'Amor Holding a Glass Orb' van Everdingen c.1660 {{PD-Art}}

Let’s look at one relatively misunderstood representative of love, the asteroid Amor. In an historical novel I read years ago, there was a scene that perfectly illustrates the kind of misunderstanding that can surround Amor contact. Set in late Medieval France, the story involves a young man, traveling, who is invited to a noble’s table for dinner. The noble has an impressionable young daughter, who instantly develops a crush on the handsome stranger. She expresses a desire to learn new things, particularly to learn Latin, so that she can read many of the available texts. He volunteers to give her her first lesson; anyone who’s studied Latin knows that you begin with the verb ‘amor,’ to love. As he instructs her at the dinner table, “Amo, Amas, Amat,” she mistakes his use of the verb, reading into the situation that he chose it to send her a message that he’s interested in her as a paramour. From his point of view, he was simply beginning at the beginning, with no hidden meaning or implication. This is very much like asteroid Amor in one chart in contact with a placement in another’s chart: it feels like love is coming from the Amor person, and indeed it is; but how good are we at distinguishing the essence of love offered from romantic and/ or sexual interest? That’s where the difficulty comes forward.

There’s also the question of just how Amor expresses in the chart of an individual. If it represents love in its most elemental form, then this energy might drive each of us in a very particular way, linking in to the chart and showing how we try to get, process, and express Amor ourselves. And who needs love from the world more than a performer, and especially a comedian? The chart of SNL cast member and unlikely movie star, the late Chris Farley (15 February 1964, 3:34 PM, Madison Wisconsin), shows this well. Amor is at 28 Virgo in the 3rd of communication, suggesting both a likely outlet for and a likely conduit through which to receive the energy from the outside world; his need to give and receive love was the need for continual interaction and communication. Amor opposes the 9th House Moon (the broadcasting of emotions) located in Pisces, perhaps suggesting that the emotions have difficulty separating through appropriate boundaries (and certainly pointing toward a possible emotional reason behind the drug problems), with Cancer on the 12th reinforcing this and adding the idea that Mr. Farley let his emotions run wild and undifferentiated at his own peril (through the ‘serve or suffer’ mechanism of the 12th). The only other aspect made by Amor is a trine to Vesta, suggesting that the impetus behind his reaching out was fueled by the feeling that love in its basic sense was sacred–and that he acutely felt violations of this, not only personally but in the Collective–and as we know, no individual who feels the Collective pain can carry it alone without serious consequences.

From the section on Amor in THE ASTROLOGY OF INTIMATE RELATIONSHIP http://dogandsunflower.wordpress.com/ we know that the real meaning of Amor is often directly confused with romantic love; Amor is actually (and here I quote the book): ” . . . a love that’s unconcerned with sexuality or romance; it’s pure, and as such will be heavily colored by the energies with which it connects in both the individual chart and cross-chart.” So, when we’re looking for love, we are indeed looking for Amor, but when we’re looking for romance, we should be looking elsewhere–this is well-illustrated in the book by the comparison of Amor aspects in the charts of one-time spouses Julia Roberts and Lyle Lovett; we see specifically that Amor may have persuaded them there was more romantic depth to the relationship than there was, a classic case of mistaking one love energy for another.

It’s important to note that having Amor contacts is both supportive of and very good for a successful relationship, but they must be accompanied by romantic contacts if there’s to be sexual chemistry, or even romantic feelings. If you’re presented with an opportunity for romance, check the relationship of natal Amor between the charts, and look at transiting Amor as well; if transiting Amor is prominent in one or the other chart at present, it may be that the sense of love is diffuse and focused on humankind, rather than in romance. In this instance we may be feeling the Amor radiating from another, but mistaking it for other, very personal energies. We can check for romantic contacts between the charts to see if this will just be a pleasant encounter (T Venus contact to natal placements), a hot sexual (or even violent) dalliance with likely little future potential (T Pluto contact, possibly to N Mars, ASC, or Venus), an interaction where one or the other party projects ideals or illusions (T Neptune to N Venus in the chart of the individual), or a long-lasting love match of the first order (positive contacts between natal placements, plus strong Saturn contact from each chart). Obviously, there are other combinations that show potential relationship, as well, but the distinction between Amor and romance and/ or sexual interest must always be sorted out.