Square
HellenisticRenaissance & early modernModern WesternEditorial synthesisTraditional doctrine
Definition
An aspect of approximately 90 degrees (a quarter of the zodiac circle) between two planets. Traditionally read as friction or productive tension between the planets' significations.
Also called: Quartile (older usage)
In more depth
The square (Latin quartile) connects positions a quarter-circle apart, classically linking signs of the same modality. The configuration appears among the fundamental 'regards' of the Hellenistic sources, and manuals from Ptolemy to Lilly transmit its traditionally challenging character.[1][2][3]
Modern practice often reframes the square's tension as developmental: friction that motivates. That is a modern interpretive reading, labelled as such here; the angle itself is plain geometry.[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