What is Libra’s Ruling Planet?
The ruling planet is the planet which has the most influence over a sign of the zodiac. The rulership of signs by planets is one of the most ancient and central parts of astrology. The powerful and unique properties of each planet have a direct influence on the characteristics of people born under the sign ruled by that planet. Since the planets are all named after Ancient Roman gods, the stories of these gods have a great influence on the signs that they rule.
Libra is ruled by the planet Venus. Venus is the hottest planet in our solar system, and also the most similar to Earth, meaning that it has been a constant source of fascination for astrologers. It burns brighter than any other star in the night sky because of its thick and reflective atmosphere of sulphuric acid. In other words, it’s beautiful, but deadly.
Venus was named after the Ancient Roman goddess of love and beauty (called Aphrodite in Ancient Greece), who is probably the best-known ancient goddess in modern times. She is also one of the four gods whose domains are commonly said to have remained equally important from the ancient world until today (the other three are Mars, the god of war; Minerva, the goddess of wisdom; and Discordia, the goddess of chaos).
As would be expected of a love goddess, Venus rules over all your romantic ventures. However, she does much more as well. She actually has a very complicated, two-sided personality, which can be very difficult for people born under her to come to terms with. Read on to find out how Venus can affect the lives of those that she rules!
Facets of Libra’s Ruling Planet
You might think that having the planet named after the goddess of love as your ruler means that you’re soft, gentle, and maybe a bit of a pushover. It’s not that this is never true (people with highly introverted charts and a strong influence from the moon can be more of the gentle, retiring type), but for Libras, more often it isn’t true at all. Venus isn’t all sunshine and flowers.
When the goddess Venus was angered, she was a formidable force, who could do a lot of damage. The Ancient Roman gods were frequently wrathful and vengeful, and Venus was no exception. She was said to bring down plagues and wars, as well as cursing people’s loved ones, and dooming their relationships. She was even complicit in the start of the famous Trojan War, because she made Helen, the most beautiful woman on earth, fall in love with a man who wasn’t her husband, which started the political upheaval of the war. Let this be a lesson to those who would cross you!
Venus rules over the traditionally “feminine” aspects of attractiveness. This is in contrast to Mars, which rules over the traditionally “masculine,” more aggressive and lustful elements of seductiveness. Venus’s main wheelhouse is romance, and it also rules especially over female desire.
If your chart has a strong influence from Mars, as well as from Venus (for example, if it was exalted at the time of your birth, or if your Moon or multiple planets in your chart fall into Aries, which is ruled by Mars), then you are a lucky soul indeed! You are blessed with a balanced perspective on seductiveness, which incorporates elements both traditionally deemed masculine, and traditionally deemed feminine. You can read more about Mars’ role in “12 Little Known Facts about Aries’ Ruling Planet.”
Naturally, female desire can be aggressive and lustful (and male desire can be receptive and romantic) just as easily as they can fall into their more traditionally aligned roles. Don’t think that being under the traditionally feminine planet means that you have to discount all “aggressive” elements of your seductiveness – that is not what the goddess of love would want! She would want you to celebrate all aspects and facets of your lovemaking desires with joy and enthusiasm.
Venus was born from the ocean – you’ve probably seen the famous painting of the birth of Venus where she appears on a seashell from the ocean, with angels surrounding her. This indicates that you have a natural affinity for water. Not only are you attracted to water-related pastimes, like swimming and sailing, but you also are drawn to water-related settings, and may be very concerned about the environmental impact of human activity on the ocean.
Many marine biologists are born under Venus, especially those who go into public relations surrounding marine life. Your sociable and likeable personality make you a great speaker and educator, especially when the topic is something you feel personally passionate about. Educating people about the ocean is just one great example of something that combines Venus’s personable qualities with your affinity for water.
Here’s another fun fact about being born from the ocean: that makes Venus one of the only significant Roman gods who was not one of the original six (Jupiter, Neptune, Pluto, Vesta, Juno, and Ceres), but who is not a child of Jupiter. She has an independence that other goddesses can only wish for! This manifests in your own extremely self-assured and confident nature.
You are very good at getting what you want from people, but you always give them a good reason to give you what you want, because you are so likeable and poised. You have a sense that you deserve to enjoy things, and you don’t rely on other people to get them for you. If you want something from a specific person, you have the confidence to ask directly, and to move on to someone else if they’re not serving the role that you want them to.
Romance and Compatibility with Libra’s Ruling Planet
Libras are very romantically inclined because of Venus’s power. You value harmonious and peaceful relationships, and don’t like to have a lot of drama in your relationships. You can enjoy a good drama in fiction, but when it comes to real life, you want everything to go smoothly, and will put a lot of effort into smoothing out any wrinkles that appear.
Your partner will definitely appreciate the peace (especially if they got to know you through your shared artistic interests – you know how some artists can be!). But it can also be hard for them to tell, at times, whether you’re smoothing things out because you value your relationship, or because you’re afraid of conflict.
It’s not necessarily one or the other with you, but if your partner suspects that you’re simply trying to avoid conflict, they might become even more upset, especially if they are a strong-tempered sign like Aries, Leo, or Scorpio. All of those signs are more willing than Libra is to face conflict head-on. Moreover, they are conscious of when conflict is being actively avoided, and will demand to know why.
Venus is highly compatible with planets ruled by air, meaning that Libra is most compatible with Gemini, Aquarius, and other Libras. The optimism and intellectualism that characterizes these signs is very attractive to you.
Of these three signs, Venus makes Libra the most romantically inclined, while Aquarius’s free spirit streak can be an obstacle to commitment, and Geminis can be so all-over-the-place that it can be hard for them to even notice when someone is flirting with them.
Once you get your Gemini or Aquarius on board with your romantic notions, you are destined for an extremely stimulating and intellectually fulfilling relationship. You can have great conversations with them, and it will be refreshing for you to be around people who support your strong emotions, since you often feel like you are being told to suppress your emotions in the name of being strong. At the same time, their ultimately intellectual worldviews will prevent you from slipping off the deep end into hopeless romanticism and departure from reality.
One story tells of the goddess Venus fleeing to Egypt with her son Cupid when a giant named Typhoeus (or Typhon) attacked. They concealed themselves in Egypt by turning into fish, which then (according to the Greeks and Romans) became worshipped in Syria in relationship to the goddess Ashtarte. She probably chose to hide herself as a fish because of her origins in the ocean meaning that she felt a strong kinship with aquatic creatures.
You can harness this same kinship in your relationships to the water signs (Cancer, Scorpio, and Pisces) – especially Pisces, the fish. You find comfort and security in their dreamy, thoughtful, and emotional personalities, just like the goddess Venus found security in the form of a fish.
Venus can have a more difficult time forming bonds with the planets that are ruled by earth (Virgo and Capricorn). Taurus is also an earth sign, but it’s actually ruled by Venus! Read “12 Essential Facts about Taurus’ Ruling Planet” for more information about how Venus’s power manifests in Taurus. But when it comes to the other two, the down-to-earth and practical qualities of the earth signs feel very limiting and uninspiring to many people ruled by Venus. Many people ruled by Venus have especial problems with Capricorns, because Libra and Capricorn are both cardinal signs, leading to a tendency to butt heads.
This is not a hard-and-fast rule (compatibility in astrology rarely is). Sometimes, the proper personality and combination of planets can lead to an earth-ruled person who is receptive to Venus’s romantic notions, and a Venus-ruled person who is willing to put aside those romantic notions in favour of more practical ones at times.
Much more dangerous is the risk involved when someone ruled by Venus becomes involved with someone strongly ruled by Neptune. Most people born in Pisces are ruled by Neptune, but some more strongly than others.
Neptune, the god of the sea, has a form of natural power over people ruled by Venus, who was born from the sea. You will be instantly taken in by everything about them, drawn to their imagination and sensitivity. However, their tendency to disconnect from reality can be dangerous to someone who already struggles to feel empathetic towards others, the way that those ruled by Venus sometimes do. Neptune might encourage you to engage in risk-taking behaviour, without any consideration of the consequences.
Of course, there are examples of healthy relationships between someone ruled by Venus and someone ruled by Neptune. But the risks of codependent behaviour and eventual mutual destructiveness are high.
Using the Power of Libra’s Ruling Planet in your Life
Venus draws you to professions involving people. However, while those ruled by the Moon are highly sensitive and intuitive, and look for nurturing jobs, those ruled by Venus are more interested in jobs that capitalize on your intuitive understanding of complex social norms. More Libras are lawyers than any other sign, because, when you take the time to intentionally cultivate empathy, you become an extremely powerful reader of people.
Your occasionally selfish streak can actually be a benefit in positions such as law or leadership, because you are eager to win. You refuse to take no for an answer, and use every tool at your disposal to turn people around to your way of thinking. You’re not aggressive in this way, but you are extremely convincing.
Never allow anyone to tell you that your emotions make you weak. While some people do struggle to balance emotions and rationality, or allow themselves to slip into deep pits of despair or sadness, you are not one of these people. You are extremely conscious of your emotions’ role in the greater play of life.
Do not deny your emotional side. Great strength will come to you if you can recognize the depth and breadth of your own feelings. By coming to recognize these, you will become much better at correctly understanding the feelings of others, which can be a bit of a pitfall that you run into – even though Venus is the goddess of love, she can be selfish and not very empathetic at times. Recognizing and exploring your own emotions, and then thinking deeply about how they relate to the emotions of others, will help you to practice empathy.
Because of your love for peace and harmony, you can sometimes be averse to confrontation. When you want something to change, you’re much better at wheedling and (dare I say) passive-aggressive behaviour, than you are at a bold-faced disagreement. Your selfish streak also makes it difficult for you to compromise at time, especially if you feel like your side is backed by equity, which is something you value very strongly. This can lead to a lot of coldness, silent treatments, and frustration from both sides of the disagreement.
You can avoid this by practicing empathy and seeing things from the other person’s perspective. Although you can be completely convinced that you are in the right, clearly someone feels differently, and their feelings aren’t necessarily invalid. You need to learn to take a balanced approach to other people’s feelings, in order to cultivate relationships that are harmonious to the core, not just on the surface.
Venus is the planet that rules over art. Allow space in your life for art and creativity in all its forms. Many (though not all) Libras are personally artistically inclined, and enjoy painting, drawing, sculpting, writing, or other forms of artistic creativity.
Even those who are not are very drawn to the aesthetics of art, and love to surround themselves with things of beauty. It feeds your mind and soul, and that makes it worthwhile. There is no reason to neglect art or refrain from giving it a place in your life.
Final Thoughts
Many of the issues that people ruled by Venus have come from not developing a strong enough balance between their desire for self-fulfillment and their need for empathy. Too frequently, Venus (like its namesake goddess) can guide people into narcissism and self-obsession. But, on the other hand, it can just as easily lead you to a deep sense of humanitarianism because of your belief in the goodness of people and the power of love.
If you are ruled by Venus, it is important to come to terms with all elements of your personality. Venus is a complex goddess, a complex planet, and the ruler of complex people. You have to integrate your romantic nature, your selfishness, your emotions, your intellect, and your temper, into one well-rounded personality, rather than allowing yourself to lean to heavily on just one of these parts of yourself.
Any one of these can be the most important part (you get to choose that!) but you do truly need all parts of them to make the full person.
You are a romantic at heart, with big and optimistic ideas about the goodness of people. You’re very likeable, and get along great with most of the people that you meet. At the same time, you can be terribly selfish, and really struggle to think about other people’s feelings as deeply as you think about your own.
You’re fascinated by the strength of human emotions, can become very attuned to them if you try, and love to see them represented by art, but when push comes to shove, you prefer a logical, carefully balanced approach every single time.
Add onto all that the fact that you are an irrepressible soul, and a force to be reckoned with when you are angered, and you have a person who can really struggle to decide where to go with her life.
You don’t have to choose just one part of this personality to follow. With Venus’s guidance, you areable (and allowed!) to take advantage of all these characteristics, to transform yourself into one power-house personality.
Can you feel the power of Venus in your life? Are you on a quest for tranquility that sometimes butts up against your temper and your belief in unwavering logic? How will you harness Venus’s multifaceted power to achieve the type of life that you are truly looking for?
Please like this post if you found it useful or enjoyable. Share it to share advice for other people born under the complex rulership of Venus!
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