The five aspects
The angles a chart is made of: two bodies a set fraction of the circle apart, read together. What each one means, the figure it draws in the zodiac, and every exact one the sky itself makes this month.
The sky’s own aspects this month
Not to anybody’s chart: the planets to each other, every exact one in the next thirty days, worked out to the minute. The Moon is left out, because it makes one every few hours and would bury the rest.
Why these five
They divide the circle by one, two, three, four and six — a point, a line, a triangle, a square and a hexagon. Ptolemy described the four angles in the second century, and later astrologers grouped the conjunction with them, which is why all five are often called Ptolemaic. Each joins signs with something in common or something in conflict: a trine joins signs of the same element, a square signs of the same modality and different elements, an opposition signs of the same modality and complementary elements, a sextile signs of friendly elements. The meanings grew out of that geometry rather than being laid on top of it.
Other angles exist — the semi-sextile at 30°, the semi-square at 45°, the quincunx at 150° — and many astrologers use them. The chart here draws only the five, to keep the wheel readable; the 150° angle appears only as part of the yod on the aspect patterns page.
How close counts
An aspect is rarely exact, and how far from exact still counts is a convention rather than a measurement. These are the orbs this site uses, the same numbers the chart applies:
- Conjunction: within 8° between planets, 10° with the Sun or Moon, 8° between two charts
- Sextile: within 5° between planets, 6° with the Sun or Moon, 4° between two charts
- Square: within 7° between planets, 9° with the Sun or Moon, 6° between two charts
- Trine: within 7° between planets, 9° with the Sun or Moon, 6° between two charts
- Opposition: within 8° between planets, 10° with the Sun or Moon, 8° between two charts
While the faster of two planets is still moving towards the exact angle the aspect is applying, and once it has passed it the aspect is separating. The tradition reads an applying aspect as building and a separating one as easing off. Aspects are counted by degree, not by sign, so 29° Aries and 2° Cancer make a sextile even though those signs are square; such out-of-sign aspects count, but are read as less typical.
Where aspects are read
In a birth chart the aspects are the lines across the middle of the wheel. Between two people’s charts they are the substance of compatibility; between the moving sky and a birth chart they are transits; and when several join up they make the grand trines, T-squares and yods of the patterns page.
Easy and hard are the tradition’s words, not verdicts: a trine is not lucky and a square is not bad. Nothing on these pages predicts what an aspect will bring.
Questions people ask
What are the five major aspects in astrology?
The five major aspects are the conjunction at 0°, the sextile at 60°, the square at 90°, the trine at 120° and the opposition at 180°. They divide the circle by one, six, four, three and two. Ptolemy described the four angles in the second century, and later astrologers grouped the conjunction with them, so they are often called the Ptolemaic aspects.
What is an orb in astrology?
An orb is how far from the exact angle two planets can be and still count as making the aspect. Orbs are a convention rather than a measurement, and astrologers set them differently. This site uses 8° for conjunctions and oppositions, 7° for trines and squares and 5° for sextiles, with a little more when the Sun or Moon is involved.
Which aspects are hard and which are soft?
The square and the opposition are traditionally called hard aspects, and the trine and sextile soft ones. The conjunction depends on the planets involved. Hard means demanding rather than bad, and soft means easy rather than lucky: a square is often read as where effort goes, and a trine as a talent that can be left unused.
What is an out-of-sign aspect?
An out-of-sign, or dissociate, aspect is one that is within orb by degree but falls in signs that do not normally make that angle. 29° Aries and 2° Cancer are 63° apart, a sextile by degree, though Aries and Cancer are square signs. It still counts, but the tradition reads it as mixing the character of both angles.