Venus and Mars in love: what you enjoy and how you go after it

Venus and Mars are read as the two halves of attraction. Venus describes what you enjoy and are drawn to, and Mars describes how you go after it. Everyone has both in their birth chart. Astrologers read them together twice: in your own chart, where they show whether wanting and pursuing pull the same way, and between two charts, where they describe attraction and pace.

What Venus and Mars each describe

Both planets are in every chart. Older astrology books often split them by gender. Astrologers today read both in every chart, whoever you are and whoever you love.

The two move differently. Seen from Earth, Venus is never more than about 47 degrees from the Sun, so your Venus sign is your Sun sign or within two signs of it. Mars is not tied to the Sun. It takes roughly two years to move through the zodiac, the circle of twelve signs, and spends about six to seven weeks in each sign. Any Venus sign can come with any Mars sign, which makes 144 combinations.

For the twelve signs of each planet, see what your Venus sign means and what your Mars sign means.

Venus and Mars in your own chart

Start with the elements. The twelve signs fall into four groups: fire, earth, air and water.

If your Venus and Mars are in the same element, you pursue in the style you like to be approached in. Astrologers read that as a clear signal: what people see at the start is what they get.

If they are in different elements, wanting and pursuing run at two speeds.

• Venus in Taurus, Mars in Gemini. You want slow, steady closeness, and you go after it with quick words and changing plans. Others may think you are less serious than you are.
• Venus in Aquarius, Mars in Cancer. You enjoy space and friendship in love, and you pursue by taking care of someone. You may reach out warmly and then need more room than the other person expected.

Neither is a flaw. People tend to meet your Mars first, in how you approach them, and your Venus later, in how you like to be loved. Knowing both lets you say so out loud.

Venus describes what you want. Mars describes what you do about it.

Venus and Mars between two charts

When two charts are compared, astrologers look at four contacts between these two planets.

• Your Venus and their Mars. What you enjoy meets the way they pursue.
• Your Mars and their Venus. The same in the other direction. When both contacts exist, the pull is read as mutual.
• Venus and Venus. Shared taste and similar ways of showing affection.
• Mars and Mars. Pace: how you decide, how you get things done together and how you argue.

A contact counts when the two planets stand in the same place or at one of the angles astrologers call aspects, and the closer the angle, the more weight it gets. How synastry aspects are read

Easy contacts and contacts that take translation

The elements give a first hint. Signs of the same element get along most easily, and so do fire with air and earth with water.

An example. One of you has Venus in Taurus, the other has Mars in Leo. The Leo Mars courts with big gestures and wants a response. The Taurus Venus enjoys being courted and takes its time. The translation: one learns that slow is not a no, and the other learns that an answer, even "not yet", is kind.

Tense contacts between Venus and Mars are often read as the ones with the most spark. They ask for more talking, and they are not a warning.

What Venus and Mars do not tell you

Attraction is one part of a relationship. A close Venus and Mars contact describes a pull. It says nothing about whether two people want the same life.

• The Moon describes what each of you needs to feel safe in daily life.
• Saturn describes commitment and staying power.
• Mercury describes how you talk and settle a disagreement.

A comparison without a close Venus and Mars contact rules nothing out either. No pair of planets gives a verdict, and whether a relationship works is decided by the two people in it.

What to do next with your Venus and Mars

1. Find both signs. Your date of birth is enough on most days, because both planets stay in one sign for weeks.
2. Write one sentence for each: "I enjoy ..." and "I go after things by ...". Check whether the two sentences agree.
3. If you have a partner, compare the four contacts and talk about the one that sounds most familiar.

A Love Reading is written for your own chart and describes how you love. A Compatibility Reading compares your chart with your partner's, calculated from both sets of exact birth data, and gives no verdict and no score.