Queering Mars and Venus*

image by Laurence Joseph Jones

 

Very little in our language or culture encourages looking at others as

parts of ourselves.

-Patricia Williams

On May 11th, Venus in Aries will opposes Mars in Libra; the two are forming what is known as a mutual reception. A mutual reception is a Hellenistic astrological term that describes two planets in aspect to each other and in each other’s sign. It’s been described as being akin to staying at your best friend’s house; it’s not your place but you feel more than comfortable there. You’re also on equal footing because they are at your place too. It’s a housing swap type situation. It’s a configuration that can help a chart (read a person’s life) out significantly. May 11th holds a very interesting one, indeed. Venus (connectivity) in Aries (the sign of self) will oppose Mars (defense) in Libra (the sign of relating and relationships). An opposition can lead to tension or balance, polarization or gestalt. Venus and Mars are in each other’s signs and just so happen to be in detriment there. Being in detriment means that a planet is in a sign that is opposite of the sign it is “at home”in or the sign it rules. It’s not happy and it’s not comfortable in this place. It’s in an unwelcoming environment. It doesn’t like the sheets (too scratchy) or the food (picture a vegan in a steak house) and the smell of the place is offensive. Because of this it can’t do its job like it normally would, poor dear, but not showing up for work is never an option. So, onward.

Venus’s job is to connect, bring together and relate. In Aries Venus gets feisty, aggressive, augmentative and competitive. Venus in Aries can burn down the house in 2.5 seconds along with everyone in it and then be left wondering where all that anger came from and where everybody went; whereas Venus in Libra (one of its home signs) is the height of charm, beauty, sweetness and consideration. Mars’s job is to sever, defend and fight if need be. In Libra, Mars is trying to do so in a beautiful, balanced and sweet fashion. Mars in Libra can take forever to take action (which direction would be more likely to create fairness and balance? How do I protect myself and still have everyone like me?). Or it can use its beauty and charm to win the war; whereas Mars in Aries (one of its home signs) is able to make a definitive strike. That said, I don’t think that there is anything wrong with these combinations: if you were born with them you are not doomed. They do have their own peculiar ways of working though. And peculiar can be downright charming or altogether off-putting and frustrating until we learn how to better work with our quirks.

Because these planets are in a mutual reception (in each other’s signs at the same time and connected to each other through an opposition) the adverse effects of them both being in detriment will be lessened greatly. In fact this is a unique opportunity to be far less adversarial and far more open to understanding one another. Having a difference in opinion is human and feeling like we need to go to war over difference seems to have become our default setting. However, what if winning the battle was not the sole purpose in engaging in an argument? What if we entered into discussions as an opportunity to learn? What if “winning”was about personal growth via the experience of another (the nature of an opposition)? I’ve heard Vedic astrologers use the phrase “looking at each other”to describe an opposition. What happens when we do really look at each other? At the time of the Venus/Mars opposition the waxing moon will be conjoined Mars in Libra making this an extra sensitive and emotionally heightened experience. This could feel like a personal attack and/or related and filled with the spirit of cooperation.  

This is where the conversation could end. But I can’t let this golden opportunity pass me by. I must push past the gendered walls of the astrological canon, if you feel like an adventure please come with…

Trying to have a conversation about gender dynamics, gender expression, let alone gender fluidity can be a marathon of explanations, queer theory references and patience. An exploratory conversation on gender should be confronting. Most of us are so entrenched in gender propaganda that we can’t see much of anything besides “masculine”and “feminine.” Any conversation that erodes the importance of heteronormative gender identity is threatening to patriarchy (read: order of the society we currently live under that operates in a top down hierarchical structure) and the part of us that is invested in holding that system together, usually not at all consciously. It’s threatening to the institutions that benefit off of systemically oppressive paradigms to have such discussions. If we are connected to those systems (and most all of us are) we can feel the threat of losing the little power that we have. Oppressions intersect and make each other stronger. If we have rigid gender norms then we can have rigid sexuality norms, rigid race norms, rigid labor norms and rigid religious norms. All of which help to keep us looped into one big conveyor belt of factory work for the fat cat plantation owners. 

The system is so well constructed, with public shaming as its greatest ammunition (something that humans fear the most), that it perpetuates itself with very little help from the institutions that benefit from it. We end up policing each other without knowing it.  Women can easily fall into the trap of shaming other women for being overtly sexual. As if you can’t wear lipstick and hold a PhD. As if you can’t be femme on purpose as a political statement in and of itself. Our bodies are landscapes where many battles are fought, where many victories are won and where the revolution must take place.  It’s this policing that feeds into the heteronormative power dynamic that makes it possible for Piers Morgan  to be completely ignorant to the fact that no one enjoys being made to feel like an exotic object, least of all Janet Mock . Katie Couric must have felt the same sense of entitlement when she interviewed Carmen Carrera and Laverne Cox and focused on their body parts instead of their hearts, minds and massive contributions to human rights. It’s this same system that keeps Chelsea Manning in a men’s prison and why Cece McDonald had to serve her prison sentence in one too. Heteronormativity affords Cis-gendered folks (Cisgender is a term used to describe people who, for the most part, identify as the gender they were assigned at birth) the privilege to engage in aggressive interrogations and uphold dehumanizing systems towards anyone who isn’t because that is how privilege operates. 

Our individual relationships to gender expression/gender identity can be very different than the gender that we were assigned at birth and socialized to become. It’s separate from our sexual orientation and it can fluidly shift throughout our lives or even throughout the day. Or not. We can be born as and identify with the same gender that was assigned to us, and that never changes. We can be identified and socialized as the opposite gender that we feel we are, change genders or gender expression at some point in our lives and never vary from that. We can identify as no gender whatsoever. Some folks feel that gender is performative and others feel that sentiment doesn’t take into consideration what they do and have had to overcome in order to live their lives as their true gender expression. 

That is one of the reasons why I am bracing myself for the onslaught of what I am anticipating to be the Sacred Masculine and Sacred Feminine astrological conversations about the upcoming Mars/Venus opposition. Many astrologers see Mars as male and Venus as female (i.e. if you’re a lady you are represented by Venus in your chart and Mars represents men in your life etc). I’ll admit that I have seen this work at times but I also haven’t ever seen it be imperative to the reading. I can get the same information about my client’s interaction with the people in their lives without needing to gender the person in question (a Mars type person or a Venus type person is sufficient I find). I see both planets as representing different aspects of self. Mars is the way I move, defend and how I go about getting my desires fulfilled. Venus is how I connect, relate and create. Having gendered paradigms lay on top of astrology does very little to help us and in my opinion a whole lot to damage us. 

I believe that most folks that use these terms do not mean any harm by them and I want to make it explicitly clear that I understand how meaningful and powerful they can be in trying to sort out heterosexual power dynamics and healing the rift between Cis women and men. I understand and support the need to look at the issues that women and girls face on a societal and global scale. However I do not see that manifestation of misogyny as separate from the discrimination that Trans women face or that any Trans person faces which far too often goes on entirely unnoticed by anyone who isn’t immediately impacted. All gender discrimination comes from the same root: fearing the loss of gender privilege. At this stage of the game we need to understand intention verses impact. When anyone uses an explicitly female/male paradigm it shuts out a very large part of the human experience and that of our local and global community.

My astrology, the astrology that I am interested in cultivating, collaborating on and propagating in the world has nothing to do with blindly reproducing colonialist, capitalistic patriarchy. I’m not saying that I don’t do exactly that sometimes, of course I have/do/will. I live in this toxic soup and I am blind to my blind spots until they are teased out and I have an opportunity to take responsibility for my actions and learn from them. We are all carrying some attitudes that we would be ashamed to admit. However, we don’t all suffer from the negative impacts of prejudice in the same ways. This is not a level playing field. If we want to be engaged in this work of counseling, philosophizing and questioning within an astrological framework we must be willing to look at how we benefit from said harmful institutions and be conscious of what we may be propagating.

For too long the astrological canon has been impervious to these lines of inquiry. Astrology is used by people and is therefore about people, culture and movements. The survival and relevance of this ancient and beloved art needs to reflect the wide diversity of the people that it is speaking about. Decentralizing Mars and Venus from a heteronormitive gender complex is just the tip of the iceberg. 

A mutual reception is meant to make one planet more open to another. If Mars defends and Venus unifies and the two planets are currently lining up to have a good, long and honest look at each other for the others home sign, perhaps it’s the perfect time to engage in a discussion about how can do the same. Astrology use astronomical movements as metaphors for our lives. A slight alteration of our words can be a significant alteration to our consciousness and hopefully make us more able to see each other, fully. 

*In the winter of 2013 Barry Perlman and I were hosted by Ian Waisler and CIIS’s astrological group, Conjunctio. We called the talk Queering Mars and Venus. I’m pretty sure Barry came up with the name. This piece is an extension of that work and an extension of the work we all did at the 2013 Queer Astrology Conference. I am forever grateful for these connections and the work that comes forth when stars collide.  

Edited by Laurence Joseph Jones

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