At what degree of orbit are aspects to be ignored?

[Aqualad]

Hey what's up folks, I came to this question after comparing two synastry reports, one by CafeAstrology and one by e-Tarocchi seen here http://www.e-tarocchi.com/Astrology-...lity/index.php

Now I was a bit puzzled at first since the Tarocchi report was giving us aspects that I had seen nowhere else, as well as the aspects I had seen everywhere else. Then I looked a bit closer and saw that the new aspects actually had a wide orbit like Mars conjunct Jupiter at 08°39' or Venus conjunct Jupiter at 06°15' .

Do the above aspects mean anything or are their influences so subtle and so small that they could have hardly have been said to occur at all?

[miquar]

Hi Aqualad. Personally, I'd ignore them when looking for the main themes in the synastry, but then keep the Venus Jupiter in mind as a possible influence. With the Mars Jupiter contact, if they are in the same sign you could just note that affinity by sign, and leave it at that, but if in different signs I'd just ignore it altogether.

[Claire19]

Originally Posted by Aqualad

Hey what's up folks, I came to this question after comparing two synastry reports, one by CafeAstrology and one by e-Tarocchi seen here http://www.e-tarocchi.com/Astrology-...lity/index.php

Now I was a bit puzzled at first since the Tarocchi report was giving us aspects that I had seen nowhere else, as well as the aspects I had seen everywhere else. Then I looked a bit closer and saw that the new aspects actually had a wide orbit like Mars conjunct Jupiter at 08°39' or Venus conjunct Jupiter at 06°15' .

Do the above aspects mean anything or are their influences so subtle and so small that they could have hardly have been said to occur at all?

This is a question much argued but in my experience no more than 6 degrees for any planets other than the Sun or Moon. Mars conjunct Jupiter at 8 degrees is too wide especially as the aspect represents closeness. THe influence would be weak at best even if one of the planets is the ruling planet of the chart.

I dont know about the Tarocchi report but it is using way too wide an orb.

[Aqualad]

Thanks very much guys!

[Zaphod]

Aspect orbs will always make for a fascinating topic of discussion. When I first started out (MANY solar returns ago ) I used very wide orbs for major aspects, although always considerably less for minor ones. As I progressed I tightened my orbs so that now anything over 5 degrees on a significant conjunction, opposition or square (such as one to the chart angles, Sun or Moon) gives me pause (I'm much happier with 3 degree orbs, especially for trines and sextiles), and anything over 1-1/2 degrees on a minor aspect even more so. There is also something to be said for different orbs for applying (strengthening) and separating (weakening) aspects. At a Rob Hand lecture back in 1985 he said that, for wide conjunctions in the 5-to-10 degree range, it is probably more effective to consider the mid-point between the planets as the key sensitive point rather than the individual planets, and that "indirect" aspects (that is, non-conjunctions) seem to work for this as well. This seems to make a lot of sense.

It appears to me that the orbs you cited are well outside my comfort zone.