Orb Allowance

Orb Allowance

A very important factor that would be wise to take more seriously in astrology is the orb allowance. If you’re not familiar with what an “orb” is, this is something you should definitely know about and take into consideration every time you read a chart. My teacher loves to say, “orbs are everything”. And while he’s kind of exaggerating, he’s also kind of not. Ok, so what is an orb?

Here’s what The Astrology Dictionary.com has to say:

“The orb defines how close to the exact aspect a planet must get in order for the effect of the aspect to begin, as well as how far away from the exact aspect a planet must get in order for the effect of the aspect to end”.

The tighter the orb, the more intensely the aspect is felt and experienced. “Tight”is the most often used word when talking about very close orbs in astrology.

The aspects with the tightest orbs, are the aspects that will be most prominent in a person’s life. If three or more planets are involved in a tightly aspected pattern, then this will be extremely prominent in the person’s life and how they live it. It is very likely to be noticeable to others.

Different astrologers use different orb allowances. The type of astrology being practiced also makes a difference when it comes to the orbs used.

For natal chart interpretation, and most synastry orbs I have heard mainstream astrologers use a range of about 8-10 degrees of orb when the Sun or Moon are involved in a conjunction or opposition, 6-8 degrees for other planets in a conjunction or opposition, around 5 degrees for a square, trine or sextile. These five aspects - called the “major” aspects, are also known as the Ptolemaic aspects. These are the only aspects used by many astrologers. Ptolemy was a sort of Godfather of Astrology - he was also a mathematician and astronomer - who came from Egypt and lived about 2000 years ago. He popularized the use of these five aspects.

And a 2-3 degree orb for what are often called the “minor” aspects - these would include the quincunx, sesququadrate, semi-sextile, semi-square, quintile and biquintile. There is the potential to use many more aspects than are commonly used by most astrologers, but I will go into that in another video.

Horary astrology requires tighter orbs than natal and synastry readings. Horary involves asking a very specific question, noting the time and making a chart for that exact time and then reading that chart to see what the answer to the question is.

And Vedic astrology has very specific aspects that vary from planet to planet, but they generally use aspects that go from one whole house to another (which means the orb allowance is up to 30 degrees).

As I mentioned, by teacher says, “orb are everything”, and so you might imagine that he prefers to stick with “tighter” orbs - meaning a smaller orb allowance. Part of the reasoning for this is that if we allow too wide an orb, we are going to be seeing many aspects that will likely barely be felt and won’t have much influence. Always, the tightest, smallest orbed aspects are going to be the most influential patterns in the chart, and we should start with the tightest patterns and aspects, and move out from there.

In synastry chart overlays, my teacher - who teaches an evidence-based form of astrology - has taught me to use four degrees for a conjunction, two degrees for an opposition, and one degree or less for any other type of aspect. This is closer than many other astrologers use, but if you use these orbs, you will be able to focus on the most important aspects, the aspects that are of primary importance in the relationship between the people involved. There are more than enough possible aspects in synastry, that it isn’t necessary to use wide orbs to find as many aspects as possible, when the wide orbs will barely affect the relationship.

And, if there are any aspects that are fifteen minutes or less - there are sixty minutes in one degree - those aspects will be extremely strong and intensely felt between the two people. If we use too wide an orb, we will lose focus on the “meat” of the connection with the couple.

In future blog posts, I’ll be talking about other techniques that are not commonly used by mainstream astrologers. With all the additional techniques I’ll share with you, there will be more than enough aspects and patterns to consider, with tight orbs. However, the orb allowance is ultimately up to you. Feel free to play around with orbs to see what feels right to you. But do keep in mind the tendency of the mind to lean toward confirmation bias.