Venus Opposing Saturn — Trouble in Relationships Incoming

Hey everyone. This is Adam Elenbaas from Nightlight Astrology [https://nightlightastrology.com/].

Today we're going to take a look at Venus's upcoming opposition to Saturn. Now Venus is in the sign of Libra, which means it's coming up on the opposition to Saturn and Aries. This opposition is very strong due to the dignities of the two planets, the nature of the opposition. So we're going to take a look at it today, and I'm going to give you some things to watch for in addition to the timeline that we're looking at. I think we may end up doing some horoscopes for these as well.

But today it'll just be an archetypal deep dive that will hopefully prep everybody for this transit. It's interesting that Venus will also eventually retrograde back into Libra, activating the whole sign tension between those two planets. So there will be almost like a bit of a review that will come later over the same placement. So we'll look at that as well. Anyway, before we get into it, remember to like and subscribe. It helps us grow tremendously if you give us that little thumbs up, turn on notifications, drop a comment in the comment section, and also if you're not yet subscribed, it's free to do so.

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If you want to hear the latest on the Nicapso program and some of the updates, how it works, if you've never heard about it before, it's 20% off if you use our affiliate code perpetually. So you get 20% off every monthly subscription or annual subscription, whatever you choose. Anyhow, looking at our chart today, here we are, Wednesday, August 19, and you can see that Venus is just a little under two degrees away from Saturn now by opposition. Saturn in Aries, Venus in Libra. Let's fast forward this.

We're going to see that by Friday this week, August 21, the opposition is exact, and so right now we are very much in that engagement range where the manifestations of this may already be occurring in your life. But if we give it just a few more degrees of separation, you may notice this all the way till Monday, August 24. So that's a little less than a week that we have of working with this particular transit. So I've got a list of five things to watch for, and these are good for just about any kind of Venus opposite Saturn contact.

But we, of course, are taking into consideration that Venus is in her own domicile in the sign of Libra, opposing Saturn in its fall in Aries. This is the quintessential Venus-Mars axis of the zodiac, in addition to Taurus and Scorpio. It's also interesting to note that Venus will come back through retrograde later in the year. So if we go forward into October, for example, Venus is going to retrograde in the sign of Scorpio. That retrograde happens early October, but it carries Venus back into Libra, which happens late October, right around the 25th of October.

And then Venus's retrograde will carry out through the whole sign opposition to Saturn, which will be present from late October, even though it's not exact by degree. That aspect will be in effect by whole sign until December 4, which means we're going through a long period of time in which these two planets are in tension by whole sign, regardless of the fact that we only have one degree-based passage. The retrograde could very well mean that something happening around this exact opposition will be part of a process that Venus is going through this fall.

Fall, obviously, if you're in the northern hemisphere. So let's get into what to watch for. There's five things I've got. These are standard, but I have hopefully some interesting takes on them. First of all, Venus opposite Saturn. Venus being the planet that represents relationships and relating and harmonizing with other people. When it runs into an opposition to Saturn, relationships reach defining moments where they're often tested. That usually means that some bonds of relationships will end, or separate, or reach natural expiration, as Saturn is lord of winter and decay and old age and death.

So some relationships will end. Others will deepen through a renewed kind of commitment, honesty, new kinds of boundaries that are established or shared, like a cooperative dimension, but it's born out of facing something together that might be a little difficult or might constitute a test for the relationship. Now, the back and forth you could say that we're looking at in all of the categories that I have for us today is about the back and forth between Venus's desire to harmonize and Saturn's, and that's in Libra, obviously a naturally harmonious place for Libra, her home sign.

Saturn in Aries, on the other hand, is insistent that some kind of individual component, my needs, my limits, my desires, my power, my truth, my responsibility, be at least acknowledged in the process. So there might be some really consequential choices that we have to make around certain friendships or working relationships or professional dynamics with other people. And so, generally speaking, a testing point for relationships is going to be part of this. Now, what's interesting is that this testing point may naturally carry right over.

It may have ramifications that kind of spread out through the rest of the year because of the retrograde that Venus does and comes back into this whole sign opposition. Now, number two on my list would be the most obvious, which are themes of independence versus dependence. It is a very vivid axis, Aries and Libra, between the we of Libra and the me of Aries. And so Venus in Libra is naturally going to seek cooperation and balance and reciprocity and compromise and fairness. I consider you, you consider me. Let's have some mutual accord here.

Saturn in Aries, on the other hand, may naturally feel burdened by relationship, or that something about relationship is restrictive of personal autonomy, or personal will, or personal agency, or freedom. Interestingly, Venus can also place a pressure on Saturn that says you're not allowed to be an individual. You have to be a part of a social reality that you have to adhere to through social pressure. But you can also see the attachment styles, you know, the anxious versus avoidant. Those kinds of, and I don't mean that in such a formal way, but it's a good metaphor or analogy.

Conflict, mediation of conflict, and negotiation are all themes that come up as well. So three on my list would be, look, you're just going to be negotiating some hard things. Venus in Libra will want everything to work out smoothly and nicely, but Saturn in Aries may be quite insistent that there needs to be a severing, a separation, a distinction of values, or a conflict. So that may involve formal negotiations that cover contracts, agreements, responsibility, money, stuff like that, bills, or almost like legal or procedural.

But Venus may overcompromise, also on the other hand, to ensure that the peace is being kept. Saturn can be more rigid and almost authoritarian. So we don't want to be trying to solve everything in a way that's avoidant, but we also don't want there to be conflict avoidance. We also don't want to solve conflict in a way that's superficial. So these are the tensions that are very much in the midst of this opposition. Now, number four on my list is loneliness, rejection, and desire. They're all related, but a little different individually.

When Venus opposes Saturn, it's very easy to feel ostracized, alienated, despite your best efforts to fit in or to play by the social rules or to be likable, amicable, easygoing. There can be a sense that you're being rejected or misunderstood, disappointed and unappreciated. You can feel those things come up. There can be questions about: Am I likable? Am I lovable? Am I attractive? Am I destined to be alone? So loneliness, rejection. Do I fit in or not? Venus in Libra may look for social cohesion, and Saturn in Aries will demand the development of inner selfhood, and those two things can conflict.

And you may, there is this combination when it sort of synthesizes, can also be like I am going to withhold affection or diplomacy as a way of punishing you or as a way of getting you. I'm going to take your vulnerability, which is in your desire for peace or to get along, and weaponize it against you. These are terrible things, of course, but we do terrible things to each other, you know. And on a more positive note, this opposition can refine desire. Desire being what do I want? What do I desire that will make me feel good, or that will connect me to other people, or bring me happiness? All Venusian values: good fortune, harmony, pleasure, joy, some measure of sensual gratification.

And the opposition with Saturn will be like, well, how mature are any of those desires, or are they destructive? Are there any problems with them? Now, in a more positive sense, you can become a lot more mature in who you desire, what you desire, how you pursue what is enjoyable. A lot of people get sober with Venus Saturn contacts, transiting Saturn to natal Venus. People get sober. They spend less money, less frivolously. They clean up their act in relationships if they're constantly dating people that are no good. It's a real maturation moment for what do I go chasing in my desires, and is it healthy or not?

So the last one on my list: endings, aging, and lasting, and things of enduring or lasting value. So I like to say that Venus and Saturn together can be like a fine wine that ages well over time. And so some of the sweetest, most beautiful things are sweet and beautiful specifically because there is some encounter with mortality, with impermanence, with aging, grief, separation. I think, for example, of Venus opposite Saturn, as the pain you feel when you're apart from your lover, or in my case, my family and my wife, for a period of time, and then I get back and I'm reunited, and I'm so happy.

And that pain of separation ends up deepening my intimacy. And so, occasionally, in the Bhakti Yoga tradition, it says love and separation are powerful cooperative forces coming together and moving apart. Coming together and moving apart. So anything that's a little bitter and Saturnian can deepen intimacy and connection, or art, or beauty, or relationship, or love, or sex. Also, anything that can become simpler and more refined, like stripped back of excessiveness. That's things of lasting value. You go, okay, if there's something frivolous, which we mentioned already, I'm going to cut it out specifically so that I have more of the beautiful, good things that last a lot longer.

The other thing that I love about Venus Saturn is, I feel like I've met a lot of people with Venus Saturn contacts who are really devoted to a craft. I'll never forget a Venus Saturn combination that comes to my mind with someone who built furniture. They designed and built furniture, working with wood, and that serious kind of devotion to a craft, the things that endure and take a long time to make or build. A lot of people, and I mean a lot, I have met hundreds of people over the course of my career who have said, "I would love to write a book. What's the secret to writing a book?"

I'm like, honestly, swear to God, sit down, shut up, and write. And I'm teasing, of course, but I mean, just stop thinking about it and do it. If you sit down every day and write or practice your instrument or sing or whatever it is, and you just keep doing it consistently over time, the results mature and blossom. It's like anything. So Venus Saturn is really like some of the best things in life require that you make them very consistent. I just think I told you guys recently I just got a bonsai tree for my birthday, and I'm like, yeah, this takes time.

The little pruning and the watering and the care. It almost feels like I have a high maintenance small dog, but it's a tree. I'm just kidding. It's actually really mystical. Bonsais are very, I don't know what it is, I find them very mystical. It's like I have a little Zen wizard in the form of a tree. They're small trees. How I'm lost. Well, anyhow, whatever is merely attractive right now but is fleeting, this transit says whatever is fleeting probably won't last. Whatever is really beautiful will, because whatever is really beautiful has this kind of timelessness, and that's why you're willing to devote so much time to it.

Paradoxically, Saturn, the ruler of time, is frequently a planet that comes up in ancient astrology when it's pointing to something timeless. Take a lot of time with something, and people, when they experience you at your craft or doing what you do, you make it look so simple, or you have a way of making it look almost like you've been doing it forever. Time has a way of making things float above or outside of time when you dedicate your heart, your soul, and your consciousness to them in time.

You think about people who meditate all the time, they spend a lot of time in a state of consciousness that is rather timeless. But it is paradoxically the amount of time spent in the meditation that starts contributing the sense of timelessness to their very presence and being. So Venus Saturn brings this up, and it also brings up things that are cheap and silly. If you want to know, in my opinion, one of the most consistent things that you'll notice around Venus Saturn are when conflicts come up, and you go, "That's just petty, like it's just petty bullshit. Why are we doing this? What is there to gain?"

And you realize that whatever the reason is behind the conflict, it's usually coming up because of something that hasn't been allowed to just pass by, and it would actually be a lot easier if you just let something pass rather than getting fixated on something and making it a bigger problem than it is. There are so many vindictive, shitty, petty, selfish kinds of conflicts that we allow to consume us when Venus and Saturn oppose. Some conflicts, if you really take time with them, are so transformative, so healing, so beautiful.

But you can tell if someone on the other end of a conflict is willing to take that kind of time, and whether they are trying to get you, trying to win, trying to hurt you, trying to be right, or whether there is a real space of understanding that can be arrived at. And if so, you'll notice that people on the other end, if you get patient and start opening, they do too. So watch for that because if it's not there and you're trying to do that, it tells you a lot about what's on the other end. You know what I'm saying? All right. Hope you guys are having a good day today and tomorrow and all the days. We'll see you again. Bye.