Venus opposition Mars

What these two are about together

Attraction and drive. The classical pairing for desire, and for the difference between wanting something and going after it.

What a opposition does

An opposition puts two planets exactly across from one another, in signs that are traditionally paired rather than unrelated. It is read as tension between two things that genuinely belong together, which is what separates it from a square. The tradition frames it as a problem of balance and, very often, as something a person meets through other people rather than alone.

How it reads

Attraction and drive disagree. Traditionally read as wanting what fights back, as a pattern of pursuit and withdrawal, and as friction between affection and appetite.

In practice

Read as a see-saw. Whichever end is being favoured, the other end is being neglected, and the aspect tends to describe the swing between them rather than a settled position.

What to watch for

Projection. Oppositions are the aspect most associated with meeting your own unowned half in somebody else and disliking it there.

The two planets

Venus: Values, attraction and what you find beautiful

Mars: Drive, anger and how you go after things

Venus and Mars at other angles

• Venus conjunction MarsTwo bodies at the same degree, acting as one
• Venus semi-sextile MarsThirty degrees apart: neighbouring signs, with little in common
• Venus semi-square MarsForty-five degrees apart: half a square, and read as half its weight
• Venus sextile MarsSixty degrees apart: cooperation that has to be taken up
• Venus quintile MarsSeventy-two degrees apart: a fifth of the circle, and the odd one out
• Venus square MarsNinety degrees apart: two things that will not sit still together
• Venus trine MarsA hundred and twenty degrees apart: the same element, working together
• Venus sesquiquadrate MarsA hundred and thirty-five degrees: a square and a half
• Venus quincunx MarsA hundred and fifty degrees apart: two things that cannot be compared