Almagest

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The Moon opposite Venus

the Moon opposite Venus, within one nativity or between two charts in synastry

What the tradition reads

Within a single chart the Moon opposite Venus is read the same way as the square: a native who values harmony so highly that they give in to others too easily, feeling and affection wanting the same peaceable outcome while the opposition sets the cost of reaching it at one end of the chart and the peace itself at the other. The native can feel the trade-off more starkly than in the square, each side of the exchange fully visible only while the other, for the moment, is given up. Between two charts, this opposition still carries a natural appreciation and liking, but sources warn of times each person will not appreciate the other's habits, or will find their values plainly in conflict, calling these difficult and frustrating stretches, the greater distance of the opposition making the swing between fondness and friction more pronounced than in the square.

The story

An opposition is a hundred and eighty degrees, half the circle, the two bodies facing each other directly across it; Ptolemy's chapter on the mutual configuration of the signs groups it with the square as discordant, and Wikipedia's own summary of the aspect describes oppositions as prone to exaggeration, their dichotomous quality keeping whatever they touch in a real and often tense relation rather than letting it settle. Aphrodite, whom Rome called Venus, is not born as an infant in the oldest telling but rises fully grown from sea foam, produced when Cronus cast his father Uranus's own severed genitals into the water; Roman theology went on to describe her as the yielding, watery female principle, essential to the generation and balance of life, a birth and a nature both tied to water before they are tied to anything else.

Written from

Corpus key aspect:Moon:Venus:opposition.