Angular Aspects

[sotonye]

In a natal, what difference if any would there be between a close (1°), hard aspect, say, between the Sun and Mars, and the same aspect configured on the angles? Would an individual with the angular aspect be more outwardly martial? Are there any quantitative (or qualitative) differences between aspects that are and are not angular? Are they indistinguishable?

[Jim Eshelman]

In a natal, what difference if any would there be between a close (1°), hard aspect, say, between the Sun and Mars, and the same aspect configured on the angles? Would an individual with the angular aspect be more outwardly martial? Are there any quantitative (or qualitative) differences between aspects that are and are not angular? Are they indistinguishable?

Look up the individual interpretations and compare them.

Aggressive, competitive, challenging, needs to win (combative, quarrelsome). Seeks to test & prove self by contest (e.g., competitively, verbally, mentally, sexually). Courage (physical & moral; may disregard safety). Dominates & controls others. Physical, needs to expend energy; needs physical & psychological elbowroom. Sexually aggressive, needs frequent satisfaction. Business leadership & competitive excellence.

Action, drive, accomplishment, vitality, courage. Restless, forthright, direct (perhaps hasty, impatient, temperamental, low frustration tolerance). Strong physical aggression (for business, sex, etc.). Industrious, instinctively leads or commands, thus often promoted.

Active & reactive, temperamental, thinks & acts rapidly. Detests idleness, rarely still. Driven, competent, ambitious. Impatient, acerbic, irritable. Too frank & sharp-tongued (hence friction in close relationships). Needs physical, emotional, & mental “room to breathe” (little domestic instinct). Substance abuse not uncommon. Sexual needs strong, almost irrepressible.

Since, I think, you want this reduced to theory, I'll summarize it this way:

Mars represents our power needs, a heading under which psychologists group aggression, dominance, controlling others, opposition, independence, and defense. It expresses energy especially in an ego-fortifying, aggressive, dominating way.

Mars on an angle means that these power needs have the easiest expression - that they are more pronounced in the character than needs associated with less-angular planets.

Mars aspecting Sun means that the power needs are interactive with and ultimately fused with the ego, one's sense of being a distinctive somebody, and a critical part of that person's path to individuation (being a distinctive somebody AND having all the components of the psyche fitting together in their right relationships).

Mars aspecting Moon means that the power needs are interactive with and ultimately fused with our psychological and physical mechanisms of adaptation and response (instincts, plasticity, and adaptation to physical, social, and psychological habitats).

[sotonye]

I understand the difference between a planet aspecting a luminary and a planet being angular, but I’m wondering about how angularity affects aspects. In your recent solunar course pdf, you mention that aspects are especially expressive when also angular, and I’m wondering if something like this is true in the natal and what that might look like

[Jim Eshelman]

I understand the difference between a planet aspecting a luminary and a planet being angular, but I’m wondering about how angularity affects aspects. In your recent solunar course pdf, you mention that aspects are especially expressive when also angular, and I’m wondering if something like this is true in the natal and what that might look like

Oh, I see. That's the question.

Here are the two things to keep in mind: The orb of the aspect determines the strength of the psychological drive. The angularity of the planets determines the expressiveness. Leaving aside, for a moment, all the gradients and subtleties of mid-strength, etc., we roughly have four situations (and lots of subtleties between):

A strong psychological drive that is readily expressed.
A strong psychological drive that is blocked from ready expression.
A week psychological drive that, nonetheless, is readily expressed.
A week psychological drive that also is blocked from ready expression.

Now, forget astrology for a moment. Just think about those four options, based on what you know of human psychology, and ask yourself how each of them works out in real life, what the secondary considerations and expressions are, etc.

Think, for example, about the fact that (based on observation) a majority of serious health problems are shown in the birth chart by strong, dynamic aspects in the immediate background. Is it obvious to you why this is so?

[sotonye]

Here are the two things to keep in mind: The orb of the aspect determines the strength of the psychological drive. The angularity of the planets determines the expressiveness. Leaving aside, for a moment, all the gradients and subtleties of mid-strength, etc., we roughly have four situations (and lots of subtleties between):

A strong psychological drive that is readily expressed.
A strong psychological drive that is blocked from ready expression.
A week psychological drive that, nonetheless, is readily expressed.
A week psychological drive that also is blocked from ready expression.

Thank you Mr. E this answers my question

Now, forget astrology for a moment. Just think about those four options, based on what you know of human psychology, and ask yourself how each of them works out in real life, what the secondary considerations and expressions are, etc.

Think, for example, about the fact that (based on observation) a majority of serious health problems are shown in the birth chart by strong, dynamic aspects in the immediate background. Is it obvious to you why this is so?

Yes this makes sense, if the foreground represents easy expression, a close, dynamic aspect formed in the background will express itself too, just not so easily. The fact that a health issue develops in these cases sounds like all expression is stunted in general and not only in the respective symbolic domain of the planets involved and their signs, is this the case? If it is, it helps me understand the inverse—it makes me think that close, hard aspects in the foreground tend to define the life of the individual in the same way a health problem might