Lesson 4: Design Your Dream Relationship
Orbs and Aspects:
Measuring the Degrees Between Planets
There's one more level to uncovering the secret of distance. This involves measuring the degrees between the two planets that you're comparing in the chart to find out the "orb" (or distance) between them. Most astrologers look to see if the orb between the planets is 0 to 5 degrees. This is considered the most potent proximity. Essentially, the smaller the space between two planets, the closer together they are—and the more likely they are to blend their energy.
When Is an Orb an Aspect?
When two planets are within an orb of 0 to 5 degrees (stricter astrologers only an orb of 0 to 3 degrees), they are said to officially form an aspect. In other words, they’re close enough together to interact in a meaningful way. The closer the planets are in their orb, the more powerfully they work together (or against each other!). It’s like living or working in close quarters with another person—or being neighbors versus living in different countries Two people who share an office or home have to deal with each other’s personalities—either irritating each other, or blending their strengths.
When you do a synastry comparison between two charts, you can compare the aspects between any two planets. For example, you might check the orb between your Venus and your partner's Mars. For the sake of this exercise, however, we're going to calculate orbs between the same love planets in both chart, e.g. your Sun and their Sun; your Venus versus their Venus.
Finding the Degrees of a Zodiac Sign
Most natal charts will list the degree of the planet—which is always between 0 and 29—on the wheel itself. In this chart, which is from Astrolabe.com (or SolarFire software which runs on our website: astrostyle.com/free-chart) the degree is the number wedged right between the two glyphs for the planet and the zodiac sign.
In this example, we have highlighted the moon sign for Beyoncé Knowles, which is 20º Scorpio. (Note that there is also a degree symbol next to the number 20.) The second number, which is to the right of the Scorpio glyph is the minutes of this placement—giving Bey a moon sign of 20 degrees and 54 minutes (20º54") Scorpio. For the sake of calculating orbs in this exercise, the minutes aren't necessary—but they come in handy when you are tracking slower moving outer planets like Neptune and Pluto. (More on that in Lesson 6!) We simply wanted to make sure you didn't confuse the degree number with the minutes.
Hard Vs. Soft Aspects (Angles): Challenge or Ease?
The aspects are said to be of two types: soft (easy) and hard (challenging). While you might think it’s better to have more soft aspects, that’s not necessarily true. Soft aspects can make things come a little too easily—preventing us from building character through struggle. A good mix of soft and hard aspects is ideal. However, we get what we get! A person with a lot of hard aspects may have to pay more dues or overcome bit more adversity to reach her destiny.
