By Amanda Painter
Yesterday the Sun entered Pisces, the last sign of the zodiac and the astrological year. Which means that spring for the Northern Hemisphere is only a month away, despite what you may see when you look outside (New England has been pummeled with snow this month). Inside, the planets indicate some real heat to go with the water of Pisces — and as you know, fire + water = steam.
Image: video still from Olivia Newton John’s “Physical.”
Where’s that heat coming from? Venus and Mars (which enter Aries today and Friday, respectively) are meeting up to form a conjunction — their first of three the year (a rare occurrence).
It’s exact Sunday at 12:13 am EST (5:13 UTC), which is basically Saturday night for most of our readers, but it’s smoldering toward the red zone now. If you’ve been complaining about the cold, here’s your opportunity to warm yourself without needing a plane ticket.
Venus and Mars are two of the “personal planets.” That is, we feel their influence on a very relatable, personal, day-to-day scale. They also represent our respective feminine and masculine sides, present within each of us no matter what our sex, gender or sexual orientation.
One basic interpretation of a Venus-Mars conjunction is of opposite-sex-style erotic union with another person. But beyond that, it’s also about the intense merging of these two sides of ourselves within us: the anima (female / spiritual soul) and animus (male / animal soul) of the subconscious. These complementary facets of subconscious interact within you, and also magnetize toward each other between you and whomever you’re attracted to (whether in a heteronormative situation or not).
In Aries, the same basic rule applies in each of those situations (cue up Olivia Newton John): Let’s get physical! Sparky, combustive sex (including solo sex)? Yep. Arguments with a lover if you’re not in sync, or with someone with whom you have unconsummated chemistry? Yes, that too (unconscious Martian energy can get aggressive).
Yet this astrology also indicates a burst of creative energy of the artistic (rather than procreative) variety. The Pisces Sun practically gushes artistic mojo, the kind that would normally favor dreamy music or painting or poetry. But with Venus and Mars hooking up in Aries, a Mars-ruled sign, the more you can get your whole body into the creativity, the better. Think in terms of dancing to some seriously up-tempo tunes with killer beats (or performing music of a similar description), sculpting, or any other artistic expression that’s vigorously physical.
Note that the Moon will be traveling through Aries from Friday evening through Sunday evening. It makes a conjunction to Uranus in the middle of the sign just as Venus-Mars is exact. Translation: spontaneous and unexpected reactions, for better or for worse, are the theme of the weekend. You’ll likely feel emotions intensely in the moment, then they’ll dissipate just as quickly.
In the service of navigating the possibilities of passionate sex and creativity versus passionate conflict, I want to mention an intersecting aspect pattern. There’s a loose grand fire trine involving Venus-Mars in Aries, Saturn in Sagittarius and asteroid Juno in Leo.
Put simply, this pattern says to communicate your needs as the flames start swirling, and things could get constructive as the heat rises. Saturn adds some stability to all this fire, so take a hand in channeling it. As you satisfy that need to be heard (yours or another’s), think of it less like ego soothing and more like receiving the key that could blow the doors off this weekend — regardless whether you’re between the sheets or on the dance floor.
Amanda: Thank for picking up on and astutely expounding from the premise that Venus and Mars are, first and foremost, about a personal life of one’s own, grounded in the body. As Eric has frequently inferred of late, the experience of living through a continuous interface with electronic media can distract or detour from the validity of emotional and physical needs, and the fact that physical existence is the necessary first requisite for being sentient (so far as we know, anyway). Your engaging piece today brings our connection with astrology back down to Earth. Thanks, we needed that.
Great comment Len, thank you and Amanda for bringing into awareness what sometimes we are not aware of but live everyday.
Thanks, Len — I really appreciate reading those thoughts!
So, we open “A Kid Like Jake” tonight, thus my mind, body, & soul will be engaged in some artistic expression on the stage for a couple weeks. The young lady playing my wife is a Leo, the woman playing Jake’s principal is a Pisces, and I’m Leo rising, Sadge Sun. Our director is an Aries. Whoa. Lot’s a lot of fire, and some water, steamy indeed.
On another note, I was doing a whole-self mandala tarot spread the other day using the Voyager deck, and my inner feminine card was the Seven of Wands (Courage), upside down. I’m still listening for what that’s saying, but I think your blog will help shake loose a nugget, or two of revelation. If anyone has any thoughts on the upside down seven of wands, I’m all ears. Thanks for your service Amanda.
Sounds good to me, Amanda! My air guitar is all tuned up – got The Best of Bowie blasting (thanks Len). Dancing in the street, genie let yourself go.
Steamy, body love….mmm, mmm good.
I’m an Aries and I’ve been feeling so much love lately and today Friday it’s just amazing, I am filled with love. May everyone be filled with love as well. Thanks Amanda and all you guys at PW.
I like your last paragraph Amanda! It really is so important for both to communicate sexual desires and needs. I just want to perhaps suggest this more to men as we (I feel) can be less inclined to slow down enough to actually talk about our needs. There is often this feeling of needing to be a certain type of guy and fulfill a role that we think we need to play out. We forget that there is often an incredible opportunity for support in our sexual health where we can really learn a lot about our energy as men and about our temperament as individuals.
We also have an opportunity to open and listen and feel for the nuances in another’s body, and learn about ourselves in the process. Or perhaps I got that statement backwards: We have the opportunity to be open and listen for the nuances in our own body, and then apply our self love to another.
Wow, I love this. Just read it now, Amanda, being the first in the world to see the sun, we are a day ahead, and your Friday is my Saturday.
My Leo Sun got all emotional on Friday night, and my gorgeous Sag man, friend for many years, lover for one year, stayed with me the whole way, challenged me, nurtured me, faced me and protected me from myself. But we sorted out so much during that confrontation. By Saturday night, it was all about the love, the physical love, and even though I worked late that night, my man was waiting and ready for it!
Venus-Mars conjunction is one I won’t forget in a hurry on so many levels……….
Thank you, and hope you are all loved up on Planet Waves!
Leilani — thank you for sharing your experience! Yes, Venus-Mars is a fascinating combination — and we have two more of these conjunctions (each in a different sign) coming up this year. We rarely get two per year (it’s a cycle closer to one every other year, if I remember correctly), so this will be an interesting series for you to document as each conjunction happens, and then see what the process/pattern says to you overall.
And yes, I enjoyed some love this weekend — although given that my guy and I are both sick with a cold, it was less hot and steamy and more about noticing a couple of really beautiful, embodied moments of connection. He’s not so much into astrology (but he’s picking up a few things) and had not seen this post until today. But yesterday morning as we kissed in bed, he looked at me and said, “Wow, I just felt very masculine and you felt very feminine to me!”
I smiled and thought, “Yep, there’s that Mars-Venus embodiment and magnetization!”
