Aspects in astrology are essentially relationships. An aspect is a connection made between two planets, and the relationship they now share in their mutual space, as well as the energy that is now influencing their expression. Because of this, an aspect can actually quite shape a different movement and expression of a planet. For example, if your Gemini Sun is square Pluto, this will move your Sun into more of a Scorpionic or Plutonic expression of itself.
Understanding aspects through awareness and self knowledge, and then applying your free will effort and dedication towards tending to your inner wildlands, is what will create more harmony and beauty in your outer experience also.
Everything in life is a relationship. We are in a continuous relationship with not only people, but with our selves, our body, our movement, our home and our thoughts and our dreams, with nature and wildlife, and even our feet are in a relationship with the street upon which we walk each day. Understanding the art of relationships, and how our movements make movements also, allows us deeper self awareness and an opportunity for both inner and outer harmony.
This is how feminine energy and spiritual astrology merge. The feminine is the keeper of wisdom, of gnosis, of knowledge. But with knowledge comes responsibility – one needs to know themselves, and their inner lands. Without self knowledge, not much else will be able to dance in the mystical dance your soul desires for greater harmony and love. The feminine is a dance, a dancer who’s become the dance itself.
The feminine holds within herself a mystery of the interplay, or dance, between the yin and yang, as she herself comes from him or that which already is. She seeks to hold and receives and expands; just as the wet fertile soil holds, just as the bottom of wells and the ancient voices from the depth of oceans hold; she is nature itself, she is the longing and the mystery and the pulling you within; and he, the yang energy, is the word, the prayer, the hands, the intentional action of his hands searching her for union.
And so,
through understanding that it all starts from within is the beginning and the key for the initial portal of love. Within you is an inner earth – and like any earth, there are many landscapes, wildlands, cities with walls of beliefs we’ve built, emotions and seasons and cycles of the land, and wildlife also. There are languages within you, and relationships, and sometimes things may speak a language you may not understand yet, but with listening, you may begin to. Each part within you needs a certain way of approach also – not all are to be approached the same, because not all have the same needs or desires or unique ways of shape or movement or speed.
Planets are not things outside of us, up in the sky – they are inner aspects of yourself. There are not bad planets or bad aspects – it all depends on your relationship to them. Everything in nature can be either medicine or poison depending on how we use it, our awareness level, our self control and emotional maturity.
Nothing in astrology is meant to be villainized. All in life seeks to be heard, seen, acknowledged and hopefully understood. So when you villainize an aspect or planet, you are essentially villainizing an inner part of yourself. Relationships begin with listening. Without listening and paying attention, you may not be hearing what the deeper core need of something is, and how to harmonize it or settle it in peace.
Today I’ll be sharing on the five main aspects in astrology: conjunction, trine, sextile, square and opposition. There is also the sixth that is very important and I use in my professional astrology practice, which is the inconjunction or quincunx, and I’ve shared about it in depth before.
Please be mindful that these are only general discussions – nothing in astrology is absolute, and it all depends on all else in your chart, as everything is interdependent.
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Conjunctions:
A conjunction is a marriage – it’s an union between two, and of this, a flow or energy of mutual expression is created. Within this temple, or house, these planets reside together, move together, shape together. And like all marriages, some marriages are great harmonious marriages, vows made in heaven and feel like soulmates, while others are turbulent and will need to make effort into settling their differences into peace somehow. So conjunctions depend largely on the planets involved, which is the first thing you need to understand.
Just like in an intimate relationship, when two people meet and merge, a new land will be created, a new energy is shaped: the land of the relationship. If you have Venus conjunct Moon in a water sign for example, this creates a most beautiful gentle loving marriage – an energy of fertility, creativity, intuition, intimacy, spiritual wisdom, fulfillment, emotional depth, and it is a movement in the way of feeling.
Conjunctions create a lot of focus and devotion into something – because it is, at the least, two planets and their unique energies focusing on one thing in one house in one flow. This becomes a powerful channel of energy and focus, with a lot of passion and strength. It is a single focus towards something, so it will be paving a certain way. It is looking into the same horizon, sharing the same vision or goal, but perhaps approaching it from different perspectives depending on the planets involved.
Usually, it is the outer planet that holds the greater power in this relationship, i.e. the one that will be shifting the energy of the other. If you have the South Node conjunct Venus, your Venus will be consumed within the energy of the South Node. What this means is that there is a certain sense of detachment, perhaps distance or spiritual perspective that needs to be applied to your Venus, so this usually influences your relationships. You may often seek to be in a romantic relationship, have deep longing, but there may be a sense of emptiness or aloneness even if with someone. The South Node is a like a monk in a monastery, and to soothe this energy for yourself it is best to focus on your spiritual development, not chase relationships, focus on charity. As your energy shifts towards these, you may feel more fulfilled with a partner also; though your partner would probably need to be more spiritually focused, or there may be distance between you. This aspect essentially asks of you to detach from your expectations or projections on other people, and instead, focus on yourself.
If you have Pluto with your Moon, your Moon is Plutonic and may feel a little lost within this space, so you’d need to hold her more tenderly and tend to her unique needs, while being very honest with yourself and your inner Pluto; our inner Pluto is essentially all of our undealt-with things, unacknowledged things, suppressed things, fears and attachments and power and control games etc. The way to approach Pluto is with deep self honesty and willingness to bring into awareness your true self and true intentions.
The sign of conjunctions also matters. If the Venus-Moon conjunction is happening in a sign like Capricorn, where the Moon is a bit more closed off, you may need to be aware of this and make some effort to be more vulnerable in relationships; or if it is in Aries, then even though both the Moon and Venus are feminine planets, the cardinal fire of the masculine energy Aries will give them a more masculine expression, and especially if they are female, these natives need to be mindful of how they come across others in relationships, as they may be a bit too aggressive, impulsive or forward, and would need to spend some time re-connecting to their feminine energy.
Another famous conjunction is between Mars and Saturn, which I call the pearl making process. To become a pearl, an embodiment of wisdom that shines as legacy for generations forward, the mussel or oyster inside the shell may often need to go through some form of tension and pressure from the pushing or rubbing of the sand against its softness. If one knows they hold the potential for a pearl, and knows how to master and handle this energy, the pearl is the response rather than just continuous frustration and going against yourself.
In this way, Mars conjunct Saturn creates a powerful life force energy, which is why these natives may look very youthful in their later years. There is not much this conjunction cannot accomplish. If these natives wake up and decide they want to climb Everest tomorrow, I am quite certain they can, and they will. It gives you immense power of strength, energy, perseverance and pure grit. This conjunction is a powerful engine, like a Lamborghini. But you are essentially driving this car with both feet on the pedals: Mars in the gas pedal, Saturn is the brakes. And if you keep pushing both at the same time, you will get frustrated. So this is about learning how to master your energy, and when to push and when to pause.
Saturn is the part of us that teaches us the wisdom of the cycles of the land; Saturn is a spiritual teacher. We don’t push seeds into the frozen ground in winter, for flowers will not bloom, it’s just not their time yet; we’ll only hurt the seeds and we’ll frustrate ourselves. Saturn is nature itself and teaches us spiritual maturity through its own walks along various seasons, cycles and landscapes across the paths of time. In many esoteric beliefs Saturn carries the energy of the crone, the wise woman, the grandmother. To meet Saturn in her divine feminine maturity and wise crone energy, is to bow to this silent wisdom and power, and say yes to our devotional path towards spiritual maturity.
The first teaching of relationships is listening; the second is respect and honouring. So a Mars and Saturn union asks of you to honour both of these speeds and aspects of yourself. Know when to move forward, know when it’s time to pause, and release yourself from the pressure cooker you may sometimes live in by holding impossibly high expectations of yourself. When you have finished a task or project, give yourself time to rest and celebrate, rather than pushing yourself straight away to the next job. Learning the art of surrender, and of doing nothing, is an important doing; dolce far niente. You are a pearl maker, and this pearl will last for generations forward. No need to hurry.
Trines and Sextiles:
Trines and sextiles are both harmonious aspects because they move in a similar way also, with supportive energy and a natural understanding. Trines are of the same element, i.e. both water, or both fire; while sextiles of the supportive elements, i.e. water with earth, and air with fire.
So for example, with the conjunctions, if you had the water Venus with your Moon conjunct, this is a most beautiful flow of water, very fertile and blessing you. A water trine will also move you gently and harmoniously, it’s just that now it is a river moving into the sea, or rain falling and merging with the lake refreshing the waters, or even warming waters melting the ice.
A trine makes something more of what it is, similar to a conjunction but not as powerful as a conjunction. There is intuitive understanding within trine relationships, just as with the conjunctions, and there is creativity here also. Fire becomes more fire, water becomes more water, and while not exactly the same, it is within the same element, i.e. movement and gestures and understanding of behaviour.
A sextile creates a fertile land between two elements which support and feed each other. Water feeds earth – nourishes the earth, and makes the soil fertile. Air feeds fire, it makes it bigger and reach farther.
So with a sextile, while the elements are different, there is also a harmony here, an understanding, and a willingness to listen more, be more patient with one another, and support each other in ways that will contribute to our growth and expansion.
Both trines and sextiles show an ease, and an openness to receive something or listen to each other in a way that doesn’t feel as threatening activating our defence mechanisms. But what one needs to know about these relationships is not to get a bit lazy sometimes. Conjunctions make natives very focused and devoted to something, because it is a vow made – but with trines and sextiles, one may need to sometimes be more intentional and self motivated pouring in dedication, effort and devotion.
Trines and sextiles are actually amazing for harmonizing the rest of your chart or when going through transits, because they open up pathways for you where you can soften something. For example, if you have hard Moon aspects, look for whether there is a trine or sextile aspect to your Moon, and this may show you a potentially healing pathway.
Oppositions:
Within the space of a room, you are standing at one end, and in front of you, opposite of you in clear sight is the other. Oppositions are such things, and as such, natives may often see themselves as the inner planet in this aspect, while they seek from the other a validation or project onto them. This usually is most felt in their personal relationships, so whatever problems they experience in the relationships with other people is often a reflection or mirror or manifestation of what inside of them they need to pay attention to and bring into awareness.
If it is Venus opposite Moon, they often seek validation or their self worth through others. If it is Moon opposite Pluto, they project their Pluto onto other people and play out their own inner shadow through others. With oppositions, we usually take on the role of the inner planet, and project the outer one. And so, with the Moon opposite Venus aspect, you as the Moon seek Venus, your sense of self worth and desire to be loved, from the otherness standing opposite of you.
The spiritual lesson with oppositions, especially those with Moon and Venus, is essentially learning self love and self worth; because you may often not love yourself or accept yourself. The outer planet becomes something outside of you that you may often look towards, desire and reach your hands towards, but the closer you get the more it pulls away pointing the mirror back at you. Relationships become a main lesson sometimes, and they will often be mirrored a lot of their own selves through other people, whether friends, colleagues, family or partners. When they learn to stay rooted in their inner love, they will awaken into more awareness and experience more fulfilling relationships.
If the opposition is between the Moon and Pluto, the native needs to do a lot of inner shadow work, because they may often create situations in their life almost provoking other people to act out in Plutonic ways; because they are essentially seeking to bring into awareness their inner Pluto, to heal it. Until they heal their inner Pluto, relationships will be difficult. There is a lot of projection with oppositions, and the need to come into greater self awareness and take responsibility for how you may be contributing to situations in your life, what you can control and what you can’t. Oppositions are like inner separations – so it’s like you are separating yourself from yourself if you continue to project and replay unhealed aspects or old narratives.
Some oppositions are actually very easy though and even blissful, such as Venus opposite Jupiter. If anything, this may create an overindulgence. You may probably have quite a bit of confidence and self belief, which is great, but just be mindful not to over-extend yourself too much, and practice boundaries. So in this case, you the Venus, project your Jupiter of expansion and belief and possibilities onto the world. You see potential, you see distant horizons and dreams, and this is what attracts you towards others also. Don’t suffice for things nor relationships which are not intellectually stimulating for you, or which somehow limit your sense of self expression, creativity and emotional expansion.
Squares:
Squares are often the hardest to deal with, because if with the opposition we may often see it in front of us as a mirror, the squares are inner tensions, coming from our blind spots, and we may not even realize it’s us. Squares are believed to show skipped lessons in learning from past lives or skipped karmic steps, so essentially deep inner work is needed here to untangle themselves from some deeply rooted conditioning and patterns, and re-learn the right way.
As an example, Moon square Venus is about re-learning what love is, what fulfillment is, how we value ourselves and others, and how we love and nurture and show up for others. These natives may often feel conflict between what they need and what they desire, mistake lust for love, mistake drama for passion, and get themselves into relationships that end up feeling a sense of dissatisfaction. The instinctive tendency here may be to blame their partner or friend or whoever they are dealing with, when in reality there is inner tension within them they need to settle into peace through self awareness. This is about being clear about what you want, what you need, what you expect and how you give to another what you seek of them also.
Squares often run very deep and you may have a really hard time seeing yourself sometimes. Squares essentially have gotten very attached to deeper inner conditioning and patterns that are hard to snap out of, because they are so entangled like a knot, and so the purpose of the square is to infuse some stress to wake up the native, to look within, do the inner work and free themselves of what binds them internally as beliefs, limits, etc.
The purpose of the square is to bring inner unity to the native, because it shows there are parts within themselves that they do not accept, which is then going to be manifested as rejecting other people’s parts or separating themselves from what their true emotional needs and desires are.
So in the example between the Moon and Venus, what you may not be accepting in yourself is what you actually really need, or, what you actually really desire. Perhaps you do desire strong passion and physical attraction, but feel guilty about it, so then you settle for something not really meeting this desire of yours, only to then further down the line have resentments built within you, and then external conflict happens also with your partner. It’s about self honesty.
This is why squares often create relationships of conflict and tension. And the more the native keeps blaming the other people or situations, the more tense things will become, until the pressure becomes tense enough for the rubber string to snap, for the knot to be given freedom to unknot, and awaken the native into self reflection and freedom from inner limitations.
In the example of the Moon and Venus, natives may often choose partners based on pleasure or immediate gratification or attraction, at the expense of emotional connection and emotional fulfillment. This can make them quite vulnerable to entering into relationships with the wrong partners, and passion can often blind them. It can be hard for them to see the reality of another person because they can’t see their own selves clearly, and what they need to do is be very self honest.
Squares are about inner work. There are no short cuts, no quick fixes, and they can become really intense until the native looks within and faces their true self. There is a need for complete self honesty and for understanding their intentions, their motivations, their emotional needs and their patterns. This may often mean going back to childhood and early adolescence and reflecting on their relationship to their feminine energy and mother or mother-like figures, and how they received love, nurturing, and what they believe about their own self and self worth.
The dissatisfactions they often feel in relationships aren’t because of other people, it is because of their own inner tensions and need to resolve their inner self into peace and harmony. They may constantly feel they need another partner or another experience or more beauty and art and pleasure and money, but the reality is that nothing outside of them can fulfill them and make them happy until their face their inner lack and learn to love themselves, as well as learn to accept other people for who they are and be more humble, grateful and appreciative.
Whenever we have hard aspects in a natal chart, we can also look to what is supporting a healing path for them, i.e. look if there is a trine or sextile to the square or opposition. If Jupiter is involved perhaps involving yourself in volunteering can soothe the aspects and open up more compassion, leading to self compassion also. Perhaps you can learn new philosophies or dive into psychology and explore your inner worlds. If you are a woman, as squares create tensions and inner conflicts, in order to re-connect to the feminine energy, which is an energy of ease and flow, you may need to do some feminine energy work and practices to increase your feminine energy.
Be mindful of being critical of others or judgmental, and stay in more compassionate and loving speech, nurturing unity rather than separation. The squares often are about separating yourself from yourself and it manifests in your external relationships, so find what you may not be accepting in your own self, where you may hold shame or have had people reject you or make you feel abandoned or suppressed, and heal these parts. The more into inner union you come, the more you will no longer sacrifice your emotional needs, you will mature emotionally and choose wisely, and not enter into direct or indirect ways in which you may be pushing people away or separating yourself from others whether consciously or subconsciously.
Both oppositions and squares are growth oriented aspects. In ancient times these were considered feminine initiations, because they are invitations to movement and change. Like water. It’s not about stagnancy. There needs to be a movement, to change and refresh the waters, to pave a new path for your experience in this life. Any tension experienced through these isn’t to be feared or shamed or villainized, believing this will be a forever for you; it is only meant to shift your eye towards the inner worlds, so that you release and free yourself from what no longer serves you.
There is a certain amount of change and dynamic energy the squares will create in your life, but if you choose to use that change of inspired adventure and exploration, rather than drama and impulsivity and conflict, you can experience really interesting relationships that can keep you expanding and learning. Each planet involved in your squares has a learning opportunity. It has a wisdom to share. And each needs attention to listen to it. Respect when you listen to it. Respect of its own timing and movement, cycles and nutritive needs. What needs to be fed, what needs to be nurtured, what needs to be devoured completely.
It’s a ritual of approach. If we choose to approach something with respect and patience, it may reveal to us its wisdom and purpose. But if we choose to approach it with arrogance or ignorance, it will need to harden up and armour itself. Compassion disarms people, and softens them, and in the same way, when we approach our own self and inner aspects with compassion, we come into peace and more maturity.
Squares are like hard edges – it’s a square. But what softens edges is compassion, tenderness, softness of speech, patience and kindness of rhythm. Just like waves soften the hard edges of stones at the beach. All softens in the arms of love, all softens of the tender touch of compassion.
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