Almagest

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Venus sextile Pluto

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

What the tradition reads

Within a single chart Venus sextile Pluto is read, together with the trine, as one of the pairing's easy contacts: Cafe Astrology's natal reading credits a strong intuition, the ability to "observe others and have a strong feel for their motivations," alongside a charisma the source calls "strong and natural, often understated, and you can be quite persuasive." The tradition names devotion as the placement's particular gift, "highly devoted and passionate to the things (and people) you do love." Between two charts, one person's Venus sextile another's Pluto is read, together with the trine, as "a very supportive interchart aspect that enhances sexual attraction and expression and the overall sense of emotional fulfillment," a bond in which both partners are said to grow through whatever challenges arise rather than being worn down by them.

The story

A sextile sets two bodies at the hexagonal distance from each other, two signs or sixty degrees apart; Ptolemy's chapter on the mutual configuration of the signs names it, together with the trine, harmonious, since the two signs it joins share the same gender. In the later tellings of Persephone's abduction that Ovid and Claudian shape, Wikipedia's page for Pluto records, it is specifically "the role of Venus and Cupid in manipulating Pluto with love and desire" that sets the story moving, Venus reaching into the lord of the underworld and making him want. At this easy angle, the tradition reads that same reach as given freely rather than as manipulation, insight and charisma standing in for what, at a harder angle, would be control.

Written from

Corpus key aspect:Venus:Pluto:sextile.