posted January 06, 2005 09:06 AM         

Remember, all synasty arcs are +/- 1 degree. Anything more is not considered an aspect.

posted January 06, 2005 10:41 AM         

I don't mean to be contentious, but I throughly disagree with insisting that ALL synastry aspects have to be within such a narrow orb, and I'm not the only one by far. Furthermore, I see no logic or reason from my experience to do so. As I've said before astrology's an intuitive science, not a "hard" science, and rigorous standards and rules often don't work very well for the task at had. Astrology is based on subjective observations and discernment of unseen forces of nature - that is, forces that aren't going to play by our rules or how we think things should be. There's always ample reason to be flexible and to remember it's all relative to what you have working within the charts.

I find the best rule for determining aspects are simply to use narrower orbs by maybe 2 to 3 degrees than you would for a natal chart, and focus on what are the dominating aspects between the two charts. Apologetic One at Horoscopechat wrote the following, which I think is very sound advice:

"The recommended orbs of allowance for the major synastric aspects are more limited than those for the birth chart, with the conjunction being capped at 6º, the opposition at 5º, the square at 4.5º, the trine at 4º, the sextile at 2.7º, the semisquare and sesquiquadrate at 1.8º, and the semisextile and quincunx at 1.5º. It is questionable that any more minor aspects whose recommended orb is lower than 1½º should be used at all. Typically, you will still find around 20-30 synastric aspects to interpret. There are many factors in relationship astrology; and when working out the aspects alone, with twice as many planets involved as in a single birth chart there is a potential for a very large number of factors, so it is essential to restrict analysis to those which will be likely to be felt as significant and omit from the equation those tiny influences sure to be drowned out by the greater smog of the rest and consideration of which would only obscure the greater overall picture."

Of course,a s always, the tighter the aspect the more intense it is, but I personally would make a few exceptions to these, depending on what planets are involved, in what house and how the plants in aspected natally.

Also since ancient Greek astrology determine aspects by sign and not orbs, and a lot of our deposit of wisdom pretaining to how astrological influences behave is rooted in such ancient sources, I don't immediately discredit aspects by sign only, even if they don't stand out as much or as defining in a relationship. I find that sign-only aspects can and do influence synastry significantly by coloring overall tone and mood, as well as possibly encouraging/muting tighter aspects.