Free Astrology Lesson - June 2016

So, here are the past three lessons, in case you’re looking to get caught up. I’ve also linked to Marcos’s lessons prior to that, and hopefully, that helps a bit. We’re still working our way through the basic terms and things- so, no big rush. It’s a blog, so, it’ll be here to refer back to later on if you need to.

March’s Astrology Lesson: The Houses

April’s Astrology Lesson: The Planets

May’s Astrology Lesson: The Moon in the Houses

And now, we get to aspects.

The basic definition of the aspects is that it’s the angle each planet makes to the other in a horoscope- but, more than that, to other astrological bits like the ascendant and descendant. We work with these measuring the angular distance in degrees or minutes of ecliptic longitude between two distinct points, as we’d see them from the Earth. In doing so- this is how you figure out all the stages of development and other transitional times as they relate to the planet we happen to be on. I suspect, well, we were on Venus, things would be a bit different- but, we’re not. It’s probably a good thing, too, because it’s usually somewhere around 870F there. Little bit hot.

Anyway, if you’re going to interpret a chart, you need to understand aspects and how they impact the energy and influences at play. Without this information, really, you’re only getting this weird snapshot and ultimately: one that might not do you a whole lot of good. To sort of put that into basic terms- you know what planets are in which houses, but, how do those planets and otherwise connect? That’s where you get into aspects. For instance, you can look at my chart here, and it’s pretty easy to see that Mars, the Sun, and Mercury are all in my third house. So, you’d kind of think “Ok, Mercury, Mars, and the Sun in the 3rd, she’s probably curious, a bit aggressive verbally, and maybe she pops off at the mouth pretty readily.”

Except, you’d be wrong. Okay, mostly. It’s been known to happen once or twice, I suppose. ;)

But, why is this only a little bit of information? Because of the aspects at play here. Trines, Squares, Sextiles, Oppositions, Conjuncts- what do these things mean?

Conjunction

We start with the conjunction because it’s just 0° or 360°- it’s when you divide the circle by one. This is a really sort of the focal point of things because it shows a stronger tendency towards those things we’ll move on directly. When planets are conjunct, they come together and in doing so- are intensified in their influence. This can be a really great thing if the planets are pretty harmonious to begin with, but not so much if they’re at odds, normally.

Opposition

When we divide things by 2 at 180°, we get an opposition, which is a pretty polarized thing that can indicate a sort of duality about things. This is one of those things where resolving the tension means finding a compromise. Whenever you see an opposition in a natal chart, you tend to be looking at somebody who’s looking for somebody that carries a mirror of their own problems- or someone who flings wildly from one end to the other. These also tend to be areas where we can see the insecurities that play on a person.

Trine

Trine’s a more obviously named one for most because, well, trine- divide it by 3, 120°. These are usually pretty awesome- kind of a nice flux of energy between the planets at play. This usually indicates great opportunity, luck, talent, and when planets are in trine- they’re supporting one another. One of the only problems with trines is that sometimes, things are so inherent that we kind of take them for granted- we think that it’s just second nature, so, there’s sometimes a tendency to not work on them or to grow them further.

Square

When we talk about something being square- well, it’s a circle with four equal parts: 90°. This usually indicates areas of challenges- and this indicates a bit of tension between the points or planets involved. Usually, these aspects are going to manifest in our youth- issues we have that more or less, repeat themselves until we figure it out.

Sextile

When you divide the circle into sixes, you get a sextile- 60°. People usually look at this a bit like a trine- again, things sort of flow, there’s an indication of talent and certain things can be quite easy. However, that’s where the similarities end- whereas with a trine things seem to get taken for granted: with a sextile, they’re not. These are things that we usually take seriously, work hard on to develop and can be energies and talents we can direct.

Orbs

If you consider the wheels again, this makes sense- you just divide that wheel into a certain number. Given a circle is 360°, well, there you have it. Though the area most people get a bit hung up on is that each of the 12 signs is a span of 30°. I could go into all the varying dynamics at play here: but, that’d be a book and for simplicity’s sake, we’ll just stick with this basic sort of glossary format.

Looking over this list, certain aspects carry a bit more weight than others. These are the major aspects- conjunctions, squares, sextiles, trines, and oppositions. They each carry a margin of influence known as an orb. Basically, all an orb is, is the number that the two planets in the aspect will vary between that exact number of degrees and still carry its influence. Ask most people and they’ll tell you that for these major aspects- 6° is the sweet spot. The tighter your orb, the more important that aspect will be.

I realize that this part of things can be a little confusing, but, don’t get the wiggly brains about it just yet. Next time, we’ll go into the minor aspects and then, I will tie it up all nice and neat so that you can practice with these yourself.