Tests have shown that if astrologers are presented with horoscopes for people they do not know, they do much worse than they expect to, when trying to describe who they are and what they do. For example, it has been shown that astrologers do no better than chance when trying to match horoscopes to professions. In actual fact people are so incredibly different, and there are so many of them, that it is impossible in reality to consistently predict what people are like, and what they do. With about 5 billion people in the world, and every one of them different, astrology is still a fantastic instrument, because it can assign a unique and complex signature to each individual, which can subsequently be interpreted according to a set of rule.
It’s the interpretation that is the challenge. My own interpretations only come to life when a living person comes into the room. Until that moment it is as if the horoscope is like a subway map – things only become meaningful when I am actually in the train and hurtling towards the destination. Likewise, it is only when the client begins to explain some of the life structure that I feel I can apply the horoscope map and give guidance. But once the client’s life is mapped on to the chart, it is a different matter. Suddenly it is possible to give detailed descriptions and accurate predictions – especially if there is mastery of the consultation chart, the horary chart timed for the client’s arrival.
But it can still be difficult to answer quite simple questions that are crucial for the client – not least the Big Question: when will I find my partner? The consultation chart would show if a meeting was on the cards in the immediate future, but if it did not, then it would be nice to be able to give some indication about the love life in the more distant future. Transits can show relationships, but in the evolution of the soul and the meeting of a mate the key influence is secondary progressions. (Note 1)
Interpreting secondary progressions is however no easy matter. Just as in horary, planets rule and are representatives for the energy of the 12 houses, so Venus may bring love, but if it is ruler of the 10th it may also bring career success. Or, if Venus rules the 7th and progresses to square 9th house ruler Jupiter, there is a strong likelihood that a legal judgment will go against the partner, or that he or she will fail and exam. Squares and oppositions in progressions can be quite unforgiving, because progressions show the slow unfoldment of the karmic propensities – when Venus comes to square Jupiter it is the result of a process that has been in the pipeline for a long time.
The following interpretations apply best for conjunction aspects. Allowances need to be made for progressed sextiles and trines, which will almost certainly bring happy events, and progressed squares and oppositions, which will bring challenging circumstances in connection with the aspect. Generally when progressed Venus aspects another planet, a person will come into your life who reflects that planet. It is also extremely likely that the person in question will actually have the Venus-planet combination in their own chart. Progressions show encounters, and the subsequent integration and absorption of talents and qualities that are destined from birth. People you meet with Venus progressions have a good chance of sticking around for many years as you learn about the qualities connected with the progression.
Progressed Venus to Ascendant: Arrival of Love
In this period love comes into your life. This is either in the form of a warm-hearted and devoted person who wants to be in your company, or simply because you find new ways of expressing your own romantic and loving nature. Whatever – this is a fortunate time both romantically and economically. You want to establish balance in your life, and you do this by asserting your personal taste, making aesthetic choices and generally adopting a personal lifestyle that reflects an appreciation for beauty and quality. Your heart is opened and love flows – and some lucky person is the object of your affection.
Progressed Venus to MC: Career blessings
There is a very favorable career development at this time, which simply makes work more pleasurable and rewarding. This can be because of the arrival of a kind and generous boss, a woman perhaps, or because of a radical improvement of the environment. This is the time for you to deal with people rather than systems or organization, or if you deal with objects, then aesthetics and beauty will play a role. The funds are there to launch projects and the right people are there to support you in your professional path. This is also an excellent time for happy developments with the home and family… for example a time to renovate the attic.
Progressed Venus to Descendant: A loved one arrives
This is a time when an important relationship can start. If you do not have a partner, then a truly loving person comes into your life to bless you. If you do not have a child, then this is a time when what you have waited for comes to you, or when a child marries for example. Balance and harmony comes in to your life now in a way you have never experienced before, and you develop an appreciation for the good things in life and the pleasures a relationship can bring. This is an excellent time for personal and business partnership, when people from the outside bring something that sweetens your life. These developments can also bring favorable moves or relocation.
Progressed Venus to IC: Love moves in
You can expect a happy development in your domestic life with this influence. This is the time when love comes into your life through a child, a daughter perhaps, or when you can invest in property, or when you find the funds to really do some home improvement that makes your house and garden a pleasure to be in. Whatever: your environment is blessed by love and things of beauty, and this is clearly a family blessing. Someone moves in who has a graceful aura – there may be a certain vanity or self-indulgence, but overall it is a pleasure to enjoy the company. If you can afford property now – and the indications are that you can – it will be lovely.
Progressed Venus to Sun: Blaze of glory
It is at this time of your life that your natural talent and charm comes out into the open and you are able to make a powerful impression on the world. Your aesthetic skills and tastes are somehow central to your whole being, and this creates a charismatic aura that brings success, prosperity and recognition. This is a peak period for your love life, because your powers of attraction have never been more radiant. You can fall head over heels for an influential person in a prominent position. This is a time when love can absorb you totally – even blind you. Yet it is also a time when your own loving nature is expressed fully and completely authentically. You can push for prominence, promotion, more money, and generally get what you put your mind to. But don’t let it go to your head.
Progressed Venus to Moon: Loving and caring
You are entering a period when attachments have never been stronger. There is an overwhelming bond of love – the kind of love a mother feels for a child perhaps – and this creates great intimacy, and also dependence. Finding the balance between loving and needing is a challenge, but there is no doubt that this is a time when your loving and caring sides converge, and totally absorb the object of your affections. Giving yourself completely to the welfare of a child is likely. But this is also a time for romantic love. You meet an emotional and rather dependant person, and there is mutual care and support. With love comes the need to build a home – a place where the family can be nurtured and thrive. There are powerful family developments at this time which open up your heart and increase your vulnerability.
Progressed Venus to Venus: A milestone in love
There is a milestone in relationships around this time, where you reconnect with an essential need or drive to express your values and tastes, and reflect these values in your choice of partner, and perhaps your choice of economic path. You’ve seen it all before, so now you ask the question: What do I truly value? Your choices are up for review, and you search within to find out what you really like and are attracted to; what are your authentic needs, not least in your love life. You draw energy from within, and there you find an endless source of love that you need to share. You just need to make the right choices about how to express your love and who with, and how you want to reflect your self in the things you own and value.
Progressed Venus to Mars: Eve and Adam
A crucial development takes place in relationships around this time, as your inner need for love encounters the ultimate object of its desire. Classically this is irresistible attraction between a man and a woman, the magnetic inevitability of seduction, the creating of a child. If you are single at this time, you can expect powerful sexual experiences – as good as it gets – and this may well be a time when you meet your natural mate, and someone with whom children come as a matter of biological necessity. This is the time to go for what you want. Yet the passions that are aroused can also be overwhelming, and in their wake there can be rage and jealousy… it is after all your animal side that is awakened now. Rational considerations have little effect when love and desire run rampant. This is a good time for dynamic business partnerships.
Progressed Venus to Jupiter: Happiness in abundance
There may be no other time in your life when the horn of plenty is so full. In love you can expect fortunate events like marriage or falling in love, and this will be with someone wise and generous – perhaps from a foreign culture, or at least with a cosmopolitan view. A person who is interested in the music and arts, or with a fine intellectual capacity… for this is the time for you too to do everything you can to expand your cultural credentials. This is an excellent time for intellectual honors, and for being invited into a prestigious social group. Prosperity will also come your way – and without too much effort. Faith in the future and simple good luck bring influential people into your life who influence your career in a beneficial way. Now is the time to make hay whilst the sun shines – for the sun will certainly not shine for ever.
Progressed Venus to Saturn: The welding of bonds
It is at this time of your life that you get involved in a relationship or social circumstance that has great significance for the way you relate for years into the future. There is a heavy commitment, and the hand of karma weighs strongly on your shoulders. You could forge an unbreakable bond with someone or some group, but the responsibilities this entails can be very challenging. There is a sense of inevitability – you cannot escape. You must now commit in the long term and accept the challenges ahead. You gain strength of character. You develop moral fiber. You build economic, romantic or social foundations for the future. There may be times when the pressure makes you feel unhappy or depressed. You may suffer from a sense of being unloved or unpopular. All this must be taken on board – you will come out of this period of relationship challenge with a strong, self-sufficient character.
Progressed Venus to Uranus: Breaking social barriers
Around this time you find yourself being drawn to a completely different type of relationship that inspires you in your personal development. Rather than commitment to a single individual as in traditional marriage, you feel the need to become part of a group of eclectic people who are on the fringe of society in some way and driven by ideals that run counter to convention. This may well place strains on existing relationships – especially as changes can come as a complete surprise – but it is crucial for you to experiment and explore on the social front. If you are unattached you will meet a person who takes you for a walk on the wild side – a person with an electric personality totally different culturally from what you are used to. It is as if you have to explore the extremes in yourself to find out what your true values are. Professionally this is a time to join with international teams and promote values that represent a distinct alternative to what has been previously expected.
Progressed Venus to Neptune: The higher purpose of love
Your values in relationships go through a subtle though powerful shift culminating around this time, perhaps because of events that remind you that nothing in life lasts for ever. Sickness or death is inevitable the older people get, so the crucial attitude is to show your love and appreciation for the people you love – here and now. Or, this period can bring a sense of confusion and dissolution in relationships because you feel that you cannot control the choices of others. And you can’t You need to embrace an attitude of surrender or acceptance. It is precisely at this time that spiritual breakthroughs can provide answers where none could previously be found. By meeting with other spiritual seekers, you can find the blessings of divine and unconditional love, and develop the power of compassion in your life.
Progressed Venus to Pluto: Love and the underworld
Events in your love life around this time awaken such powerful emotions that you can expect a transformation in how you express your love and sexuality and how you bond with others generally. You are drawn to the taboo like a moth to the flame, even if such an attraction threatens to destroy the very foundations you stand on. If you have been living a superficial relationship, then a crisis will force you to confront the demons that have been locked away in the deep. This is the time when you confront jealousy, power and control and are over manned. The release of psychic material transforms your values for ever, initiating a psychological process that brings authenticity, intensity and erotic power. Relationships that develop at this time draw you ever deeper into circumstances beyond your control. On the material front this is also a time to let go of those things that no longer serve any useful purpose, even if this means financial loss. The phoenix will arise from the ashes.
Progressed Venus to Chiron: The love and the wound
Extraordinary experiences can take place in your love life around this time, when you encounter events in relationships that confront you with a weakness or vulnerability that can seem like an unhealed wound. This relates to childhood experiences of hurt through emphatic rejection; experiences that nudged you into detaching from your body and rationalizing your feelings. People you meet and love at this time may be wounded themselves, or you may inadvertently hurt them, and perhaps the same can happen for you too. But there is an important learning experience here, because you also discover the healing power of love within yourself. Giving your heart to another may be painful, but it is also rewarding.
Progressed Venus to North Node: Love and destiny
You find yourself getting drawn into a social group that is an important part of the collective and that can play a crucial role in your personal development for years into the future. This can also be a time when you meet a particular individual with whom you can feel there is an inexplicable bond –a karmic bond – that draws you together across the sands of time. It is a magical world of dragons and fairy tales. Whilst some might say you lose your head, it can feel as if you are at a crossroads, and that your relationship choices at this time will decide the direction your spiritual future takes. Old relationships to groups and individuals fall away now and are replaced by new.
Progressed Venus to South Node: Re-connecting with an old bond
You may find yourself getting deeply involved with someone with whom you feel you have a very strong connection from the past. Some might say this is a karmic bond, at any rate there is a sense of knowing this person intimately… of having some kind of history with this person. By reconnecting at this time, you may restart a relationship that never truly finished, or finish a relationship that was unable to start. This can feel like meeting a soul mate. This can also be a time when you round off a relationship that has run its course. At the same time you can get drawn into a group or social scene which has great significance for you.
The aspects of progressed Venus in themselves are not decisive in regard to love and marriage, but they do show the evolution and integration of qualities that will make your love life richer. If you are in an existing relationship, and progressed Venus conjoins Pluto, then this is not an indication of the end of the relationship, just that it must go through a process of transformation to be healthy. Or, if Venus rules the 7th house, for example, it could show the partner getting interested in therapy, or totally changing appearance or life style. In making judgments about what will happen, house ruler-ship is crucial, and the effect of the progression can be very specific. For example if Venus aspects 8th house ruler Saturn, then your bank may demand repayment of a debt. Your partner may feel blocked sexually because of self-worth issues. You may visit and older female therapist.
Discovering when a long-term partner comes into the picture is a complex process. The best indicator is when the Ascendant ruler aspects the Descendant ruler, or when the progressed Ascendant aspects a planet. (But in the latter case the birth time must be accurate). But Venus will always show matters of the heart, and meetings with people who bring new areas of the heart to flower.
Adrian Ross Duncan 14.01.2008
1. Secondary progressions are a technique where each day after birth is equivalent to a year of the life. The progressed chart for age 30 is calculated by making a horoscope for 30 days after birth – same birth time and birth place. This correlates each revolution of the Earth on its axis (a day) with a revolution of the Earth around the sun (a year). Calculate your progressed chart on line at http://www.astro.com/