Venus in Aquarius - The shape of water

For this Venus placement, I chose one of Guillermo del Torro’s movies to illustrate her archetype. It sounds Aquarian from the title: The Shape of Water, one of his best movies in my opinion. If you love dark romance, sci-fi, fantasy, fairy tales, myths and the like, well, this movie has all. It was released in 2017, so chances are you had already watched the movie. For those who have not, it worths you time, really!

This movie holds a significant meaning to me. I remember seeing its poster everywhere in 2018. As I was struggling navigating my own dark nights of the soul, going to the movies was the last thing I would consider worth-doing on my list.

March 2020, most inhabited parts of the world were on house arrest. There was not much to do save from working from home, taking care of your family, spending 1 hour outside and reading or binge watching Netflix. I still remember the day after 2020 Spring Equinox, our kid was put to bed and I finally had some quality time with my spouse. It was too cold for a tea night under the stars, so we were looking for a good movie to watch. All the blockbusters seemed predictable and boring, and out of nowhere The Shape of Water’s poster popped into my mind.

1962, Baltimore, Maryland. Elisa Esposito, a mute janitor working at a top-secret government laboratory accidentally knows about an amphibian man from the Amazonian rain forest. He was captured by an American oil company and delivered to the laboratory to be under the surveillance and investigation of highly-decorated army officers including colonel Strickland. After a series of events, she happens to be the one knowing the most about the dangerous, divinely beautiful creature. What would she do to save everyone she loved?

Its genre is romantic fantasy, but honestly there’s a great touch of thriller and action in it. We followed Elisa to work, discovering the monotonous daily routine of an American single woman in her late 30s with a mysterious past. She seemed to be charming enough to have two loving confidants who are also social outcasts like her: a men-loving, cat-adoring male painter in his lates 60s and a black female janitor who was also her best friend and translator at work. Together they form a trio of friends providing much needed comedy moments in a rather dark romance. The movie is a masterpiece, and the novel is equally great to my surprise!

While meditating on this specific Venus placement, The Shape of Water appeared as the best candidate. Like Aquarius - an Air sign under a water glyph, water has no form and can be whatever we want it to be. It is flexible, changing but not accommodating as it can become terribly powerful if needed. It can be confusing, because what you get is not always what you see.

Venus in Aquarius is seemingly gentle and reserved, but truly she is as curious and unpredictable as an Aquarius Sun can be. Her charms lay in her independent mind, her boundless love for the world and her atypical creativity. Her heart is pure, her eyes bright with joy, her unpredictability makes things wonderful and exciting in the long run. She loves freely and unconditionally, her love flows and goes beyond logic, strong enough to defy authority. Fuelled by her innocence and her compassion for all beings, her love exists in the eternal flow of time, like water, like air.

I’d like to end this post by a quote from Elisa while she told her friend about her newly found love:

“When he looks at me, the way he looks at me... He does not know, what I lack... Or - how - I am incomplete. He sees me, for what I - am, as I am. He's happy - to see me. Every time”.