Do you have a connection between Venus and Uranus in your birth chart—or are you interested in someone who does?  Of course you’re interested!  People with Venus-Uranus aspects or Venus in Aquarius dazzle and delight us with their unusual styles of living and loving. They begin by shocking us, then wind up setting trends that we rush to emulate. In almost all the entertainment fields, they dominate.

For instance, among musicians with Venus in aspect to Uranus, we find Celine Dion, Elton John, Michael Jackson, Prince, Queen Latifah, and the enduring legend, Elvis Presley.  Leading men with these aspects include Robert Redford, Sean Connery, and Denzel Washington, while leading ladies include Angelina Jolie, Susan Sarandon, and Sharon Stone.

Venus involves such important issues as whom or what is loved, how freely we love, how we express affection, how we attract love, our sense of beauty and style, our capacity to compromise and cooperate, and how we seek harmony. Venusian or Libran types tend to go to any length to please and to gain approval and love. They may be artistic or merely decorative, they charm, they mediate, they seek consensus and are seldom comfortable rocking the boat.

While Librans have a hard time rocking the boat, Aquarians delight in it—the rockier, the more of a ball they have. Uranus and its sign Aquarius can be personable but far from personal and don’t like to blend, merge, or commit. Both Venus and Uranus end with US, so both have to do with connections between people, but of very different sorts. Uranus’ functions include: how we break from the past, how we depart from the norm, how we claim our independence, how we shake up the status quo, how we declare our uniqueness, how we break new ground, and how we continually reinvent ourselves.

Typical Uranian or Aquarian types are often rebellious, even iconoclastic, in their modernistic, visionary perspectives on life. Depending on which sensibility these freethinking gadflies are tweaking today, you may find them modern, trendy, inventive, and charismatic, or you may find them shocking, outlandish, socially beyond the pale, and unsettling. You’ll seldom find them boring. No doubt you’ve already begun to suspect some difficulties with a Venus-Uranus aspect—like the fact that a Venusian would never pronounce it Your-Anus, while the hide-bound Uranian delights in doing so.

The blend of qualities of Venus and those of Uranus  leads to fairly wild combinations—some wonderful, others simply odd. It tends to universal love, instant connections, visionary harmony, intermittent cooperation, unconventional relationships, and on-again, off-again commitments. Other match-ups include innovative style, eccentric charm, unusual beauty, charismatic appeal, shocking indulgence, futuristic arts, and trend-setting fashions.

Glitterati is a good term for Venus-Uranus folks, as they so often have a dazzling style all their own. Unconventional, mildly to moderately shocking, they attract notice and stir up controversy, but may wind up being trend setters, once the buzz they’ve created dies down. They shake up the status quo but get away with it, because they do so with a unique brand of charm other Uranians may lack. As their hormones calm down, some of them go out of style, having enjoyed their 15 minutes of fame. Others with this aspect have the genius to keep reinventing themselves and remain on top—Sean Connery, Robin Williams, and Robert Redford are still big names because their talents keep evolving in ways that capture the public imagination. Then there are the few—Elvis Presley, Liz Taylor, Angelina Jolie, and Princess Diana—who are such unforgettable, one-of-a-kind luminaries that they remain legendary long after their time.

Like Elvis and Sean Connery, some are “bad boys,” adored because they’re so relentlessly naughty that they act out our own wishes to defy authority. It’s the US in it, the way these delightful reprobates wink and invite us to join them in misbehaving. Women still don’t have permission to be “bad girls,” so they often incur more disapproval for it than men do.

You may be thinking that this is a bad aspect. It isn’t—it’s marvelous, though it’s in no sense traditional. If you have it and your mother was an astrologer or went to one, she probably quaked when she found it in your chart—that is, if she’d already planned your wedding and was dreaming of grandchildren. It’s not that these fond hopes would never materialize, but most likely not in ways she would choose, and doubtlessly not in ways her ladies club would approve. And, remember, you need take all aspects to Venus and 7th house plus planets in the sign Libra into account, not just this single factor—because this aspect is just one piece of the complex puzzle of love.

We’ve only been able to skim the surface of Venus-Uranus aspects here. How the relationship patterns connected with them arise and how to use them in more constructive ways are very complex questions.

©2009 by Donna Cunningham, MSW

Note: This is an excerpt from Donna Cunningham’s ebook, Outer Planet Aspects to Venus and Mars: The Outer Planets and Inner Life, Volume 2, available at http://www.moonmavenpublications.com/astrologybooks.html. It appears here with permission of the author. Contact her before reprinting.

About the Author:  Donna Cunningham, MSW, is internationally-respected for her many books, articles, and columns on astrology, flower essences, and other metaphysical topics.  She now teaches writing by teleseminar and correspondence course, as well as teleseminars and a correspondence course on astrology. Order her books at http://www.moonmavenpublications.com/astrologybooks.html and visit her blog at http://skywriter.wordpress.com

Themes we can expect while Saturn moves through the sign of Libra, on a personal level, revolve around taking a more serious look at our one-to-one relationships. Whether a partnership restricts us or not comes into focus, as well as whether or not the goals of each partner complement one another. Treating each other fairly is a theme, and it can take numerous negotiations and examinations in order to get to a place we will consider fair.

Are we pleasing a partner because we are afraid to assert ourselves, our needs, or our goals? Are we compromising our own needs in the process?

Saturn will be looking for balance, integrity, and fairness in the sign of Libra. We will be redesigning our definition of “self” that includes an “other”. Our ability to commit comes into question. Our ability to play by the rules in partnership also becomes critical. This is a time during which we explore our personal boundaries in partnership. Just how much a partnership limits us becomes glaringly apparent, especially in terms of our own fear of losing someone, or fear of rejection, and how that fear might limit our personal freedom.

If we’ve been giving more than taking, or taking more than giving, in an existing partnership, Saturn’s transit through Libra will point out the flaws in that type of arrangement. It’s all about responsibility and doing our share. If we’ve been unhappy with a partner’s contribution to the relationship, Saturn’s transit might magnify the problem in our minds.

Saturn does invoke a craving for whatever sign it inhabits or planet it touches. In Libra, we will be craving balance, but it will take some time to get there. Saturn slows things down to a near-stall, and this can be agonizing  if we are impatient or wanting instant results. Saturn takes its time, and this is a good thing. We can get to a healthy, balanced decision only if we take our time doing so.

Initially we can experience reluctance to compromise ourselves, but doing so in a balanced way brings about the eventual realization that we need the “other” in order to achieve. With Saturn, a desire to gain control is present, and some of us might attempt to control an “other”, and it’s a tendency we should try to avoid. Eventually and ideally, we understand that it is only ourselves who we can control.

Many of us are at a loss for defining the relationships we have nowadays. For example, when asked if I am single, I can say yes, I am single because I am not married, but I am seeing someone, so perhaps I am not single. What is the definition of that relationship? I can’t even tell you. It might be seen as a friendship, a friendship with benefits, can I say we’re dating even though we rarely go on dates? Is it heading towards marriage or even living together? No. Is it exclusive? Yes and no. It’s open-ended. Is it committed? Yes and no. A friend of mine told me the other day, tongue in cheek, that she is in a one-sided open relationship. Saturn demands definitions, structures, and commitments. But for many of us, as soon as something is defined, structured, or committed, we might feel caged, trapped, or limited. During Saturn’s transit through Libra we may be called upon to define our goals in partnership. For some of us, we might feel pressure to commit to someone or to a relationship lifestyle, but we must first figure out what it is that we truly want before making any commitments. This is a time for making clear relationship choices and decisions, for weeding out what isn’t working for us, for letting go of lost causes, and for defining our relationships by defining what it is we want or expect from them. We need to know where we stand, whether we’re coupled or not.

The more negative expressions of Libra are things that won’t work for us now. These become glaring under Saturn’s stern eye. Resorting to appeasement as a means of keeping the peace is one such negative expression. Too often, partnerships turn into “me against you”. The goal in partnership should be to work as a team rather than as adversaries.

We’re likely to deal with issues of blame while Saturn transits Libra. If we are blaming an existing partner for our unhappiness in relationship, we’re going to learn that we have to take back or re-own responsibility for our own happiness. If problem solving is weak in our relationships, we’re going to be learning how to solve problems more effectively now. Some of us will be dealing with the fear of being alone, and how that fear might be undermining our relationships or our pursuit of relationships. Saturn reminds us to do our share in a relationship, but also to take personal responsibility for our actions, as well as for our own happiness in partnership. We will be learning about our boundaries and asking for our partners to take responsibility for their part.

Saturn’s exalted position in Libra suggests perhaps easier lessons, or lessons that are more digestible, than they were while Saturn was in its “detriment” in Cancer and Leo, for example, and even while Saturn has been in Virgo.

Saturn will occupy the sign of Libra from October 29, 2009 to April 7, 2010; and then from July 21, 2010 to October 5, 2012. Saturn retrogrades at 4-5 degrees Libra mid-January 2010, re-entering Virgo on April 7, 2010. Saturn then turns direct near the end of May, 2010, and returns to Libra on July 21, 2010.