I read an article on harmonic astrology recently that suggested going down from 10 to 1 inversely from conjunction to derive orbs.I should preface this by saying harmonic astrology posits that all aspects from 1-9 are important, not just the ones that are easily seen (30 degree aspects). Traditional astrology is heavily biased that way which does not make sense theoretically when you consider that all aspects are just divisions of the circle into equal parts. This has been gnawing at me for a while.
The orbs would be:
conjunction - 10
opposition - 9
trine - 8
square - 7
quintile - 6
sextile - 5
septile - 4
octile - 3
novile - 2
decile - 1
I know its shocking and absurd to many to have a 6 degree orb for the quintile but maybe we have overlooked it bec it hasnt been included in traditional astrology. Theoretically this list makes sense although I havent seen the decile in action. I am comfortable with these aspects which I have seen in evidence, though with narrower orbs than what this list suggests.
I would posit that the last couple of degrees are weak in all the aspects and effects will be most noticed by starting with 8 for a conjunction and proceeding from there. So it would in reality be more like this:
conjunction - 8
opposition - 7
trine - 6
square - 5
quintile - 4
sextile - 3
septile - 2
octile (semisquare/sesquiquadrate) - 1
novile - .5
decile - .25
What the list preserves though are the totally underrated importances of the 5 and 7 series in the hierarchy which are as or more important than the sextile. I find that theoretically consistent. It has made little sense to me that the quintile is considered a minor aspect while the sextile is a major one. I think it is simply bec it has not been noticed bec it is not a round number thats easy to spot without looking for it.
Also, why should the conjunction, opposition, square and semisquare/sesquiquadrate - which are 4-5 hard aspects balanced against the conjunction, trine and sextile - only 2-3 easy aspects?? There is a lack of balance here and suggests life is hard aspect heavy which I dont think is the case. It makes more sense to say the trine, quintile, sextile, septile and novile which are all easy aspects with dif flavors
trine/ blending, quintile/creative - ordering, sextile/working harmony, septile/spiritual - internal - reflective, novile/spiritual - external joy
which would be 5 soft against the 5 hard aspects.
(This is aside from the quincunx which is the wildcard aspect and can be either easy or hard depending on the planets).
Any thoughts?