"he closest aspect involving social or outer planets, you mean?"

I don't know yet ashley. I've just noticed that the really tight ones, particularly the MOST tight aspect seems to be a 'prolonged' theme in the person's life, particularly if a square or opposition.

"I've also noticed squares and oppositions involving fixed signs are very powerful as well, irrespective of orb. "

Oh yes, totally, especially the T-Square. I'm happy to extend this thread to include tight aspect patterns too!

"BTW, what's he orb of your venus-pluto oppos.? "

5 minutes.

I forgot to mention that mercury is my ascendant ruler.

sugarmoon

Thanks for the example! Sounds perfect to me!
I would imagine that this aspect could be very creative, but would wonder about death in your immediate family, or home environment seeming unsafe in some way.

Oh, you have moon pluto and venus neptune .. how the devil do you experience the influence of the two on distinct feminine planets?
You feel your oppositions as stronger than the conjunctions? or at least manifesting in a more obvious way?

Interesting experiment Paul

The aspects with the closest orb do seem to be most prevalent in my life

The Ascendant and Pluto are 46 minutes apart and the ascendant ruler does form a tight opposition. 9 minute orb , That opposition does reflect a significant theme in my life.

Pluto/AC is also involved in a T-square between the 1st,6/7th and 10th houses. The orbs in the T-square are 3 hours,17 minutes in the opposition and 6 hours and 3 hours in the squares. The MC is also involved

All in all your theory seems sound

mantis

Sounds like your meeting the aspect in the outside world. Perhaps there is some projection going on? I'm not saying there is, but seeing as you don't recognise it in yourself, its possible that your projecting (without knowing it) somewhere else. I've said before about my thoughts on you needing to integrate that mars more. Perhaps this conversation is synchronous with that message being relayed again? I only offer it as something to think about. You know yourself better than I do.

For my part I didn't recognise my venus-pluto until the last couple of years so it might still make itself more obvious to you, or it could be that the conjunctions are so close as to be almost unrecognisable from one another?

sun opposite Nnode - 0.01
moon trine uranus -0.08
...
and 14 others for a total of 16 aspects within 1 degree of orb

I looked at about 10 charts from people I have ever lived with on a daily basis to really know them and their habits -
one with 12 aspects within one degree of orb
2 with 11 aspects within one degree of orb
1 with 10
1 with 9
2 with 8
1 with 7
1 with 6

I am not sure about blind spots but I did notice this (would need to see more charts of people I know well to see if it was really a strong pattern or not)

There seems to be a trend concerning a person's tendency to stand out independently from the opinions or pressures of those around them or their susceptibility to outside social pressures.

I wonder if a large number of tightly aspected planets in a person's chart doesn't represent a sense of inner resistance to outside pressures in that the person's own natal aspects tend to be more of an influence on them than most synastric aspects or transits because of the tighter orbs.

People with a large number of tight natal orbs might have a greater tendency to "march to their own rhythm" in life in a way - branching off in new directions based on inner workings that may not be obvious or expected by the people close to them or the circumstances of the time. Maybe when a synastric or transit aspect does touch on them - it hits them in a more comprehensive way since that aspect is more likely to touch on multiple areas of the chart. (So in a way more influenced by transits and synastric aspects)

People with a smaller number of tight natal orbs might be more likely to find that transits and synastric relationships tend to in general be more influential in a way but also more influential in a predictable way. Maybe not as comprehensive - you might not see as many sweeping changes or changes to one part of life having a huge sweeping domino effect on the other parts of life. (So in a way less influenced by transits and synastric aspects).

It might be a bit difficult for those with large numbers of tight natal aspects to find a partner - anyone they relate with synastrically is likely to set off entire structures of inner forces within them that need to be simultaneously resolved when maintaining a close relationship. These people might also find that they have within themselves quite a bit of energy and connectedness and then the drive or need to seek those connections with others might be less.
People with less of a tightly woven natal structure might find it easier to find those people who touch on their strongest points of attraction without also simultaneously setting off so many inner pressures, struggles and issues - it might be easier to find that person whose mars/venus/sun/moon -what have you - make nice aspects to the right natal planets and angles without simultaneously making all kinds of really bad connections to be dealt with and worked out.

For example - with my tightly woven chart - anyone I find an attraction with based on moon/sun is going to simultaneously get hard aspects from pluto and neptune in my chart (and soft aspects from uranus which aren't always helpful in relationships)
Anyone with nice aspects to chiron or venus gets nasty aspects from the other.
Anyone with nice aspects to my ascendant gets challenging aspects from saturn.

The person I know with 12 tight aspects has similar issues.
They seem a bit less comfortable with being single than myself - but at the same time - very capable of finding meaning in life without being in a close relationship. They seem to be a bit more affected by their social connections than myself - BUT - they do regularly make a habit of going against the grain of the norms set by their social group and relationships. Even if they are quite welcome in many social settings and can get along with a large number of different kinds of people - they never seem to totally fit with any particular group they are with at any particular time. It's a lot harder to find harmony or fit based on one relavant part of the chart when so many other parts are interfering and insisting on being involved when they otherwise wouldn't be expected.

The people I know with small numbers of tight natal aspects seem to go with the flow a little bit more and fit in with whatever group or relationship they seem defined by more seemlessly.

"On the other hand, I have noticed that people with all-loose aspects in their charts have little or no compulsions, and are generally very good at controlling themselves."

LOL I don't know, I seem to be very loose, but I can be pretty compulsive! I am OCD, I am pretty sure... It does make sense to say that two tight planets are more intense in how they interact, though. There is a tight rope between them, so to speak.

Hand only uses 5 degree orbs for pretty much all of the planets, I think.

Mantis - were you referring to this article?

chirotic.wordpress.com/tag/aspects/

"Tight aspects are innate and unquestioned, loose ones are less integrated and impinge more upon consciousness as a result."

They also talk about out-of-sign aspects, such as squares.

"...aspects out of sign are fundamentally altered in quality and not nearly so compulsive. Thus, they appear to assume something of the quality of a wider-arc aspect... For the astrologer, it makes interpretation somewhat difficult, because there is a contradictory influence at work in out of sign aspects."

I guess the square is less difficult out of sign and more complementary. I have to say that my Mars-Jupiter square out of sign never struck me so hard as the professional astrologer who read my chart a while ago. That aspect scared me, and he said, "Actually the Mars-Jupiter square can be very destructive, but I cleaned it up a bit so you wouldn't think you are actually a demon from Hell. :-) Just kidding. But it can be pretty bad in some people who will try to sway public opinion or law to favor their selfish desires. It is also seen in people who profit from war and selling weapons to both sides. I don't think most people are this devilish." Yikes!

"Can you give an example of looking at someone's chart and aspect table? "

Attie

what do you mean?

I love the subject of orbs! Anything less than 5 degrees is likely to be pretty strong, IMO. I would also say aspects within signs will probably be stronger than ones outside (examples would be a conjunction in two different signs or a square in two signs of the same element). I have a lot of aspects out of sign, and I am not completely sure what to make of those aspects in particular. They are more wishy-washy, but they are there.

I don't have any partile aspects, and my minor aspects are actually tighter than my major. I wonder if the minor aspects that are tighter may also be more powerful than some of the major when they are tight enough... My Venus-Saturn sesquiquadrate is at 3 degree orb, and probably one of the main reasons I am very cool in romance, which is contrary to other factors in my chart.

My tightest aspect that is also within sign aspect (some traditionalists won't look at aspects out of sign) is my Mercury-Saturn trine, and I do think that is one of my top three most important aspects.

Exio - that's interesting that you say Chiron squaring your Mars makes you feel wounded. It also squares your ASC, DESC and Moon. That's one heck of a mean Chiron! The aspect to the ASC/Moon makes you want to ignore the wounds and hide them, but I'd imagine those other aspects would make you confront it whether you want to or not. You are probably more likely to have lost people close to you, or have dealt with suicides in your life (loved ones).

BTW, are significant aspects with Chiron or Lilith, for instance also taken into account here?

Moon trine Pluto 0'17 a leg of my Grand Earth trine including Mercury.

I do have a distinct sense of patterns and like to work on problems until they are solved. I can't do superficial relationships for long. I don't really notice people flocking to me for psychoanalysis, but those few who are close to me, the conversations run deep. Intense? I guess I can be, particularly in love.

I have mercury conjunct jupiter, but pluto's thrown into the conjunction as well. It'd be nice to just have mercury conjunct pluto with the N. Node thrown in there to make it meaningful and positive, but I have to be very careful not to be a pain in the ass... okay, *too much* of a pain in the ass...

I like the "random doodles" in your photos. Seems appropriate for the Uranus-Mars sextile which looks like your closest aspect, given Uranus in rising Libra. Very off-beat (Uranus) and a little impulsive (Mars) in a nice clean-cut Libran way!

but, on another note, as someone mentioned in another thread, the minor aspects in tight orb could be really powerful ...i also have chiron and moon in a sssssssesquiquadrate to chiron. that word is so funny. this aspect makes a lot sense too, there is a connection with my emotions and wounds, ive already explained detals in other threads today, but its just a general imbalance in my life that cases me to feel confused and dissociate instead of working and organizing my emotions, i guess i have major moon vibes in my chart. ladies are really powerful in my life, and i haven't ever had a father figure, or a very cool boyfriend, they're usually Aquarius dudes who are way too social and make me feel unimportant, which is a weird thing, because i always feel like i wanted those challenges but i maybe think i am not quite there yet. i would love to feel very strongly independent one day. i keep hoping to date a taurus sun/ cancer/gemini cusp moon with leo rising. haha. i have it all mapped out, all the missing elements in me!
oh wow, i should stop, i drank a lot of coffee and i am just spewing

"Al H Morrison used to teach that the closest hard aspect - conjunction, semi-square, square, sesquiquadrate, opposition - set the tone for the chart, and was also an excellent indicator of the type of career a person would excel at. The logic I think was that this is where we have the most amount of energy tied up. "

Captain

Anywhere I could read more on this? Or a book?