The Moon square Venus
the Moon square Venus, within one nativity or between two charts in synastry
What the tradition reads
Within a single chart the Moon square Venus is read as a native who values harmony highly enough to give in to others too easily: feeling and affection want the same peaceable outcome, but the square makes getting there a matter of self-sacrifice rather than of simple agreement, comfort purchased, at times, at the cost of the person's own actual preference. Between two charts, this square still carries a natural appreciation and liking between the two people, but sources note there will be times each person does not appreciate the other's habits, or finds their values in outright conflict, and name these as genuinely difficult and frustrating stretches rather than passing moods, needing real effort at compromise to move past.
The story
A square is ninety degrees, a quarter of the circle, one of the four configurations Ptolemy names; Wikipedia's own summary of the aspect calls the square a hard aspect that creates a strong and usable tension requiring adjustment or a decision, and Ptolemy calls it, together with the opposition, discordant. 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. Set at this harder angle, Venus's own wish for harmony and the Moon's own need for comfort can each, at moments, ask the other to give up more ground than it wants to.
Written from
- Ptolemy, Tetrabiblos, Book I, Chapters V and XVI (Ashmand translation, Project Gutenberg ebook 70850, https://www.gutenberg.org/files/70850/70850-h/70850-h.htm)
- Wikipedia, Aspect (astrology)
- Wikipedia, Venus (mythology)
- Cafe Astrology, Moon - Venus Aspects in the Natal Chart
- Cafe Astrology, Moon - Venus Aspects in Synastry
Corpus key aspect:Moon:Venus:square.