Meaning
A conjunction is no angle at all: two bodies in the same place, or within the orb of it. The tradition reads them as blended, their natures acting together, with the sign and house they share colouring both. Every school since the Hellenistic writers counts it as the first and strongest contact.
Ptolemy's chapter on the configurations, in Ashmand's translation of 1822, lists the four distances that divide the circle, the opposition, trine, quartile and sextile, and not the conjunction, though his later chapters use it. Calling the five major aspects "Ptolemaic" records his authority in the later tradition; the aspects themselves were in use before him.
Whether a conjunction is easy or hard has no single answer: it depends on what meets. Venus with Jupiter is read very differently from Mars with Saturn. That is why our chart draws no line for a conjunction, which shows by closeness.
Our orbs
We allow 10° when the Sun or Moon is one of the pair and 8° otherwise, and half that, 5° and 4°, when the other body is Chiron, the North Node, the Ascendant or the Midheaven; the points never take aspects from one another. An aspect within a quarter of a degree is marked exact. A conjunction can cross a sign boundary, a body at 29° of one sign meeting one at 2° of the next, and we count it all the same, by degrees.
Other schools
astro.com's default gives every pair 10°; its classical style scales the orb by planet, as Lilly did. CHANI counts aspects by whole sign, so for it two bodies in the same sign are conjunct whatever their degrees. Jyotisha has no aspect of this kind: two grahas in one sign are said to be together, and its aspects, drishti, are cast by sign.
Correspondences
Each item with how it stands: “sourced” is in the work cited, “our construction” is EsoTerrier’s own, and “disputed” means the sources disagree.
- Angle (Ptolemy)
- 0°; his chapter on the configurations does not list it sourced
- Class (Ptolemy, in Ashmand)
- not listed among the configurations sourced
- Modern class
- neutral, depends on the bodies sourced
- Invented by Ptolemy
- No: in use before him; "Ptolemaic" records his later authority disputed
- One standard orb
- No: orbs differ by school disputed
- Our orbs
- 10° with the Sun or Moon, 8° otherwise, half to the points our construction
How the schools read it
- Ptolemy (2nd century CE)
- Not among the four configurations of his chapter, though his later chapters use it.
- astro.com default
- 10° for every pair, points at half.
- astro.com classical style
- Orbs by planet: luminaries 9°, Mercury, Venus and Mars 7°, the outer planets 5°.
- CHANI
- Aspects counted by whole sign, not by degree.
- Kepler (1619)
- Built the aspects on harmonic ratios and added the quintile, biquintile and sesquiquadrate.
- Jyotisha
- No aspects by degree: each graha aspects the seventh sign from it, and Mars, Jupiter and Saturn further signs.
- EsoTerrier
- 10° with a luminary, 8° otherwise; applying or separating; called by its bodies.
Claims about it
-
Ptolemy invented the five major aspects, which is why they are called Ptolemaic.
disputedWhat the record shows: He lists the configurations, but the aspects were in use before him and Valens uses them without crediting him; "Ptolemaic" records his later authority, not an invention.
-
One set of orbs, such as 10° for every aspect, is the standard.
disputedWhat the record shows: Orbs differ by school: Lilly gave each planet its own; astro.com's default is a flat 10°, 6° for the sextile; others scale by planet; CHANI counts by sign. Ours are printed with every chart.
