Almagest

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Venus square Pluto

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

What the tradition reads

Within a single chart Venus square Pluto is read, together with the opposition, as manipulation entering where wanting used to be plain: Cafe Astrology's natal reading warns that "in an attempt to control the outcome of a love relationship, you can turn to manipulative games," feelings running "intense, and even extreme, when it comes to love." The tradition names difficulty letting go as the square's particular burden, and its usual counsel is to recognize the pattern "as your own material and not project it onto your partner" rather than treating it as something only the other person causes. Between two charts, one person's Venus square another's Pluto is read, together with the opposition, through "the expression 'a fine line between love and hate,'" a primal attraction that at this friction making angle sources say can bring power struggles, jealousy, and volatile emotion, leaving both partners unable to stay simply platonic if the connection ever ends.

The story

A square sets two bodies at the quadrate distance from each other, three signs or ninety degrees apart; Ptolemy's chapter on the mutual configuration of the signs names it, together with the opposition, discordant, since the signs it joins are, in his words, of different natures and sexes. 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 friction making angle, the tradition reads that same reach as active strain rather than smooth possession, wanting and control catching against each other instead of moving as one.

Written from

Corpus key aspect:Venus:Pluto:square.