← Encyclopedia of Astrology · lesson 158/235
Aspect patterns
What a pattern is
Most aspects join two planets. Sometimes three, four or more planets are joined to one another by several aspects at once, and together they make a recognisable shape on the wheel — a triangle, a cross, a rectangle, a kite. These are aspect patterns, or chart configurations. As Dorling Kindersley's Astrology puts it, each represents a complex dynamic: a source of talent and potential with its own inherent challenges.
A pattern is read as a whole. A T-square is more than one opposition and two squares listed separately: the pressure of the opposition gathers at the third planet, the apex, and that is where the figure looks for an outlet. Donna Cunningham makes the pattern the third stage of looking at any chart, after the elements and the angles, because a major configuration tends to organise much of the rest.
The figures
The figures with their own entries, grouped roughly by character:
Tension, and the drive that comes from it
- T-square — an opposition, both ends square a third planet.
- Grand Cross — two oppositions crossing at right angles, four squares.
- Hard Rectangle — two oppositions joined by semi-squares and sesquiquadrates.
- Finger of the World (Thor's Hammer) — a square, both ends sesquiquadrate an apex.
Ease and talent
- Grand Trine — three planets about 120° apart, usually in one element.
- Minor Grand Trine — one trine with a planet sextile both ends.
- Grand Sextile — six planets 60° apart, a rare six-pointed star.
Ease given a direction
- Kite — a Grand Trine with a fourth planet opposite one corner.
- Mystic Rectangle — two oppositions joined by trines and sextiles.
- Cradle — three sextiles chained round an opposition.
Adjustment
Concentration
- Stellium — three or more planets in one sign or one house. A stellium is a matter of position, not of aspects, but it is counted among the configurations because it focuses a chart just as strongly; Steven Forrest calls it "the focalizer".
These are not to be confused with the shapes of the whole chart described by Marc Edmund Jones — the Bowl, Bucket, Locomotive, Splash and others — which describe how all the planets are spread round the wheel rather than how a few are linked.
Larger figures contain smaller ones
Many figures are built out of others. Michael Meyer describes the larger formations as "two or more triadic formations built upon one another". A Grand Cross is four T-squares sharing their oppositions; a Kite is a Grand Trine plus a Minor Grand Trine; a Grand Sextile contains two Grand Trines, three Mystic Rectangles, six Kites and more.
So when a large figure is present, the smaller ones inside it are its parts, not separate findings. Counting them as independent would make six planets look like two dozen configurations. The parts still matter, though: a Grand Trine carries its element, and a Kite built on a fire Grand Trine is a fire Kite. The whole inherits what its parts say.
How patterns are read
The usual questions for any figure:
- Which planets? A T-square with Saturn at the apex reads very differently from one with Venus there.
- Which signs and elements? A Grand Trine in earth is practical talent; in water, emotional and intuitive.
- Which houses? Where in life the figure plays out.
- Where is the focus? The apex of a T-square or Yod, the tail of a Kite, the empty point opposite a T-square's apex — many readings turn on that one place.
- How tight? A figure is only as close as its loosest leg.
Like any part of a chart, a figure inclines a life towards certain experiences and strengths; it does not fix how they will turn out.
How patterns are shown here
The charts here find patterns among the ten planets, using the aspects the chart already lists, so a figure is only as wide as the orbs of its aspects. The section Patterns in Your Chart lists every figure, each with what it is made of, what it means in this chart — which planet stands at the apex, which element or house is concerned — and a strength: how tight its loosest leg is against the 10° the detector allows.
Because larger figures contain smaller ones, the list can be shown at three depths: Main figures only, Show parts to open each figure into the figures inside it, or All. A main figure always names the parts it folds away. On the wheel, the main figures can be drawn as a soft glow behind the aspect lines. Patterns formed by the planets in the sky — in transit and forecasting readings — are shown separately, under Patterns in the Sky, and read in terms of the world rather than of one person.