The Impact of Outer - Planet Signs on Relationships
In looking at aspects to Venus and Mars from the outer planets (Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto), we must look beyond the personal level to the more universal or transpersonal issues for a clearer picture of the relationship patterns these aspects portray.
The outer planets and their signs have a generational effect, because people born around the globe during a particular era share the outer planets' signs.
Members of a given astrological generation are strongly affected by social conditions, historical events, belief systems, and codes of behavior that prevail in their early years.
People with one or more of the outer planets strong in their charts are likely to struggle throughout their lives with the issue of whether to conform to the mainstream or to resist it and attempt to change society-but people with hard aspects to outer planets are especially apt to engage in conflict with mainstream trends.
Neptune in Libra-the sign for the generation born 1942-55-is similar in its effects to a Venus-Neptune aspect, since committed relationships are a primary need for Librans.
I often describe the frustrated yearning experienced by natives of each Neptune sign as being the Santa Claus that Never Came.
The tension for the Neptune in Libra generation has been one on one partnership versus connection with All that Is.
Their ideal of love is to experience total merging with the partner.
I became so tired of clients in that group asking when they were going to meet their soul mate or whether their current love interest was that soul mate that I used to limit them to one or two chart comparisons a year.
Now they're in their 50s and looking for soul mate #454.
The quest is a painful one, as their paradigm for love is the 1950s Hollywood romance-we are shaped by the culture around us as we grow up, as reflected by the outer planets' signs.
By contrast, the Neptune in Scorpio generation, born 1955-70, yearns more for a passionate, stormy, and possessive love; for them, sexual addiction can be the result if Venus or Mars forms a major aspect to Neptune or Neptune is in the 8th house.
When an outer planet is in major aspect to an inner planet like Venus and Mars, the functions of the inner planet are entwined with the concerns of the collective.
The needs and desires of the individual are heavily influenced by social and economic trends and by the state of the nation or, increasingly, of the globe.
As a result, the individual must take on the issues, qualities, and tactics of that outer planet in order to fulfill the needs of the inner planet.
With Venus aspects, for example, there is a need to integrate our need for personal love with the needs and direction of the collective.
Where the collective is headed with respect to partnership can either enhance or frustrate the need for a meaningful and enduring one-on-one relationship.
The sign, house, and aspects of people's natal Mars can reveal what makes them angry or frustrated and how anger is expressed, what energizes and what drains them, what drives them, what situations motivate them, what arouses their competitiveness, and what type of leadership qualities they possess.
People with Mars is in major aspect to an outer planet are likely to be angered by societal forces, trends, and causes that frustrate their desires.
Their capacity to respond to such challenges depends on Mars's sign, the strength of Mars in the chart as a whole, and the other aspects that Mars forms.
Outer-planet types can be seen in terms of the roles they play out for the collective.
Those with Venus aspecting the outer planets are often attracted to people who fill those roles and may form partnerships with them.
Roles associated with Uranus, for instance, include rebel, eccentric, maverick, gadfly, tekkie, theorist, agent for social change, and member of the counterculture.
People with Mars strong tend to be leaders, competitors, warriors, and advocates.
The areas of life where Martian types express leadership qualities or become advocates depend on the particular outer planet involved and its issues.
Those with Mars in major aspect to Uranus (or Mars in Aquarius) would be apt to exercise leadership and take action in Uranian groups or situations, often becoming political activists or being on the leading edge in politics, the arts, academia, or technical developments.
Roles for Neptunian types include the creative or performing artist, spiritual leader or follower, psychic, dreamer, or service professional.
When Mars is in major aspect to Neptune (or in Pisces), the individual may feel called to advocate for the disadvantaged or embrace a particular spiritual teaching or vision.
(The song from Man of La Mancha, "The Impossible Dream," comes to mind.
) Plutonian types tend to assume roles in the many types of healing, reforming, and restoring those parts of individuals (or society as a whole) that are seriously damaged or dysfunctional.
When Mars is in major aspect to Pluto (or in Scorpio), warrior instincts can be strongly aroused by abuses of power or of trust, by actual or perceived threats to survival, or by the need to root out and heal what is creating dysfunction - whether this is in an individual or in the collective.
In trying to figure out why you're attracted time and again to one particular type of person, then, don't ignore the influence of the outer planets-Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto-especially if they form aspects to your Venus or fall into your relationship houses-the fifth, seventh, and eighth.
Their signs also can be crucial in untangling the pattern.
©2007 by Donna Cunningham
The outer planets and their signs have a generational effect, because people born around the globe during a particular era share the outer planets' signs.
Members of a given astrological generation are strongly affected by social conditions, historical events, belief systems, and codes of behavior that prevail in their early years.
People with one or more of the outer planets strong in their charts are likely to struggle throughout their lives with the issue of whether to conform to the mainstream or to resist it and attempt to change society-but people with hard aspects to outer planets are especially apt to engage in conflict with mainstream trends.
Neptune in Libra-the sign for the generation born 1942-55-is similar in its effects to a Venus-Neptune aspect, since committed relationships are a primary need for Librans.
I often describe the frustrated yearning experienced by natives of each Neptune sign as being the Santa Claus that Never Came.
The tension for the Neptune in Libra generation has been one on one partnership versus connection with All that Is.
Their ideal of love is to experience total merging with the partner.
I became so tired of clients in that group asking when they were going to meet their soul mate or whether their current love interest was that soul mate that I used to limit them to one or two chart comparisons a year.
Now they're in their 50s and looking for soul mate #454.
The quest is a painful one, as their paradigm for love is the 1950s Hollywood romance-we are shaped by the culture around us as we grow up, as reflected by the outer planets' signs.
By contrast, the Neptune in Scorpio generation, born 1955-70, yearns more for a passionate, stormy, and possessive love; for them, sexual addiction can be the result if Venus or Mars forms a major aspect to Neptune or Neptune is in the 8th house.
When an outer planet is in major aspect to an inner planet like Venus and Mars, the functions of the inner planet are entwined with the concerns of the collective.
The needs and desires of the individual are heavily influenced by social and economic trends and by the state of the nation or, increasingly, of the globe.
As a result, the individual must take on the issues, qualities, and tactics of that outer planet in order to fulfill the needs of the inner planet.
With Venus aspects, for example, there is a need to integrate our need for personal love with the needs and direction of the collective.
Where the collective is headed with respect to partnership can either enhance or frustrate the need for a meaningful and enduring one-on-one relationship.
The sign, house, and aspects of people's natal Mars can reveal what makes them angry or frustrated and how anger is expressed, what energizes and what drains them, what drives them, what situations motivate them, what arouses their competitiveness, and what type of leadership qualities they possess.
People with Mars is in major aspect to an outer planet are likely to be angered by societal forces, trends, and causes that frustrate their desires.
Their capacity to respond to such challenges depends on Mars's sign, the strength of Mars in the chart as a whole, and the other aspects that Mars forms.
Outer-planet types can be seen in terms of the roles they play out for the collective.
Those with Venus aspecting the outer planets are often attracted to people who fill those roles and may form partnerships with them.
Roles associated with Uranus, for instance, include rebel, eccentric, maverick, gadfly, tekkie, theorist, agent for social change, and member of the counterculture.
People with Mars strong tend to be leaders, competitors, warriors, and advocates.
The areas of life where Martian types express leadership qualities or become advocates depend on the particular outer planet involved and its issues.
Those with Mars in major aspect to Uranus (or Mars in Aquarius) would be apt to exercise leadership and take action in Uranian groups or situations, often becoming political activists or being on the leading edge in politics, the arts, academia, or technical developments.
Roles for Neptunian types include the creative or performing artist, spiritual leader or follower, psychic, dreamer, or service professional.
When Mars is in major aspect to Neptune (or in Pisces), the individual may feel called to advocate for the disadvantaged or embrace a particular spiritual teaching or vision.
(The song from Man of La Mancha, "The Impossible Dream," comes to mind.
) Plutonian types tend to assume roles in the many types of healing, reforming, and restoring those parts of individuals (or society as a whole) that are seriously damaged or dysfunctional.
When Mars is in major aspect to Pluto (or in Scorpio), warrior instincts can be strongly aroused by abuses of power or of trust, by actual or perceived threats to survival, or by the need to root out and heal what is creating dysfunction - whether this is in an individual or in the collective.
In trying to figure out why you're attracted time and again to one particular type of person, then, don't ignore the influence of the outer planets-Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto-especially if they form aspects to your Venus or fall into your relationship houses-the fifth, seventh, and eighth.
Their signs also can be crucial in untangling the pattern.
©2007 by Donna Cunningham