Is a sextile a good aspect?

Tradition lists it among the soft aspects, with the trine. The difference is that a trine works unasked and a sextile has to be used: it is an opportunity more than a gift. A chart with many sextiles describes a lot of capacity that waits to be called on.

How many degrees is a sextile?

60, a sixth of the zodiac's 360. This site counts a natal sextile within 5 degrees of exact, a transiting one from Jupiter or beyond within 2, and the daily Moon within 7. The 5 is the smallest natal orb any of the five aspects gets here, because the sextile is the quietest of them and a wide one is close to no aspect at all.

What is the difference between a sextile and a trine?

The angle: 60 degrees against 120, two signs apart against four. In reading, the trine is a talent so easy its owner never counts it, and the sextile is an ease the person has to reach for. Both are soft; the sextile is the one that needs a hand.

Astrology basics · The five aspects

The sextile in astrology: a 60 degree aspect you have to pick up

A sextile is two planets 60 degrees apart along the zodiac, a sixth of the circle, which puts them two signs away from each other. It is one of the two soft aspects of tradition. In a chart it is an ease between two functions that is there when reached for and otherwise sits unused: a door that opens, if someone turns the handle.

Exact angle: 60 degrees
Natal orb: 5 degrees
Transit orb: 2 degrees
Daily orb: 7 degrees for the Moon, 1 for the faster four
Hard or soft: Soft

Sixty degrees, two signs apart

Every aspect is an angle, measured along the zodiac from one planet to another, and the sextile is 60 degrees of it: with 360 in the circle, the two planets stand a sixth of the way round from each other. They stand two signs apart, so a sextile joins signs of compatible element, fire with air or earth with water. The orb, the distance from exact that still counts, is the smallest this site gives a major aspect: 5 degrees in a birth chart, since a sextile is a quieter thing than a trine or a square, and a wide one is easily nothing.

An ease that has to be picked up

The two functions get on. Where a trine runs by itself, the sextile waits: the ease is real but has to be picked up to be used, and most of the time it is not. A person with Venus sextile Mars finds that affection and pursuit cooperate when asked, and spends years not asking. The sextile is the aspect of the thing a person can do and mostly leaves in the drawer.

Two sextiles in the act

Sun sextile Moon: purpose on one side, the need for safety on the other, two signs apart and in agreement when consulted. The person takes the job that fits them, then notices a year in that it also gets them home by six, and did not plan that. Mercury sextile Saturn: how they take things in, and where effort goes. Given a deadline, they write the clearest memo in the building; without one, the notes stay in a file nobody opens. The ease is there; a reason has to come and get it.

A sextile from the moving sky

A transiting sextile forms when a planet on the move stands 60 degrees from one in the birth chart. This site reads it inside 2 degrees when the mover is Jupiter or slower, the same tight margin as the trine, since a soft aspect from the moving sky is easy to miss at the best of times. It describes an opening of the same kind: the Moon sextile a natal Mercury across one afternoon, and the conversation that has been put off is easy, if it is had. Under a sextile the opening is there all day and closes unremarked.

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

Questions

Is a sextile a good aspect?: Tradition lists it among the soft aspects, with the trine. The difference is that a trine works unasked and a sextile has to be used: it is an opportunity more than a gift. A chart with many sextiles describes a lot of capacity that waits to be called on.
How many degrees is a sextile?: 60, a sixth of the zodiac's 360. This site counts a natal sextile within 5 degrees of exact, a transiting one from Jupiter or beyond within 2, and the daily Moon within 7. The 5 is the smallest natal orb any of the five aspects gets here, because the sextile is the quietest of them and a wide one is close to no aspect at all.
What is the difference between a sextile and a trine?: The angle: 60 degrees against 120, two signs apart against four. In reading, the trine is a talent so easy its owner never counts it, and the sextile is an ease the person has to reach for. Both are soft; the sextile is the one that needs a hand.