Venus quintile 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 quintile does

The quintile divides the zodiac by five rather than by two, three, four or six, which puts it outside the classical scheme entirely. Kepler introduced it, and the tradition since has associated it with a particular kind of ability: a talent that is developed rather than given, and that tends to be applied to making something. It is the aspect most often described as the signature of craft.

How it reads

Desire that moves easily. Associated with warmth, creative energy and an uncomplicated relationship with wanting things.

In practice

Read as aptitude rather than ease. A trine describes something that costs nothing. A quintile describes something a person has repeatedly chosen to work at, often without being able to say why.

What to watch for

Claiming too much for it. The quintile has the thinnest traditional record of anything in this table, and honest practice treats it as suggestive rather than established.

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 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
• Venus opposition MarsDirectly across the chart: two ends of one axis