by Stefan Stenudd

   
   


Sextile Aspects in the Complete Horoscope

Cooperating Inner Forces in Classical Astrology

Sextile in the horoscope.
The creative energy
of things inspiring one another
into pleasant initiatives.


Sextile aspectSextile is the aspect (special angle) where planets or other horoscope points are about 60° apart in the Zodiac circle.


MY ASTROLOGY BOOK

Your Health in Your Horoscope. Book by Stefan Stenudd.

Your Health in Your Horoscope

This book by Stefan Stenudd explains what your horoscope says about your health, according to the old tradition of medical astrology. The book contains a quick introduction to astrology, as well, and instructions on how to read a birth chart in general. Click the image to see the book (and Kindle ebook) at Amazon (paid link).




       The classical astrology meaning of a sextile is that the powers involved cooperate smoothly, so that they encourage and inspire one another. So, both sides of the sextile gain by the aspect between them. This mutual stimulation is usually very creative, on a daily basis.

       The sextile can be regarded as sort of a lesser trine. Where the latter signifies a kind of harmony that does not necessarily lead to concrete results but is present and helpful anyway, the sextile is often evident and leads to intensified activity as well as palpable results.

       It is the weakest of the five major aspects (conjunction, opposition, trine, square, and sextile), but it still enhances the planets involved somewhat, compared to what their importance would be without that aspect. The closer the sextile is to 60°, the stronger the aspect is, and the more it enhances the planets involved.

       In some cases, there can be three or more planets or other points in a sextile, if one or both sides of it has a conjunction. Of course, such a sextile is even more important.


Origin

The origin of the astrological significance of the sextile is from the Zodiac: it is the aspect that connects Zodiac signs of the same charge — positive or negative. Air and fire signs are positive, whereas earth and water signs are negative. It's a charge, not a value. It can be compared to the Chinese concepts yin and yang. The positive signs are outward and upward, but the negative signs are inward and downward. The former are also warm, and the latter cold in their natural state. So forces within signs of the same charge have the same direction, which makes them stimulate one another. Also, there is math in the aspect: the circle's 360° divided by six is 60.


Sextiles in the horoscope.
The Sextiles of the horoscope. Zodiac signs of the same charge (positive or negative) are in Sextile aspects. Air and fire signs are positive, whereas earth and water signs are negative. Also the twelve Houses of the horoscope have sextile aspects, as can be seen in the image.


Keywords

There is no room here to describe all the possible sextiles and how they should be interpreted. Instead, see the keywords for the planets below, and you will probably figure out what their sextiles will signify. Also take into consideration the Zodiac sign each planet is in, which tells you more about the nature of that planet's influence — and even more so the Houses of the planets, which inform you of where in your life the sextile is mainly active. Here are the keywords for the planets and other points that form aspects:

  • Sun   basic drive
  • Moon   longing
  • Mercury   curiosity
  • Venus   affection
  • Mars   aggression
  • Jupiter   luck
  • Saturn   duty
  • Uranus   contemplation
  • Neptune   fantasy
  • Pluto   catharsis
  • Ascendant, AC   attitude
  • Medium Coeli, MC   self-image

       For example, the moon in sextile with Mercury means that your longing and your curiosity cooperate, so that you find it easy to satisfy both — often in the same time and activity. The House of the moon will tell you what you long for the most, and the House of Mercury will tell you what you are the most curious about.

       Here are the twelve Houses, and keywords for what part of life they describe:


1st House   Identity

2nd House   Resources

3rd House   Communication

4th House   Home

5th House   Pastime

6th House   Work

7th House   Partners

8th House   Unknown

9th House   Travel

10th House   Career

11th House   Ideals

12th House   Shortcomings


       So, the 1st House is always in sextile with the 3rd House, since one's personality is what one expresses when presenting oneself to others. The 2nd House is always in sextile to the 4th House, since one's personal resources are often willingly spent on family and home. And so on.

       Also the twelve signs of the Zodiac have natural sextiles, as mentioned and seen on the illustration above.


Native sextiles

Sextiles in a birth chart never change. They show characteristics that you are born with and will keep all through your life. Pay attention to what Houses they are in. That shows in what area of your life the sextiles mostly express themselves.

       Also, consider how long the sextile lasted in the sky, at the time of your birth: Some come and go very quickly, so they are quite personal, whereas others (those of the outer planets) remain for years, so they are shared by a whole generation.


Transit sextiles

Transit sextiles are those formed by the planets up in the sky to the points in your complete horoscope chart. It happens twice during each planet's orbit around the sun — once when approaching the transited planet or point in your horoscope, and once when moving away from it. For example, every year the sun forms two sextile aspects with each of the points in your horoscope, four months apart. For the moon, this is done in just a month. The slowest planet Pluto takes 248 years to complete its orbit, so you may reach old age without experiencing its sextile with all of the points in your horoscope.

       Here are the times it takes for the planets and other points to make one rotation around the Zodiac, in round numbers — from a geocentric perspective, ie. as seen from the earth.

  • Sun   1 year
  • Moon   1 month
  • Mercury   1 year
  • Venus   1 year
  • Mars   2 years
  • Jupiter   12 years
  • Saturn   29 years
  • Uranus   84 years
  • Neptune   165 years
  • Pluto   248 years
  • Ascendant, AC   1 day
  • Medium Coeli, MC   1 day

       The frequency of a transit sextile decides how important it is in your life. So, Pluto causes big and lasting changes, whereas the moon does little more than influence your mood at the moment.


Progressions

Progressions are aspects formed by imaginary movement of the planets and other points in the birth chart. They don't correspond to any actual movement of the planets. Therefore, they should be used with care. But many astrologers regularly consider progressions, so you may want to try it. I rarely do it, which is why I don't present it further here. Transits make much more sense to me.


Orb

Orb is the measure of what angle is to be regarded as an aspect. For transit aspects of any kind, I would not recommend an orb grater than 1°, so that a transit sextile is active when the transiting planet is 59°-61° from the natal point. That usually takes more than a year for Pluto, but no more than about four hours for the moon.

       Be aware that some transit aspects return once or twice, because of the retrograde movements of the planets, as seen from the Earth. So, usually a transit passing is followed by a retrograde passing, and then finished with a third passing when the planet resumes its forward movement. That means the event triggered by the transit tends to announce itself, then seem not to happen, but then finish by happening pretty much as it was originally announced. That's how much in life works, because of this stellar rhythm.

     In the case of aspects in your complete native horoscope chart, orbs vary according to aspects. For the sextile I recommend an orb of about 2°, i.e. from 58°-62°, but most astrologers actually use a slightly bigger orb, some as much as 5°. You can also allow the orb to vary according to what planets are involved, but that should be done moderately.


The Aspects

Here are the major aspects in astrology, with links to the webpage of each:

The Aspects

Conjunction

Opposition

Trine

Square

Sextile

 





OTHER BOOKS OF MINE

Click the image to see the book at Amazon (paid link).

Tarot Unfolded. Book by Stefan Stenudd.

Tarot Unfolded

This book presents an imaginative method of reading the divination cards, which is the most appropriate for the Tarot, since it consists of symbolic images.


Archetypes of Mythology. Book by Stefan Stenudd.

Archetypes of Mythology

Jungian theories on myth and religion examined, from Carl G. Jung to Jordan B. Peterson.


Cosmos of the Ancients. Book by Stefan Stenudd.

Cosmos of the Ancients

All the philosophers of Ancient Greece and what they thought about cosmology, myth, religion and the gods.


Life Energy Encyclopedia. Book by Stefan Stenudd.

Life Energy Encyclopedia

Qi (chi), prana, pneuma, spiritus, and all the other life force concepts around the world explained and compared.



Menu


COMPLETE HOROSCOPE


How to Make Your Own Horoscope


Your Health Horoscope


Sex in Your Horoscope


Zodiac Archetypes


Financial Astrology


Daily Horoscope Guide — What to Expect


Tetrabiblos — the Ancient Astrology Bible



HOROSCOPE BASICS


Zodiac — the "how" of the horoscope


Planets — the "what" of the horoscope


Houses — the "where" of the horoscope


Aspects — the "why" of the horoscope



FAMOUS HOROSCOPES


2024 presidential election horoscope for Kamala Harris


2024 presidential election horoscopes for Donald Trump and Joe Biden


Joe Biden's 2020 presidential election horoscope


Pete Buttigieg's 2020 presidential election horoscope


Donald Trump — impeachment horoscope


Donald Trump — will he resign?


Hillary Clinton


Mike Pence


Barack Obama


Anders Behring Breivik


Michael Jackson


Sarah Palin


Brad Pitt


The USA Horoscope — Finding and Reading It



PREDICTIONS


The USA Pluto return 2022 horoscope


Capitol attack horoscope


Covid-19 coronavirus horoscope


Future of the Internet


The Age of Aquarius


USA 2016 Election


Mundane Pluto — Its Effect on Society


Mundane Neptune — Its Effect on the Arts



MISC


About the Complete Horoscope Website


Disappearing Ascendant — Latitude Effects


The Envelope Chart — Horoscope of the Past


Astrology Links


Astrologi på svenska


Contact


Cookies



ZODIAC SIGNS

The twelve Zodiac signs and what they mean in astrology.

Aries Zodiac Sign

Aries


Taurus Zodiac Sign

Taurus


Gemini Zodiac Sign

Gemini


Cancer Zodiac Sign

Cancer


Leo Zodiac Sign

Leo


Virgo Zodiac Sign

Virgo


Libra Zodiac Sign

Libra


Scorpio Zodiac Sign

Scorpio


Sagittarius Zodiac Sign

Sagittarius


Capricorn Zodiac Sign

Capricorn


Aquarius Zodiac Sign

Aquarius


Pisces Zodiac Sign

Pisces




MY OTHER WEBSITES

Tarot Card Meanings

Tarot Card Meanings. Website by Stefan Stenudd. Try the old Tarot deck of cards with a free online divination. How to use the Tarot and what each card means.



I Ching Online

I Ching Online. Website by Stefan Stenudd. Try the ancient Chinese divination online for free. The 64 hexagrams of I Ching, The Book of Change, and what they mean in divination.



Stefan Stenudd

Stefan Stenudd, Swedish author of fiction and non-fiction.

About me

I'm a Swedish astrologer, author and historian of ideas, researching ancient thought and mythology. My personal website:


© Stefan Stenudd