posted June 14, 2008 03:01 PM         

For example do you consider a trine between two personal planets within an orb of 6 degrees more important than a trine between Amor trine Chiron within 4 degrees? Or a conjunction of 6 degrees has a stronger impact than an opposition of 8 degrees right?

and so on...

posted June 15, 2008 07:41 AM         

I chose my preferred orbs according to the observation of a natural process.
Since astrology started as a science, based on observing the nature, in this case the sky and visible changes in the sky, I thought that could be a good tool to decide for orbs, too.

For this I looked to the moon (actually the astrologer Mertz did - I have the explanation from his books), and it seems that a full moon or a new moon is valid only for about 6 hours - 3 hours before the fullmoon, 3 hours after this.
This equals an astrological orb of 3°.

Additionally, I realized that this is an orb, most astrologers can agree upon; after that the disagreements start.
Also, I found out that this is an orb that DEFINITELY works.

So, I am using this is as my basic orb, and aspects within this orb are the basic aspects of any chart.

But I also make a mental note when there`s something like a "rolling conjunction" or "rolling aspect":

Example:
My Mars on 5° Sagittarius
my ASC on 7° Sagittarius
His ASC on 9° Sagittarius
my NN on 10° Sagittarius
his Venus on 13° Sagittarius

Even though there is no REAL orb between my Mars and his Venus (8° is really a bit wide at least for MY taste), I think the planets in the middle do connect those two, because Mars is conjunct ASC, ASC conjunct ASC, ASC conjuncts NN and NN conjuncts Venus.

The same goes for aspects.
Let`s say there is a Sun on 15° Aries, a Moon on 18° Leo and a Jupiter on 12° Sagittarius.

I would definitely call that a Grand Trine, even though the orb of Moon and Jupiter is 6° and therefore on the wide side; but they belong together.

Well, I agree, for natals I sometimes use even orbs of 6° or 7° without the connection to other planets. But I still think the closer the orb, the stronger the planet.

In my opinion, especially in synastry we are looking for connections that are very unique for a couple, individual.
And the closeness of orb help to see those connections. Like for example I share a trine of 5° of my Venus to someone`s Mars - that may be still valid, but there are probably dozens of girls who will make a closer trine to his Mars.

It becomes a bit more individual now, when you look at additional features, like for example to Dwads or Duads. In this case his Mars is also closely opposite my Duad Venus.

Dwads is a technique to cut every single sign into 12 little segments; as if you were projecting the zodiac on each sign.

For example:
Sun on 1° Aries:
Sun would be in Aries
But it would also be in the Duad of Aries.

Sun on 14° Aries:
Sun would be in Aries
But this time it would be in the Duad of Virgo

Both people would of course be Arian in nature, but you would notice certain differences in their "Sun-style". The second might be a bit more careful, while the first one might be more on the daredevil side.
Of course you would have to look towards the Sun-aspects and Sun-house, too, to get a more complete picture.

The interesting thing is if you have a VERY close orb in synastry then the existing aspect will also be repeated in the Duads.
Stuart Townsend and Charlize Theron are a good example of this.
They share a very exact Venus-Mars-opposition, which gets repeated in the Duads.

Sorry, I think I`m swaying off topic.