An aspect is the distance between two pieces of the chart, measured in degrees, and that is what says whether they work together, ignore each other or fight. The previous series describe each piece on its own: the planet in the sign, the planet in the house. This one describes what happens between two of them.
There are five distances that tradition calls the major aspects: the conjunction (0°), the sextile (60°), the square (90°), the trine (120°) and the opposition (180°). Each has its own way of putting two pieces in contact, and none of them is good or bad, what exists is what each one charges and what each one delivers.
And there is the number almost no text gives: the orb. Two pieces at exactly 90° form a square; at 97°, they form nothing. This blog uses 6 degrees for the major aspects, and outside that they are two pieces in the same chart, which is another thing. That is why an aspect is not found out from the date: it needs the calculated chart.
And there is a reading order that changes everything, and that almost no site respects: the aspect comes last. It describes the relationship between two pieces, and there is no reading the relationship without knowing both. Whoever arrives here without having read each piece in the sign and in the house is reading the conversation without knowing who is speaking.
Sun and Venus form only one aspect: the conjunction. And that is orbit, not tradition. Venus never gets further from the Sun than 47.3 degrees, it is the second planet out from it, and seen from Earth it always stays close, as the morning or the evening star. Sextile, square, trine and opposition between the two do not exist, and never existed in anyone's chart.
What exists is the conjunction, and it is the situation of more than half of all people. The useful question here is not which aspect, but the distance: whether Venus is glued to the Sun, in the neighbouring sign, or two signs along, and whether it rises before or after it.
And here is what hardly any text writes down: an aspect is a RELATIONSHIP, and not one more piece. It does not add a trait to your chart, it says how two traits that are already there get along with each other. In this pair the relationship is almost constant and what varies is the degree: the closer, the more the person's identity runs through what she finds beautiful and what she wants to please.
It is worth giving the number before any reading, because without it there is no aspect: this blog uses a 6-degree orb for the major aspects. Outside that they are two pieces in the same chart, which is another thing. And the orb needs the calculated chart, and in this pair it settles the question the date does not settle: which sign Venus fell in, since it can be in your solar sign, in the previous one or in the next.
The conjunction ties identity to taste: who this person is runs through what she finds beautiful. She usually has effortless charm and a real difficulty being unpleasant, which is an enormous social advantage and a trap when it is time to say no. Pleasing is not a choice here: it is a reflex, and a reflex goes unnoticed.
The distance changes the intensity. At less than 3 degrees the person barely distinguishes liking from being liked; at 20 to 45 degrees there is room for her to want something the others do not approve of, and that slack is what gives her the chance to choose.
The sextile and the trine between the Sun and Venus do not exist, and it is the orbit that decides this. Sextile and trine require 60 and 120 degrees, and the maximum separation between Sun and Venus, measured across two centuries, is 47.3 degrees. There is not enough distance for the smaller of the two. A page called “Sun trine Venus” is a page about nothing, and there are thousands of them on the internet, written by people who never did the arithmetic.
It is worth understanding why the mistake is so common, because it says something about how those texts are made. Whoever writes a series on aspects usually builds a table of every pair times the five aspects and fills in the little squares, and the table knows no astronomy. The result is a text describing in detail a configuration no human being ever had in a chart.
What to read instead: the distance between the two, which is what actually varies in this pair and what actually changes the reading. It is in the conjunction section, above, and is measured in degrees in the calculated chart.
The square and the opposition between the Sun and Venus do not exist, and it is the orbit that decides this. Square and opposition require 90 and 180 degrees, and Venus's orbit does not allow even half of that relative to the Sun. A page called “Sun opposition Venus” is a page about nothing, and there are thousands of them on the internet, written by people who never did the arithmetic.
It is worth understanding why the mistake is so common, because it says something about how those texts are made. Whoever writes a series on aspects usually builds a table of every pair times the five aspects and fills in the little squares, and the table knows no astronomy. The result is a text describing in detail a configuration no human being ever had in a chart.
What to read instead: the distance between the two, which is what actually varies in this pair and what actually changes the reading. It is in the conjunction section, above, and is measured in degrees in the calculated chart.
It shows up in this person's difficulty doing anything that displeases someone she likes. They are concrete signs, the kind one recognizes in one's own week, and they hold for any of this pair's aspects, because the subject is the same and what changes is the friction:
- has charm she does not notice she is using
- avoids conflict by reflex, and not out of fear
- ties her own image to what she finds beautiful
- says yes before thinking, and regrets it afterwards
- has formed taste and defends it calmly
- is read as agreeable even when she disagrees
Notice what this list does not say. It does not say the person is vain or self-serving, two labels this pair carries that describe the extreme, not the aspect. It says her identity runs through taste, and pleasing is a reflex.
This does not show up the same way in two people with the same aspect. What changes is which signs and which houses the two pieces fell in, and how they get along with the rest of the chart.
See this in my chart, freeThis is the inversion most texts do not make, and it holds for every pair: what runs with no friction was never tested, and what bothers is what produces. The trine between Sun and Venus delivers the result with no effort, and for that reason the person usually does not build the muscle, and finds that out on the day the ease is not enough. Here, since the tense aspects do not exist, the inversion appears in the distance: the gluing that gives charm is the same one that takes away the capacity to displease.
It is the only form of friction this pair knows, and it is measured in degrees. The Shelly Method reads every archetype through four faces, the light, the shadow, the excess and the deficiency, and in an aspect they get distributed between the two pieces: almost always one of them is in excess and the other in deficiency, and the fix goes through the weak side.
It matures when the person displeases someone on purpose and survives it. It is usually a single, specific episode, and whoever has this conjunction remembers it in detail, because it was the day she found out she stayed whole.
Maturity here is not becoming hard. It is the person telling apart what she likes from what she thinks others will like, and it is that distinction that turns pleasing into taste.
No honest text gives an exact age for this: the arc depends on the whole chart.
It says how those two pieces get along, and not who you are. Having Venus next to the Sun does not make anyone shallow: it makes the person tuned to what pleases, which is a competence in almost any work involving people.
Which signs and which houses the two fell in changes everything: a Sun in Leo with Venus glued to it is someone whose charm is the signature; a Sun in Virgo with Venus at 40 degrees is someone with taste of her own and no wish to please. See The Sun in the 12 signs and Venus in the 12 signs, which describe each piece on its own, and that is the reading that comes before this one.
A limit said out loud, because it is part of reading seriously: none of this is prediction. Astrology describes a tendency and gives vocabulary for what the person already lives, it does not replace your work or your decisions.
And the questions that come up most on this subject, with the short answer:
How do I find out whether I have this aspect in my chart? Only with the calculated chart. An aspect is a distance in degrees, and a degree cannot be estimated from the date: the two pieces have to be within 6 degrees of the exact distance for the aspect to exist. It is different from the sign, which the date gives, and it is why this series asks for the chart before any reading.
Is a tense aspect bad and an easy aspect good? No, and that is the reading this blog refuses on every page. The easy aspect runs with no friction and for that reason was never tested, the person usually does not build the muscle, and finds that out on the day the ease is not enough. The tense one bothers, and it is the bother that produces. The biographies worth reading tend to be full of squares.
Does Sun square Venus exist? It does not exist, and never existed in anyone's chart. Venus never gets more than 47.3 degrees from the Sun, and the square requires 90. Any text describing that aspect is describing a configuration the orbit does not allow.
Can Venus be in a different sign from mine? It can, and it is common: it goes up to almost 48 degrees from the Sun, which is a sign and a half. You can be a Leo with Venus in Cancer or in Virgo, and that changes the reading, but only the calculated chart says which is the case.
What comes first: the aspect or the planet in the sign? The planet, always. An aspect describes the RELATIONSHIP between two pieces, and there is no reading a relationship without knowing both. Whoever arrived here straight away should go back to the series on each piece in the sign and in the house, and only then read this one, the reading becomes another thing.
Does an aspect that is not exact still count? It counts, and more weakly the further it is from the exact degree. An aspect 1 degree off is a central piece of the chart; at 5 and a half degrees, it is one more trait. And that is why the difference between a calculated chart and an estimated one shows up here before it shows up anywhere else.
In short, this pair reads like this:
Keywords identity, affection, conjunction, orbit
This one cannot be found from the date or from the sign: the twelve houses are counted from the Ascendant, and the Ascendant changes roughly every two hours and depends on the CITY where you were born. With no time and no place there is no house at all, not even an approximate one. You can calculate it for free here.
