The conjunction

The conjunction is the aspect of zero degrees. Two planets stand in the same degree of the zodiac, or close enough that a traditional orb still counts them as joined. There is no angle between them in the way a square has an angle. There is a fusion. The topics of both planets have to share a mouth.

Because the conjunction has no inherent element or modality the way a trine or a square does, its character comes from the planets themselves. Venus conjunct Jupiter is a joining of two benefics, a style of increase and reconciliation that can be generous and can be excessive. Mars conjunct Saturn is a joining of the two malefics, heat and cold, cutting and delay, a famous traditional picture of effort under a weight. Sun conjunct Mercury is so common, because Mercury never travels far from the Sun, that it needs its own care: Mercury may be invisible in the Sun's beams, and what he says is hard to separate from the will. The conjunction does not mean "good" or "bad." It means "these two are not having separate days."

Orbs are the allowance around the exact degree. A conjunction within a degree is loud. A conjunction several degrees wide is still a conjunction in most modern and many traditional practices, and it is quieter. This site's calculator uses a defined orb for the conjunction when it lists aspects. In a reading, say how close the contact is. Closeness is part of the meaning. An exact conjunction dominates a chart more honestly than a wide one that merely shares a sign. Sharing a sign without sharing a degree is a sign-level cohabitation, a milder fact. Do not call every same-sign pair a conjunction.

Applying and separating matter in traditional work. An applying conjunction is still moving toward exactness. Its topics are gathering. A separating conjunction has already been exact. Its topics are a fact the chart is carrying away from the peak. You can read a natal chart well before you master application. When you do learn it, the conjunction is the aspect where the difference is easiest to feel.

A conjunction also stacks dignities in one place. If both planets are in a sign one of them rules, the ruler is hosting a guest at the same degree, and the guest cannot pretend to be elsewhere. Mars conjunct the Sun in Aries is Mars at home, fused with the luminary, in the sign of the Sun's exaltation. That is a pile of traditional condition, and it should be described as condition, not as a superlative about the person. Mars conjunct the Sun in Libra is the same aspect in the sign of Mars's detriment and the Sun's fall. Same geometry, different weather. Always name the sign.

The conjunction is a major aspect, one of the five this library treats as the working set. Other planets aspect the pair from other degrees, and those aspects give the fusion a context. A stellium, several planets conjunct in a narrow band, is a concentration of the chart's voice in one sign and often one house. Read it as concentration, then look for the planet outside the pile.

In practice, name the two planets, name the sign they share, and say which topics now have to cooperate. For the aspect of full separation, read the opposition. For friction at a right angle, read the square. For the order of a reading, start from the guide to the birth chart.