What is an aspect in astrology?

The angle between two planets in a chart. It decides whether those two energies cooperate, compete or merge.

What are the five major aspects?

Conjunction (0°), sextile (60°), square (90°), trine (120°) and opposition (180°).

Which aspects are good and which are bad?

None are simply good or bad. Trines and sextiles flow easily, squares and oppositions create useful tension, and the conjunction intensifies whatever it touches. Each has a gift and a cost.

The allowance around an exact angle within which an aspect still counts. The tighter the orb, the stronger the aspect.

Astrology

The Major Aspects

Conjunction, sextile, square, trine, opposition: an aspect is the angle between two points in a chart, and it decides whether those energies cooperate, compete, or amplify each other. This is where a chart's real story lives.

How the major aspects work

An aspect is the angle between two planets, measured around the 360-degree circle of the chart, and it sets the tone of how those two parts of you get along. The five major aspects are the conjunction (0°), the sextile (60°), the square (90°), the trine (120°) and the opposition (180°).

Soft aspects, the sextile and trine, let two energies flow together easily. Hard aspects, the square and opposition, create the friction that pushes for growth. The conjunction simply fuses two planets into one voice. Most charts hold a mix, and that mix is where a personality actually gets interesting.

Aspects matter even more between two charts. In synastry, the angles your planets make to someone else's reveal where you click and where you grate.

Frequently asked

Reviewed 2026-06-22 · noscere Editorial