Since the Roman goddess Venus is the goddess of love, in Western astrology the planet Venus  is also associated with love. Additionally, Venus is associated with the principles of harmony, beauty, balance, and the urge to unite. According to Marcus Manilius, Venus is generous and fecund, and presides over the left arm. In Gustav Holst's musical composition The Planets, Venus is called "The Bringer of Peace". Venus is the ruling planet of Taurus and Libra.

Venus is the planet of Friday. Dante Alighieri associated Venus with the liberal art of rhetoric.

In Chinese astrology, Venus is associated with the element metal. In Indian astrology, Venus is a female planet, known as Shukra.

Venus near the Ascendant suggests the help that Venus provides is apt to be most noticeable in your personality and in the way you relate to others. This suggests you possess a generous portion of personal grace, a pleasing manner, and a normally friendly demeanor. The effect of this placement helps you become more socially outgoing and you have a generally happy outlook on life. Your personality strives to develop friendships and relationships. This is a considerable advantage to you in business and social contacts. You appreciate the good things in life, and you expect them. You may have to guard against a degree of vanity in your makeup.

Venus here suggests that this planet is closely associated with your security and your material ideas. You have a love of wealth and the personal adornments it affords, and you probably have much good fortune when it comes to obtaining many of the better things in life. You are very much interested in making a lot of money, if only for the social status it provides. The placement denotes talent in business and a definite ability to make money. The Venus association with artistic endeavors suggests that if you are artistically inclined, you may stand a good chance of making money from your art. Sometimes it also suggests an extravagance that may be offset by the material advantages that you obtain.

Venus in the third house suggests a good deal of harmony in your early schooling and learning environment. This is an indication of intellectual interests in artistic and cultural pursuits. Your early years were pleasant and easy, and you may have developed talents in art or music, or at least been given an opportunity to do so. Artistic and creative, you are probably an excellent writer. You get along well with those in your family, because you don't like to argue. You operate through persuasion, never through pressure, and the gift of compromise seems to come naturally to you. You are a socially active person.

This placement shows a potential happy homebody, or at least one to whom a happy home is an ideal. You are emotionally attached to your home and the domestic scene. You take great pride in your home, and you seem to enjoy seeing to it that your surroundings are artistically decorated to the extent that your means can afford. There is a strong connection to the land, and this may include a patriotic love of your homeland. There is a closeness between yourself and your parents that is very beneficial to you.