The angle, the orb and how often it lands
An opposition is a hundred and eighty degrees of separation, and this site allows an orb of eight degrees either side. That means the aspect counts anywhere from a hundred and seventy two to a hundred and eighty eight degrees of ecliptic longitude between the two bodies.
Because the Moon moves about thirteen degrees a day and Venus rarely more than one and a quarter, the pair sweeps through the whole cycle of angles every lunar month. The opposition window lasts a little over a day each time round. Across a population that works out as one of the ordinary aspects rather than a marked one, so its presence in a chart is not itself remarkable. What it does is add a specific shape to a part of the chart most people read quickly and move on from.
There is no astronomical restriction here of the kind that binds Mercury or Venus to the Sun. Venus is limited relative to the Sun, not to the Moon, so every angle between Moon and Venus is possible and the opposition is as available as any other.
Two soft bodies, and why that matters
In the tradition the Moon covers what you need rather than what you want: the reflex, the habit, the thing you reach for when tired. Venus covers value and attraction, what you consider worth having and how you make yourself agreeable to others. They overlap enough that many descriptions blur them together, which is exactly what an opposition prevents.
Set at a hundred and eighty degrees they sit in opposing signs, which by definition share a mode and differ in element. Cancer against Capricorn, Taurus against Scorpio. The reading is that comfort and taste have been assigned incompatible terms of reference. The classic report is someone who is drawn to people or objects that do not soothe them, and soothed by things they would not choose to be seen choosing.
Unlike a square, an opposition is visible. You can see both ends at once, because they are across the table from each other rather than at right angles out of view. That is why the aspect is usually read as workable in a way friction aspects are not.
Sign, house and the axis it falls on
The house axis does most of the work. Moon in the fourth opposite Venus in the tenth reads as a permanent negotiation between home and public standing. On the second and eighth axis it turns into money, ownership and what belongs to whom. On the first and seventh it becomes the relationship reading people expect from this aspect, and it is the only placement where the standard description about partners really earns its keep.
Sign changes the tone rather than the structure. In fixed signs the opposition digs in and the two ends negotiate slowly. In mutable signs the person tends to swap sides repeatedly instead of holding both. Dignity matters too: Venus in Taurus or Libra opposite a Moon in a sign it does not care for produces a lopsided version where one end simply wins.
Orb, and what the check above tells you
Inside two degrees the aspect is a defining feature of the chart and tends to show up in the first conversation you ever have with someone about their preferences. Between three and five it is a real pattern that a person recognises when it is described to them. Beyond six it is background, and a wide opposition crossing into adjacent signs loses the neat mode and element contrast that gives the aspect its logic.
Applying and separating are worth noting as well. Because the Moon is fast, it is almost always the body that closes the angle, so the direction of travel is easy to establish. The widget above reports the exact orb, the two signs and the houses involved, which is the part a general description cannot supply.
Questions people ask about this
What does Moon opposite Venus mean in a birth chart?
It means the Moon and Venus sat in opposing signs at your birth, within about eight degrees of a hundred and eighty. The tradition reads it as instinctive need and considered taste pulling against each other in full view of one another.
Is Moon opposite Venus bad for relationships?
The tradition does not call it bad. It describes a chart where comfort and attraction have different criteria, which is only a relationship matter when the opposition falls across the first and seventh houses. Elsewhere it reads as money, home or work.
How rare is this aspect?
Not rare. The Moon passes every angle to Venus once a month, so the opposition window comes round regularly and turns up in a normal share of charts. Rarity is not what makes an aspect worth reading.
Does the orb change the interpretation?
Considerably. A one degree opposition is a structural feature of the chart. A seven degree one is a footnote, and if it crosses a sign boundary it loses the element contrast that the standard reading depends on.
Which houses make this aspect strongest?
Any axis involving an angular house, so the first and seventh or the fourth and tenth. Bodies near the angles are read as more prominent, and an opposition already places them at opposite ends of the wheel.
Is there an astronomical limit on Moon to Venus angles?
No. Venus is limited to about forty eight degrees from the Sun, but nothing constrains its distance from the Moon, so every aspect between the two is possible.