posted August 03, 2007 03:53 AM              

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).

posted August 03, 2007 12:39 PM            

But I digress from your initial question. Do the smaller aspects not receive their proper due in a list of relative importance in our Conj/Opp/SQ/Trine driven astrological world? That is hotly debated. Just as how important are asteroid inclusions? and other esoteric branches. I think this bears exploring.. ..

As Dennis Miller used to say.... Just my opinion, I could be wrong!

posted August 04, 2007 01:26 PM              

Also Noel Tyl uses the Quindecile (165 degrees) and this does seem to work in practice as well as theory.

I think Quintiles are lovely aspects - and I consider the Bi-Quintile to be a sort of softer version.

Oh and one other thing I wanted to mention... it may sound strange but I consider bigger orbs with say Jupiter than I would with Venus! Though I suppose ultimately it depends on the psyche - I've got a Jupiter-Mercury conjunction which I feel and perceive with a 9 degree orb.

I have, however met people who seem to ignore whole chunks of their charts. Though the girl who comes to mind in this respect does have Sun-Ascendant-Moon squared by Neptune so I suppose that affects her self perception quite a lot... !!! Some people either limit their expression or their awareness of such. Perhaps we could call them the 'orbless ones'

posted August 05, 2007 12:53 AM              

I'm not convinced the quindecile is as major as noel tyl makes it sound. I think parallels are a bigger deal than quindeciles for instance.

Peri - I agree with you. Outer planets should get tighter orbs in natal charts and in trasits. I also feel centaurs, and dwarf planets need narrower orbs (chiron, pluto, juno, etc).

summerdream - the thing about synastry and orb is that not everyone resonates equally with their charts. I think plutonian people should get wider orbs when their plutos are aspected than non-plutonian. Same for jupiterian people. Maybe that guy had jupiter on his ASC or in sag. If venus is unaspected in a natal chart, and mars and sun are heavily aspected - I would think its possible the person wont respond to their venus in synastry as much as the heavily aspected planets. The same goes for planets in angular houses which would in all likelihood be more responsive to transits and in synastry than the other houses (though personally I think I have felt transits in all my houses with planets in them, angular or not).
Synastry in general is very tricky bec you have to look at the chart as a whole and see what elements, houses, and aspects are going on and have been emphasized by the person to see what they are likely to resonate with in terms of a friend, partner, associate, etc