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Mercury sextile Pluto

Mercury sextile Pluto, within one nativity or between two charts in synastry

What the tradition reads

Within a single chart Mercury sextile Pluto is read as a mind in harmony with Pluto's own instinct for what lies beneath the surface: the native naturally seeks truths, looking for hidden layers and zoning in on core meanings, sources describing a deep, thoughtful, investigative and highly perceptive mind that makes a resourceful, strategic and excellent problem-solver. Between two charts, one person's Mercury sextile another's Pluto is read as a partner who helps open the other up to new ways of thinking, or who is simply appreciated for Pluto's own intensity; sources note this contact works especially well for therapeutic or professional relationships, fostering a genuinely deep connection without the harder contacts' battles of the mind.

The story

A sextile is sixty degrees, a sixth of the circle, one of the four configurations Ptolemy names, read through the compatible signs it joins and asking for a degree of active engagement before its ease is felt; Wikipedia's own summary of the aspect calls it similar to the trine but less intense, indicating compatibility and harmony. Hermes carries one office among the Greeks that suits this pairing exactly: psychopomp, the guide who leads the souls of the dead down to Hades's own kingdom, a role his Roman counterpart Mercury keeps as well, leading newly deceased souls to the afterlife. Set at this easier angle, Hermes keeps his freedom of movement between the world of the living and Hades's kingdom rather than being drawn permanently into it: the psychopomp's office is, after all, a round trip, not a one way descent, and a mind that visits Pluto's depths on these terms returns each time with something useful rather than staying to be consumed by the question.

Written from

Corpus key aspect:Mercury:Pluto:sextile.