Valentine’s Day, Aquarius and the Goddess of Marriage
I’ve always thought it more than a little ironic that the day of the year designated for lovers is February 14.
After all the Sun is in Aquarius – and Aquarius, as we all know is cool, calm, friendly, intelligent, rational. But passionate? Romantic? Heart-broken? Love-struck? Frenzied? Well, not exactly. And what about Aquarius’ reputation for staying happily single?
So why have we chosen to celebrate love and marriage when the Sun is visiting the coolest sign in the Zodiac.
Well, it turns out that it’s a very ancient custom indeed. For the Greeks, Gamelion, the month which ran from mid-January to mid-February, was the month of marriage. In particular the nuptials of Zeus and Hera, the king and queen of the gods of Olympus, were celebrated.
The Roman name for Hera is Juno, and according to Roman astrologer Manilius, she is the tutelary deity of Aquarius. Hera/Juno is the goddess of marriage. So why does that cool, fixed, air sign need lessons from her?
Aquarius, expressed at its best, shares a particular quality with the other fixed signs – fidelity. And surely that is one essential ingredient of a sound marriage.
In the stories of the gods, fidelity often plays a central role. The gods fall in love, marry, betray each other and are reconciled. They wage wars because of sexual jealousy and hurt. In particular, Juno/Hera is constantly tested. Her husband, Jupiter, had an eye and an appetite for beauty – mortal, immortal or demi-god.
In the Zodiac, Aquarius is opposite to Leo, which has, according to Manilius again, as its tutelary deity, Jupiter. (Tutelary deities are not the same as ruling planets. For more see this earlier post or look at this page.) So the Olympian husband and wife team are matched across the Zodiac: she counseling the fixed winter sign and he the fixed summer sign. And despite being constantly challenged, their marriage is as solid as a rock and central the whole Olympian schema.
And I have noticed that Aquarian types – that is people with Sun, Venus, Moon or Mars in the sign – are inclined to stable marriages or to not bothering at all. It has to be right or they don’t bother. However, the marriage may not be entirely orthodox.
For example, I used to work with a woman whose idea of a good night out necessarily ended in the sack with a big, black guy. She was a (smallish) middle-aged white woman, who’d been married to the same man since she was a teenager. Her chart was heavily Aquarian – and psychologically, she needed the stable marriage to rebel against. What her (white and much older) husband did for entertainment, I don’t know, but he must have been quite aware of her proclivities.
On a perkier note, several of the happiest and most stable marriages I’ve come across have been between Aquarians and Librans. It’s a Sun sign combination that seems to work especially well.
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| Joanne Woodward (Juno conj Saturn) and Paul Newman. |
Aquarius is, of course, traditionally ruled by the planet of stability and longevity, Saturn, who is exalted in Libra, the sign of marriage. So you see, it all does begin to hook up.
Right now, of course, Saturn is taking a its once-every-30-years tour through Libra, the sign of partnership. That does make this an ideal year to get married.
So, go forth, and set the date.
Juno, the asteroid of marriage, will join Saturn in Libra this year from July 28 to October 21st. On Saturday and Sunday September 9-10, the two planets will conjoin. Maybe, not such a bad date for a wedding. In case you were wondering, here’s someone who had Juno conjunct Saturn in her birth chart: Joanne Woodward. She married a pretty decent Aquarian.
The Sachs study on marriages listed 13 Sun sign combinations as being statistically significant. Of these, 8 were same-sign pairings (including Aquarius-Aquarius). Of the others, 4 were same element pairs, the exception being Taurus man + Libra female (just what did they see in each other ?). The stats don’t take account of unmarried partnerships though.
Yeah – I checked out the Sachs study again before writing this piece. Clearly, I hoped that Libra-Aquarius would feature, but no such luck. It’s just something I’ve come across. The other ones I do find frequently are Scorpio-Pisces and Taurus-Taurus.
Thank you Christina, after reading your insightful posts about asteroids, I’m really starting to look at them in a completely different light! I’m amazed…My Aq Venus in 5th house is sandwiched between my husbands venus and jupiter in Aq, too. And checking the asteroids, I found Juno, Ceres and Eros all in Aq in the 5th! We’re not extreme at all, but we need lots of space and share common interests and plans. I always said that in love, it doesn’t matter if it lasts a day, a month, a decade, it MUST be worth it or, as you put it, not bother at all.
p.s Paul Newman is in the top of my list of celeb crushes!
Thanks Sabrina – one of the reasons I’m looking at the asteroids is because most interpretations of them haven’t worked for me. So I thought it might be easier to start from scratch.
[…] previous posts, I’ve shown how Vesta is associated with chefs and Juno with marriage (click the names to read the articles), so let’s see if Pallas really is the […]