Sixty degrees and a five degree orb
A sextile is a sixth of the circle. It is allowed five degrees of orb, against seven for a trine or square and eight for a conjunction, and that narrower allowance reflects the lower weight the tradition gives it.
Venus gains on Jupiter at about a degree a day in geocentric longitude, so a ten degree band takes something like ten days to cross. Venus makes two sextiles to Jupiter in each of their cycles, so the configuration recurs regularly. Everyone born inside one of those windows has the aspect, which puts it firmly in the shared rather than the rare category.
Sixty degrees is two signs, so a sextile pairs fire with air or earth with water. Those are the combinations the tradition reads as compatible without being interchangeable, which is roughly what a sextile is meant to describe.
Offered rather than given
The working distinction is that a trine hands something over and a sextile puts it within reach. The resource exists but it goes unused unless something in the chart or the life picks it up.
Here the resource is a workable relationship between taste and scope. Venus knows what it likes, Jupiter is willing to go further, and at sixty degrees there is enough space between them for judgement to operate. It generally shows as people who are easy company, who spot an opportunity to enjoy themselves without being reckless about it, and who find that other people are inclined to help.
It is a small aspect. A page that promised the reader a fortunate life on the strength of a sextile would be overselling, and the site's position is not to do that.
The applying and separating versions are geometrically different, since Venus makes one sextile before catching Jupiter and one after. Some practitioners read the applying sextile as the more active of the two, on the grounds that the aspect is still building at the moment of birth.
Orb, houses and what outweighs it
The first question with a sextile is always whether it is really there. Five degrees is the entire allowance, so a four degree separation sits at the edge of what most practitioners will read at all.
Where it is tight, the houses supply the subject and they require a birth time. A sextile linking the second and fourth houses reads as comfort at home built on steady earning. One linking the third and fifth reads as sociable and quick and has almost nothing in common with the first.
Almost anything tighter will outweigh it. A close square from Saturn to Venus will shape the chart far more than this sextile does, and saying so is more useful than adding it to a list of favourable markers.
The sign of Venus also carries more weight than the aspect does. A sextile from Venus in Capricorn is a restrained version of the same offer, and reads almost nothing like one from Venus in Leo.
Cycles, retrogrades and what is shared
Jupiter needs about twelve years for a circuit of the zodiac and spends roughly a third of each year retrograde, so a retrograde natal Jupiter is the normal case and does not deserve special comment.
Venus retrograde is less frequent, around forty days every nineteen months. A sextile forming close to one of those loops can perfect three times over a few months, and a birth inside that sequence carries the aspect with more emphasis than a single pass.
Everyone born in the same stretch of days shares the sign and the aspect itself. What is yours is the exact separation and the house placement, and with a five degree orb the exact separation matters more here than for any other major aspect. The check above reports it in degrees and minutes.
Questions people ask about this
What does Venus sextile Jupiter mean?
It means the two planets were about sixty degrees apart at birth. The tradition reads it as an easy relationship between taste and expansion that is available to be used rather than one that operates automatically.
Why is the orb only five degrees?
The sextile is treated as the weakest of the five major aspects, so it is given the least room. Beyond about five degrees the two bodies are generally read as unrelated.
Is it weaker than the trine?
Yes, in the standard reading. Both are supportive, but a trine is described as automatic while a sextile has to be taken up, and the narrower orb encodes that difference.
How long does the aspect hold in the sky?
Around ten days per pass, since Venus closes on Jupiter at roughly a degree a day and the total band is ten degrees. That makes it shared by a cohort of births rather than individual.
Which signs can it fall between?
Sixty degrees is two signs, so the pairing is fire with air or earth with water. Those combinations are read as cooperative without collapsing into each other.
What makes it personal to me?
The house placement and the exact orb, both of which need an accurate birth time. Without those, the aspect describes a fortnight of births rather than a chart.