The conjunction blends two functions so completely that they no longer act separately.
Two forces in the chart move in step: it becomes hard to tell where one ends and the other begins.
Energy gathered on a single point, which gives the chart a clear axis and strong coherence.
Lacking perspective on two merged functions, to the point of not seeing which one leads.
By Thomas Guilhot · updated
Picture two voices singing the same note: you hear only one sound, louder, with a tone that blends both.
The conjunction works this way. When two planets occupy the same degree of the zodiac, give or take a few degrees, tradition holds that their meanings merge. The Sun joined to Mercury gives a mind that cannot be told apart from identity; Venus joined to Mars blends tenderness and desire in a single impulse. The person experiences these two registers as one, often without telling them apart.
Its nature depends entirely on the planets involved. Two bodies that tradition calls benefic, Venus and Jupiter, would give an easy conjunction; a fast planet joined to Saturn, a more demanding fusion. The sign where it forms matters too: a planet in its domicile often dominates the other. The tighter the gap, the more intense the blend is said to be. The accepted margin, the orb, is 8° here, rising to 10° for a luminary; the chart also specifies whether the gap is closing, an applying aspect, or widening, a separating aspect.
The conjunction also marks a beginning. In the cycle of two planets, it is the starting point, like the new moon for the Sun and Moon: a new cycle opens, which the other aspects will mark out. Modern authors see a seed rather than a fruit, an energy not yet very aware of itself, which gains from being looked at from the outside in order to be used well.
A conjunction involving Venus colors emotional life directly: with the Moon, a need for tenderness and a home; with Mars, a lively desire; with Saturn, a serious fidelity.
When two charts are compared and one person’s planet falls on the other’s, a sense of immediate familiarity often arises. This is an affinity, not a guarantee: how long a bond lasts depends on two whole people, not on a shared degree.
A conjunction often gives the chart its most visible talent, because it concentrates two functions on a single point.
Mercury with Jupiter would make a mind that sees big; Mars with Saturn, a stubborn endurance, able to keep a project going for months. The downside is difficulty modulating: this talent tends to come out all at once, sometimes where nuance, delegating, or easing off would serve better. An outside view, such as a colleague’s, helps with dosing it.
It shows in reflexes that always come back together: talking as soon as an emotion rises, spending as soon as a project excites you, starting to tidy up when worry grows.
These pairs of reactions seem natural, so much so that you no longer see them. Spotting them, without trying to undo them, lets you choose when to let them run and when to give yourself a pause before answering or buying.
Ptolemy, in the Tetrabiblos, counts the conjunction among the five major configurations, even though, strictly speaking, it is not a “look” between distinct signs.
Medieval authors, then Lilly in the 17th century, assigned each planet its own orb, and a planet’s conjunction with the Sun had a special status: burned by its light, it was called combust, except within a third of a degree, where it became cazimi, “in the heart of the Sun,” and was held to be strengthened.
In the 20th century, Dane Rudhyar reread the aspects as phases of a cycle between two planets, on the model of the lunation. The conjunction would be its opening, the moment when an intention is born without yet being formed, much like a seed just sown whose shape is not yet known.
Tradition calls it variable: the two functions merge, and its color depends on the planets involved.
The orb is the margin allowed around the exact angle (see the orb concept); the site uses ± 8°, ± 10° with a luminary.
The two planets are at the same place in the zodiac.
Between -8° and 8° apart, the aspect counts (± 10° if the Sun or the Moon is involved).
Tradition calls it variable: the two functions merge, and its color depends on the planets involved.
It is the meeting of two planets at the same degree of the zodiac, within the orb. The two planetary functions merge. Since it takes on the color of the bodies that meet, tradition calls it variable rather than harmonic or dynamic.
Neither favorable nor unfavorable by nature. Everything depends on the planets involved, their sign, and their house. Venus with Jupiter would be easy, Mars with Saturn more demanding, but each has a downside: ease can make you lazy, demand can make you solid. The site describes these tendencies without ever drawing a forecast from them.
Yes. A planet at 28° Aries and another at 2° Taurus are 4° apart, so they are in conjunction, even though they sit in two neighboring signs. Astrologers then speak of a dissociated conjunction: the fusion exists, but each planet keeps the color of its own sign, which nuances the reading.
The pairs
Each cell leads to the pair’s page. The luminaries have a slightly wider orb.
| Moon | ☌︎⚹︎□︎△︎☍︎ | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mercury | ☌︎ | ☌︎⚹︎□︎△︎☍︎ | |||||||
| Venus | ☌︎ | ☌︎⚹︎□︎△︎☍︎ | ☌︎⚹︎ | ||||||
| Mars | ☌︎⚹︎□︎△︎☍︎ | ☌︎⚹︎□︎△︎☍︎ | ☌︎⚹︎□︎△︎☍︎ | ☌︎⚹︎□︎△︎☍︎ | |||||
| Jupiter | ☌︎⚹︎□︎△︎☍︎ | ☌︎⚹︎□︎△︎☍︎ | ☌︎⚹︎□︎△︎☍︎ | ☌︎⚹︎□︎△︎☍︎ | ☌︎⚹︎□︎△︎☍︎ | ||||
| Saturn | ☌︎⚹︎□︎△︎☍︎ | ☌︎⚹︎□︎△︎☍︎ | ☌︎⚹︎□︎△︎☍︎ | ☌︎⚹︎□︎△︎☍︎ | ☌︎⚹︎□︎△︎☍︎ | ☌︎⚹︎□︎△︎☍︎ | |||
| Uranus | ☌︎⚹︎□︎△︎☍︎ | ☌︎⚹︎□︎△︎☍︎ | ☌︎⚹︎□︎△︎☍︎ | ☌︎⚹︎□︎△︎☍︎ | ☌︎⚹︎□︎△︎☍︎ | ☌︎⚹︎□︎△︎☍︎ | ☌︎⚹︎□︎△︎☍︎ | ||
| Neptune | ☌︎⚹︎□︎△︎☍︎ | ☌︎⚹︎□︎△︎☍︎ | ☌︎⚹︎□︎△︎☍︎ | ☌︎⚹︎□︎△︎☍︎ | ☌︎⚹︎□︎△︎☍︎ | ☌︎⚹︎□︎△︎☍︎ | ☌︎⚹︎□︎△︎☍︎ | ☌︎⚹︎□︎△︎☍︎ | |
| Pluto | ☌︎⚹︎□︎△︎☍︎ | ☌︎⚹︎□︎△︎☍︎ | ☌︎⚹︎□︎△︎☍︎ | ☌︎⚹︎□︎△︎☍︎ | ☌︎⚹︎□︎△︎☍︎ | ☌︎⚹︎□︎△︎☍︎ | ☌︎⚹︎□︎△︎☍︎ | ☌︎⚹︎□︎△︎☍︎ | ☌︎⚹︎□︎△︎☍︎ |
| Sun | Moon | Mercury | Venus | Mars | Jupiter | Saturn | Uranus | Neptune |
Crossed-out cell: an aspect the sky never forms (Mercury stays within 28° of the Sun, Venus within 47°).