Category: aspects

aspects

Sextile and Quincunx

Lisa

Sextiles are about opportunities. You are able to more easily access one energy via the other and are exploring that in this life. A sextile is especially helpful if one of the pieces is in a difficult aspect as the sextile shows a way of embracing the other energy.

Quincunx (also called inconjunct) is called the karmic neutralizer because one energy has been used to shutdown or neutralize the other. This is a subtle aspect that is powerfully felt making it difficult to understand within yourself. Working through this is a lifelong process.

Sextile is a 60 degree angle
Quincunx is a 150 degree angle
Both have a 3 degree orb

Sextile and quincunx are subtle yet still powerful aspects. They both use a tight orb of just three degrees and both tend to be felt and understood in layers over your life.

✨ Mars sextile Mercury shows opportunities to get these energies to work more easily together. For example mind and body, reason and ambition, communication and action. If Mars or Mercury is also in a challenging aspect, leaning into this sextile can help with the challenges.

💫 If Mars is also square the moon, leaning into your sextile can help you to deal with the inner struggle between Mars and Moon. Communicating about what you want, taking a more reasonable look at what you desire, improving your mind body connection can help you act in a way that’s more fulfilling, more satisfying.

⭐️ Mars quincunx Saturn shows struggles with being able to go after what you want. Your sense of responsibility can shut down your own desires and ambition. Your ambition and passion can shut down your sense of responsibility or ability to define healthy limits. You’re learning how to connect the two. You’re learning that you also have a responsibility to yourself, that healthy boundaries can support your physical health, passions and ambitions.

It can be challenging to see how a sextile or quincunx is expressed and experienced. They may be less obvious, but are just as present as the other aspects.

The key to a sextile is to look for opportunity for how you use them together and support that. You’ve had repeated experiences in other lives where you’ve used them together and you’re growing skills in this life.

The key to a quincunx is to understand that these energies can operate at the same time and this life is an opportunity to see that. You’ve had repeated experiences where they neutralized each other and used one or the other. This life includes learning to use them together.

aspects

Squares are forced awareness

Lisa

Pieces in your natal chart that square force awareness of each other. It’s like an internal competition between parts of yourself. Each trying to get your attention.

Square is a 90 degree angle within 7 degrees. The 7 degrees is the orb of the aspect.

Most aspects in your chart are not exact and the orb is how much difference from exact still creates an aspect.

Example:

Saturn 20 ♒️ 48
Uranus 18 ♉️ 55
(Square)

No rounding up of minutes, so this is not a square. It is 7 degrees and 14 minutes different and must be no more than 7.

Mars 13 ♒️ 24
Moon 6 ♉️ 10
(Not square)

Squares are compelling aspects. They create a sense of obligation. While they are challenging, they also can be productive.

Squares show karmic history where the energies were repeatedly in conflict with each other, or where you achieved something at the expense of the other so now you’re being compelled to always consider the other.

Moon square Saturn is someone that feels responsible for everything. They would love to relax and leave things up to someone else, but struggle to do that. It’s hard to fully trust everything will work out unless they are the responsible one. They are learning how to create healthy boundaries.

Venus square Mars struggles with going after what they want, because they often question the importance of their desires and ambitions and wonder if they’re good enough to pull it off. They can also get stuck trying to figure out their priorities that they end up doing nothing.

Squares are stimulating. ✨ People that have a lot of squares are often competitive and rarely idle. They keep moving.

💫 Moon square Saturn is someone that feels responsible for everything. They would love to relax and leave things up to someone else, but struggle to do that. It’s hard to fully trust everything will work out unless they are the responsible one. They are learning how to create healthy boundaries.

✨ Venus square Mars struggles with going after what they want, because they often question the importance of their desires and ambitions and wonder if they’re good enough to pull it off. They can also get stuck trying to figure out their priorities that they end up doing nothing.

If you do get stuck with one piece in a square focusing on the other can jump start you.

💫 Mercury square Mars can get stuck over analyzing what they should do and spend more time talking or thinking versus doing. Engaging in some physical activity or taking some kind of action helps to break the over analyzing and can then get you moving on a clear path that makes sense.

Check out the caption for more of an understanding of squares. 💖

If you have a square, tell us how you experience it. 💕 Sharing something in your chart helps you to understand it more and reading the comments of others can broaden your understanding of astrology.

aspects

Oppositions: you can’t get there from here

Lisa

Aspects are angular relationships between pieces in your chart. An opposition is just what it sounds like, the pieces directly oppose each other. They are 180 degrees apart, plus or minus 7 degrees.

Oppositions show past life experiences where the energies worked in opposition to each other. It happened enough that you developed beliefs that they can’t work together. This life is an opportunity to change your beliefs.

There are multiple ways that an opposition can be read. The specific meaning for you will depend on your chart. Everything is always reinforced in the chart, that’s how you focus in on your specific meaning.

Here are a few examples …

Mars opposite Saturn is someone that may believe it’s irresponsible of them to pursue their ambitions so they may struggle to fully own their desires.

They may believe that if they set healthy boundaries, they will anger people they care about.

Mercury opposite Pluto may have been killed or in some way destroyed because of something they said. They may now struggle in some way to speak their mind.

They may get stuck in analysts paralysis when they try to reason things through and struggle to make decisions by over thinking them.

Venus opposite Jupiter may struggle to be honest with those they love or to feel like it’s unethical to make money doing something they love.

They likely had lives where their values were not in line with their ethics and may be carrying guilt or shame that needs to heal. Religion may have interfered with love.

Whatever the opposition in your chart. It’s crucial that you see it as an opportunity and not a punishment or that you’re doomed.

You came in choosing to see this in a new light, to heal your experiences and learn that these energies can coexist in you and work together. Continued in the caption.

Do you have oppositions in your natal chart? If so, what insight do get from them?

🤎💫 You can still have an amazing life even if you have difficult aspects. I have a shit ton and my life is really good. I also have some beautiful aspects, and I know you do too. We each come in equipped to handle our agenda.

🤎✨ No matter what’s in your chart, life improves when you’re willing to be honest with yourself, face your flaws and fears and deal with them. When you do, you heal.

Try not to think of your chart as a dead end. See it as your launching off point. 🚀

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aspects

Aspects to Pluto

Lisa

Pluto is the higher octave of Mars. Mars is your physicality and desire. Pluto is your life force, your drive to survive, your choice to live. Pluto is your base of power, your ability to choose and transform. Pluto is creation and destruction, the phoenix rising from the ashes.

Pluto courtesy of NASA

When Pluto forms an aspect to another piece in your chart, the energies interact within you and impact how you feel empowered. Pluto may show control issues, obsessions, beliefs in transformation and your decisiveness.

Conjunctions form unified systems. The energies fuse and you don’t distinguish between them. You confuse them and think they are the same.

Venus conjunct Pluto believes love is something to die for. If you love me, you’ll die for me. Love and beauty are power. Love can transform you.

Squares are forced awareness. The energies are constantly stimulating each other, each forcing an awareness of the other.

Moon square Pluto hungers for control. Emotions are often intensified, and they have a deep need to feel they have a choice. Their mother was most likely controlling and they may have an enmeshed or codependent relationship with her.

Trines are a harmonic flow. The energies are distinct, though you easily connect them.

Sun trine Pluto generally believes they are in the driver seat of their life. They are generally able to make decisions, though they can feel very unstable if they aren’t able to choose. Their personal empowerment feeds their sense of who they are and will feel out of it if they aren’t able to choose, or are somehow disempowered.

Oppositions show separation where you don’t know how to get from one to the other. Each makes the other seem impossible.

Saturn opposite Pluto is someone that struggles with responsible choices. Their sense of responsibility makes them feel as if they have no choice and pursuing that which makes them feel powerful makes them feel irresponsible.

Sextiles are opportunities to create flow. There is a connection that can be nourished into a deeper, more fluid connection.

Mercury sextile Pluto believes communication and logic opens up options. Thinking rationally opens up possibilities. Taking or writing can be empowering.

Quincunx is the neutralizer. It shows deeply held beliefs about how each part can shut down the other. They are subtle to observe but deeply felt.

Jupiter quincunx Pluto struggles with being in integrity and personal power at the same time. They may blurt out the truth in a way that sabotages their options. They may make choices that feel cynical, because they struggle to have faith while feeling empowered.

Aspects are angular relationships between pieces in the chart. The orb of an aspect is how close the pieces have to be for the aspect to form. It’s the plus or minus part, since most aspects aren’t exact. I use a 7 degree orb for conjunction, square, trine, opposition and 3 degrees for sextile and quincunx.

Aspects show up in your natal chart to illustrate patterns of beliefs formed in other lives. These patterns are formed by repeated experiences. They show what you came in believing. They show talents, struggles and lessons.

Aspects do not doom you or seal your fate. Difficult aspects show lessons. Your soul took on these lessons to grow and the universe has your back. By owning who you are and being willing to see life and yourself differently, there is no impossible lesson.

Squares, quincunx and oppositions show beliefs you brought in, but do not condemn you to a life of struggle. They are also beacons showing you where you can heal.

Trines and sextiles show talents and strengths, but these need to be nurtured or they can be parts of yourself you neglect, take for granted and the connections break down.

Conjunctions show how you’ve fused parts of yourself. Those fusions can offer great strength, as well as confuse you into thinking they are the same thing when they really are not. Awareness of how they work together can help you understand how to use them to your advantage.

aspects

Moon square Venus

Lisa

In karmic astrology, your natal chart is read as a painting of your past lives. The beliefs, talents, struggles, goals … all that you bring into this life is connected to experiences in other lives.

Squares to the moon in a natal chart are often challenging, because they show past life conflicts with family, feeling cared for and even survival. Squares create a forced awareness and there’s almost a competition between the two energies.

Moon square Venus is an especially challenging aspect to deal with in relationships. Please know that people with this can have loving, lasting relationships. I’ve seen it. Don’t despair if you have this, or any other thing in your chart that someone has told you is bad.

When someone tells you something in your chart is hopeless, they have shown you that their understanding of astrology and experience reading charts is limited.

Why does this Venus/Moon square show up? There’s karmic history where your values and emotional needs were at odds with each other. This could have played out in many ways. For example, marrying for money or someone your family forced on you.

The moon is also food and survival, so your karmic past could include doing things to survive that went against your values. Sometimes people with this aspect think they are horrible people, when they haven’t done anything really terrible in this life.

If you have this, you may struggle with feeling fulfilled in life and even wonder what it feels like to be truly satisfied. The more you can own your values, act with integrity and open yourself up emotionally (even when it’s hard) the more you will become aware of what this aspect is teaching you and learn how the energies can work together.

The square doesn’t doom you, it’s a window into some wounds that need healing so that you can joyfully live your life.

aspects, planets

Denial always has an expiration date

Lisa

Venus is how we give and receive love and rules every way in which we assign value. Venus opposes Mars early in the month, then continues with a series of squares to Jupiter, Pluto, Saturn and ends with an opposition to Uranus. All these challenging aspects to Venus urge us to get clear about our priorities and to ask ourselves what really matters to us.

So this month, intention is everything.

While transits are experienced most strongly if they touch your natal chart, there is such a strong theme this month, it feels like most people will feel this in some way.

These Venus transits are challenging us to become fully aware of our priorities and intentions. The confrontations we may experience this month are opportunities to learn why we may put a lot of energy into something and not get what we want, or when we get it feel as though it doesn’t fulfill us as the way we thought it would. We are facing ways we believe life isn’t fair, where we believe our choices are limited or non-existent, we are seeing how relationships may be out of balance and how we have isolated ourselves from people and things we love.

Our intentions can dominate our experiences and often override the stories we tell ourselves and the actions we take in the world. One example I use often is this: imagine that you are doing a favor for someone, but you feel so put out by it and resentful while doing it that instead of the person feeling helped or supported by you they feel awful. They feel like a burden, like they are worthless or helpless and wish they hadn’t asked you or you hadn’t offered. What you do for them may even fall apart and end up not being that helpful. Chances are you told yourself that you wanted to help, and some part of you did, but it was a cover story for your deeper intention that came from a place of guilt, obligation or something other than the pure desire to help.

This month, Venus is pulling back the curtain and showing us what we truly value and who is really there for us. We are seeing where love is in our lives, what we value, and where we actually want to be, what we want to do, and how we derive our worth.

We’re also revisiting balance in relationships and seeing where they may be one-sided. This includes both relationships where we do not ask for enough and where we give little of ourselves.

We are being challenged to be honest about what we really value so that we stop putting our energy into what we tell ourselves is important, and instead focus on what and who we truly love.

Some of this may not be easy, but facing it is worth it. 

It’s worth taking the time to get a pair of shoes that really fit your feet. You can quickly buy a pair that look good and you tell yourself will work, but your feet won’t participate in the lie. The shoes may work out okay for a short time, but eventually your feet will feel the pain of your choice and make you regret buying them.

Denial always has an expiration date.

This month Venus is urging you to be honest with yourself about what matters to you. If there is any area in your life where you are pretending that something or someone is in alignment with your values, but is not, you’ll feel the friction and it will be a bit harder to pretend.

The good news is that the pain of disappointment or fear that you may feel opens the door to more of what you really love. You gain the focus and willingness you need to bring more of what you love into your life.

aspects

Mercury Trine Neptune

Lisa

A trine is a natural flow connecting 2 or more energies in the chart. When people are first learning astrology, they may be tempted to think that some aspects are good and some are bad. For example, trines are good and squares are bad. All aspects bring talents, challenges, lessons and gifts.

background-balance-beach-289586

Mercury is the rational mind and how we communicate via language. It’s what makes sense to us, how we think and learn, how we process information.

Neptune is our intuition, creativity, empathy and compassion. Neptune is telepathy, psychic abilities, having a visceral understanding of the experiences of others.

When Mercury and Neptune form a trine, the rational mind and intuitive mind are in harmony with each other. These people are usually very creative and imaginative and often know things without first realizing how they know them. People with this placement often develop a talent for quickly coming up with a rational explanation or set of idea breadcrumbs to explain to others how they know something.

This aspect can also manifest as self-delusion where someone imagines a story and tells it to themselves so often they start to believe it’s true. They may also imagine what others believe and internalize that as true. For some, lying to themselves and others can be easy. They can also pick up on the thoughts and feelings of others and internalize them, both to their benefit and detriment.

Neptune is considered a soft planet, and Mercury a neutral planet, so generally they work well in a soft aspect (trine is soft). The important take away here is that these energies harmonize together. Whether that harmony expresses itself in a way that is helpful, useful, loving, spiritual etc. is determined by the rest of the chart and the life lived by the individual.

Using your own chart is the best way to understand astrology.

If you have a trine in your chart, think about how the energies flow with each other in you. If you have Mercury in an aspect, think about how that energy may impact how you think and what gets your mind going.

Pick any aspect and dive into the energies in the chart and see how they work together in you, and that will teach you something about how that aspect works.

What’s in your chart?

aspects

Moon Square Venus and an Amazon Giveaway

Lisa

First the amazon giveaway: Win an Astrology Chart Notebook

No cost to enter, and you don’t have to like anything or watch anything. Just tap the bouncing box to see if you are one of the random winners. I’m giving away three copies of my Astrology Chart Notebook.

astrology-chart-notebook-8x10-front

It’s an 8×10 larger version of my Astrology Chart Journal.

Screen Shot 2018-06-26 at 11.31.04 AM

Now to Moon square Venus …

I have rediscovered reddit recently and have been answering some Astrology questions there. This morning I replied to a guy with Moon square Venus and thought I would share my answer in a blog post:

Moon square Venus is a really hard aspect to deal with in relationships. Squares create a forced awareness and there’s almost a competition between the two energies. People with this aspect can have loving, lasting relationships. I’ve seen it. I get that it feels really frustrating right now, try to resist the urge to tell yourself it’s hopeless. It’s not.

My advice is to continue on a path of self-discovery and self-acceptance in a conscious, purposeful way. It’s important for you to understand what you value and live a life of integrity.
There’s likely some karmic history where your values and emotional needs were at odds with each other. This could have played out in many ways. For example, marrying for money or someone your family forced on you. The moon is also food and survival, so your karmic past could include doing things to survive that went against your values. Sometimes people with this aspect think they are horrible people, when they haven’t done anything really terrible in this life.

The more you can own your values, act with integrity and open yourself up emotionally (even when it’s hard) the more you will become aware of what this aspect is teaching you and learn how the energies can work together.

End reddit post.

Astrology is fascinating and can lead to many personal insights. It can be tempting though to generalize and idealize something like signs or aspects, and also the reverse, to write off someone or think you’re doomed because of something you see in a chart. Remember that the natal chart itself is neutral information and contains no inherent judgements. When you see something really challenging in your chart or someone else, look at it as an opportunity. It’s a flashing neon sign giving you information that can help you focus, rather than a doomsday warning.

You always have a choice, Astrology doesn’t remove that. Astrology can help you to understand why you’ve made some of your choices and help you to understand the choices available.

I hope someone reading this wins one of the books. Let me know if you.

Good luck!

aspects

How do you pronounce quincunx?

Lisa

Quincunx is such a funny word to me. In Astrology, it’s an aspect formed when pieces are at a 150 degree angle with one another. I use an orb of 3 degrees, so that’s an angle of 147-153 degrees. Inconjunct is also used for this and means the same thing. I consistently use quincunx though, partly because it just sounds odd and also because (for me) the unusualness of the word conveys some of the unusualness of the aspect itself. 

In karmic astrology, a quincunx is referred to as the karmic neutralizer. Experiences in other life times have caused the person to learn to shut down parts of themselves. The pieces tend to neutralize each other, so that when one of them is receiving focus, the other tends to shut down. 

Let’s look at moon quincunx mars. The moon is emotions, nurturance, food, family and mars is physicality, sexuality, ambitions, drive. People with this aspect are likely to struggle with balancing getting emotional needs met and pursuing ambitions. It can be hard to develop a sexual relationship that is nurturing and emotionally rewarding. They often eat in ways that are not healthy for their bodies. When one of these energies is getting their attention, the other energy is shut down and it’s hard to integrate the two. 

All is not lost with a quincunx. When one shows up in a natal chart, think of it as a flashing red light. There are many life lessons connected to it, and understanding it will lead to huge growth. It’s almost like a call for help, trying to grab your attention. The signs and houses can be very insightful in helping you to understand both your karmic history getting you to this point (signs) and the current life focus (houses) that needs your attention. 

I don’t believe your natal chart determines the life you will live. It’s a painting of your karmic past and reveals the bags you packed when you came into this life. Those bags contain experiences and beliefs that show up as talents, challenges and lessons. If you have a quincunx, get honest with yourself about it and face what it’s telling you. Even if you do see that you are shutting down, denying or compartmentalizing parts of your life you can grow and change. 

However you have come to view your life, you can learn to see it differently. 

Copyright © 2017, Lisa Wagner

aspects

Let’s talk squares

Lisa

There are several major aspects, or angles, that astrologers look at in a chart. One of them is called a square. A square is formed when the pieces are at a 90 degree angle with each other. I use a 7 degree orb for a square, so that means 90 degrees plus or minus 7. 

Squares are dynamic aspects and can provide insight into lessons, talents and challenges in our lives. Usually squares are described as a source of tension or conflict. This can be true, but they are so much more than that. Squares can not only help you understand inner conflicts and how you may be at odds with yourself, but they can also show some of the ways you are energized. They can provide insight into some of your strengths and talents. 

Squares are called the forced awareness, because each piece forces an awareness of the other. Depending on the pieces involved, as well as the rest of the chart, the square can be expressed in a variety of ways. The key is that the energies ignite each other. The more you can face and deal authentically with the other energy, the less conflict you will experience with it and the more the energies work together in a productive way.

Mars square Pluto is ambitious, competitive, and energetic. The physical energy and drive of Mars forces an awareness of the will and power of Pluto. This dynamic can show up in predatory behavior, people willing to do anything to get what they want. It can also show up in advocates, people that are willing to fight for others, especially those they believe have been victimized. 

Some energies function better than others in a square, and some combinations seem more workable. Looking at all the pieces, aspects, degrees and houses can give further insight. For example, someone that also has Moon trine Jupiter is likely to have a strong sense of ethics and desire for justice and be the advocate. The houses the planets are in can show the areas where the conflicts are more likely to play out. Someone with a lot of squares tends to believe that life is hard, and to be competitive in general. Someone without any squares may have trouble handling conflict. The chart must always be looked at as a whole to fully understand the significance of any single component.  

Aspects provide great insight into how the energies interact within you and show beliefs that have been built in past lives. While squares can show you some of your inner struggles, they can also draw your attention to great opportunities for growth. Nothing in your chart dooms you to be a certain way or have a certain kind of life. The natal chart shows what you bring into this life and it is up to you to enhance or transform what you bring with you.  

“If you are irritated by every rub, how will your mirror be polished?” -Rumi

Copyright © 2017, Lisa Wagner