Planets and points

Venus

Direct answer

Venus in astrology represents love, attraction, pleasure, beauty, harmony, values, art, desire for ease, and the way a person receives or offers affection.

Planets & Celestial BodiesThe Great Almanac DictionaryUpdated 2026-09-26

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At a glance

In astrology: Venus rules Taurus and Libra, is exalted in Pisces, falls in Virgo, and is in detriment in Aries and Scorpio.
Found in: Planets & Celestial Bodies
Related: Planetary Placement, Planetary Position, Birth Chart, Transit

The planets on their engraved orbits before a brass armillary sphere — Celestial motion · visual guide **Venus**
Venus represents love, beauty, pleasure, values, and attraction.
The orbit map distinguishes physical bodies, calculated points, and symbolic cycles where possible.

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What sets Venus apart

Venus is the brightest planet and the only one that alternates openly between morning and evening, the Greeks naming the two phases Phosphoros and Hesperos. It never leaves the Sun by more than about 47 degrees, which Ptolemy turns into a rule that it is never more than two signs from the Sun. Her retrograde returns in a pattern of five loops over almost exactly eight years. In sect she is nocturnal, and she is the lesser benefic, the planet Ptolemy calls temperate, with moisture greater than heat.

Greatest elongation: about 47 degrees from the Sun, at most two signs away
Synodic cycle: about 584 days from one meeting with the Sun to the next
Retrograde: about 40 days, once every 19 months or so
Eight-year pattern: five synodic cycles come to within a few days of eight years
Exaltation degree: 27 degrees of Pisces in the later tradition
Joy: the fifth house, in the lists of al-Qabisi and the Abbreviation

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Venus in the traditional textbooks

Venus is the second benefic in Burgoyne's ranking. Ptolemy calls her temperate, with moisture leading heat, and says Jupiter's good gentles down in her hands into marriages, children and reverence. Firmicus calls the fifth house Good Fortune because it is Venus's place, and Dorotheus assigns her gain through women. She is a night planet, and Firmicus has her hostile to the waxing Moon by natural envy.

Nature (Ptolemy): Venus is temperate, with moisture leading heat, because her large light draws vapors from the earth as the Moon's does.
Class (Ptolemy): benefic.
Sex (Ptolemy): feminine. Team: the night team.
Sphere (Firmicus): a faithful companion of the Sun, with Mercury.
Egyptian name (Firmicus): Phosphoros.
Color (Ptolemy, reading eclipses and comets): yellow.
Orb (Abu Ma'shar): 7 degrees.
Body (Ptolemy): the nostrils, liver and flesh. Body (Burgoyne, 1896): the internal sex and generative functions, the ovaries and the venous system.

Venus: dignities, bounds and strength

Where Venus is strong, according to the same few authors:

Domicile: Taurus and Libra. Ptolemy's reason: she is in sextile to the houses of the luminaries and never more than two signs from the Sun.
Detriment: Scorpio and Aries, the signs opposite its own.
Exaltation: 27 degrees of Pisces, because moisture sets in with Pisces (Ptolemy). Fall: 27 degrees of Virgo.
Joy by sign (Dorotheus): Taurus. Joy by house (al-Qabisi): the fifth house.
Triplicity: day lord of the earth signs (Taurus, Virgo and Capricorn); day lord of the water signs (Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces) (Dorotheus).

The Egyptian bounds of Venus add up to 82 degrees of the 360. Aries 7 to 12, Taurus 1 to 8, Gemini 13 to 17, Cancer 8 to 13, Leo 7 to 11, Virgo 8 to 17, Libra 22 to 28, Scorpio 8 to 11, Sagittarius 13 to 17, Capricorn 15 to 22, Aquarius 8 to 13, Pisces 1 to 12. The widest is 12 degrees, in Pisces, and the narrowest is 4, in Scorpio.

Venus rules 5 of the 36 decans: third decan of Aries, first decan of Cancer, second decan of Virgo, third decan of Scorpio, first decan of Aquarius.

Facing (al-Qabisi, after Ptolemy): a western planet is in the facing of the Sun when it stands in the third sign from the Sun, as many signs as its domicile is from the Sun's.
Face (Ptolemy, a phase and not a decan): it makes sextile to the Sun.
Morning star (Firmicus): it becomes one when it precedes the Sun by 8 degrees.

Venus: people, years and the limb in each sign

Burgoyne calls Venus the planet of mirth, domestic love, art and music, magnetic, warm and moisture-producing. Firmicus gives her Egyptian name as Phosphoros. Hill puts her on the Sun's near side in the seven-branched candlestick, with the Moon and Mercury.

Ptolemy gives it the mother (with the Moon). Among siblings, Dorotheus assigns it younger sisters; when it rules the second house, he traces a decline in fortune to women. Dorotheus's figure for the years of evil an angular planet holds off is 8 years. Ptolemy says that as lord of an eclipse she gives Jupiter's good more gently: marriages, children and reverence.

Al-Qabisi gives each planet a limb in each sign, the part that shows illness when it is troubled there. For Venus:

Aries: feet
Taurus: head
Gemini: neck
Cancer: arms and shoulders
Leo: heart
Virgo: belly
Libra: belly and head
Scorpio: private parts
Sagittarius: thighs and arms
Capricorn: thighs and heart
Aquarius: knees
Pisces: neck and back

The story behind Venus

Venus is one of the seven classical planets and has long been tied to love and beauty deities.

The spiritual meaning of Venus

Spiritually, Venus asks what is truly worthy of affection and desire.

Why Venus matters

Venus matters because it shows what a person finds worth choosing, enjoying, protecting, beautifying, or joining with.

How to read Venus

Astrologers reach for Venus when interpreting relationships, aesthetics, money values, charm, art, pleasure, friendship, and Venus transits or returns.

Venus in practice: an example

Venus in Capricorn may love through commitment, reliability, standards, and long-term proof.

Where readings of Venus go wrong

It is a mistake to reduce Venus to romance. Venus also describes taste, value, money, art, and social ease.

Sources and editorial method

This entry summarizes the tradition in the Almanac's own words; where no source is listed, it is an editorial summary rather than a primary text, and symbolic readings are named as the tradition's, not as fact.

Source: The Great Almanac Dictionary
Category: Planets & Celestial Bodies
Aliases: Venus astrology, Venus meaning
Last updated: 2026-09-26

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Where Venus moves through your own year, and what that asks of your love and your work, is written in the Cosmic Codex, month by month from your chart. Open the Cosmic Codex

Planetary PlacementPlanetary Placement is a planet's location and condition inside an astrology chart. Planetary PositionPlanetary Position is the exact zodiac location of a planet for chart calculation. Birth ChartA Birth Chart is a personal astrology map built from birth date, time, and place. TransitTransit means current planetary movement activating a chart. SunThe Sun represents identity, vitality, will, and conscious purpose. MoonThe Moon represents emotion, instinct, memory, and bodily rhythm. MarsMars represents action, courage, conflict, desire, and drive.

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