Venus semi-sextile 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 semi-sextile does

A semi-sextile puts two planets in adjacent signs, which share no element, no quality and no polarity. The tradition treats it as the mildest contact in the table and disagrees with itself about whether it is helpful at all: some read it as a small supportive link, others as a low-level irritation between two things that simply do not speak the same language. Both readings agree it is quiet.

How it reads

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

In practice

Read as a minor note rather than a theme. A semi-sextile is worth mentioning when almost nothing else is in orb, and worth leaving out of a summary when anything major is.

What to watch for

Overreading it. Adjacent signs are genuinely awkward together, but at this strength the tradition does not expect the awkwardness to be conspicuous.

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