Conjunction and Opposition

A conjunction is two bodies in the same place, with almost no angle between them. Astrology today reads it as two forces blended and hard to pull apart: with the Sun conjunct Mercury, say, your thinking and you as a person are almost stuck together, and others find it hard to separate what you say from who you are.

What this app does: conjunctions are computed and listed as they are, with an 8-degree orb in a birth chart. This app compares longitude: where each body has reached along the ecliptic, and how many degrees lie between them.

Ask yourself: do the two bodies in a conjunction always show up together in you — feelings riding on every word, say, or a sense of duty the moment you start something? Write the two forces' names side by side and see what kind of you they make together.

What the old texts say: Book I ch. 24 of Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos, “Of Applications and Separations,” says that when two places are not far apart, the one in front is said to apply to the one behind, and the one behind to separate — whether by bodily conjunction or through one of the traditional aspects. The text adds a detail: for a bodily conjunction, look at latitude too and count only passages on the same side of the ecliptic; for aspects that is not needed, because the rays all meet at the centre of the earth.

Astrology today often reads an opposition as wanting both sides and struggling to have them at once. A more useful question than “conflict” is: do these two forces tend to take turns rather than show up together?

The two bodies in an opposition sit in signs directly across the chart from each other, such as Aries and Libra, or Cancer and Capricorn. The usual reading is one side looking after yourself and the other after others, or one after home and the other after work. When you read it, put the weight on how the two forces share the space and take turns, finding balance like a seesaw.

What the old texts say: Book I ch. 13 gives opposition two right angles, six signs and 180 degrees, and says it is the most obvious because the two places lie on one straight line. The same chapter puts it among the ones that are not harmonious, because it joins signs of different kinds.

This is especially useful for transits: two degrees before and two degrees after do not feel the same. The transit reports in this app mark the phase: whether the moving body is still closing in on the exact angle or has already passed it.

A birth chart is one still photo of the angles at the moment of birth. In a birth chart, note drawing near or moving away as part of that moment; what actually moves and passes through phases is the transits.

What the old texts say: the point of Book I ch. 24 is direction — when two places are not far apart, the one in front applies and the one behind separates. So the old text already tells drawing near from having passed.