I've never really been able to get a handle on how Venus could manage to rule the two signs that she does until last week when I learned about how the 8th Cranial Nerve works in the Human Body.
Basically, the two signs that Venus rules seem sort of unrelated. Taurus rules Money and Values, Physical Sensations like Touch. Libra rules Marriage, One on one relationships, open enemies, Balance & Harmony. Now I'm really wondering what genius astrologer from ancient times knew enough about the human body to link these two signs together through Venus' rulership.
The signs are set in to the astrological wheel with a Quincunx relationship to each other. This means that they don't share similarity by Element or by Modality(?). If they want to relate at all they require constant "Adjustment" of their own natural tendencies.
Taurus is Earth and Fixed.
Libra is Air and Cardinal.
When astrologers refer to Venus and her rulerships they almost always default to the Libra signatures (unless the market has just tanked, of course). This could be because Libra belongs to the Cardinal Signs and rules an angle on the Astrological Wheel. The angles are considered a stronger influence in natal charts. Libra kicks off the start of the Autumn Equinox. I'm not sure if she kicks off the start of the football season as well. That could be another post I guess if I liked football even a tiny bit, but I don't.
It is sort of odd that the Planet which rules Harmony and Love rules two signs which can't relate to each other in anything but an artificial way, but I'm pretty sure that most Libras, if not Tauruses, would agree that there's probably something to this. Adjustment, along with compromise, are probably the two major hurdles to get past in having any real relationships with anyone. (Well, maybe not with stalkers and Plutonians, but, like football, that's another post).
The one thing that both signs tend to share some similarity with each other is through their love of beauty, the arts, and leisure. When looking at the charts of musicians one always looks at Venus first. Through Taurus, Venus rules resonance of the human voice. Through Libra, one looks for Harmony and Balance.
So, I've been finding really amazing relationships between stages of Child Development and when the first planetary cycles occur in a child's life. The completion of a planetary return seems to equate very closely with basic stages of development in children.
Since studying childrens' charts in this way I've been most fascinated by the Venus Cycles. Venus seems to play an interesting role in cognitive development that I don't generally hear discussed by astrologers.
In order to understand this better I bought a set of Brilliant College Lectures from The Teaching Company. Gotta get the real title, it's about Aging and Sensation in Humans.
The lecture on hearing is really revealing about how Venus rules the areas of the body that she does. Hearing is controlled by the 8th Cranial nerve. That number alone suggests the Venus Cycle as the Sun-Venus Retrograde Cycle is one of the more exact planetary cycles and takes 8 years to complete. During that 8 year cycle, the Sun will be in conjunction with Venus 5 times during times that she is retrograde.
Taurus is said to rule the ears and physical sensations relating to touch. Taurus is also often related to hearing. I suspect that Saturn and Mercury are also involved as well, maybe even Mars because of the role that the eardrum plays, probably other signatures. I'm definitely not a Medical Astrologer.
The way that the neurology of hearing works strongly relates to Taurus rulerships. I remember the Hierophant card of the Tarot deck which is related to the sign of Taurus. The Hierophant is a Philosophical and Religious Leader with very big ears and a great sense of hearing.
The lecturer of the Teaching Company tapes explains that hearing is actually a very acute
system of touch. The ear hears by picking up on very slight movements of air molecules. So, this very simply explains how Taurus can rule hearing.
What's interesting is how Taurus and Libra are connected through the nervous system. Hearing is controlled in the human body by the 8th cranial nerve. Hearing in the Taurus sense has to share use of this nerve with the Vestibular System. I haven't gotten to that lecture yet, but the Vestibular system is what rules "balance" in the human body. And that's the major keyword for Libra! There is all kinds of talk about how hearing doesn't work well along the mid-line of the body. Mid-line has such Libra like connotations.
Probably have the information a bit skewed and was writing notes while driving so as I understand it:
There are a few different categories for understanding human hearing. One equates roughly to range (pitch, high/low). Another relates roughly to amplitude (decibels, loud/quiet). Another relates to being able to eco-locate, to determine where sound is coming from. It turns out that the human ear can locate where a sound is coming from unless the sound is directly in front of, behind, or above the midline of the head. There's the mid-line Libra element!
So, Libra is probably related to 1/3 of how humans hear. And Astrologers wanting to understand human hearing must pay attention to that sign as well. Libra will perhaps rule things like Sonar which require ecolocation. I always assumed that Bats, which use ecolocation, are ruled by Pluto, but maybe not.
(and, with hearing, Saturn is going to be in there as well because there are bones in the human ear which create resonance) (And I suppose, actually, that Mars will be related for perhaps ruling drums, as in eardrum, vibration).
Labels: Health, Hearing, Human body, Libra, Taurus, Venus
