Venus Squares Juno: Is Your Love Strong Enough?

Throughout each month transiting points create dynamic relationships with your natal chart points.  Often times two transiting points will relate to one another in a way that affects us all, depending on the points involved. 

This article will look at one of these dynamics happening between two points this month, Venus in Capricorn squaring Juno in Libra. When two points “square off” with one another, they challenge and compete with each other.  The point of relating will challenge the point of duty and commitment.

The Square, and Venus and Neptune

This month, when the faster moving Venus reaches 10 degrees 11 minutes (10d11m) of Capricorn, it will square Juno at the same degree, but in Libra, at 12:42 am EST on December 4^th.  The impact of this relationship begins to be felt up to 3 degrees before and 3 degrees after the exact aspect and is known as the orb of influence.  When the faster moving body approaches, the aspect is said to be approaching and is building energy.  Once the exact aspect has passed, the aspect is said to be separating and is losing energy.  The duration of this particular aspect will run from November 30^th to December 7^th.

Venus

Venus, the Goddess of Love and Beauty, represents how we relate to others and want them to relate to us.  She rules our sense of beauty and what we enjoy for entertainment.  She has dual rulership of Taurus and Libra, and the 2^nd and 7^th Houses.  In Taurus, she rules over our body and our resources, what we need to feel physically connected and satisfied and what we need in terms of resources to feel safe.  In Libra, she rules the contracts we make with others to have binding and healthy relationships out in the world.

With Venus moving through Capricorn at this time, there is a focus on achievement through relationships and how you succeed or fail in love.  This placement is much less personal than when Venus moves through the first 8 signs of the Zodiac.  She enters a sign that is concerned with love and relationship as a means to an end with very intentional and practical goals.

• Getting to Know Venus in Astrology

The keynote is, “affections are serious but restrained” and the symbol is, “a beautiful woman buttons herself into an old-fashioned dress” (Astrology: The Divine Science, Moore and Douglas, 157). With Venus in Capricorn, it looks to Saturn for additional guidance.  Saturn is currently in Capricorn, so Venus needs to act with discipline and restraint.

The Sabian Symbol is 11 Capricorn, “a large group of pheasants”.  From the book, The Sabian Symbols, author Marc Edmund Jones says, “this is a symbol of the social ritualization by which man’s everyday personality is able to maintain and refine its particular characteristics, and of the common expression of self through which life endows each individual with his fundamental inner certainty and his convenient outer reality”.

He assigns the keyword as ILLIMITABILITY. Further, he says, “when positive, the degree is a tireless pursuit of every personal aspiration, and when negative, egotistic satisfaction in matching the mediocrity of others” (251).

Juno

Juno, the Queen of Heaven, represents the duty of parenting and the commitment of marriage.  As a goddess, Juno ruled childbirth and marriage, and the status one must or should achieve to do both successfully.  Still considered a new point in astrology, even though Demetra George wrote extensively about this asteroid in her book Asteroid Goddesses, published in 1986 (reissued in 2003), Juno has not been assigned rulership of a sign or house.

In my own professional work, I am comfortable assigning her co-rulership with her heavenly husband, Jupiter, in the 9^th House and the sign of Sagittarius.  She essentially rules the beliefs regarding the role of the matriarch in society. In your astrology chart, she represents energy devoted to doing what is necessary.

With Juno moving through Libra at this time, there is a focus on marriage (if you are in one) or committed relationships, especially ones that bind you legally in some way.  What are your expectations in your committed relationships; are they being met or failing to be met?  Juno is comfortable in Libra so long as vows are being respected.

The keynote is, “commitments have rules that all parties should respect” and the symbol is, “a couple exchanges vows in front of an official and witnesses. With Juno in Libra, it looks to Venus for additional guidance.  Venus is currently in Capricorn, so Juno needs to determine what it wants from its commitments.

The Sabian Symbol is 11 Libra, “a professor peering over his glasses”.  From the book, The Sabian Symbols, author Marc Edmund Jones says, “this is a symbol of high ego on the personal side, or of the naïve self-confidence by which an individual is enabled to continue the rule of superiority he has elected to play among his fellows”.

He assigns the keyword as SPECIALIZATION. Further, he says, “when positive, the degree is a quiet mastery of events through a developed insight or depth of understanding, and when negative, a joy in depreciating others and compelling their subservience” (316).

Venus Squares Juno: Is Your Love Strong Enough?

The square aspect seeks to challenge energies to force growth; points “encounter each other” from disparate elements, in this case, earth and air.  During the period of this square, the point involving relating and the point involving duty and commitment will test each other. This square is likely to be quite dynamic since both points are in cardinal or “action-oriented” signs.

Venus in Capricorn is concerned with the status of relationships and what they are supposed to help you and the other person achieve.  Juno in Libra is concerned with what is expected and fair in a committed relationship. The strain comes from how our personal relationships are doing compared to the ideal version of the type of relationship in question (familial, love, friendship, or business).

Capricorn likes to measure and grade everything, so with Venus moving through this sign you will actively or tacitly grade your relationships, and Juno in Libra will act as the standardized value.  If you give a friendship the average grade of a C, you do so against the scale of what an A+ friendship would look like based on the criteria set out by Juno in Libra.

If relationships “do not make the grade,” this square will encourage you to make a change, by 1) making a greater effort on your part, 2) expecting and demanding greater effort on the part of the other person, or 3) leaving the relationship.  This square is not activated by relationships that are “making the grade”; they should just keep humming along.  Squares demand growth and change where obvious problems present themselves.

Your ability to tolerate bad behavior or enjoy a pass for bad behavior is likely to come to an end during this transit.  So, if a relationship needs “fixing”, work, or to be released, this will be one of the best transits to get the work done and make necessary changes.