Mercury sextile Venus

What these two are about together

Mind and value. How thinking and taste inform each other, which the tradition reads as the aspect of style in the broadest sense.

What a sextile does

A sextile is traditionally read as opportunity rather than event. The two planets are in compatible elements and can work together easily, but the tradition is specific that a sextile describes something available rather than something that arrives. It is the aspect most often described as a door that is unlocked and still shut.

How it reads

Charm in communication. Read as somebody who is easy to talk to and who negotiates without it feeling like negotiation.

In practice

Reads as ease that is not automatic. Where a trine tends to be used without thinking, a sextile tends to be noticed and then either taken up or left alone.

What to watch for

Nothing happening. A sextile that goes unused is the most common way this aspect is experienced, and it is not a failure of the aspect.

The two planets

Mercury: Mind, language and how you process

Venus: Values, attraction and what you find beautiful

Mercury and Venus at other angles

• Mercury conjunction VenusTwo bodies at the same degree, acting as one
• Mercury semi-sextile VenusThirty degrees apart: neighbouring signs, with little in common
• Mercury semi-square VenusForty-five degrees apart: half a square, and read as half its weight
• Mercury quintile VenusSeventy-two degrees apart: a fifth of the circle, and the odd one out
• Mercury square VenusNinety degrees apart: two things that will not sit still together
• Mercury trine VenusA hundred and twenty degrees apart: the same element, working together
• Mercury sesquiquadrate VenusA hundred and thirty-five degrees: a square and a half
• Mercury quincunx VenusA hundred and fifty degrees apart: two things that cannot be compared
• Mercury opposition VenusDirectly across the chart: two ends of one axis