Aspects and putting a chart together

The five main aspects

An aspect is the angle between two planets as seen from the Earth. When planets sit at certain angles, astrologers read them as speaking to each other.

A conjunction is two planets together, at the same place. Their energies blend. A sextile is 60 degrees apart, an easy, helpful link. A square is 90 degrees, a tension that pushes you to act. A trine is 120 degrees, a natural flow. An opposition is 180 degrees, two energies facing each other, asking for balance.

Most astrologers allow a few degrees either side, called the orb. The closer the angle, the stronger the aspect.

How it was read before

The 1927 book spoke of planets that are friendly or unfriendly to each other more than of exact angles. When the Sun and Moon were on good terms in a chart, a person's deeper self and outward self worked together.

It gave examples of planets changing each other. Saturn steadies Mercury and gives the mind depth. Jupiter softens Saturn's severity. Venus and Jupiter together are gentle and lovely, and need a tougher planet with them to cope with hard times.

Putting a chart together

No one part of a chart stands alone. The old method was to take each planet, see what sign it sits in and what other planets it touches, and weigh them all together.

A stern planet in a generous sign behaves very differently from the same planet in a cautious one. Reading a chart is learning to hear all of those voices at once.

Sit with this

A square can feel like friction. Friction is also how a fire gets lit.

The hard aspects in a chart often show where someone has grown the most.