Valentines, Venus and the Goddess within

New Moon in Aquarius, January 29th 2006, 14h14

At last, a month on from the December Solstice, the dark days of winter are gradually starting to draw out – just a little! And now that we’re all back into the swing of our everyday lives following the New Year, we can turn our attention to romance and look forward to receiving tokens from our loved ones - or perhaps even from a secret admirer!- on February 14th. The exact origins of St Valentine’s Day are a little unclear, but here are some of the theories as to why we get all loved up on this particular date:

In ancient Rome, February was the official beginning of spring and was considered a time for purification. Houses were ritually cleansed by sweeping them out and then sprinkling salt and a type of wheat called spelt throughout their interiors. Lupercalia, which began at the ides of February, February 15th, was a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, as well as to the Roman founders Romulus and Remus.

To begin the festival, members of the Luperci, an order of Roman priests, would gather at the sacred cave where the infants Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, were believed to have been cared for by a she-wolf or lupa. The priests would then sacrifice a goat for fertility, and a dog for purification.

The boys then sliced the goat's hide into strips, dipped them in the sacrificial blood and took to the streets, gently slapping both women and fields of crops with the goat hide strips. Roman women welcomed being touched with the hides because it was believed the strips would make them more fertile in the coming year. Later in the day, all the young women in the city would place their names in a big urn. The city's bachelors would then each choose a name out of the urn and become paired for the year with his chosen woman. These matches often ended in marriage. Pope Gelasius declared February 14 St. Valentine's Day around 498 A.D. The Roman 'lottery' system for romantic pairing was deemed un-Christian and outlawed.

Later, during the Middle Ages, it was commonly believed in France and England that February 14th was the beginning of birds' mating season, which added to the idea that the middle of February should be a day for romance. The oldest known valentine still in existence today was a poem written by Charles, Duke of Orleans to his wife while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London following his capture at the Battle of Agincourt. The greeting, which was written in 1415, is part of the manuscript collection of the British Library in London. Several years later, it is believed that King Henry V hired a writer named John Lydgate to compose a valentine note to Catherine of Valois.

To read more about the origins of Valentine’s Day, and to find out who the original St. Valentine was, visit www.historychannel.com/exhibits/valentine/.

So what can astrology tell us about love? Well, as regular readers of New Moon Messenger will know, we all have 10 planets in our birth chart. Of these, the planet which governs love and romance is Venus. Venus tells us how we give and receive love and what we look for in a love relationship. In a man’s chart, she is also an indicator of the kind of woman he is attracted to. Other areas governed by Venus our values, how we create harmony (or not, as the case may be!) and our attitudes towards money, as well as how we network and relate to others on a more general level. For women, Venus along with the Moon represents the feminine principle and how we honour the goddess within. This is indicated by the sign (manner of expression), house (area of life) and contacts to other planetary energies Venus makes in each individual’s birth chart.

To illustrate how Venus works, I’d like to look at a famous pair of contrasting examples, using the charts of two sisterly pop-goddesses, Kylie and Dannii Minogue. Let’s start with Kylies chart.

Kylie’s Venus is very close to her Sun, which means that relating and networking on all levels, as well as her attitudes to love and romance, are strong influences on her sense of self-identity and the direction she takes in life. With Venus in the chatty and versatile sign of Gemini she’s a born communicator, and it’s no coincidence that she’s made her career in acting and singing: with the Sun and Venus in the 10th house of career and life direction she naturally wants to express herself as part of her work. This 10th house placement also ensures that what she communicates on screen or in song is very much in the popular domain and gets her noticed by others. In addition, Kylie’s Venus is opposing Neptune in mysterious Scorpio, adding allure and sex appeal by the bucket load. Neptune expresses very positively for Kylie, bringing glamour, fame and a glittering career in the celebrity spotlight with a following of millions of adoring fans. Gemini is characteristically charming, and with Venus in this sociable sign in partnership with Neptune the fantasy maker she can’t really fail as far as her public is concerned. However, Kylie’s love life has also at times expressed the less positive side of Neptune, which can be lack of clarity and disillusionment. This was notable in her relationship with INXS singer Michael Hutchence who died in tragic circumstances in 1997. Neptune opposing Venus can also tend to make Kylie overly idealistic about love, which may mean she encounters disappointment in her quest to find prince charming, but once she does it’s a case of “and they lived happily ever after”. Both Venus and Neptune are square to Jupiter in Leo in the 1st house. This serves to magnify Kylie’s sex appeal and popularity. Leo is the sign of the showman (or in this case show woman), and Jupiter in the 1st house ensures this diminutive pop star has a huge presence in the world of showbiz.

So what of sister Dannii? Although we don’t have a birth time for her, we can still tell a lot about her feminine appeal and her attitudes towards relationships from her chart. Dannii’s career has arguably been just as diverse and successful as sister Kylie’s, but she hasn’t quite achieved the same soaring heights of popularity. This is largely due to the fact that Venus in Dannii’s chart is simply not as “well connected” as Kyile’s. With the Sun in Libra, Dannii has her fair share of the charm and good looks characteristic of the Minogue stable. However, her Venus, Moon and Mercury are in mysterious Scorpio. Whilst this adds a great deal of charisma and sheer sex appeal to her personality, there is a tendency for her to keep her emotions (Moon) and relationships (Venus) low key and hidden. Her communications style, (Mercury) is also more cautious and guarded than Kylie’s open, bubbly approach (Kylie has Mercury in Gemini). Scorpio is a very intense sign and is not interested in wasting its time in superficial relationships, making Dannii perhaps a little less interested in taking centre spot in the media circus which Kylie has so readily embraced. Dannii in love is likely to be passionate and committed. She needs to be the one and only object of her loved one’s desire, and will easily become jealous, possibly even vengeful if her beau’s attentions stray elsewhere. She’ll tend to go for longer term relationships, whereas Kylie’s Venus in Gemini, which also makes a contact to thrill-seeking Uranus, means she’s more focussed on fun and likely to get bored far quicker than her younger sister. The real keys to Kylie’s monster success, however, are the contacts her Venus makes to Neptune and Jupiter, both being planets which connect us to the collective, making her a household name. Dannii’s Venus has no such “big-hitter” connections, making her content to stick with her smaller scale but equally loyal and devoted following.

For a full listing of my articles and previous editions of New Moon Messenger go to www.star-maps.co.uk and click on the articles page.

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