wonderful starting point, I will also include information on the decans, each of which have two planetary rulers when you consider both the Chaldean and Triplicity system, as their dynamics do a great job demonstrating what the planetary combinations look like in action. We will also be examining the fixed stars that share the same nature as this planetary combination to further our understanding.

Other uses for these combinations:

• understanding mixed planetary correspondences

• determining which herbs may help you if they have more than one ruler

• connecting with your holy guardian angel (who is classically of the nature of two planets)

• seeing your chart more clearly

• attuning yourself to both planetary days and hours

P.S. If you want help understanding your own planetary combinations, my books are open for June! Book now to reacquaint yourself with your magic and destiny (no big deal).

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The Sun and Venus: A Summary

The Sun and Venus don’t have much in common at first glance. While they tend to portend favorable outcomes when combined, their natures are opposed. While the Sun is hot and dry, Venus is cool and wet. While the Sun is the luminary of the day sect, Venus belongs to the night. Venus is a benefic while the Sun is, at times, grouped in with the malefics due to his burning gaze. Nevertheless, the tradition tends to view them as positive when paired: “Venus and the sun are in harmony, glorious, bestowers of good,” writes Valens, indicating that they don’t just produce lofty and beneficial things together, but that they seem to get along pretty well.

Archetypally, it makes sense: there’s a certain “opposites attract” vibe to the diurnal, masculine planet and the nocturnal feminine coming together. If I were to tell a story about Venus and the Sun, it would be a love story between a wise, but lonely, sovereign and the soft, intimate craftsperson who catches their eye in spite of themselves. There’s a sense of balance these planets provide each other, particularly between self and other, that gives their pairing the possibility to create something, or someone, who is uplifted externally while satisfied and connected internally.

We see the array of blessings provided by a Venus-Sun combination throughout the texts. Valens tells us together “they bring gifts and conveyances, and make men successful in their enterprises” while Firmicus tells us that Venus and the Sun in the same sign “make the native famous, easily obtaining his desires”. There is a material benefit to this pair, a Venusian specialty, especially with beautiful things of quality, alongside a general success in one’s undertakings, which is a gift of the Sun. Another gift of the Sun: visibility, but with Venus, that can be used to get what one wants, rather than it being a source of scrutiny and imprisonment, as fame can be. Firmicus is sure to note that this prediction of fame is only true if Venus is in a morning rising in a day chart or an evening rising in a night chart. Sect matters here, in other words, and Venus needs some empowerment in the face of the intense light and heat of the Sun.