Death, Beauty, Love: Venus into Libra
- Jeremy Scott Ballard
- Oct 8
- 9 min read
Updated: Oct 9
Death is the mother of beauty; hence from her,
Alone, shall come fulfillment to our dreams
And our desires. Although she strews the leaves
Of sure obliteration on our paths,
The path sick sorrow took, the many paths
Where triumph rang its brassy phrase, or love
Whispered a little out of tenderness,
She makes the willow shiver in the sun
For maidens who were wont to sit and gaze
Upon the grass, relinquished to their feet.
— Wallace Stevens, from “Sunday Morning”
Does Death birth Beauty like Wallace Stevens suggests?
Is Beauty possible only because everything eventually fades? Is that what makes the world sacred in the moment, this moment, and Beautiful? What does Time do to Love? And Beauty, Desire? How does the passage of Time -- our awareness of death, endings -- enrich our understanding of Love and Beauty? What are the limits of Love, connection? Where do I end and You begin? Where do we overlap?
These are Venus/Saturn questions.
Mid-October is an important turning point in 2025. Venus moving into its Libran home October 13 2025 is something we should look forward to, but with some serious caveats and considerations.
Over the last few weeks, Venus was somewhat debilitated. On October 4, Venus crossed over the South Node in Virgo. Venusian luster is somewhat muted and reserved in Virgo, and the South Node has a releasing, flushing effect on whatever crosses over it. Maybe you noticed Venusian areas in your life (relationships, beauty, cravings, art, ease, etc) diminished somewhat around that time. Something in this area of life could’ve expired in early October, clearing the way for another Venusian path to open.
Then, around October 9, Venus starts applying in opposition to Saturn retrograde in Pisces. This becomes exact on October 11 at 26 Virgo/Pisces. As this opposition perfects, Venus also begins applying in opposition to Neptune, which is just about to retrograde back into Pisces on October 22 (the Sun entering Scorpio the next day square Pluto) where it hasn’t been since late March.
The late degrees of the Pisces/Virgo axis should feel pretty familiar by now. Throughout late 2024 and 2025, these degrees were heavily emphasized by retrogrades and eclipses, and Venus’s ingress into Libra and Neptune’s re-entry into Pisces mark the beginning of the final stage of the transition toward the exact Saturn/Neptune conjunction at 00 Aries in February 2026.
These late degrees are associated with endings, dissolution, metaphorical death, because they're transition degrees into either the Light or Dark halves of the solar year. I like to think of them as “crossfade” degrees.
Venus symbolizes union, harmony, connection, beauty, magnetism, illusion, sex and sexuality, desire, attraction, seduction, peace, even bondage — all that’s diametrically opposed to that which divides, separates, severs.
Saturn is Time — god of a dimension of our reality; the dimension without which everything would be static, deathless, inanimate. Time contains us, limits, restricts, teaches where boundaries are; shows what can and can’t be moved through, crossed, or even happen. We live within Time, or so it seems.
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Venus and Saturn formed three conjunctions earlier in 2025.
Once in January and twice in April. The two conjunctions in April took place at 25 and 27 degrees Pisces (where the opposition takes place). During both of these conjunctions, Neptune was also at 00 Aries, though direct.
The Venus/Saturn opposition on October 11 is the “full moon phase” of the Venus/Saturn cycle that began with the three conjunctions earlier in the year, most powerfully in April 2025 due to Venus’s retrograde.
The October 11 opposition not only represents a stand off of sorts between Venus and Saturn, but also the culmination of events that have unfolded in our Venus/Saturn stories since April, and perhaps even earlier, into their previous cycle.
When these two oppose, what unifies, harmonizes, binds is confronted with what limits, slows, and teaches existential lessons. Saturn stands in the way of Venus, holds her energy at bay, slows it down and creates distance. Time, Limits, Reality faces off with Beauty, Love, Harmony, and, especially now with Mercury in Scorpio, could mean serious conversations or realizations surrounding relationship and have some of us ruminating on lessons learned (and not learned) in love.
This could be the end of the road for some relationships. On the other hand, a relationship could be confronted with a new boundary, a gateway into deeper union. That could mean the ending of a long standing relationship and/or the solidification of and commitment to a newly budding one. Connections could feel stifled, guarded, because the time just isn’t “right” on some level. We could feel real resistance to superficial encounters and the need to avoid them around this time.
Our ability to enjoy ourselves could temporarily feel restricted; or perhaps we find more joy in time-consuming work, understanding that creating something that's not only beautiful, but can also stand the tests of Time, takes patience, fortitude, and endurance. .
Venus is also associated with the arts, money, and what we value. Maybe you’re an artist and this opposition signifies it’s time to put the brush or pen down — it’s finished, the piece is complete. Money could seem tighter than usual, spending need reigning in, or a debt paid.
I think this aspect, at this time, is more about relationships than money, art, or physical, sensual modes of Venus, though. If Venus was moving into its earthen home sign Taurus, and not about to trine Pluto and Uranus in air signs, maybe that wouldn't be the case. But of course, this ultimately depends on the details of your chart.
It’s possible that during the Venus retrograde/Saturn conjunction in early April a reconsideration about someone, or the return of a romantic someone into your life, came into focus; and now, a new stage, or set of consequences, is developing in regard to that person or group of people. With the three conjunctions and this opposition co-present with the nodes, there’s likely a fated quality to these Venus/Saturn stories; meaning circumstances seem somehow out of everyone’s control; a sense that things couldn’t have unfolded in any other way. And, being that these Venus/Saturn contacts have been occurring in the “crossfade” degrees of late Pisces and Virgo, I suspect both could be happening simultaneously for some people around this time, especially if the 1st, 5th, 7th, and/or 8th houses are involved.
We have to remember that the last eclipse on September 21 occurred in this crossfade zone as well, and Venus is moving over the last eclipse point of 29 Virgo as these oppositions occur. If you have planets or points in the late degrees of Mutable or early degrees Cardinal, you’re in the spotlight for a little longer.
Look back to around January 18 2025 and pretty much all of April. Were there any relationship issues with a strong, serious, time-consuming, consequential focus January through May? What about early August 2025? That would've been the opening square between Venus and Saturn just after Venus entered Cancer. If so, did events late October/early November 2024 have a role to play in what was unfolding then and now? This was the closing square of the last Venus/Saturn cycle. And, if you can, think back to over a year ago to September 17 2024. This was the day of a lunar eclipse at 25 Pisces, the degrees of the October 11 Venus/Saturn opposition. Around that time, could’ve been when whatever is culminating now, or moving into a new chapter of the story, really gained momentum.
The upcoming closing square of our current cycle is on December 20, when Venus is exactly square the degrees of the April conjunctions and opposition October 11: Saturn direct at 25 Pisces and Venus at 25 Sagittarius. This is striking because the late mutable degrees are getting hit again.
The Venus/Saturn cycle will take on new flavor in January when the Sun, Venus, Mars conjoin in Saturn-ruled Capricorn. A new Venus/Saturn cycle will begin March 2026 at 2 Aries, tightly conjunct Neptune and sextile Pluto.
VENUS OPPOSITE NEPTUNE
October is a month I’ve been curious about since October 2024, especially in regard to Venus, Saturn, and Neptune.
Venus is the last planet to pass over 00 Libra this year and activate the outer planets at the early degrees of Fire and Air. Mars, Mercury, and the Sun already have. Mars crossed 00 Libra on August 6. Mercury on September 18. The Sun just after the September 21 eclipse. Venus crosses on October 13 as it opposes Neptune and trines Pluto and Uranus, all in the flow of a few days. This degree won’t be crossed again by any celestial body other than the Moon until Venus comes back around August 6 2026.
The meaning of Neptune is tricky to put into words because its meaning is related to veils of illusion, deception, and the fluidity of imagination. It veils itself, so to speak. In a sense, it is the imagination — that which generates images within us, whether through words, the arts, film, political ideology, religion, dreams, or psychological projection and mirroring.
In some strange way, Neptune seems to encapsulate and contain every archetype that’s ever weaved its way through human consciousness. It reveals as it conceals and is always just out of reach, undefinable, beyond the images it creates.
Like Venus, Neptune unifies, but not within the realm of our senses or relationships. It unifies images and ideas shared between groups of people, couples, and especially in the psyche of individuals. Reality, whatever that is, can seem to rupture when Neptune is involved, and then guide in a different reality with a new set of images we identify with. Neptune is what makes us believe, but can easily draw us away into escapism if we’re not aware.
Whenever a planet forms an aspect with Neptune, a blurring occurs. The affected planet’s edges soften and its core meaning becomes vulnerable to the glamorization Neptune seductively, unnoticeably, surges into it, for better or worse.
On October 13, Venus enters its own home, Libra, and will immediately oppose Neptune. Saturn, who Venus just opposed, is exalted in Libra. This reinforces the Venus/Saturn dynamic overall. This ingress also places both Venus and Mars in domicile. This brings relationship even more into the fore. The last time they were in these positions was for a few weeks in November 2023. Before that, 2004.
On the very same day, Pluto stations direct. When planets station, especially outer planets, they are particularly strong, intensified, because they can linger in the same degree sometimes for months. Pluto stationed retrograde back on May 4 2025. Its direct station now adds a dimension of focused intensity and the sense that whatever the Venus/Saturn story is, it’s a deep, transformative one on emotional and psychological levels.
Also, just to add another log on the fire, Neptune is crossfading back into Pisces on October 22, the day after the Libra New Moon — Venus’s new moon, in its home, where Saturn is exalted; and Saturn is in Pisces, where Venus is exalted.
The simultaneity of the Venus/Saturn opposition on October 11, the Venus Libra ingress/Neptune opposition, and Pluto’s station on October 13, make for an intense culmination period — a turning point and movement into new territory.
Venus/Neptune, like Venus/Saturn, are also now in their full moon phase, and, also like Venus/Saturn, had three conjunctions at the beginning of their current cycle: February 1, March 27, May 2. Now we have a Neptunian layer within this overall culminating time period. As Venus opposes Saturn, then Neptune as it moves into Libra, there’s a noticeable shift in energy, and perhaps two conflicting feelings around relationship being processed at once.
The Venus/Saturn opposition seems like an ending; but the simultaneous Venus/Neptune opposition on the World Axis (00 Aries/Libra) seems ripe with fantasy, idealization, longing, and perhaps self-delusion, yet future-focused and could serve as an escape or distraction from the heavier Venus/Saturn side of things.
With Venus/Neptune, it’s important to be aware we could become immersed in illusions and romanticism due to Neptune’s often subtle hypnotic and chimeric influence. Our imaginations could catch fire during this aspect, and if we’re able to work with Saturn, inspiring works of creativity can result. There’s potential for some Venusian dreams to become truly real around this time; but also the possibility some realities will dissolve into the river of Time and seem, in retrospect, as if they were just dreams all along.
Mid-October is a turning point for many of us. It's a time that might reawaken Venusian themes for many of us. However, it won’t come without consequences, illusions, or some sense of sacrifice.
Around the corner, is the long, two-month-ish Grand Water Trine that begins to light up the trine between Saturn in Pisces and Jupiter in Cancer right after the Libra New Moon on October 21, first by Mars and Mercury, then the Sun, the Mercury again, then Venus, all around 24 degrees of the water signs. Before the Sun activates the grand trine, the energy shifts when Jupiter stations retrograde on November 11.
Something tells me that Venus opposing Saturn and Neptune, then moving into Libra, will be connected somehow to whatever the Grand Water Trine stirs deep within us. It’s bound to be a bittersweet submersion into love and sorrow; bliss and grief; swimming and sinking; beauty and loss; ending and beginning again. But we need all of it to truly be alive.
This is a general reading. Book a reading if you'd like to learn how this time ties into your life and story.
