The narrowest orb of the five
We use five degrees for a sextile, against seven for a square or trine and eight for a conjunction or opposition. The tighter allowance reflects the tradition's view that the aspect is weaker, and it also means a wide sextile is not worth much.
Uranus travels only minutes of arc a day on its eighty four year orbit, so Venus does the moving at a little over a degree a day. A ten degree band at that speed takes around ten days. Everyone born in that stretch shares the aspect, so it belongs to a cohort of days rather than to a person.
If Venus is retrograde near the sextile degree, which happens for about six weeks every nineteen months, the contact can be exact three times and stretch across a much longer window. Those are the versions that read strongly, and the widget above will show them by a very tight orb.
What is on offer
Venus stands for attraction, taste and value. Uranus stands for the break with the expected, independence, and the preference for an unfamiliar route.
A sextile links signs of compatible elements, earth with water or fire with air, so the two have common ground without being merged. The usual description is a facility that has to be picked up to exist: an openness to people and things outside the local pattern, a taste that updates itself without much fuss, and a comfort with arrangements that leave room in them.
The important qualifier is that a sextile does not press. A square keeps raising itself because the friction is constant. A sextile can sit in a chart for a lifetime with nothing ever calling on it, and no part of the chart will object. The old word for it is opportunity, which for once is doing accurate work rather than sounding encouraging.
House, orb and honest weighting
Uranus stays roughly seven years in a sign, so the signs are generational and say little about you. The two houses are the personal element and they require a birth time. A sextile from the fourth to the sixth reads through home and routine. From the seventh to the ninth it reads through partnership and travel or study.
Because five degrees is the whole allowance, a one degree sextile and a four degree one are very different propositions. Inside a degree it is worth naming. At four it is close to nothing.
Uranus is retrograde for close to five months a year, so a natal retrograde Uranus is normal and needs no comment. A retrograde Venus is uncommon and is read as meaningful in its own right, independently of this aspect.
Where it fits in a reading
Most of any chart is background, and this aspect is often part of it. A wide sextile, in a quiet house, with nothing else touching either body, is a true statement about the geometry and a small one about the person.
It changes when context arrives. An angular Venus, a tight orb, or a third body making a pattern with both ends lifts it into something with a place in the reading. Saying which of those applies is more useful than treating every contact as though it were central, because a reading in which everything matters ends up saying nothing.
The check above gives the orb, both houses, the elements and the retrograde status of each body, which is the information needed to decide whether your sextile is background or not.
Questions people ask about this
How wide an orb does a sextile get?
Five degrees here, which is narrower than the seven allowed for squares and trines or the eight for conjunctions and oppositions. The tighter allowance reflects the aspect being considered weaker.
How long does Venus sextile Uranus last?
About ten days when Venus is direct, since Venus moves a little over a degree a day across a ten degree band. A Venus retrograde near the degree can stretch it over months and make it exact three times.
Is it worth reading at all?
Inside a degree or two, or where Venus is angular or the pair forms part of a wider configuration, yes. Wide and unconnected, it is a background feature and an honest reading will describe it that way.
How is it different from a trine?
Both are described as easy, but the trine is stronger and closer to automatic, while a sextile is framed as something available if taken up. The narrower orb is the tradition's way of recording that difference.
Do I share it with other people?
Yes, with everyone born in the same ten day stretch. The house it falls in is the part that is yours, and that depends on the birth time rather than the birth date.
Does either planet being retrograde matter?
Uranus retrograde does not, since it is retrograde for close to five months every year. Venus retrograde is far rarer and is generally read as significant on its own terms, whatever aspects it makes.