Sextile aspect: the 60° angle in a birth chart

A sextile is an aspect between two points of a chart that stand 60° apart along the ecliptic. It is one of the five Ptolemaic aspects, along with the conjunction, square, trine and opposition, and like the trine it is counted as a harmonious or soft aspect. Its harmony works differently, though. A sextile links two principles that cooperate easily once the person takes the first step, and it does very little if that step never comes.

Geometry: why 60°

Divide the ecliptic into six equal parts and each part spans two signs of the zodiac. In a classic sextile the planets sit in signs with one sign between them: Aries and Gemini, Taurus and Cancer, Leo and Libra.

On the wheel, six sextiles trace a regular hexagon. Two of its sides in a row add up to exactly 120°, which is a trine, so the two aspects are closely related in geometry.

The sextile falls between the conjunction (0°) and the square (90°). It is the smallest of the major angles after the conjunction, and most chart software draws it in blue or green like the trine, often with a thinner or dashed line.

Compatible elements

Signs one sign apart always belong to compatible elements. Fire is sextile air, earth is sextile water:

• Fire and air: Aries and Gemini, Aries and Aquarius, Leo and Gemini, Leo and Libra, Sagittarius and Libra, Sagittarius and Aquarius.
• Earth and water: Taurus and Cancer, Taurus and Pisces, Virgo and Cancer, Virgo and Scorpio, Capricorn and Scorpio, Capricorn and Pisces.

Air feeds fire, water nourishes earth. The elements are not the same, but they support each other. Signs in sextile also share polarity (both masculine or both feminine) and always differ in modality: a cardinal sign is sextile a fixed or a mutable sign, never another cardinal one. That gives the aspect its character. The two planets speak a similar language but move at a different pace, and that difference is what creates an exchange between them.

Compare this with the trine, where both signs share an element, and the square, where they share a modality. The sextile has neither match, which makes it softer than a square and less self-sufficient than a trine.

Why the sextile is an opportunity

The trine is usually described as something that works on its own. The sextile is described as an open door: the way through is there, but you have to get up and walk through it. The difference comes from the elements. In a trine both planets are in the same element and charged the same way, so they have nothing to prove to each other. In a sextile the elements differ, and the link between the planets appears when the person deliberately puts the two functions together.

In practice a sextile often shows up as a skill the person has built rather than a trait they were born with. Mercury sextile Mars can turn into quick, precise speech in an argument if the person trains it. Left untrained, it stays a potential that is barely visible in the character.

None of this makes the sextile weak. It is stable and creates no inner friction, so when a person uses it, it rarely lets them down. But the initiative belongs to the person, not to the aspect.

The orb of a sextile

Because the angle is smaller and the character more delicate, the sextile usually gets a tighter orb than the trine or the square. A typical range is 4-6°, a little more when the Sun or Moon is involved. Some astrologers ignore sextiles wider than 4° altogether. A sextile within 1-2° is clearly felt; one at 6° is something many astrologers no longer read. How different schools set orbs is covered in the article on aspect orbs.

The AstroWay calculator sets the orb by the pair of planets, so the aspect table of every chart lists each sextile with its actual orb.

Out-of-sign sextiles

Sometimes two planets are close to 60° apart while their signs do not form a sextile. A planet at 29° Aries and another at 1° Cancer are 62° apart, a sextile by orb. By sign, though, Aries and Cancer are in square: fire against water, both cardinal.

This is called a dissociate or out-of-sign sextile. Astrologers count it but read it with a caveat: the link between the planets is there, the support of the elements is not, and some of the flavour of a square creeps in. The AstroWay aspect table shows it as an ordinary sextile.

How to read a sextile

The reading works in three layers, as with any aspect:

• Planets. Which two functions can work together. Venus sextile Saturn and Moon sextile Uranus describe very different opportunities.
• Signs. Which pair of elements they join. Fire with air opens doors through ideas, contacts and nerve; earth with water through practical work and feeling.
• Houses. Where the opportunity turns up. A sextile between planets in the 3rd and 5th houses connects learning with creative work; in the 6th and 8th it ties daily work to shared resources.

It also matters whether the sextile is applying or separating. An applying aspect is traditionally considered stronger and still unfolding. Another useful question is whether the sextile is tied into hard aspects. When a planet in sextile is also square a third planet, the sextile often becomes the channel through which the person releases that tension.

Example: sextiles in Donald Trump's chart

In Donald Trump's chart the Sun is at 22°55′ Gemini and Mars at 26°46′ Leo. The angle between them is 63°50′, an orb of 3°50′. The Sun moves faster than Mars and is closing in on the exact angle, so the aspect is applying. Gemini is an air sign and Leo a fire sign, which makes this a classic fire-air sextile, with mutable Gemini and fixed Leo.

How tradition reads the pair: the Sun stands for will and self-assertion, Mars for action, drive and readiness to fight. A sextile between them says that will turns into action without much resistance, and that the energy for action comes through words, contact and exchange (Gemini). Mars in Leo adds a need to be seen.

The same chart has a second sextile: the Moon at 21°12′ Sagittarius and Jupiter at 17°27′ Libra, orb 3°45′, separating. Again fire and air. Tradition reads a Moon-Jupiter link like this as emotional breadth and a need for scale. Both sextiles have orbs of about 4°: they are active in the chart, but not at the limit of precision.

The sextile in configurations

The sextile often forms part of larger figures. Two planets in sextile that both form a quincunx (150°) to a third planet make a yod, and the sextile is the base of that figure. A grand trine with an added opposition and two sextiles is called a kite. These figures are covered in the section on aspect patterns.

In celebrity charts

The tightest examples among the published charts.

• Rafael Nadal: Neptune sextile Pluto, orb 0°01′
• Jamala: Venus sextile Saturn, orb 0°02′
• Emmanuel Macron: Neptune sextile Pluto, orb 0°05′

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