Major
The five aspects every school uses: conjunction, sextile, square, trine and opposition. Start here; they carry most of a chart’s story.
Celestial angles
All 24 angles between planets, from the five every astrologer uses to research-stage harmonics. New to aspects? Start below the cards.
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What an aspect is
An aspect is an angle between two planets, measured along the zodiac circle as seen from Earth. When two planets sit a meaningful distance apart, such as 90° or 120°, astrologers say they are in aspect and read them as a pair. Planets that are not in aspect still matter, but they work more independently.
- Planets say what. Mars is drive, Venus is attraction, Saturn is structure.
- Signs say how. Mars in Aries acts fast; Mars in Taurus acts steadily.
- Houses say where. Mars in the 6th house puts that drive into daily work and routines.
- Aspects say how the parts of you talk to each other. They show which planets cooperate, which argue and which spur each other on.
A small example: Mercury in trine to Jupiter suggests thinking that expands easily into big ideas. Put Mercury in square to Jupiter instead and the same two planets still talk, but with more friction: plenty of ideas, and real effort needed to choose and finish them. The planets are the same; the conversation is different.
The five major aspects compared
Conjunction
- Angle
- 0°
- Signs apart
- 0
Fused, intense, hard to separate
Same sign: same element, modality and polarity
How do these two drives act as one?
Trine
- Angle
- 120°
- Signs apart
- 4
Easy flow and natural talent
Same element, different modality
What comes easily, and am I using it?
Opposition
- Angle
- 180°
- Signs apart
- 6
See-saw, awareness through others
Same modality, complementary elements (Fire–Air, Earth–Water), same polarity
How do I balance these two sides?
Signs apart is counted by whole sign; out-of-sign aspects are the exception.
Astrologers often call the square and opposition hard and the trine and sextile soft, with the conjunction depending on the planets involved. That describes a style, not good versus bad. Hard aspects bring pressure and motivation; soft ones bring ease that can be used or wasted. Many people do their best work through their hard aspects and coast on their soft ones.
Orbs, applying and separating
- 1
Convert to longitude
Mars at 10° Leo: the sign starts at 120°, so add 10°.
130°
- 2
Convert to longitude
Jupiter at 16° Sagittarius: the sign starts at 240°, so add 16°.
256°
- 3
Measure the gap
256° − 130° = 126°, already the shorter way round.
126°
- 4
Compare with exact
The exact trine is 120°; the gap is 6° away from it.
orb 6°
- 5
Check the allowance
The standard allowance is 8°.
It counts
108°exact 120°132°
Planets rarely sit at an exact angle, so astrologers allow a margin called the orb. Take Mars at 10° Leo and Jupiter at 16° Sagittarius. Leo starts at 120° of the zodiac and Sagittarius at 240°, so the planets are at 130° and 256°. The difference is 126°, which is 6° away from a 120° trine. The orb is 6°, inside this site’s 8° allowance, so it counts as a trine, though a fairly wide one. The closer the orb, the stronger the aspect is usually felt.
This site uses standard orbs of 8° for the conjunction, square, trine and opposition, 5° for the sextile, and narrower orbs for minor aspects. When the Sun or Moon (the luminaries) is involved, the orb widens a little, to 10° for most majors, because the lights are treated as the most important bodies in a chart.
Sometimes the degrees and signs disagree. The Sun at 28° Taurus and the Moon at 1° Virgo are 93° apart, a square by degree, but Taurus and Virgo are both Earth signs, a trine by sign. This is an out-of-sign (or dissociate) aspect. Most astrologers count it by the degrees, while noting that it carries some flavour of the sign relationship too.
An aspect is applying when the faster planet is moving toward the exact angle, and separating when it has passed it and is moving away. Applying aspects are often read as building or still unfolding; separating aspects as already experienced. Retrograde motion can turn a separating aspect back into an applying one.
Minor, harmonic and rare aspects
Every aspect comes from dividing the 360° circle by a whole number, called its harmonic. Divide by 2 and you get the 180° opposition; by 3, the 120° trine; by 4, the 90° square; by 5, the 72° quintile; by 7, the septile of about 51.4°. Multiples belong to the same family, so the 144° biquintile is two fifths of the circle and shares the quintile’s meaning. The filter above sorts the aspects into four groups:
Minor
Widely used additions with small orbs: the semisextile, semisquare, sesquiquadrate, quincunx and quintile. Most astrologers include at least the quincunx.
Harmonic
Members of the 5th, 7th, 9th and 10th harmonic families, such as the biquintile, septile, novile and decile. Developed mostly by 20th-century harmonic astrologers and read with very tight orbs.
Rare
Experimental angles from higher harmonics: the undecile, vigintile, quindecile and tridecile. Few astrologers use them, and their meanings are still debated.
Aspect glossary
- Orb
- The allowed distance from the exact angle within which an aspect still counts, such as 8° for a trine.
- Applying
- The faster planet is moving toward the exact angle; the aspect is building.
- Separating
- The faster planet has passed the exact angle and is moving away; the aspect is fading.
- Exact or partile
- Partile means the two planets are at the same degree number, such as 12° and 12°; exact means within a few arcminutes of the precise angle.
- Platic
- An aspect that is within orb but not partile; most aspects in a chart are platic.
- Moiety
- Half of a planet’s orb in traditional astrology. An aspect’s orb is the two planets’ moieties added together.
- Aspect pattern
- Three or more planets linked into a shape, such as a T-Square, Grand Trine, Yod or Kite.
- Unaspected planet
- A planet that makes no major aspect to any other. An unaspected planet often works on its own terms, in bursts.
Common questions about aspects
The five majors: conjunction, sextile, square, trine and opposition. Add the quincunx next. Minor and harmonic aspects are refinements once you can read the majors confidently.
No. Hard aspects describe pressure and effort, soft aspects ease and flow. Pressure often leads to achievement, and ease can lead to complacency. Both kinds are useful; the planets involved and how you use them matter more.
There is no single rule. Many astrologers use 6° to 10° for major aspects in a birth chart, smaller orbs for minor aspects, and 1° to 2° for transits. Whatever you choose, tighter aspects usually deserve more weight.
The meanings carry over, but the use differs. In a birth chart an aspect is a lasting pattern. As a transit, it marks a period of weeks to years. In synastry, comparing two people’s charts, it shows how one person’s planet meets the other’s.
An unaspected planet is not weak. It tends to act independently and can be hard to integrate with the rest of the personality, sometimes expressing itself all at once. Check minor aspects and out-of-sign contacts before deciding it is truly unconnected.
No controlled research has validated aspect interpretations. Astrologers rely on long tradition and their own observation. A practical approach is to treat aspects as a language for describing tendencies and to check them against real experience.