I know Lilly stresses orbs but has anyone seen perfection of a matter when the main sigs are applying but are out of orb? For ex. Mercury in Gemini at 2° potentially applying to Saturn in Gemini at 22°. No planets prohibit Mercury, and he meets Saturn at 27° in the ephemeris.
"To know whether it should be considered at all, the orbs of the planets should be added together, and one-half the sum taken...." Chapter 3, CA.
Do we just ignore the aspect then?
For
horary, orbs don't really matter much in
most cases. What matters is that the aspect perfects within the sign both planets are in, despite being a lot of degrees away. If the aspect does not perfect it is a no. I don't really use orbs much myself, but for me they at most imply that the aspect is just a distant event, and not occuring until some time has passed (within the appropiate time frame the event is supposed to happen).
The exceptions are the Luminaries:
- The Moon's orb is derived from its daily speed of 12-13 degrees, and is used to determine whether the Moon is void of course or not, although most astrologers just use aspects cast within the entire movement through the sign to determine if the Moon is really VoC or not.
- The Sun's orb is derived from the concept of its beams and combustion, a debility planets can suffer by conjunction, in which they loose their light and thus can't express their power (and a similar mirror-like effect by opposition for certain planets).
In the case of fixed stars for
horary, in my opinion, the conjunction needs to also happen by degree for it to take effect.
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important*: Let me mention that I'm describing this concepts for horary, not natal or other branches, in which orbs can have certain effects according to certain techniques or schools.