Trine

Meaning

A trine joins two bodies a third of the circle apart. Their signs are four apart and, as a rule, of the same element: Aries, Leo and Sagittarius for fire; Taurus, Virgo and Capricorn for earth; Gemini, Libra and Aquarius for air; Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces for water. The two bodies share a temperament, and their functions support each other without being asked.

The trine is the aspect of ease. What it joins tends to work smoothly: a talent that seems to have always been there, a combination of qualities that others find natural and pleasant to be around. It is the classic good aspect, called harmonious since Ptolemy.

Ease has its own risk. Because a trine never insists, it can stay a pleasant background rather than become a strength: a gift used without effort is seldom developed, and a chart rich in trines but poor in tension may lack the push that drives growth. A trine gives most when it is put to work on purpose, often with help from a square or an opposition elsewhere in the chart that supplies the push.

Three bodies each in trine with the other two close a triangle in one element, the grand trine.

In practice

• Moon trine Venus: feelings and affection agree. Warmth, tact and an easy charm.
• Mars trine Saturn: drive and discipline in step. Steady effort, and the stamina for long projects.
• Jupiter trine the Midheaven: confidence and generosity flow into public life and work.
• A trine that reaches across the border of a sign, such as 29° Cancer to 1° Sagittarius, joins two elements instead of one: it is an out-of-sign aspect, easy in its degrees but mixed in temperament.

Across traditions

• Indian astrology gives Jupiter special glances at the fifth and ninth signs from its own, both trines, and counts the fifth and ninth houses, with the first, as the trikona houses, among the most favourable of the chart.
• Chinese astrology groups the twelve branches into four triangles, the three harmonies: branches four apart, such as the Monkey, the Rat and the Dragon, combine into one of the five phases. The same triangle, read in another language.

Origin and history

In the Tetrabiblos (2nd century), Ptolemy describes the trine as a triangular distance between two signs, containing one right angle and a third, four signs or 120°, and calls it harmonious, with the sextile, because it joins signs of the same kind. The four triangles of signs, one for each element, are the triplicities of traditional astrology, each with planets of its own as rulers. The word trine comes from the Latin trinus, threefold, while the French trigone keeps the Greek word for a triangle.

How Ulune calculates it

• The orb is 8° between two bodies, and 6° when one of them is an angle (the Ascendant, the Descendant, the Midheaven or the IC). In synastry it is 6°, or 7° when the Sun or the Moon is involved, and never more than 6° to an angle.
• A trine between signs that are not four apart is marked out of sign.
• Trines make three of the configurations Ulune looks for: three bodies each trine the other two form a grand trine; a fourth body opposite one corner and sextile the other two turns it into a kite; two trines and two sextiles around two oppositions make a mystic rectangle.

Correspondences