TW: Mentions of s*xual assault, su*cide, k*lling, ab*se.
In short terms, Nessus was a centaur who was a river ferryman (he would take people across the river). One day, a woman named Deianira or Dejanira as we know her, wanted to cross the river so she went to Nessus to do so. As he took her across the river, he tried to abduct and r*pe her, however she was saved by Heracles when he shot Nessus with an arrow. As he d*ed, he lied to Deianira telling her that his blood would make Heracles be true to her, so she collected some of his blood. Years later, Heracles cheats on Deianira with Iole. When Deianira discovers this, she puts Nessus' blood on a shirt for Heracles in the hopes that it would bring him back to her. Alas, she spilled some Nessus' blood by accident and it smoked on floor realizing that it would harm Heracles. Realizing that Nessus tricked her, she sent a messenger to Heracles to warn him not to wear the shirt, but it was too late. Heracles put on the shirt, and it burned him awfully. He then took himself out to d*e a noble death on a pyre of oak branches. In despair, Deianira k*lled herself.
When you take this story and apply it to astrology, you have Nessus as the ab*ser, and Dejanira as the victim. The ab*ser will typically have the Nessus placements, and the victim will usually have Dejanira placements. Sometimes, there's only one of the two present in the chart, i.e. one person has Dejanira conjunct her moon which means that they'll be the victim of the other person emotionally (i.e. emotional ab*se). Another problematic aspect could be Nessus Conjunct Dejanira. This could be really bad. With Dejanira and Nessus in synastry I only tend to worry about conjunctions, as that's the purest form of their energy. Hope this helps!
