The History of Aspects in Western Astrology

In episode 323 astrologers Chris Brennan and Claire Moon discuss the five major aspects in astrology, and explain what they mean in a birth chart. Aspects are geometrical configurations which denote different types of relationships between planets, and they are the primary means through which planets interact with each other in a chart. The five major aspects, also sometimes known as the Ptolemaic aspects, are the conjunction, opposition, trine, square, and sextile. During the course of the episode we give an introduction to the topic of aspects and then get into what each of the them mean symbolically. This episode is available in both audio and video versions below. Timestamps Here are some timestamps for topics covered at different points in the episode: 00:00:00 Intro 00:00:59 New Introduction to Astrology course 00:01:52 Intro to aspects 00:04:13 Conjunction 00:09:49 Orbs 00:14:23 History of aspects 00:15:19 The 5 major aspects 00:21:01 Sign-based aspects 00:32:40 Aversions 00:37:13 Degree-based aspects 00:39:50 Applying vs. separating aspects 00:50:06 Orbs for aspects 00:51:34 The meaning of aspects 00:51:55 Porphyry on bearing testimony 00:54:56 Basic nature of the aspects 01:00:48 Hard aspects: square and opposition 01:05:55 Conjunctions 01:10:53 Oppositions 01:11:48 Houses and oppositions 01:19:56 Elemental qualities and oppositions 01:20:33 Full Moon and New Moon 01:30:49 Squares 01:33:30 Left side and right side aspects 01:36:44 Interpreting squares 01:44:00 Trines 01:49:39 Sextiles 01:54:02 Aspects in the birth chart 01:54:30 Aspects from transits to the birth chart 01:55:41 George Lucas natal chart 02:03:50 Aspects in synastry 02:08:57 Aspects in mundane astrology 02:15:24 Archetypal Explorer 02:18:40 Aspect patterns 02:25:38 Introduction to Astrology course launch in November 02:25:50 Hellenistic Astrology book 02:26:22 Hellenistic Astrology course 02:26:38 Claire's offerings and website 02:27:49 Concluding remarks Watch the Video Version of This Episode on Aspects Watch the video version of our discussion on the major aspects here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chPfPqwFnrw - Transcript A full transcript of this episode is available: Episode 323 transcript Listen to the Audio Version of This Episode You can either play the audio version of this episode of the podcast directly from the website or download it as an MP3 to your device by using the buttons below: