← Encyclopedia of Astrology · lesson 163/235
Kite
The shape
A Kite takes four planets. Three of them form a Grand Trine. The fourth sits directly opposite one corner of that triangle, in an opposition, and so falls halfway between the other two corners, in a sextile to each. Drawn on the wheel it looks like a kite: the triangle is the sail, and the opposition is the long spine.
A worked example: the Sun at 5° Leo, Jupiter at 8° Sagittarius and the Moon at 3° Aries make a Fire Grand Trine. Venus at 6° Aquarius opposes the Sun (181°) and sextiles Jupiter (58°) and the Moon (57°). Every leg must sit within its orb.
What it is made of
Six contacts among four planets: three trines, two sextiles and one opposition. Inside it are two smaller figures — the Grand Trine itself, and a Minor Grand Trine made by the kite point with the two corners it sextiles (in the example Venus with Jupiter and the Moon). Those are parts of the kite, not separate findings; the kite also inherits the Grand Trine's element, so the example is a Fire Kite. In turn, a Grand Sextile contains six Kites.
The focal point
The planet at the tail of the kite — the one making the opposition — is the kite point, and the corner it opposes is the head. Michael Meyer describes the Kite as one of the most significant of the four-planet figures, because the opposition gives the self-contained Grand Trine something it otherwise lacks: an axis of awareness and a reason to act. The kite point's sign and house show where the talent is meant to be put to work; the opposed corner shows what it is aimed at.
The usual caution is the reverse of the Grand Trine's: here the risk is leaning everything on the kite point and neglecting the rest of the triangle.
By element
A Kite keeps its Grand Trine's element, and its kite point sits in the complementary one — an air planet opposing a fire triangle, a water planet opposing an earth one, and so on. Read the triangle's element first (see the Grand Trine entry), then the kite point's sign as the outlet.
In a chart
A natal Kite is read as talent with a purpose: the ease of the trines, plus enough tension through the opposition to turn it into achievement. Ninoslav Saferic calls it a very benevolent figure that keeps all the gifts of the Grand Trine.
In the sky
Kites form in the passing sky now and then, and a transiting planet can complete one by opposing a corner of a natal Grand Trine — a transit often read as a period when a natural gift is called on.