What Astrological Aspects Are: How Conjunctions, Sextiles, Squares, Trines and Oppositions Read
Once I sent the same chart to two people for a reading, and the two conclusions that came back did not match.
I went through them point by point and found that one of them counted an angle with a 4° deviation as an aspect, while the other did not.
The difference was not in skill; it was in the orb.
What an Aspect Is
An aspect is the angular relationship between two planets on the chart.
The major aspects are these: the conjunction (0°), the sextile (60°), the square, also called the tension aspect (90°), the trine, also called the flowing aspect (120°), and the opposition (180°) (Source 1).
They are usually divided into two kinds: 60° and 120° are generally read as flowing, mutually supportive relations; 90° and 180° are generally read as relations with tension that need to be worked through; 0° is the power of two planets stacked together, which is both amplification and entanglement.
The Closer the Angle, the Stronger the Effect
Very few planets ever sit exactly on a whole degree, which is why the idea of an orb was introduced: within how many degrees of the exact value does the aspect still count (Source 1).
Note one extra rule: the conjunction usually takes a wider orb than other aspects (Source 1). This is also the place where "does this chart have a conjunction or not" is most likely to produce disagreement.
The orbs used by different astrologers and lineages are not uniform (Source 1). So when you see two readings that contradict each other, the first thing to do is check the orb, not argue about who understands the subject better.
The Order for Reading Aspects
One: first see whether there is an exact aspect. The smaller the deviation, the more clearly it usually reads.
Two: then see which two planets are involved. A square is a square, but two different planets in a square are talking about two entirely different matters.
Three: finally connect it to the houses. The aspect tells you "these two forces are pressing against each other"; the house tells you "in which part of life they are pressing".
A Clumsy Method I Use a Lot
I write out every aspect on the chart in two columns, one line each, headed flowing and tension, and then see which column is longer.
Not to turn it into a score, but to find the angle that most needs dealing with. People are often not stuck by the strongest angle; they are stuck by the one they have never noticed.
An aspect is a relationship between two planets, not a score for each of them. Treating tension as bad and flow as good is the laziest way to read a chart, and the one most likely to go off track.
Tools on this site (for entertainment)
This site offers an entertainment-oriented process: describe your situation clearly → get a method suggestion → read the chart and the interpretation → export the result if you want to keep it. The content is for entertainment and self-reflection only; it promises no prediction and is not decision advice.
This article was last checked on 19 September 2026. Traditional divination has many schools and a long history, and their formulas and versions do not fully agree; the text relies on publicly verifiable sources, and for dates and calendars please refer to the latest official publication.
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Sources
- "Zhan Xing Xiang Wei" (《占星相位》) — Wikipedia entry, including the major aspects and orbs: https://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-cn/占星相位 (accessed 19 September 2026)
- Method page on this site: Western Astrology Chart: https://zhanbumizhi.top/en/methods/astrolabe (accessed 19 September 2026)