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Cradle
The shape
A Cradle takes four planets strung along half the zodiac, each about 60° from the next. Three sextiles link them in a chain; the first and last planets, 180° apart, are in opposition; and the planets two steps apart are in trine. Counted among all four, that is three sextiles, two trines and one opposition. Drawn on the wheel it is a bowl or basket hanging from the opposition, which is where its names come from — Cradle, Basket, Half-Hexagon.
A worked example: the Moon at 4° Aries, Venus at 6° Gemini, Jupiter at 5° Leo and Saturn at 3° Libra. Moon–Venus, Venus–Jupiter and Jupiter–Saturn are sextiles; Moon–Jupiter and Venus–Saturn are trines; the Moon opposes Saturn (179°). Every leg must sit within its orb.
A modern name
The Cradle is not a classical figure, and the older works that describe chart configurations do not name it. It is a term from current practice. The geometry, though, is not in doubt: it is exactly the upper half of a Grand Sextile, which Michael Meyer counts among the "perfect formations". Read it with that in mind — as a recognisable shape with a modern label, rather than a figure with a long interpretive tradition behind it.
What it is made of
Two Minor Grand Trines overlap inside it: the first three planets (Moon, Venus, Jupiter in the example) and the last three (Venus, Jupiter, Saturn). Those are parts of the Cradle, not separate findings. Its aspect count sets it apart from the Mystic Rectangle, which uses two of each aspect; a Grand Sextile contains six Cradles.
The focal point
The opposition is the figure's tension, and the two middle planets are its base — the readable heart of it. They sextile one another and trine an end each, so they sit between the opposing pair as a bridge. Current practice reads them as a reservoir of talent and support to draw on when the opposition is under strain.
By element
The four planets usually alternate between two compatible elements — fire and air, or earth and water. In the example the Moon and Jupiter are fire, Venus and Saturn air.
In a chart
A natal Cradle is read as a run of supportive contacts round a single tension. The caution is that the support can cushion the opposition rather than help resolve it, letting it go unaddressed.
In the sky
In the passing sky, a Cradle is short-lived when the Moon is part of it and rare otherwise. A transit can complete one by filling a gap in a natal chain of sextiles.