This aspect in your chart suggests that issues concerning love and sex, power and submission tend to play out in your relationships with others – particularly with romantic partners. Often the native tends to relate to one side or the other of the opposition. As Venus is a personal planet, it can sometimes be easier to relate to this energy regardless of whether you are male or female.
Venus wants to be loved and appreciated and in turn she will do the same. She likes things to be nice and pretty and on equal footing. But Pluto doesn’t always play nice. Pluto knows there is dirt underfoot and that everyone has a dark side. The difficulty with this aspect is that it can be easier to demonise the other person rather than look into the face of your own inner demons.
Those born with this aspect are powerfully drawn to others. You have great depth of feeling and strong passions but sometimes these can lead you to wolves in sheep’s clothing. Attracting difficult and sometimes (in extreme examples) dangerous partners is a sign that this opposition is heavily out of balance.
Manipulation and jealously can be a problem for one or both of you. There is also a tendency to try to change the other person rather than compromise. The opposite can also occur; where you might compromise yourself too much, giving up your power to the other – a Venusian submissive response. You may cycle between love and hate, pleasure and pain.
Venus and Pluto also rule money and wealth. There is an implicit understanding that money can be used to manipulate others.
In some ways this aspect can be useful in business but care is needed not to become ruthless.
You have fine perceptive understanding of the psychological motivations of others yet may find it more difficult to turn that perceptive eye upon yourself. You or your partner may try to ‘psych’ each other out. Be careful that you or your lover doesn’t turn into the other’s therapist.
This aspect gives you the opportunity to discover intense, profound love. If you can play both sides of the opposition and accept both the dark and the light in life and love, Venus and Pluto can offer a wealth of experience. Creative benefits are also in the mix. The highs and lows of love can lead you to create passionate art and what you experience as ‘horror’ may be translated into something beautiful.
Celebrity Examples
Glen Close literally acted out her Venus-Pluto opposition by taking the lead parts in Fatal Attraction and Dangerous Liaisons.
Gandhi practiced ‘brahmacharya’ which is described as “the elimination of all desire in the face of temptation”. His correspondence regarding his ‘sexual struggles’* was eventually published – surprisingly with his approval. Although once married with a child, he decided to be celibate but tested himself by having young women and girls sleeping naked in his bed.
In this instance, it seems that it was Pluto that Gandhi most identified with. Perhaps because he was unable to balance or moderate his passions, perhaps fearing their power. He chose the all or nothing approach, transmuting the opposition into a battle of will alone.
*Source – Colonialism, Tradition and Reform: An analysis of Gandhi’s Political Discourse
Elvis Presley – “the man who brought overt blatant vulgar sexual frenzy to the popular arts in America”. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elvis_presley#Sex_symbol
Celine Dion – Had a huge hit with a remake of ‘The Power of Love’.
Few and very few people have the mental power of Gandhi. Very few people of any sex can resist sleeping with a naked person of the opposite sex, and they do not get tempted.
That is very very very very very untrue. I am a male and I have yet to have sex. I’m 24. I’ve had friends sleep over and in the same bed. If they were naked we would NOT have sex. There are other factors at play. It could be body image issues, self esteem issues, and trust issues that get in the way of physical sex.
Hi Danny
No aspect can be read in isolation from the full chart. These aspect descriptions show the potential but it is up to the person living the chart how they use these energies as well as each chart being individual as a whole.
As you say, someone could have certain issues to address. The more they become aware of these issues, the less they are likely to play out the more negative side to aspects. Also, in your own chart for example, you may have other aspects that play out stronger than this one, or aspects to Venus or Pluto that resist the more extreme manifestations.
Danny’s experience with Venus opp Pluto is just like mine. Orgasm is all but impossible. All that leads up to it are easy. My body – naked – takes me to a state of mind that forbids the release of shame, shyness, fear that I am not attractive without my cloths.
I have this aspect Venus along with Mars opp Pluto from the 12th house. Very hidden controlling people who you think love you but want to control you. What makes this move confusing is the Venus Mars trines Neptune Saturn conjunction from the third house.