Semi-square Mercury – Venus

(Transit. Mercury → Natal Venus)

Avelom Podvodny. Aspects

Mercury semi-square: Artificial intelligence is always irresponsible intelligence. This aspect, at a low level, produces a hidden backwardness of thinking that simultaneously gives the impression of agility, sometimes powerful. A person may speak logically and correctly, yet in their speech there will be felt some colossal distortions, as if they are imbuing their words with another, entirely incorrect meaning. The individual themselves, however, will not notice this, just as they will not perceive the profanation to which they subject others’ mental images and information in general during reception. For example, the semi-square Mercury-Mars produces a very limited set of mental schemes through which the person interprets and directs any forms of activity and energy—both their own and others’—often restricted to categories such as “good-bad, own-foreign, friend-enemy,” making it impossible for them to recognize and account for the dual nature of any activity. At the same time, their speech (especially with a harmonious Mercury) may at first glance sound powerful, convincing, and logical, demolishing any obstacles, including truth. Working through this requires awareness of the limitations of one’s mental frameworks and constructing, upon their (stable!) foundation, structures serving purposes (and inhabitants) other than those initially intended; at a high level, this becomes spirit—that which lies beyond thought and logic, yet to which both should lead, like signposts guiding the seeker to the treasure hidden within the labyrinth. Venus semi-square: Flowers of evil, upon close inspection, usually turn out to be artificial. This aspect produces hidden rigidity and schematic thinking in social relationships within the planet’s spheres. Outwardly, the person may appear entirely adequate in social interactions, yet the excess of inner formalism and internally predefined acceptable social situations will be sensed by close people, while the person themselves will be far less aware of it. This manifests especially clearly in love, where the individual will repeatedly encounter the same (rarely two) scenario—a kind of matrix into which fate and the person themselves keep imprinting life: their own and their partners’—until this scenario becomes unbearably tedious, since it ultimately fails to deliver satisfying emotional experiences, even if it often proceeds with apparent confidence. Attempts to forcibly disrupt the natural course of events either fail or lead to catastrophe; the resolution here lies in shifting focus away from solving personal problems, particularly emotional and social dissatisfaction, and redirecting attention toward the problems of others. In doing so, the person will discover that what seems obvious and dull to them often proves interesting, useful, and necessary to someone else—if they do not insist on it. Social clarity is a very valuable quality, provided the person manages to make it an indirect, rather than primary, content of communication, and places it in service of higher goals, and above all, other people.