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Reprinted from the June 1997 Arizona Astrologer

Scribe: Patrick Hesselmann

Daniel GiamarioThe Sacred Marriage

This is a matter of owning our own inner masculinefor women, or inner feminine for men. The make-upof Mars in a woman’s chart, and of Venus in aman’s, defines largely the inner partner we need tocomplete the Sacred Marriage. Once our Venus andMars are in balance, we have within ourselves theability to deal with the world through both feminineand masculine perspectives, bringing each to bear atthe appropriate time. But before we have achievedthat blending and agreement, we are in a situationwhere we tend to rely on someone else to do the“opposite” side for us. We study those situations,observing what our chosen “expert” does. Then, aswe become familiar with the patterns, we finallygraduate to the Sacred Marriage within ourselves,and no longer need that external input to do theopposite side for us.

Daniel places emphasis on chart signatures thatcontain connections, particularly the harsh ones,from Pluto and Saturn, to the natal Mars or Venus.These people have a special set of lessons and anurgency about those lessons. For these evaluations,he uses a 10º Ptolemaic aspects.

The beginning point in following Daniel’s models isalways with the lineage signature: Moon (sign and, toa lesser extent, house) and South Node (house, andto a lesser extent, sign). To understand the Venusand Mars in a chart, we need to know where thelineage has provided expertise; in other words, theMoon sign. There might be a renunciate signature ofthe Moon (e.g. Aries, Gemini, Sagittarius) or exper-tise in intimacy but not pair bonding (Leo, Taurus),or in pair bonding but not intimacy (Libra). Then,

for Daniel’s model of the Sacred Marriage, we shiftto the Venus and Mars signatures. These, togetherwith the Sun, are the tools and equipment of thecurrent life, those things one will be able to workwith in trying to make progress. So we look at therelationship between these three planets.

Sun and Venus in the same sign for women providesa clear signature of the intent and the “fuel” (Sun) forachieving it. In different signs, the intent is definedmore clearly by the Venus signature, with the Sunproviding information on how she will reach thegoal. Similarly for Sun and Mars for men. Obviouslythere are more people with Sun and Venus in thesame sign than there are with Sun and Mars in thesame sign, since Venus never gets more than 48degrees away from the Sun, whereas Mars can bein any sign without reference to the Sun. So there isan implication that women are more likely to beclear about their relationship intent than men. Butthis is not guaranteed. Some of the semisextile signsare the most contrasting, e.g. Aries with Pisces orAries with Taurus.

Next he points out the difference between relation-ship intent and physical attraction. The Sun, Venus,and Mars describe the physical attraction character-istics in a chart, but the Ascendant-Descendantdescribe the relationship intent. This axis comes insix pairs, making no distinction between the sign onthe ascendant and that on the descendant in theanalysis, i.e. Taurus rising and Scorpio rising are thesame relationship intent signatures. Daniel’s experi-ence indicates that about two-thirds of the horo-scopes he examines show a split between the

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relationship intent and who we are attracted to. Thisis dealt with in different ways by different cultures.Some essentially arrange marriages based on socialcondition, horoscopes, or other traditions. Others,like the French, assume there will be lovers andmistresses, but they don’t talk about them. In theU.S., we tend to be rather hypocritical, Danielsuggests, presumably because there is a fair amountof infidelity going on but very little acknowledgementof it.

We also find clues in the horoscope about howrelationship will work out for the individual. Somewill have a series of high-speed monogamousrelationships, e.g. cardinal and fire signs, especiallySagittarius and Aries, but not forgetting Libra’spotential for “doing” their relationship thing over andover. Others may have signatures of long-termcommitment without sparks, e.g. Earth and fixedsigns, typically Capricorn, Scorpio and the like.Other signs might indicate the possibility of non-committed, parallel relationships, e.g. Gemini,Sagittarius, or Aquarius. Romantic Pisces could alsofall into this category if they are unable to set bound-aries about commitment at any one time. All thesesuggestions are only hints, not to be interpreted forevery chart that has ascendant and descendantplaying along these axes. But a combination of thesesignatures with confirmation from the positions byhouse and sign of the ascendant and descendantrulers, Mars, Venus, and the Sun can be quite tellingin interpreting the actual relationship behavior.

The Sacred Marriage is a fulfillment of the Venus-Mars relationship within the individual’s nature. Itdepends on full development of the masculine andfeminine in balance and in harmony. This set ofcurrent intents may be very different than the lineagedefined by Moon and South Node. The first re-quirement in the process of achieving the SacredMarriage is for a woman to work on her Mars andfor a man to work on his Venus. Then they have tounderstand how Venus and Mars relate in their lives.Each has its own set of 12 sub-archetypes that allowthe feminine to express in a very masculine or Yangway, e.g. Venus in Aries or Sagittarius; or that allowthe masculine to express in a decidedly feminine

way, i.e. Mars in Taurus or Cancer. So Danielprovided insight into the archetypes, assuming thatwe could derive the feminine from the masculine andvice versa.

A selection of those insights follows, beginning withexamples of the masculine Venus followed byexamples of the feminine Mars.

Masculine Venus in Virgo: This individual is encoun-tering the Virgin Priestess, using the older definitionof virgin, where it describes a woman who does not“belong” to any single man, but is independent andself-sufficient in her service of the goddess. This manmight want to bond and form long-term relation-ships, e.g. if he has Libra rising. But he continuallyattracts into his life the Virgin Priestess type, whowill tolerate a relationship for some period, but notto the stage of becoming a possession or dependentof the man. These woman have no intention ofbonding. He needs to do inner, Sacred Marriagework first. Then he can be attracted to somethingother than what he started with. The primary thing toobserve here is that attraction is not logical butdictated by the needs of the individual and reflectedin the Venus, Mars, and ascendant-descendantsignatures in the chart. So the man with Venus inVirgo needs to become self-sufficient to the extentthat he doesn’t perceive a desire to trap women andget into a bondage style of relationship with those heassociates with. This can happen when he has cometo grips with the need of practical service to hisfeminine needs, when he can perform the SacredWork and service that he might otherwise demandof his partner. Then he can attract someone who willnot be scared off by the neediness expressedthrough projecting his Venus on her.

Masculine Venus in Aries: This is a Warrior identityof the feminine. Athleticism, spontaneity, indepen-dence, competitiveness and assertiveness areemphasized, Again, a Cancer or Libra ascendant-descendant signature will probably make it verydifficult for these people to draw a partner interestedin settling down with them until they have done theinner work of becoming independent and adventur-ous in their own right. These two signatures (Venus

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in Virgo and Venus in Aries for men) really requirethe individual to be prepared to operate outside thecultural archetypes of normalcy.

Masculine Venus in Libra: This is a Hera signature.Hera, the wife of Zeus, was known for her greatjealousy in dealing with the philanderings of herhusband, and in generally carping about his behavior.But he was the archetypal Sagittarian! The otherside, the reason she did not leave this malingeringmiscreant, is that he was, after all, the King. Thisconveyed a status and power derived from his thatshe found sufficiently attractive and important to putup with his behaviors and only scold him rather thanleave him. This signature wants the feminine to bethe #1 priority in life. In contrast with Venus in Virgoin a man’s chart, requiring that the Sacred Work beaccomplished, this is about relationship, pair bondingbeing the most important factor.

Feminine Mars in Pisces: Here are Dionysus paral-lels. He was the god of wine, women and song, buthis basic ability was the ability to be comfortable tothe women around him. They could let go with him,and enjoy their rapture and ecstasy in his company.He has been described as the god of gay men. Thissignature is closest to the feminine principle but has atranspersonal quality. Dionysus marries in only oneof the stories. Ariadne was a Tantrika, Scorpio-typeavant-garde priestess. She observed the emergenceof a new type of masculine/solar principle. Shehelped Theseus through the labyrinth but later wasabandoned as Theseus moved into patriarchal

thinking. She then matches with Dionysus. Here weare seeing the search for a man with a really well-developed feminine, feeling side. Her lesson is todevelop self-nurturing, self-empathy rather than self-condemnation, and the ability to take care of herown feeling needs. Once she has done that, she candeal with men of various types, while providing herown inner feeling support system.

Feminine Mars in Sagittarius: This is a Vision Questwarrior signature. These women have a need to goon to the next challenge, the next excitement, and tokeep traveling rather than settle down and nurture.The lesson is to learn how to support that need fromher own resources. Maybe this involves shaping herown travel plans or her own growth process beforegetting into a relationship, and maintaining thatindependence when a possible relationship doessurface. If she depends on the man to express herneed to travel and to experience new dimensions orto be her spiritual teacher, she will only becomefrustrated with being shut off from the world.

Feminine Mars in Cancer: The need here is for astable, loving, giving, and nurturing householder, aperfect Mr. Mom. There tends to be a price for theCancerian signature: he may be very nurturing withthe family, but may not be very intimate with his wife.She needs to provide her own environment of loveand nurturance, taking care of her own needs. Giventhis, the right kind of partner will be much easier tofind.