Semi-sextile
Two bodies 30° apart, usually in neighbouring signs: a quiet, easily missed link between two very different functions.
Meaning
A semi-sextile joins two bodies a twelfth of the circle apart, usually in neighbouring signs. Neighbours share nothing: Aries and Taurus differ in element, in modality and in polarity, and yet each sign grows out of the one before it, as Taurus steadies what Aries begins. The semi-sextile holds that closeness without common ground.
Most astrologers give it a narrow orb and modest weight. Some read it as a mild support, two functions that can learn from each other; others as a mild unease, two neighbours who do not quite understand each other. Both agree that it is quiet, and that it is easily missed.
Like its partner the quincunx, at five twelfths of the circle, it asks for adjustment rather than choice, but in a lighter key: a matter of small habits rather than of strain.
In practice
- Many semi-sextiles join the Sun, Mercury and Venus, which never stray far from one another.
- Read a semi-sextile as a footnote to the stronger aspects of the same planets: it adds a shade, seldom a theme.
- A tight one, within a degree, deserves a look: the two functions keep meeting, in small ways, every day.
Origin and history
In the Tetrabiblos (2nd century), Ptolemy calls signs one or five apart inconjunct: no configuration joins them, so neighbouring signs had no aspect in classical astrology. Johannes Kepler, who had added the quintile, the biquintile and the sesquiquadrate, wrote in 1607 that experience also bore out the semi-sextile, although, as he admitted, it had no counterpart in musical harmony (David Juste, 2010). Modern astrology counts it among the minor aspects.
How Ulune calculates it
- The semi-sextile is a minor aspect in Ulune, with an orb of 2°30′, to an angle as well, and 1°30′ in synastry.
- A semi-sextile between signs that are not neighbours, such as 29° Aries to 1° Gemini, is marked out of sign.
- It is not used in the configurations.
Correspondences
| Angle | Part of the circle | Signs apart | Glyph |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30° | one twelfth | one | ⚺ |
Related
- AspectA set angle between two bodies of a chart, measured along the zodiac, that astrology reads as a relationship between what they stand for.
- QuincunxTwo bodies 150° apart, in signs that share neither element nor modality: an awkward link that asks for constant adjustment.
- SextileTwo bodies 60° apart, a sixth of the circle, in signs whose elements suit each other: an opening that rewards initiative.
- Semi-squareTwo bodies 45° apart, half a square: a minor aspect of irritation and restlessness that keeps a matter moving.
- SignOne of the twelve 30° divisions of the zodiac, counted from the March equinox and read as the style in which a planet or point acts.
Sources
- Claudius Ptolemy, Tetrabiblos, c. 150
- David Juste, Musical Theory and Astrological Foundations in Kepler: The Making of the New Aspects, 2010