Is an opposition a bad aspect?

Tradition groups it with the square as hard, and it is effortful. It differs from the square in being a straight line the person can stand at either end of, and the two signs involved are opposites that complete each other, so an opposition walked from both ends is among the more workable hard aspects. The difficulty is the swing, and the habit of seeing the far end in someone else.

How many degrees is an opposition?

180, half the circle, which puts the pair six signs apart and, as a rule, in opposite signs. In a birth chart here the orb is 8 degrees, 3 when a slow planet transits, and 7 for the Moon on the day. A full Moon is a Sun-Moon opposition at the moment the orb reaches zero.

What does it mean to be born on a full Moon?

That the Sun and Moon were in opposition at the birth: the person's purpose and the person's need for safety stand at opposite ends of the chart. The person often meets the Moon's end in a partner first, and the swing between a public aim and a private need recurs. By the arithmetic of the orb, about one birth in twenty-two falls within 8 degrees of it.

Astrology basics · The five aspects

What an opposition means in astrology: planets 180 degrees apart

An opposition is two planets on opposite sides of the zodiac, 180 degrees apart, and usually in opposite signs. When one rises the other sets; a full Moon is the Moon opposing the Sun. Tradition calls it a hard aspect. In a chart the person sees one end of it in other people first, and swings between the two ends over time.

Exact angle: 180 degrees
Natal orb: 8 degrees
Transit orb: 3 degrees
Daily orb: The Moon 7 degrees, the fast planets 1
Hard or soft: Hard

Opposite points of the sky

The zodiac is a circle of 360 degrees, and two planets at opposite points of it, 180 apart, are in opposition: six signs apart and, unless the orb carries one of them over a sign boundary, in signs that pair off as opposites, Aries with Libra, Taurus with Scorpio. The full Moon is its landmark in the sky, since the Moon is full when it opposes the Sun. The orb, the tolerance around the exact figure, is 8 degrees in a natal chart here, which matches the conjunction and is wider than the rest.

Seen in someone else first

Two planets in opposition face each other across the chart, and the person stands with one of them. The other end gets met in other people: the partner, the boss, the opponent, who seems to carry the quality the person does not own. Then the ground shifts and the person is at the other end, meeting the first in someone else. The aspect is a swing between two ends that are both in the chart, and the other people are standing in.

Two oppositions across a table

Sun opposite Moon, the person born at a full Moon: what they are for and what makes them feel safe pull in opposite directions. They take the promotion with the travel, and six weeks in they are in a hotel bar saying their partner never wants to go anywhere. Venus opposite Mars: what draws them, and how they pursue it. They are drawn to the one who makes the first move, then resent being pursued, then make the move themselves on someone who holds back. At each stage the other person is the problem, and the chart says otherwise.

An opposition from a transiting planet

In transit, an opposition is a moving planet 180 degrees across from a natal planet, read within 3 degrees for a slow mover, as the square and conjunction are. Saturn supplies the example everyone of an age has had: its opposition to its own natal place, halfway round a cycle of about twenty-nine years, comes at about fourteen and again in the mid-forties, and each time the 3-degree window holds for a few months per pass, with retrograde returns spread across about a year.

A transiting opposition puts the moving function across the table from the natal one, and the person tends to meet it as somebody: the Moon opposite a natal Mars for a day, and the driver who cut in is the whole morning's mood.

See Opposition in your own chartA free birth chart, with the reading, from your date, time and place.

Questions

Is an opposition a bad aspect?: Tradition groups it with the square as hard, and it is effortful. It differs from the square in being a straight line the person can stand at either end of, and the two signs involved are opposites that complete each other, so an opposition walked from both ends is among the more workable hard aspects. The difficulty is the swing, and the habit of seeing the far end in someone else.
How many degrees is an opposition?: 180, half the circle, which puts the pair six signs apart and, as a rule, in opposite signs. In a birth chart here the orb is 8 degrees, 3 when a slow planet transits, and 7 for the Moon on the day. A full Moon is a Sun-Moon opposition at the moment the orb reaches zero.
What does it mean to be born on a full Moon?: That the Sun and Moon were in opposition at the birth: the person's purpose and the person's need for safety stand at opposite ends of the chart. The person often meets the Moon's end in a partner first, and the swing between a public aim and a private need recurs. By the arithmetic of the orb, about one birth in twenty-two falls within 8 degrees of it.