Tight orbs

I read somewhere that the tightest aspects are the most prominent in your chart. So I went to astro.com and pulled up my chart with the orbs selected the option to reduce the orbs to 10%.

The only ones that showed up were a Moon-Neptune trine, Moon-Uranus opposition, Uranus-Neptune sextile, and MC-Mars trine.

I've attached that chart and a chart that shows all aspects. I'm not so deep into astrology yet that I understand the orbs and how tight they are in relation to the strength they give to particular aspects.

So basically I'm wondering if these aspects would be considered prominent in my chart as opposed to the same aspects but wider orbs.

And yes, especially the Moon (in Pisces) and Neptune I feel absolutely the most, even though I've a lot of air going on. The Neptune influence is overwhelming.

Orbs are one of those areas of Astrology that have no hard and fast rules. Way back in Greek/Hellenistic times aspects were by sign, not degree. So if you had Mars in Aries and the Sun in Leo, they were in trine, no matter what the degree.

For much of the last thousand years or so, Astrologers have been more concerned with the degree. And also, whether aspects are applying or separating (whether the aspect is going to happen in the future or whether it has already happened and is in the past).

Modern astrologers also give the 'orb' to the aspect, whereas in the past the orb was given to the planet.


To add further complications, oppositions are seen as stronger than squares, which are stronger than trines which are stronger than sextiles (and if you want to use minor aspects then you can extend this list).

Therefore before we even get to how tight the aspect is, we have a numbere of factors to consider. As you can see, that leads to a large number of combinations, made even worse by 'tight' being a matter of personal preference for the Astrologer.

It comes down to a matter of personal judgement based on experience when determining the likely importance.

There's one final factor - the planets themselves. An opposition from Venus is not as likely to produce stressful effects as an opposition from Saturn - all other factors being the same. Traditional Astrologers would also look at the essential and accidental dignities of the planets in making that judgement. Saturn in Leo is not as 'good' as Saturn in Aquarius, for example. Both Dave and I would probably argue that a first /seventh, or tenth / fourth opposition is generally of more importance than a fifth / eleventh opposition.

The phrase 'other things being equal' should be used here - tight aspects may well be of more importance than 'loose' aspects but that's not the only factor we consider in judging the strength of the aspect.

And of course, for people like me, who don't use the outers, the only one of your list considered would be the MC Mars trine. OK most Western Astrologers do use the outers, but when it comes to Chiron or Ceres or Pallas the point becomes more obvious. If you don't use Ceres, an exact opposition of Ceres to the Moon is of no importance at all. If you do use it, then you may well claim it's the most important aspect in the chart. Personal methodology is what counts.

In summary, yes I do tend to give weight to how 'tight' the aspect is and I've perhaps become stricter in my allowances - but when I wrote the thread on Traditional Astrology, I again realised that it's perfectly possible to deal with squares with 25 degrees of separation and still do meaningful Astrology.

Another set of readings

After a break, I'm now ready to do some more horary readings. I'll be starting on Monday but questions can be posted before then and I'll deal with them in batches of 4 at a time - i.e. once I have 4 readings booked I'll not take any more readings till I've completed that batch.

VenusRising stimulated this latest round, so I will give her first question, if she's still interested. Thereafter I'll take the first three questions from others, in the order they arrive.

Hi Minderwiz. I'd love a horary reading. Are you wanting me to post in this thread, or the original horary thread you started?

No back to the original horory thread pleast - I should have posted my invite in it LOL