Sextile
HellenisticRenaissance & early modernModern WesternEditorial synthesisTraditional doctrine
Definition
An aspect of approximately 60 degrees (a sixth of the zodiac circle) between two planets. Traditionally read as an easy, cooperative connection, milder than the trine.
In more depth
The sextile joins positions a sixth of the circle apart: in sign-based reckoning, signs two apart, which alternates the elements in a friendly pairing (fire with air, earth with water). The classical sources include it among the fundamental configurations, with a gentler favourable character than the trine's.[1][2][3]
Because 60 degrees is the smallest of the classical angles, schools typically allow it the tightest orb: one more place where convention, not measurement, decides whether a sextile 'exists' in a given chart.[3]
References
Numbered citations in the text link to the records below; each record links to the full source registry.
- Claudius Ptolemy. Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos, or Quadripartite: Being Four Books of the Influence of the Stars. J. M. Ashmand (translator). W. Foulsham & Co. Ltd, London. 1900. Historical primary source View source record
- William Lilly. Christian Astrology, Modestly Treated of in Three Books. T. Brudenell for J. Partridge & H. Blunden, London. 1647. Historical primary source View source record
- Chris Brennan. Hellenistic Astrology: The Study of Fate and Fortune. Amor Fati Publications. 2017. Modern practitioner interpretation View source record