How to Understand Planetary Aspects in Your Birth Chart

In a constructed chart, Venus at 7 degrees Virgo and Saturn at 6 degrees Taurus are 121 degrees apart, a trine just 1 degree from exact, while the Sun at 8 degrees Leo squares Saturn within 2 degrees.

A birth chart gives you three layers of information about each planet: the sign it was in, the house it fell in, and the aspects it makes. Sign and house describe a planet on its own. An aspect describes a relationship, the angle between two planets measured along the zodiac, and that is where a chart starts to read like a story instead of a list.

Think of it this way. Mars in Gemini tells you about one planet’s style. Mars square Saturn tells you that two planets with different aims sit ninety degrees apart, so the question becomes how they share one life. The angle is the grammar, and the two planets are the nouns.

Beginners often start with the angle and ask whether a square is good or bad. A better first move is to ask what the two planets are about, because the pair sets the subject. The angle then describes how the two meet. The table gives four pairs and the question each one raises. They are questions on purpose, since a chart cannot answer them for you.

To see what the angle changes, hold the pair still. Here is how an astrologer might word Venus and Saturn at each of the five major angles. These are tendencies drawn from tradition, not outcomes.

• Conjunction (0 degrees): affection and caution act as one voice, so closeness may be offered slowly and meant in full.
• Sextile (60 degrees): the two can cooperate, but usually only when you put them to work, for example by choosing to deepen a friendship at a steady pace.
• Square (90 degrees): they pull in different directions, which can look like wanting closeness and safety at once and asks for deliberate adjustment.
• Trine (120 degrees): they blend without effort, so steadiness in affection may feel natural and be easy to take for granted.
• Opposition (180 degrees): each sits across from the other, so reserve and warmth may first be played out through other people.

A chart with the ten planets has forty-five pairs, and many of them will make some aspect. Reading every one leaves you with a list rather than a picture. A simple order of priority keeps the picture clear.

1. Start with aspects that include the Sun, the Moon or the chart ruler, the planet that rules your Rising sign, because they touch the core of the chart.
2. Next take the tightest ones, with orbs under about two degrees, since they are the easiest to hear in the chart’s overall tone.
3. Look for repetition. A planet that appears in three aspects is a theme, so note it once instead of writing three separate points.
4. Leave loose aspects, near the edge of your orb, until the end, and let them add detail rather than lead.

Many chart programs print an aspect grid, a triangle of small boxes with the planets along the edges. Each box holds that pair’s aspect symbol, and a blank box means no major aspect within the program’s orb.

Scan the grid by planet rather than by box. A planet with several aspects is a hub, and the chart tends to speak through it. A planet with none is called unaspected, and modern readers sometimes describe it as acting on its own. That is an interpretive idea, and a looser orb can give an unaspected planet two contacts.

This chart is constructed for teaching and belongs to no real person. Each position becomes a count from 0 degrees Aries, adding 30 for every sign passed. Sun at 8 Leo is 120 + 8 = 128. Moon at 14 Libra is 180 + 14 = 194. Venus at 7 Virgo is 150 + 7 = 157. Mars at 11 Sagittarius is 240 + 11 = 251. Saturn at 6 Taurus is 30 + 6 = 36. Subtract to get each gap.

Mars and the Sun each appear in three of the six aspects, so they are the hubs. Mars trines the Sun, sextiles the Moon and squares Venus, while the Sun also squares Saturn and sextiles the Moon. The tightest contact is Venus trine Saturn, one degree from exact, with the Sun square Saturn close behind. A reader might summarize it this way: steady affection that does not hurry, an identity that tests itself against limits, and an active Mars that supports the Sun and Moon but complicates what Venus wants.

Should I read an aspect by degree or by sign? Most modern readers use degrees, as in the table above. Some traditional astrologers count by sign, so planets in signs that stand in a sextile, square, trine or opposition relationship count even when the degrees are far apart. If you use sign-based aspects, say so.

Can two aspects in one chart contradict each other? Yes, and that is normal. Mars trine the Sun and Mars square Venus ask different things of the same planet. Treat that as a tension in the chart’s description, not an error.

Do I need a birth time? Only for aspects to the Ascendant or Midheaven. Between planets a date is often enough, though the Moon moves about 13 degrees a day.

Use one orb throughout and write it at the top of the page.

1. Write each planet’s position as a number from 0 to 360, counting 30 degrees per sign.
2. Subtract each pair and keep the gaps that fall within your orb of 0, 60, 90, 120 or 180 degrees.
3. Underline planets that appear three times or more, and circle any that appear not at all.
4. Write one sentence per aspect, beginning with the pair’s subject and then the angle.
5. Label each sentence close, clear or background, then reread the page and cross out anything that sounds like a fixed fact about you.

An aspect list depends on the orb you choose, and no aspect, hard or soft, tells you whether life will go well.