Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Venus as the muse

The Birth of Venus ("Naissance de Venus") by W. Bouguereau

Here's a post I've been working on for days. It involved a lot of research, interpretation and...music listening. It's been exciting and very interesting and I sincerely hope you enjoy it too.
When two things are so good separately, we have to believe that they can be magical together, so I'm attempting to combine Music with Astrology in a post about Venus.

Astrologically, Venus represents the way we love and what we love (be it an activity or personal qualities). It is connected to romance, beauty, aesthetics and arts in general. Even though music in particular is often associated with Neptune, this isn't a personal planet, it moves extremely slowly and lacks the richness and individuality that Venus contains. This way, I'm pretty sure Venus is the inspiring muse songwriters breathe from when writing love songs. (The way they express it nevertheless ruled by Mercury.)
I began to wonder whether the qualities of Venus in the charts of singers/songwriters were reflected in their lyrics. So I started by looking at the Natal Venus of some of my favourite songwriters. It was interesting and I continued...until I'd checked 76 charts and this almost became a scientific and certified investigation. ;)
My general conclusions:
- Venus in Earth and Fire signs came up more frequently (Air signs came last). Fire is the most dramatic and outgoing element so I understand their need for writing songs, as a grand gesture. Earth is less obvious, but perhaps it's their commitment to the material world, the world of the senses, that makes them want to produce something that can be heard.
- Venus in Fixed signs has a slight advantage over Cardinal and Mutable, possibly because their feelings are often more intense, enduring...
- Ten of the 76 "participants" had Venus in Aries. Other popular signs were: Taurus (8), Scorpio (8), Virgo (7), Capricorn (7), Aquarius (7), Pisces (7). I found only 2 songwriters with Venus in Cancer.
- Even though I limited my analysis to the signs were Venus was found, I couldn't help noticing Venus' aspects to the other planets in the chart and that's where the most interesting observations were.
(a) In the great majority of the charts Venus is extremely aspected, which highlights the planet's influence in the chart.
(b) Except for 3 or 4 charts, Venus was always aspected either by the social planets (Jupiter and Saturn) or by the extra-personal planets (Uranus, Neptune and Pluto) or BOTH. In my opinion, this reflects a person's connection to society and the collective; the person is able to understand the social trends, the collective feelings, hopes and dreams and probably channel that understanding into their songwriting. That's why they are popular songwriters and performers and not john and jane does - the public is able to see themselves in their songs, they enjoy it because they recognize their feelings in the music and lyrics, there is an obvious connection established. This can also add an explanation to the great number of Venus in Scorpio, Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces found (all signs ruled by extra-personal planets).
(c) 80% (possibly more) of the analysed Venus are connected to Saturn in some way, proving what I knew but didn't really believe - Venus-Saturn connections have a great artistic potential (including Venus in Capricorn) because Saturn likes the give shape to things (a big, restricting shape ha) and next to Venus it makes people "get serious" about art and relationships, it makes them work on it, not simply enjoy it, and so artistic concepts gain a material, practical form. Additionally, Saturn rules time so it gives people rhythm and musical ability.

Possible limitations and biases:

- Most songwriters I checked were to my liking, but not all of them. To be more precise, I'd have to select half that I liked and half that I didn't, but liking is per se a very subjective concept.
- Lyric interpretation is possibly one of the most subjective activities in the World and my views will necessarily be biased (hopefully by my feelings and not by this study).
- I haven't obviously been able to read ALL the lyrics from ALL the 76 musicians...

- I'm limiting myself to the analysis of Venus signs, not houses (it's impossible to find out the exact birthtime of most of the artists) and not aspects, so it will always be a limited analysis.
I'll be back to present to you my conclusions for each sign.
In the meantime, if you don't already know, you can find where your Natal Venus is here.
Then you'll see if the song lyrics describe how you usually feel when you're in love (in my next posts).


Violet said...

How cool, I love investigations like these. Where did you find all those people's data?? Did you get the astrodatabank cd?
Very cool info about venus in capricorn!

Devil Mood said...

Violet: I thought you'd like that ;) I went to astrotheme.fr - it has a fantastic database! I found almost everyone I wanted there; the other ones I searched on various sites about the artists.

Anonymous said...

glad to hear you finally got the post card even it was late.

kimananda said...

This is really interesting...I'd love to see some statistical analysis run on it as well, to see if there's anything significant here from a more mainstream point of view.

Ps said...

I liked the new look of your blog.So much informtaion here!
I TRIED undertanding what you meant when you said "In the meantime, if you don't already know, you can find where your Natal Venus is here.Then you'll see if the song lyrics describe how you usually feel when you're in love" I went and saw where Venus is..But thats all I undertsood.Everything else just went over my head!(sorry if I sound dumb--I have no clue about astrology beyond knowing the zodiac signs)

Devil Mood said...

Day: Yeah!

Kim: What kind of statistics would you like? I'm an open-minded investigator - I'll consider anything you suggest :)

PS: No, I'm glad you told me that! I added something to that last sentence - in my next posts -I'll only write about the lyrics and the Venus signs following this introductory post. So, of course, you wouldn't understand without the follow-up!

Ps said...

Now I understand! (after reading the revised version)
thanks for the interesting link and such a well researched post!

Niall said...

Wow!..you have spent a lot of time doing this..

Listen folks out there..if your're visiting for the first time here or a regular..get on over to the Astro Skies site and get your order in for your own Birth Chart.I have been reading mine tonight that Devilmood produced for me..it's 25 pages of indepth personally tailored analysis..you won't be sorry!! (PS..no bribery was entered into in the writing of this comment! )

Devil Mood said...

Oh Niall, I'm slightly embarrassed ;) Don't! haha

neith said...

Like your new look a LOT! And the colourlovers website looks like fun too. I'm always tweaking the colors on my blog. It's easier to read now too. :-)

neith said...

I don't remember where I read it but some astrologer said people with Sun conjunct Venus & Mercury tend to be very talented types. One boyfriend of mine had that combo in Pisces and he lived for music. Had a degree from the university in music, played guitar (both jazz & classical) and gave lessons. He encouraged me to sing with him, it was a fun time.

Devil Mood said...

Neith: Glad you like the 'look' :) I'd also think many singers would have those three planets together or at least Mercury and Sun conjunct. Even though I wasn't focusing on that aspect, I noticed it wasn't the case in most charts. Maybe I'll focus on that on another investigation.
We have to note that I selected musicians that are publicly recognized but many talented people aren't that lucky/don't want to.

neith said...


LOL! The research for astro-patterns is one of the reasons I am still thinking of upgrading my software . . . Astrodatabank has some great research tools too but dang they are expensive!!

This is a really great post and I love the way you are pulling this all together . . . :-)

Devil Mood said...

Neith, thanks, that means a lot! I'm a bit tight on my $$$ so I do things the traditional way.