StarVega I am not completely sure about the 8th harmonic; some astrologers claim them to have a very strong effect in progressions; inlcuding Dawn Bodrogi who wrote "Do you consider a semi-square a major aspect? I do. I’ve seen it do powerful things, particularly in progression. Watch out if you have a planet at the midpoint of a square—that planet will make your square implode by creating two semi-squares from inside it. It’s as if the square swallowed a stick of dynamite, like in the cartoons. Do people pay attention to the semi-square? Not much. At their peril. I use sesquiquadrates, too. They behave like a square, only more nervous, and are more likely to get set off at random, sometimes ‘behaving,’ sometimes not. Unlike the square, which eventually brings solutions through practical experience, the semi-squares and sesquidradrates often point to issues, problems and energies that are irresolvable, and that we must learn to live with and cope with. Where the cousins of the four are concerned, we may never find rest."
theinnerwheel.com/2010/03/27/breathing-refined-air-the-esoteric-aspects/But actually that was not why I was using it, but because the semisquare and sesisquare are parts of the lunar cycle, we tend to neglect them, but the lunar cycle does consist of 8 phases, not 4.
I was writing and doing some reasearch on this on LL, here
"Astrology traditionally is a system of symbolism and analogies AND derives meanings from observation, especially of the solar and lunar cycles.
Now I know that other systems have been developed, but I just wanted to share this perspective.
There are eight Moon phases:
New Moon
Waxing crescent
First quarter
Waxing gibbuous
Full
Waning gibbuous
Third quarter
Waning crescent
(new)
These eight moonphases relate to the aspects of:
Conjunction
00° (New Moon)
Semisquare
45° (waxing and waning crescent)
Square
90° (waxing and waning quarter)
Sesisquare
135° (waxing and waning gibbuous)
These aspects mark the beginning of each Moon phase.
Each Moonphase also relates to a solar festival.
00 degree Aries is the beginning of the zodiac, the point of reference in astrological tradition (in Babylonian astrology the axis of reference was the opposition between the fixed stars Antares and Aldebaran, which were on 15 Scorpio and Taurus respectively at that time).
This is definitely true for Western astrology and especially the Northern hemisphere. I am not sure how Australians handle it.
The 00 Aries relate to the Spring equinox (and since 00 Aries is the exact reference point of the zodiac through the seasons, it is related to the aspect of conjunction, and therefore the New Moon).
00 Libra relate to the Autumn equinox (aspect of opposition, and full Moon, always in reference to 00 Aries)
00 Cancer relates to the Summer solstice (a waxing square or quarter Moon is symbolic of this)
00 Capricorn relates to the winter solstice (a waning square or third quarter Moon)
These are the four main markposts within the year; they are also so important, because on the soltices and equinoxes, the Sun changes direction in the declinations, thus these four points represent turning points throughout the year.
There are four other solar festivals, and they mark the midpoint between these four main festivals.
These relate to the aspects of semisquare and sesisquare, or crescent and gibbuous Moon.
As I said these aspects, which we usually consider dynamic aspects, coincide with the BEGINNING of each phase of the Moon, indicating an influx of incoming energy, but in the case of the semisquare and sesisquare they are not turning points.
However all the dynamic aspects are guaranteed to call for attention, to make people look up, indicate a peak in energy (or stations on the way to the final peak).
The harmonious aspects, sextile and trine, and also the slightly uncomfortable semisextile and quincunx, do not relate to any of these turning points during the year. There are also no festivals held at the moment of these aspects perfecting (always the relation of the way of the Sun in reference to the Aries point).
However they are located in between the way from one phase to another. I believe that they represent the smooth phases in between, those phases where you can take a deep breath, relax and just enjoy the smooth flow. However they are so fluid, that they will not call to attention; they will just be there, and comfortable and flowing. They will promote harmony, but they will not make anything happen. (unless they are part of a pattern of at least three planets closing a circuit with each other – and I am talking tight orbs here).
However they are areas of release.
The big release aspects are:
Sextile: 60° and 300°
between New Moon and first quarter Moon; third quarter and New Moon.
Trine: 120° and 240°
between first quarter Moon and Full Moon, and Fullmon and third quarter Moon
So, the four Turning point aspects of conjunction, opposition, and square (waxin and waning), have four Release point aspectsin the form of Sextile and Trine (there are always 2 of these).
In the case of the minor energy peak aspects (two semisquares, two sesisquare), we find the equivalent of the minor aspects quincunx and semisextile
(the relation of harmonious to dynamic does not seem to be as present here, as it was in the major aspcts).
To summarize the relationship between moonphases, solar festivals and phasal relationships of aspects:
waxing cycle:
-------------
New Moon: Spring equinox
conjunction 00°
Semisextile 30°
Crescent Moon: Beltane semisquare 45°
Sextile 60°
First quarter Moon:Midsummer square 90°
Trine 120°
Gibbuous Moon Lammas
sesisquare 135°
Quincunx 150°
Full Moon:Autumn equinox
opposition 180°
Waning cycle
--------------
Full Moon:Autumn equinox
opposition 180°
Quincunx 210°
Gibbuous Moon Samhain (Halloween) sesisquare 225°
Trine 240°
Third Quarter Moon Yule/ Winter Solstice square 270°
Sextile 300°
(de)crescent Moon: Imbolc semisquare 315°
Semisextile 330°
New Moon Spring Equinox
conjunction 360°/ 00°
Since these are entirely related to the relationship between Sun, Moon and Earth, I suppose that if there is a fullmoon or New moon happening on the dates of the solar festivals, the influx of energy might be more prominent than on years when such does not happen."
www.linda-goodman.com/ubb/Forum24/HTML/219137.htmlThe semisquare and sesisquare seem to be very strong, if they come with what Dawn described, the square, with a third planet either semimsquare the squaring planets, or another planet sesisquare the square-points (this is known as Fist of God or Thor`s hammer, and I have this configuration in my natal chart with Chiron square Vertex as base, and both ends sesisquare my Mars - the analysis I got from darkstar astrology pointed that out to me, it was really something new. lol)
Blashke also mentioned these aspect configurations in his relationship book, but in the section where he was musing about how to deal with shadow content in relationships.
I think in these instances the semisequares/ sesisquares might be stronger though than just a single isolated one, because they come with midpoint pictures, the semisquaring/ sesisquaring planet becoming the focal planet of a midpoint-picture.
As for progressed composites, I just noticed that my brother and his soon to be wife had the progressed sesisquare when they first got together. In their case this happened because he was having a progressed full moon (opposition) and she was having a progressed quarter Moon (square) at the time.
my parents had the sesisquare in their progressed composite when they got married .
However I don`t think it is a particularly good thing to have a sesisquare in the basic composite, it`s not as strongly attentionseeking as its big brother the square, but there is some sort of conflict-potential there, esp. in an isolated sesisquare; usually this happens between luminaries in the same element, yet there is this minor tension aspect. It`s like things are looking so good or you can just see how good you should be together, but something underneath is just keep on nagging you about how it is not as good as it should be, not really.
It might be different if there was an aspect figure as I mentioned involved, cause then you can pour the energy of all the planets through one end, it has somewhere to go.
An isolated sesisquare I am not sure.
In progressions/transits it might simply be activating, or making you feel like you should do something, get active in a way (though you might not know how exactly), but not as strongly as the square, which is a crisis point, meaning that when you have the square, you have to make a decision, which road to take. That is I think why the square also comes up often when new relationships start and some relationships fall apart, you just cannot go on in the old rut, but have to decide what to do with this relationship, where to direct it to.
BTW hilariously P`s and my pr composite had the sesisquare at the time of the first fanmeeting. loln(and then a few months later, with him acting so weirdly by seemingly observing me from outside that cafe window our pr composite Moon had just passed pr composite IC and was exactly oppoing our natal composite Sun, and obviously conjunct HIS n IC and opposing this whole synastric stellium in our chart).
But anyway the progressed composite sesisquare from the 1st fanmeeting was happening cause I just had a progressed fullmoon some months before, starting this new lunar phase for me (which is of course still ongoing but nearing its end, which it will probably reach on HIS DESC and Saturn. lol), he on the other hand was approaching a new phase with an applying waxing quarter Moon, so a square, which for him happened a few months later. The progressed composite of course pinpointed the middle of that timeframe for both of us.
At that time pr composite Moon was also applying to square pr composite DESC, which means there was a Fist of God or Thor`s hammer to the pr composite Sun, which resulted in the direct midpoint of Sun = Moon/DESC, which had come just under 1 degree orb.
other midpoints that were "due" this month were:
Moon conjunct Jupiter/IC s
Moon square Saturn/Node s
Moon opposite Neptune/MC - well it WAS weird. lol a
Saturn conjunct Moon/Node a
Neptune oppopsite Moon/Jupiter s
#
(Node square Moon/Saturn 1°04 it was wide, but there were THREE midpoint pictures putting Moon-Saturn-Node together, which is interesting as this day there was a Moon-Saturn-conjunction in the sky. lol also planetdance which I use to look those up uses mean node, but the true Node had still been under 1 degree though separating)
ASC conjunct Moon/MC a
And for those, building the timebackground of approximately 6 months before and after (relating to an orb of 0°30 for Sun, node, ASC, MC and also Mercury, Venus).
Mercury opposite Jupiter/Pluto s
Venus conjunct Uranus/IC a
Venus conjunct MErcury/ASC
Mars square Sun/Mercury s
Jupiter square Venus/ASC 0°35 a
(Saturn opposite Sun/Venus 0°51 - very clearly had been on the fading out way)
Saturn conjunct Pluto(IC a
Neptune conjunct Mercury/Node s
Pluto square Mercury/Neptune s
Chiron opposite Uranus/Pluto - of course these are extremely slow, being just at 8 minutes of orb, and separating, but it is ejntirely possible that this one was exact years ago. lol
ASC conjunct Mercury / Chiron
ASC square Sun/Mars s
MC conjunct Venus / Pluto a
MC conjunct Sun/Uranus a
- no wonder the next year was a bit crazy. lol
