Sex in the Horoscope

SEX AND THE HOROSCOPE
Make sure you look at posting for Venus/Mars midpoint too

• Scorpio planets
• Venus/Mars midpoint

More than any other sign, sex is associated with Scorpio and natal Scorpio placements -- the Sun, Moon, Venus, Mars or Ascendant -- often correspond with a hearty sexual appetite.
More prodigious sexual energy or sexual events that are dramatic or complicated are likelier to occur with natal Saturn in Scorpio and/or the South Node in Scorpio, by themselves, but especially with other Scorpio planets. Another signifier is any aspect between Venus and Mars or when the Venus/Mars midpoint is prominent. When any of these appear in the natal chart, a wide range of sexual extremes is possible -- promiscuity or overt sexual behavior as well as celibacy or impotence.

World class Lotharios -- Casanova, Warren Beatty, Jack Nicholson, and Errol Flynn (whose exploits generated the phrase “in like Flynn”) -- all have Venus-Mars aspects. Others who have had careers and reputations built on or destroyed by sexuality include: Pamela Anderson, Rudolph Valentino, Linda Lovelace, Marilyn Chambers, Traci Lords, Rajneesh, Monica Lewinsky, Eliot Spitzer, Howard Stern, Mary Kay Letourneau, John Wayne Bobbitt, Roman Polanski, Henry Miller, Masoch (for whom Masochism was named) and up-and-comers like Meghan McCain - and they all have either Saturn in Scorpio, South Node in Scorpio or Venus-Mars pictures. Even people who make news for issues related to sexuality, like Ellen DeGeneres and Caster Semenya (the South African runner whose gender is in question), often have a prominent Venus-Mars picture. Some of them have Venus-Mars by harmonic aspect (more about that later).

The natal charts of sexual criminals and deviants, as well as victims, sometimes have the same
symbolism: Scorpio placements and, almost always, Venus-Mars aspects. For example, the chart of a necrophiliac had Sun and Scorpio rising with the Sun at the midpoint of Venus/Mars. In 1991, the Clarence Thomas hearings exposed his alleged sexual improprieties with women with whom he worked. Thomas has natal South Node in Scorpio, and his accuser Anita Hill has natal Saturn in Scorpio.

A number of spiritual leaders with Saturn or the South Node in Scorpio preached celibacy before their own intimate lives became public. Pastor Ted Haggard resigned his post when it was about to be revealed that he solicited gay prostitutes, but after weeks of counseling was declared “completely heterosexual.” Others include Garner Ted Armstrong, Ramakrishna, Swami Kriyananda and Sai Baba. Carlos Castaneda preached celibacy, but the history of an affair he had was chronicled in Sorceror’s Apprentice by Amy Wallace. He is portrayed as a sexaholic who lied about celibacy as a rigorous requirement for the practice of sorcery. “He screwed every woman in sight” and adopted his lover as his daughter. “Castaneda seemed to take delight in shocking newcomers to his circle with the fact that he had a sexual relationship with the person they first got to know as “Castaneda's daughter.’” Mahatma Gandhi (Scorpio rising) generated a scandal over accounts of his sleeping with naked women. His response was “True bramacharya (celibacy) is this: one who, by constant attendance upon God, has become capable of lying naked with naked women, however beautiful they may be, without being in any
manner whatsoever sexually excited.”

Timing
Transits and progressions, and solar and lunar returns can mark the timing of a personal relationship that has a sexual component:
• A transiting outer planet forming an aspect to natal Venus, Sun or Moon or Descendant.
• Progressions involving Venus or Venus and Mars or the midpoint of Venus and Mars.
• Transits and progressions through the 5th and 7th Houses and the 7th House cusp.
• Progressed Moon in Libra, Libra or Leo Rising in the solar return or even the lunar return.
• Transiting North Node conjunct Venus; Ascendant /Descendant

In addition to these indicators, or when these indicators aren’t there, the Venus/Mars midpoint --particularly in solar and lunar returns -- is a good source of information and will be detailed later in this article.

Outer Planet Transits
When Sean Penn met Madonna, Pluto in Scorpio was trine his Moon in Cancer. When Bacall met Bogart, Pluto and the North Node were conjunct her Venus in Leo.

When Paul McCartney met Linda, Pluto and Uranus were stationary direct, trine his Venus. The Lewinsky/Clinton affair began when Uranus was quincunx her Venus and wh n Marilyn Monroe and JFK had their romance, Uranus in Leo was trine her Venus in Aries. Shortly after Richard Burton met Liz Taylor, his Capricorn Venus was trined by transiting Uranus in Virgo, and Pluto was conjunct his Moon in Virgo and opposite Taylor’s’ Sun. All that Virgo symbolism also corresponded to a number of dramatic health events that befell her at the time.

Lois Rodden’s period for peak sex occurred during a Neptune transit to her natal Sun. When Angelina and Billy Bob met, transiting Neptune stationed on her Descendant, opposite natal Venus. When Napoleon met Josephine, Neptune was close to a trine with his natal Venus and conjunct his Ascendant in Scorpio. He wrote to her: “Your portrait and the intoxicating evening which we spent yesterday have left my senses in turmoil.” (Her natal Saturn in Taurus was conjunct his natal Descendant and after they divorced he said that the only thing to come between them was her debts.) Another great love affair marked by a conjunction to a Scorpio Ascendant was Simone DeBeauvoir’s romance with writer Nelson Algren. When Jupiter stationed on her Scorpio Ascendant, she met Algren and experienced her first orgasm.  It's noteworthy  that by this point she was middle aged and had been sexually active, indeed aggressively so: a few years earlier, after  she was brought up on charged by a student, ending her career as a teacher. 

MM and JFK
When Marilyn Monroe became romantically involved with JFK, Uranus was trine her Venus. During their romance, Jupiter and Saturn were transiting Monroe’s 7th House and JFK’s 5th House. Their birthdates were close, and at one point or another in the affair, Jupiter and Saturn were trining their respective Sun degrees. At the peak of the romance -- a weekend away together on 3/24/1962 -- JFK had progressed Mars within 2’ of natal Venus (by antiscion) and progressed Descendant conjunct natal Jupiter. That weekend, transiting was on Monroe’s natal Sun/Moon midpoint. (But shortly thereafter, transiting Saturn and the South Node conjoined, trining her Sun and antiscion to her natal Saturn, at which time the relationship was at an end.)

Madonna
Madonna had transiting Mars in aspect to her natal Venus on the day she and Sean went on their first date, and also on the day she met the father of her first child. Of course, there was more going on. Venus-Mars transits are not that rare. On her first date with Sean, a transiting configuration of the Sun, Venus, Mars and Jupiter all formed an aspect to her natal Venus and Sun. Their birthdays are close, so the configuration also formed an aspect to Sean’s Sun. Venus-Mars pictures also appeared in both their solar returns (he had Libra rising) and
both their lunar returns. Early in 1985 her progressed Venus trined her natal Mars and semisquared natal Venus. When it was close to exact, she made videos -- some in bed and wearing just a bra -- for her chart-topping album “Bedtime Stories.” If she was in an actual romance, it wasn’t in the news.

She met the father of her daughter on 9/8/1995. Transiting Mars in Scorpio squared her natal Venus. The significance of the relationship was symbolized by the conjunction to her natal Jupiter in Libra to transiting North Node as well as progressed Ascendant within minutes of her natal Sun-Venus picture.

Some planetary contacts don’t seem to reflect sex but do correspond not only with a sexual event, but a good one! On the day that Lois Rodden reported her peak sexual experience, transiting Saturn and Venus formed a contact to her natal Neptune. A similar aspect of transiting Saturn to natal Neptune occurred when Francoise Gilot met Picasso, who became her lover. And Gertrude Stein’s long relationship with Alice B. Toklas began with transiting Saturn and Pluto square each other in aspect to Stein’s natal Venus.

Conversely, the best planetary contacts don’t always result in a bed of roses. When the necrophiliac had sex with a dead person for the first time, he had -- from an astrological standpoint -- all the makings of a perfectly nice sexual liason: progressed Venus was within two minutes of natal Mars, Libra was rising in his solar return and the transiting North Node was conjunct his Venus.

Harmonics and the Venus/Mars Midpoint
When you know exactly which planetary picture and midpoint you’re looking for -- and for sex, it’s Venus and Mars and the Venus/Mars midpoint -- it’s helpful to identify whenever the aspects occur, so “minor” harmonic aspects shouldn’t be overlooked, particularly in solar and lunar returns. When they became involved in sexual relationships that were of major importance, Venus-Mars pictures appeared in the solar returns of Liz Taylor (with Burton), Monica Lewinsky (with Bill Clinton), and Anne Heche (with Ellen) in both Heche’s solar and lunar returns. In their day, Ingrid Bergman and Roberto Rossellini’s sexual relationship was so scandalous, the Vatican condemned them. When they met, both had Venus-Mars pictures in their solar returns. Venus-Mars pictures appeared in the lunar returns at the time of life-changing sexual relationships for Brad Pitt (when he met Angelina), Richard Burton (Liz), and Gary Hart (Donna Rice). Both Madonna and Sean’s solar and lunar returns had Venus-Mars pictures when they met.

A planet at the midpoint of Venus/Mars is often an adjective describing the sexual connection.
Node=Venus/Mars means there’s another person or other people in the picture. It appears in Tiger Woods' natal chart as well as the chart of a man who counted 3,000 partners in 20 years. It also appeared in the solar return charts of Angelina Jolie when she connected with Brad Pitt, John Edwards when he met Rielle Hunter and in Woody Allen’s lunar return, when the sexual relationship with Soon Yi began. Woody Allen has Saturn=Venus/Mars natally, as does David Letterman.

Kronos=Venus/Mars indicates sex with the boss or a government figure. Kristin Davis, the prostitute in the Eliot Spitzer scandal has this natal midpoint picture, as does Donna Rice, the woman with whom Gary Hart dallied. Kronos=Venus/Mars appeared in Monica Lewinsky’s solar return when she had sex with President Clinton and it’s in Christine Keeler’s natal chart and solar return chart when she was at the center of the biggest government sex scandals in the history of England, the Profumo scandal.