Consider what an opposition asks of these two. Mercury would have to stand at one horizon and Venus at the other, with the whole zodiac between them. In fact Mercury is never further than about twenty eight degrees from the Sun and Venus never further than about forty eight, so both are always found in the same quarter of the sky, and their greatest possible separation is roughly seventy six degrees. The evening star and the morning star may sit on opposite sides of the Sun, and that is the extent of the drama.
Since no chart contains this opposition, there is no externalisation to describe, no partner who carries the far end, none of the machinery that makes real oppositions interesting. Popular listings include it for the same reason they include a Sun Mercury square: the aspect grid is generated mechanically and nobody has told the program which combinations the sky forbids. Some older texts also repeat it because they were compiled from tables of aspects in general rather than from observation of actual nativities.
The useful reading for these two is a different one. Mercury and Venus are permanent companions, and the interpretive question is whether they share a sign, whether one is retrograde while the other is not, and which of them is closer to the Sun and therefore harder to see. A native whose Mercury is combust while Venus stands clear will describe pleasures more confidently than reasons. That distinction does real work in a chart, and it is available in every chart, which an opposition between them never will be.
What It Gives
- ◆constant companionship of the two
- ◆morning and evening star
- ◆one combust, the other clear
- ◆retrograde contrast worth reading
What It Costs
- ◆no facing halves to reconcile
- ◆nothing externalised onto others
- ◆textbooks that list it from habit
This is one line of a whole chart. The rest of it — every placement, house and aspect at once — is a birth date away.
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