ASPECTS 101 - GEOMETRY

What are aspects and where do they come from?

"An aspect is an angle between 2 celestial bodies in an astrological chart. It shows a relationship between their energies and the type of angle indicates the quality of that relationship."

The most common questions I get from other astrology students have to do with aspects. What is an aspect? An aspect is an angle between 2 celestial bodies in an astrological chart. It shows a relationship between their energies and the type of angle indicates the quality of that relationship.

The very word “aspect” comes from the Latin “aspicere,” or “to look at” or “behold.” Ancient astrologers considered 2 planets in aspect to be “looking” at, or "casting gazes" toward each other. The original or "Ptolemaic"aspects (named for Ptolemy, the 1st century astrologer and polymath), were based on relationships to the first house, which is YOU. The house directly opposite is the seventh and was the basis for the opposition, while the fourth and tenth were square to the first house. You may notice these are all the angular houses. In western astrology, the angles were associated with the solstices and equinoxes in the northern hemisphere and therefore with the cardinal signs of Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn. These are the cardinal points and have a deep occult significance.

The relationship to the ninth and the fifth houses became the basis for the trine and the third and eleventh for the sextile. These aspects represented all the possible relationships between any 2 signs in traditional astrology. The second, sixth, eighth, and twelfth houses were said to be in "aversion" to the first house, which means it can't see them. Moreover, traditional astrologers did not consider the conjunction to be an aspect because the planets don’t behold each other. They are “physically” merging rather than blending the energies emitted by their “gaze.”

Beyond the relationship to the first house, there are other factors that determine the quality of the aspect. You may be aware that astrologers divide them up into benefic and malefic, or "easy" and "hard." The trines and sextiles were considered "good," or required less effort, while the oppositions and squares were considered "bad," or more difficult. The trine was said to be in the nature of Jupiter, the sextile in the nature of Venus, the opposition in the nature of Saturn, and the square in the nature of Mars. Saturn of course is the most malefic planet, so the oppositions were thought of as the worst, while Jupiter is the most benefic and hence the trines were the best. Sextiles were good, but less so and squares were still bad, but less so.

Why were the aspects divided up in this way? One reason had to do with elemental affinities. The 12 signs are divided up into 4 groups of “elements,” earth, air, fire, and water, each having 3 signs in that element. Each of the 3 signs of a given element are thought to be in a harmonious relationship with each other. A group of 3 signs of the same element is called a "triplicity." This echoes the Pythagorean symbolism regarding triangles, that since they are the simplest spatial shape, they must be the fundamental building block of the universe (Brittanica.com).

The number 3 is heavily steeped in mysticism and often associated with divinity. There were 3 primary gods of the ancient Mesopotamian pantheon, called the triad of heaven: Anu for the equatorial sky, Enlil for the northern sky, and Enki for the southern sky (Wikipedia). Likewise there were Egyptian deities associated with the cardinal positions of sun along the ecliptic: Khepri for the rising sun, Re for the sun at high 12, and Atum for the setting sun (Brittanica.com). In Christianity, God is presented in 3 aspects as father, son, and Holy Spirit. In occultism, 3 relates to the qualities of deity as strength, wisdom, and beauty. Even the name “Solomon” is just the sun in 3 different languages, Sol being Latin, Om Sanskrit, and On Egyptian.

Besides element, however, there is another attribute of each sign called “modality.” There are 3 groups of modalities: cardinal, fixed, and mutable. Cardinal signs are said to be the initiators or those that start things, while fixed signs are said to be the sustaining energy to keep things going, and mutable signs are the adaptable ones who can change direction abruptly if need be. Each group contains 4 signs that make a cross, or 2 signs square and 2 signs opposing, called “quadruplicities.”

The number 4 was associated with space and with manifestation. The cube, which has 6 faces, each a square, can even be unfolded to reveal a cross, symbolic of the hidden quality preceding the material form. This is reminiscent of Platonic philosophy, in which all forms are merely the expression of an essential quality. Human structures and houses became predominantly square as agriculture took over as the primary means of subsistence. You can extend that symbolism to relate to the 3 qualities of divinity descending into a receptacle that is properly prepared to receive it. A 4-square house then can be approached as a chalice for the descent of the divine "Shekinah," as the light of God is called in the Jewish tradition. You can think of yourself in the same way, as a cup preparing to receive the water from on high.

The Pythagoreans also conceived of 4 as representing manifestation through the symbol of the tetractys or 4 successive tiers of dots in sequence, 1 - 4, numbering 10 total. This was supposed to be illustrative of the pattern through which all of the phenomenal universe emerged, from the eternal unity of the monad to the ephemeral quadruplicity of creation.

Hence, 4 was matter and 3 was spirit. The triplicities became the trines and the quadruplicities became the squares and oppositions. Those quadruplicities also make up what are called the cardinal, fixed, and mutable crosses, each cross having a sign from each element. For instance the mutable cross pictured below consists of Gemini and Sagittarius in opposition and square to Virgo and Pisces.

It makes perfect sense that those triplicities would be the basis for the trine, since the elements were in harmony between those signs. Moreover, there are different elements that are also complementary by having the same "gender." Air and fire are both male, so they complemented each other, while earth and water were both female and therefore complements. Ancient astrologers noticed that connecting every other sign traces a hexagon and links the complementary elements. Hence this angle of 60° or sextile became a harmonious aspect as well.

The squares and oppositions by contrast indicated the signs were in different elements, but the same modality and therefore in conflict with each other. See the figure below with the aspect relations. The aspect that was the odd one out was the quincunx or inconjunct, which indicates 2 signs that have neither the same element nor modality. They thoroughly misunderstand each other.

The original or "Ptolemaic"aspects represent the possible relationships between any 2 signs. The minor aspects, like the semisextile (30°), semisquare (45°), qunicunx (150°), quintile (72°), biquintile (144°), septile, novile, etc., came later as part of the harmonic aspects introduced by Johannes Kepler, which were patterned after harmonic ratios in music. Traditional astrologers don't typically recognize these, but even Robert Hand, a pioneer of ancient astrology, said, "when do you pay attention to minor aspects? When they're really tight." Dane Rudhyar, the god father of modern astrology, considered the universe to be made of vibration or, "music," and cycles or, "rhythm." He used the minor aspects in the context of discerning the "music of the spheres."

The important part about each aspect however, is that they are all divisions of a circle. Each aspect is associated with a geometric figure and if you plot as many equidistant points at the same angle to each other as you can, you will trace that figure. For example, in the picture below we have a chart with 3 connecting sextiles. I traced the other 3 points on the circle 60° away and we made a hexagon and were able to trace a hexagram or 6 pointed star.

These are very important things to note about astrology in analogical relation to the rest of existence. Astrology is founded on geometry, but it is only so patterned after the observable geometry of the cosmos. We can readily observe nature conserving her mass and energy, choosing the most efficient shapes and structures by which to pattern her expression. Bees have shown us the hexagon, for example, is the most efficient model for dividing up a space. You can illustrate this for yourself using bubbles. If you connect multiple soap bubbles together, they will share a common wall to conserve space and thereby form a geometric solid in the middle.

Of course, we don't always expect these aspects to be exact to the degree. We wouldn't see very many aspects if we did and we know nature doesn't just turn on and off like electric light switches. There is always an allowable margin of error between aspects and we refer to these as orbs. Different astrologers are comfortable with different orbs, but there are standards. For conjunctions and oppositions, we often go up to 10°, but that is for very fast moving objects like the moon or Mercury. Aspects are considered more potent the closer the orb is to 0°. For trines and squares, we usually go up to 7°. Sextiles and quincunxes have smaller orbs, typically 2 - 3°. Planetary motion may be an objective observable phenomenon, with very definite measurements, but the quality of influences correlated with that motion is much more fluid, just as the subjective life experiences precipitated by those influences is also quite fluid. Therefore, we can make reasonable expectations, based on past

Astrology is another example of humans imitating nature and investing it with meaning by observing its inner workings. We again see the Law of Correspondence here as the central indispensable tool for understanding existence because in an interdependent and relativistic universe, everything is analogical to everything else and we thereby extract meaning from our interactions with reality and also change reality by investing it with new meaning. Thus the reproduction of existence carries on... more to come...

[images by Frankie Lynch]