← Encyclopedia of Astrology · lesson 169/235
Minor Grand Trine
The shape
A Minor Grand Trine takes three planets. Two of them are in a trine, about 120° apart, and the third sits halfway between them, in a sextile to each. Drawn on the wheel it is a flat triangle, smaller than a Grand Trine — which is why it is also called the Little Grand Trine. Counted among the three planets, that is one trine and two sextiles exactly.
A worked example: the Moon at 2° Cancer trines Neptune at 4° Scorpio (122°), and Venus at 3° Virgo sextiles both (61° each). Every leg must sit within its orb.
What it is made of
One trine and two sextiles, all harmonious. It is the smallest of the trine figures, and a part of several larger ones: every Kite contains one, two overlap inside a Cradle, and a Grand Sextile holds six. When it is part of a larger figure, the chart shows it inside that figure rather than as a separate finding.
The apex
The planet between the trine's ends — Venus in the example — is the apex. The trine on its own is latent ability; the sextiles ask for a little effort, and that effort, made through the apex, is what turns the ability into something actually produced. The apex planet's sign and house show where the talent finds its outlet.
By element
The trine's two ends share an element, and that element carries most of the meaning, as it does for a Grand Trine. The apex sits in a compatible element (earth for a water trine, as in the example; air for a fire trine, and so on):
- Fire — confidence and initiative with somewhere to go: enthusiasm turned into something started.
- Earth — practical capability with an outlet: work done, things made, matters handled.
- Air — ideas that find an audience: thinking that gets said, taught or written.
- Water — feeling and intuition given a channel, offered to others rather than only absorbed.
In a chart
A natal Minor Grand Trine is common and modest in reach, but often more productive than a full Grand Trine, because the sextiles invite use. If the apex planet is neglected, the talent tends to stay potential.
In the sky
It forms often in the passing sky, especially when the Moon is involved. A transiting planet can also take the apex position over a natal trine for a few days, a small transit of ease and opportunity.