As astrologers chart your future, they predict good times as well as the bad. The way they do this is to look at the current locations of the planets. As the Moon and Sun follow the path of the zodiac, so to do the planets, each at their own pace. Anytime planets interact, it is called an “aspect.”
Astrology Aspects: Current, Transitory and Natal
As planets move around the ancient circle of the zodiac, their relationship to earth changes day to day. There are times when the effect they have on earth is harmonious because of the position of another planet as it moves about its path. The real-time interaction of two planets is called a “current aspect,” as when this aspect takes place, it is currently happening. Harmonious planetary aspects occurring between two planets can lead to pleasant stretches of time among us all here on our home planet.
The second type of aspect is called a “transitory aspect.” This is when a planet moves into position with the location that another planet had on the day you were born. The location of the planets at the moment of your birth is recorded and calculated as your astrology chart. It is believed that the planets, the independent bodies of the solar system, began having an effect on you when you became an independent body on earth. The imprint of these planetary locations on you at this moment is your lifelong way of accepting the universe as it should be. The aspects between the planets in your astrology chart are called your “natal aspects.”
As the planets continue moving on, they interact with the past locations on your astrology chart. When tension among the planets is adversely affecting the world, the planets are often simultaneously interacting harmoniously with the planetary locations of your astrology chart. Ever felt great when everyone else was miserable? The same can happen in reverse – it can be a perfect day of harmonious planetary energy in the sky above but some of the current locations of the planets can be interacting rather harshly with your chart.
Harmonious Aspects: Conjunctions, Trines and Sextiles
There are three harmonious aspects in astrology between planets: the conjunction, the trine and the sextile.
When a planet is moving into the same part of the zodiac as another planet, this is called a conjunction. While these planets are hundreds of thousands of miles apart, they appear to get together in the same spot of the zodiac as you look at them from earth and thus have an effect on us here. A solar eclipse is the best example of a conjunction; the Sun and the Moon are together in the sky as seen from earth.
A planet is nearing a sextile aspect when it is two zodiac signs away from another point in the solar system. An exact sextile aspect is when two points or objects in the zodiac are 60° apart in the 360° circle. Each year you will notice a wonderful feeling exactly sixty days before your birthday and sixty days after your birthday; this is when the Sun is in a transitory sextile aspect to the location of the Sun on your astrology chart. This is the most classic of the transitory sextile aspects.
A trine is when two objects or points in the zodiac are exactly 120° apart. A person who was born four zodiac signs after you, regardless of the year, will always be a soulmate possibility. Trines occur between signs that share the same astrological element. A natal trine aspect in your astrology chart is the indicator of your personality strengths.
Harmonious Aspects by Planet
Now that you have the basics of planetary aspects, read below about the different harmonious aspects of the planets your astrologer looks for to predict good times ahead or to understand the positive attributes in your personality.
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Mercury
When Mercury is in a harmonious current, transitory or natal aspect, ease at communication overcomes all else. Information flows.
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Venus
When Venus is in a harmonious current or transitory aspect, an expression of love resonates on an emotional level. Connections are made and crushes are formed. Natal harmony involving Venus in our astrology chart represents good looks or good taste in clothes and food. This is an indicator of artistic talent. The conjunction of Venus and Mars in a person’s birth chart is the best indicator of sex appeal and magnetic attraction.
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Mars
When Mars makes a current harmonious aspect, long-sought action can suddenly occur. When it makes a transitory harmonious aspect with your chart, you will finally get to move on in some aspect of your daily ritual. When Mars is in a natal trine with another planet, you are born with an extra dose of energy to climb higher in life than others.
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Jupiter
When Jupiter makes any type of conjunction, luck occurs. Jupiter involved in a conjunction delivers lottery winnings and is the aspect astrologers look for when advising you to take a Vegas vacation. Jupiter in a trine or sextile indicates success like few other planetary interactions.
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Saturn
Saturn is the most stern and forbidding planet. When it is involved in a current conjunction, things quiet down and focus is the order of the day. Saturn trines and sextiles of all types indicate seriousness, boundaries and silence. When Saturn is involved in a transitory conjunction, the most powerful force in all of astrology is at work. Saturn conjunctions are moments of total liberation that allow you to discard structures of the past and begin again. The most powerful of all transitory Saturn conjunctions is when Saturn conjuncts its own location in your astrology chart. This is the legendary Saturn Return. This is the ultimate chance to rewrite your future and exercise your free will to make drastic, complete changes to benefit yourself and those around you.
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Uranus
The planet Uranus is a force of chaos in the solar system. When it is involved in any type of harmonious aspect, structures break down in a beneficial way. The Berlin Wall collapsed as Uranus moved into conjunction with Neptune. Women’s liberation and the revolution of self-expression occurred in the 1960s when Uranus was conjunct with Pluto.
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Neptune
The planet Neptune is the center of idealism and illusion in the solar system. Harmonious aspects involving this planet often lead to new ways of thinking that emerge straight from our imaginations. Current and transitory aspects can last years. Throughout history, many great people have had a time in their life when they withdrew from society and their ordinary world. Looking back, it is inevitable that Neptune was making a transitory harmonious aspect to some important planet location in that person’s astrology chart.
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Pluto
The farthest planet out there is Pluto, and yes, astrologers still regard Pluto as a planet. This is the planet of transformation. Wherever Pluto makes a harmonious aspect, there is a shift that occurs; to the place this shift takes you, there is never a return to the place from where you came or to the person who you once were. Pluto moves through the zodiac at a slow pace. The change it creates takes a while, but you are constantly ridding yourself of the old, as you become the new you. Over a three-year period, which is about the length of a Pluto aspect, many women meet a man, marry him and have a child. You will find a harmonious Pluto aspect active in this girl’s astrology chart as she transforms and is never the same again.
The harmony created by planetary aspects is what creates the enthusiasm for life and the expressions of love we all share. When planets interact on a harmonious level, we are reminded that it is a wonderful world.
