Alone, but Not Lonely--Unaspected Planets (Venus)

Correction a singleton and an unaspected planet are not the same. For the sake of this article I focused on the unaspected planet.

Like the virginal single girl on a quest for love, a singleton planet also hangs out alone in a chart, hiding in the corner. Singleton planets represent planets in their purest form untainted by conversations with other planets through what astrologers call aspects. However, the downside, which is irritating to the person with the singleton planet is that they feel that they don't have access to the planet's energy or message.

In her book, The Yod Book, Dutch Astrologer Karen Hamaker-Zondag covers the unaspected planet in several chapters. Similar to the yod, a person with an unaspected planet feels like he or she doesn't have access to the planet, but different from a yod, an unaspected planet forgoes the interpretations of multiple planets in multiple modes and elements. Karen gives an example of a boy with an unaspected Mars who is loud and disruptive without his awareness. When the boy's mother tells him to simmer down, he honestly doesn't know he's causing a disturbance, as if he's blinded to the experience--thus the unaspected planet at work.

This leads me to wonder if singleton planets are the culprit in situations where people feel like they're victims and don't see themselves as others see them. For instance, we might see someone as capable and competent and wonder why they keep messing up and not taking responsibility for their actions. Could he or she have an unaspected Saturn. Or what about someone who lands in trouble constantly for overspending, seeks therapy, but doesn't heal this problem? Could this person have an unaspected Jupiter? What about someone who fights the battle with obesity and never seems to win? It seems that the first two elements to look for in a natal chart of a client with these types of issues would be yods and unaspected planets.

For many years, I disassociated with my Natal Venus which is unaspected to other planets in my chart and has a square with Chiron (asteroid aspects don't count). This planet is also retrograde in Gemini in the Sixth House. My quest has been around femininity and beauty, never feeling like I measured up. The retrogade for me points back to past lives in which I played the roles of geisha, courtesan, harem member, saloon singer and other roles where beauty counted for everything and other women were my rivals.

 In my teen years (in this life), I wanted to melt into the walls because while other young women blossomed with womanly figures, I had a coltish figure. I would gorge on food and never gain weight and I despised my monthly cycle too, which led me to experience extreme PMS. If only I had known about unaspected Venus at the time or the Artemis Archetype. When I was around 19 years of age, my mother was watching an Audrey Hepburn movie (Funny Face or Roman Holiday) and I finally found a woman I could identify with, a Taurus woman ruled by Venus who also had a coltish figure, long legs, long neck and big eyes like me. It felt like I landed on a planet that was truly my home.

I didn't live a normal college life for a young woman because I didn't date.  I felt awkward around men, thinking I was better off as their friend and not an intimate partner.  Men I had zero attraction to chased after me and one guy slept on the door mat of my dorm room.  Men I felt an attraction for, seemed to run in the opposite direction as if my neediness (which I had no awareness) frightened them.  When I finally, did date a man, he was a Gemini (my Venus is at 22 degrees Gemini) and he broke my heart.  I dated other mutable sign men and either grew bored with them quickly or ended up with a broken heart.  That went on for years.  Had I known about unaspected planets I wonder if I could have avoided those traps.

I did what any sensible woman with an unaspected Venus in Gemini falling in the Sixth House, I fell in love with journalism and pursued a career as an arts journalist where I met "beautiful" people making beautiful music or movies. 

But the unaspected Venus came out in other ways such as distorted friendships with Gemini or other mutable sign women, who subtly manipulated my thinking to the point where I could no longer think for myself.  Then in 2008, I rented an apartment from a Gemini landlady who turned out to have a twisted and paranoid mind.  A Uranus square  to my Natal Venus played a role, as it did with an earlier incident with a male stalker (just a year prior to me renting the apartment).  Pluto in Sagittarius was opposing my Venus when I dealt with the stalker as Uranus was pulling up to a square with Venus.  At those point, I met a less diplomatic side of my Venus and decided not to play nice girl any longer. She transformed into Kali light.

Without giving anymore details of my personal life away, I can say that working with an unaspected planet, (especially when we don't have an awareness of an unaspected planet ), leaves us feeling like victims of circumstance.  And knowing about the unaspected planet explains past events but doesn't exactly cause me to forgive those people who hurt me along the way.  I feel even to this day, that I've been tossed into a theatrical play without the director handing me a script.  And add to that, unaspected Venus' quest never ends as I hunger and thirst for beauty, feeling depressed around anything that seems drab to me.

Fortunately, Hamaker-Zondag gives excellent advice in her book of handling and working with unaspected planets.  Having an unaspected planet asks us to develop a deeper awareness of ourselves through other people's responses to us, which we turn into feedback.  We are asked to stare honestly at ourselves in the mirror and see how we reflect back to the world.  However, unaspected planets appear secretive and they shut the door to their energy.  It's like having an invisible director in the room that whispers commands we can't hear.

But don't despair, Hamaker-Zondag says that just like the yod configuration, we develop unique gifts from our unaspected planets once we develop an awareness of them.  Look up the house, sign and house ruler for clues to unlock the gifts and to shine light on the pitfalls of the singleton planet or even duets (two singleton planets that connect through an aspect).

Check out "The Yod Book" by Karen Hamaker-Zondag, Samuel Weiser, Inc.

I just glanced at the chart Bernadette Brady has for Saint Joan of Arc in her book, "The Eagle and the Lark" and Joan of Arc had an unaspected Mars in Virgo (Third House).  The real reason Joan was burned on the stake was for dressing up like boy/man. This was illegal at the time and the academics who judged her did not have enough evidence to try Joan as a witch.  Mars = boy/male, especially warrior and Virgo = maiden or virgin and the Third House = Messenger.   So we can add Joan of Arc to the list of famous people with unaspected planets.