Shares — our measurement for every day of 1950–2010 from the NASA ephemeris, with the same orbs as in the chart calculation.
What an opposition means
What sets an opposition apart from a square is that the sides don’t brake each other but take turns: a week of nothing but work — a week of nothing but home. Tradition adds that an opposition is often lived through people: someone close plays the other side.
How to read an opposition in your chart
The meaning of an aspect comes from the two planets. In the calculation each planet has one side noticeable in a person: Sun — self-regard; Moon — mood; Mercury — thoughts and words; Venus — likes and taste; Mars — anger and drive; Jupiter — reach and generosity; Saturn — self-control and sense of duty; Uranus — an urge for change; Neptune — dreaminess; Pluto — a need for control.
On the chart screen an opposition reads like this: “in you they swing like a pendulum — first one outweighs, then the other.” Not about you — if the two sides are in steady balance.
For example: Sun and Moon in opposition means being born at a full moon: self-regard and mood pull in different directions — one moment you want to be seen, the next to hide.
The smaller the orb — the distance to the exact angle — the stronger the aspect by tradition; on the chart screen the aspects go from the most exact.
When an opposition marks the year, not the person
The slow planets stay in the same aspect for months and years, and such an aspect is found in most people born in the same half-year. On the chart screen the aspects of Uranus, Neptune and Pluto with each other are marked as generational, without an interpretation of character, and for the rest it says how many peers have them.
- Saturn — Neptune — in 6 out of 10 peersJuly 1970 — March 1973, with breaks; September 2005 — May 2008, with breaks
- Saturn — Pluto — in 6 out of 10 peersMay 1964 — February 1967, with breaks; June 2001 — May 2003, with breaks
- Saturn — Uranus — in 5 out of 10 peersMarch 1964 — January 1968, with breaks; November 2007 — September 2010, with breaks
“In 9 out of 10” — how many of those born within half a year before and after a person with this aspect also have it. Dates — when the angle held within the orb, 1950–2010.
How to check it on yourself
Each statement below may turn out to be false about you — that’s how it’s written. The aspects of your chart are on the chart screen: each has its orb there. Write your answer down before you compare it with the interpretation.
If your chart has an opposition of two personal planets — the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus or Mars — with an orb of up to 3°
What should match. Recall the last three months: there were stretches when one side took over, and then the other. There are at least two such turns.
When it’s not about you. Both sides are always in steady balance — this opposition isn’t about you.
If your chart has more than one aspect of this kind
What should match. Take the most exact one (the smallest orb) and the widest one. For a week, note which of the two pairs of sides made itself felt more. By tradition — the exact one.
When it’s not about you. More often the wide one was more noticeable — ordering by orb doesn’t work for you, and it’s worth reading aspects without looking at the orb.
All five aspects — on the general page. How we check the rest — the site’s method.