Venus doesn't like being called "Two face"

Admittedly I don't write about Venus much because I don't find it interesting unless it's somewhere weird or doing something weird. But let's spend some time with our underappreciated (by me) planet, shall we?

Venus is "nice." If you had a nice day or a nice time or a pleasant conversation, you had some Venus activity going on. If you bought a thoughtful gift for someone, or acted as a mediator, guess what: you Venused.

The thing is, the signs that Venus "rules" are not signs that have a lot to do with each other except that they have Venus in common. Taurus is the sensual, self-absorbed sign that has a lot to do with personal value systems, and Libra is somewhat sappy and constantly thinking about things from another's perspective. Those two signs are 150° from each other, which is an inconjunct, meaning that they inherently don't get along. I have yet to meet anyone with an equal amount of Libra and Taurus, but I bet that type of person would be an interesting mix of contradictions.

People with a lot Taurus like to buy a lot of nice things, and people with a lot of Libra like to say nice things, though both like to *look* nice. You can tell a Venusian person by their shoes and accessories: the shoes will not be practical, and the accessories tend to be some type of flair. Venus cares about the details and it's known for being fussy.

Just because I'm not a respecter of Venus doesn't mean I ignore it. Wherever Venus is in your birth chart by house and sign, that's stuff you like, period, the end (this isn't complicated). 9th house Venus: you like travel and/or learning and/or religion and/or foreigners. Try not doing any 9th house Venus things for a week and see how it's going. Probably badly! An ignored Venus becomes vengeful: if you need a primer on that, read mythology and find out what Aphrodite did when she felt wronged. Unless there's something seriously wrong with your Venus, you probably are naturally doing the stuff that you like, so your chart should just double confirm that yep, you like what you like! Again, you don't have to think about it much.

My Venus is conjunct Mars, which is part of the whole "Venus disrespect" situation I have going. There are some Venus conjunctions that are more or less beneficial: Venus and sun, Venus and moon, Venus and Mercury, and Venus and Jupiter (except this one is prone to overdoing things). The rest of the planets have a one-way situation where Venus suffers but the other planet benefits. To use a different, not-me example, if you have a Venus-Uranus conjunction, your ability to be touchy-feely would be severely impacted (that's the Venus part), but you'd have fun, eclectic tastes, because what you like (Venus) is next to the planet of the unexpected (Uranus). My dad has Venus conjunct Saturn, and he delights in stuff that most people would find lame. He's also thrifty, and tends to bring home things he found in the trash. He's a big fan of classical music (Saturn is "old things"). A few weeks ago he told me he learned to play "pop music" in his piano class, and when I asked what he meant by "pop music," he answered "the Bee Gees." I wish I was kidding.

My beef with Venus is mainly that I'd rather be honest with someone than let them believe things that aren't true that are going to hurt them eventually. Venus's "nice" is sometimes concealing obvious flaws and deal-breakers: in other words, being fake. We all have a customer service voice, right? This is true for some of us more than others, but when I have learned the tone of someone's voice when they are "handling" people, I hate it when I hear it directed at me, and I don't trust a word of it. I realize that this isn't the case for everyone.

Anyway, go find Venus in your chart and please confirm that yep, you like what you like.

Videos of late:

• Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds and some transits they've got going

• Mars retrograde Olympic athletes and Taylor Swift's bad week (also a Mars thing)

• Rough charts and what they end to have in common

• Martha Stewart and Snoop Dogg (this is a good primer on relationship charts!)