Venus and Neptune Clash — Pulling Heart Strings

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

Today we're going to take a look at Venus in the sign of Cancer, making a square to Neptune in the sign of Aries. This square is taking place with Neptune in the superior position. According to ancient astrologers, when a planet is in the superior position, it sets the stage or the agenda that the inferior planet then has to respond or react to.

I'm going to try to show you this visually today on the chart, in case it's useful for all of you out there who like to learn a little bit of astrology, as you're also hearing about the transits and timelines. Hopefully, this will be useful, but we're also going to take a look at five things to watch for, given the interaction of these two planets. So that's our agenda for today.

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Well, you can see today that we have this square taking place, and oh my gosh, my epic pen. Here it is. Oh my god, every day it has such a personality, you guys. To me, if there's any evidence ever that we live in an animistic cosmos, where you really can't think things are dead, it just doesn't help anything. But the epic pen is my evidence.

Anyway, you can see that Venus in Cancer is squaring Neptune in Aries, right here, and the square is today. We've got, you know, yesterday into today, we should say. And let me actually just illustrate this. So, as you see, it's coming through Wednesday, May 13, and perfecting itself. Oops, here we go. Let's get it. Here we go. Sorry, guys.

Perfecting Thursday today, May 21st. So that square is going to be active for you. You would have been feeling it yesterday, is what I was trying to get at. And then perfecting today, and let's give it one more day, and we'll see that they're separating within about a degree by tomorrow, Friday, May 22nd.

So, if we back this up, the entrance happened about Tuesday, May 19th, and then we get the exact square coming through today, Thursday the 21st of May, perfecting and starting to shift away within three degrees by Sunday. So what I'm talking about today is not just a one-day event, it's been building as this week has gone on and will continue to be experienced over the next three to four days.

So with transits like these, if you're not paying attention, you can miss it. And the point is, if you're studying astrology, you're trying to live your life in the rhythms of these transits, because they each contain so much wisdom. If you're able to track them a little bit, they often present like little treasures. It's like a participation trophy, except it comes with insight.

Hey, you participated in the transit. Here's a nugget of wisdom for you. Look at you go. So let's talk a little bit about the superior inferior dynamic. In order to do this, I want to take away some elements of the chart, so that we have just a simpler setup to look at. Oops, here we go. All right, now if we back this up, let's get to the exact square here.

Thursday, and now what I want to show you is this. Let's go back to midnight. So here we come into Thursday. On any given day, the superior planet is going to rise first. So see here, it's in the first house, the place of the rising sun. Neptune is rising first, and see how it's trekking through the visible sky prior to Venus rising.

That's important, because what we're essentially saying is that for a planet to be superior, it has to be the one in the 24 hour day that crosses this line and goes above this line from invisible to visible first. As it crosses that line, it will also be the first of the two planets to cross the midheaven.

Now, the midheaven by the Greeks was called Praxis, which means action. As soon as a planet gets there, it has great manifestation power. It's already visible in the sky as soon as it rises, but once it gets to this position, it almost creates like an edict or an announcement of some kind, and it sets the stage for what the planet rising is then entering into.

Because Neptune rises first in order of the signs, Venus in Cancer is then walking into the visible world that Neptune in Aries has already done things in. So the square is about the tension between the two planets. Given that Venus in Cancer and Neptune in Aries have a natural square between their temples, there are tensions between fire and water, the masculine and feminine, the Mars ruled versus the moon ruled, all the things.

But Venus in Cancer will have to respond and react to a pre-established series of actions or events or environments or circumstances set by the planet that rose prior in signs. So that's the dynamic. Now you can think about it like this: Neptune in Aries introduces or precipitates a kind of field, an atmosphere, an impulse in Neptune and Aries that might be confusion with Neptune, right, or idealism, or spiritualization.

It can be destabilizing, as outer planets often are. There can be different projections or forms of dissolution that are active and engaged: fantasy, idealization, dreams, visions. These fiery Mars-like visions or dreams or projections or fantasies are pre-established when Venus walks into the room of the visible sky. So the superior planet is establishing the context within which the inferior planet, in this case Venus, has to act.

There's a word in Greek, I believe it is catalepsis, and I'm probably pronouncing that wrong, but it means that the superior overcomes, it casts over or clouds over, in a sense, the inferior planet, because the inferior planet has less agency. It has to deal with something that's been preordained by the superior planet's aspect.

Rather than Venus and Neptune mutually mixing in some perfect equilibrium, which is a lot of the times what people think aspects are, you get Neptune's archetypal field arriving first, and Venus is downstream from it. That's actually much more sophisticated. So you could frame it like there's a wave of ideological, spiritual, heroic, impulsive fire in Aries that creates conditions that will destabilize or reshape Venus in Cancer.

Emotional bonds, attachments, family systems, emotional or familial values, caretaking patterns, maternal things related to home, family, or domestic life, relational security needs. So you see how Venus in Cancer will have to potentially react to what Neptune's doing. Or you can put it psychologically: Neptune in Aries creates a kind of compelling vision, a crusade, a fantasy of individuality, or some kind of transcendent, fiery Mars-like impulse.

That will be so powerful and overwhelming, and then Venus in Cancer is sort of spiraling, because Venus will try to create safety and intimacy or emotional continuity inside a field that is very different from Venus in Cancer. One that's more idealized, inflamed by fire, independent, individualistic, warlike, and so forth. So the superior planet doesn't necessarily win morally or absolutely, it simply has configurational or aspectual precedence.

When people hear superior planet, they think stronger. That would be a little too one-dimensional. But what we're really describing is temporal priority, or narrative priority, or even atmospheric priority, or in some ways causal priority. So the superior planet is framing a story. Now, since Neptune is an outer planet, it gets really interesting because outer planets already tend to feel a bit more collective and environmental and atmospheric and transpersonal.

So the superior positioning reinforces Neptune's tendency here to operate like a vast collective field condition rather than a merely personal psychological factor. So Neptune in Aries is this weather system that rolls in, and Venus in Cancer is the human domestic emotional response to the weather, if you want to put it that way. The other thing, if we think of the word karma, all we mean by karma is action sequences of actions and reactions, or outcomes of actions.

So Neptune in Aries sets the karma. It sets the actions, the sequences of actions, the reactions and outcomes that Venus in Cancer then has to respond to. So I have five things to watch for, given this, and I hope that was a kind of fun brief astrology lesson. But number one is what we cling to.

If Neptune in Aries right now is establishing a kind of climate of impulse spiritual individualism, crusading energy, fiery initiation of Mars-like impulses, then Venus in Cancer may react by seeking emotional continuity and safety and familiarity and rootedness and protection from that impulse. It's like if you had a great big idea. I remember I wanted to travel across the country in a van at one point. I think every 20 year old wants to do this.

My family was like, no, that's not safe, and you have to be in school and da da da. That would be very much like Venus in Cancer responding with safety and familiarity and continuity, not this radical, visionary, individualistic, solo, heroic quest that I wanted to go on. By the way, that happened. Saturn was in Cancer, so I got the no while Saturn was in Cancer. See how it's kind of similar? Mix and match planets, they'll often say similar things.

You want to watch right now for the feeling that I have to create emotional shelter or continuity or safety in some rapidly shifting, very fiery and impulsive field. The other thing is that where something really wants to take off, it may not. It may be prohibited on some level by the need to be sensitive to an entire ecology around a very fiery and maybe more individualistic impulse.

So what we cling to in the midst of the desire to do something really impulsive or kind of hot and fiery, and what needs may need to be addressed as we listen to that fiery impulse of Neptune. So that's number one. Number two would be the idealization of care, protection, and belonging. If Neptune projects this heroic or redemptive fantasy onto things like crusades, heroes, that kind of Neptune in Aries vision, then Venus in Cancer may respond by saying, well, the version of that that we're going to give you, if your context is heroism, then let's give you the heroism of emotional bondedness, of care, of mothering, of rescuing emotionally, of romanticizing a caregiving role, save your dynamics.

Let me emotionally rescue you. Emotional boundaries could thus become problematic under something like this, and people could confuse emotional entanglement, enmeshment, or codependency with some kind of spiritual intimacy or heroism, or something like that. So hopefully that makes sense. Number three is emotional reactivity. Now, Neptune in Aries can be urgent, agitated, fiery, active, passionate, driven to do things, especially based on vision, fantasy, hope, yearning, longing. That's very Neptune.

Well, then Venus in Cancer will absorb and internalize that atmosphere, and then it can be heightened emotional sensitivity, fear, anxiety, outbursts emotionally that can come up. So you're trying to keep the peace, but your pot of water is starting to boil, it's getting agitated. So another thing might be, how do you retreat from and protect yourself from what feels like conflagration and fire and agitation and heat?

Now number four on my list would be longing for things like home or innocence. One of the hardest things in the world to do is to individuate and grow up. Neptune in Aries might say it's time to grow stronger, to grow more independent, to do something on your own, to take up a mission or a quest or a crusade. All very Neptune in Aries. Venus in Cancer can say, I think I'd rather go live with my parents, or I would rather find a safe, cozy place to call home.

Or to regress into childlike fantasies or behavior, to get lost in nostalgia. Romanticization of things like home or tradition or family or emotional safety can become a way of trying to avoid a calling of spirit that requires bravery, facing fears, going it alone, etc. On the other hand, where there is too much calm combat and competition and seeking of glory and dominance over other people, Venus in Cancer may respond by saying let's just sit on the porch and have a lemonade. And maybe that's wiser.

Now I also want to say that when these two things come together, there can be a sense of the heroic Mars impulse becoming, like I was saying earlier, the longing for home or innocence can be about protecting those values and advocating for them. I advocate or protect my home or my property. You almost think of people all throughout the world who have lived on land that's been sacred to them, and the feeling of I'm a guardian of this land, of this place. It's a very Venus in Aries meets, excuse me, Neptune in Aries meets Venus in Cancer.

Longing for living in a different time. Have you ever seen the show Outlander? This is a show that my wife got me into, and I was very reluctant, because I was like, this is just a romance, no thanks, it's not eight seasons of romance for me. But she was like, no, there's lots of action, it's historical action. Ooh, this show is kind of fun. Anyway, so I really got into it, and have really enjoyed the show. That show is filled with nostalgia. My Cancer Rising wife can't help herself.

Sometimes I think she wishes she was born in a totally different time or something. That's understandable. Neptune in Aries, along with Venus in Cancer, can make us feel like I'm misplaced in time and space. I'm not in the right home, and I need to take some kind of quest or journey to find the right home. That could also take the form of longing for a different kind of relationship, or different kinds of friendships, or jobs, because there's something in you that has to depart.

And you know, head west, sort of archetypally. Head west, meaning chase new dreams and possibilities, open new frontiers. Aries is very pioneering. All colonial, all colonizing context aside, just the desire to blaze a trail and go your own way and find something new, find a new home, create a new home. That can be very romantic as well, and that impulse may make its way into relationships in really interesting ways that are both romantic and exciting.

Let's have the emotional adventure of starting a home and family together. That kind of impulse can be really strong. Finally, personal needs swept into collective fires. Neptune in Aries will often, as Neptune usually does, represent things that are constellating in the zeitgeist. So Venus in Cancer will respond on a very personal level to things that are happening collectively. For example, when things go really wrong, and you feel people saying, gosh, I wish I lived in a different time, in a different place, maybe a different part of the world.

That longing comes up because it feels very dystopian. People feel like they're not at home, that they're not in a world or a place. This can be very human. You can feel like you're not at home in the human form. A lot of people feel that way, especially with Pluto in Aquarius. So personal emotional dynamics can get wrapped up with things that are happening in the collective, and it's hard to tell the difference sometimes.

It's like the personal, romantic, familial, emotional dynamics of Venus in Cancer can't help but have to respond to things like wildfires that are sweeping the collective metaphorically. So anyway, that's what I've got here. I think that's a pretty good tour of this aspect. I'd love to hear about your experience with it. What ends up coming up? That would be fascinating.

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