What this aspect is
Ninety degrees, a quarter of the circle. The planets stand in signs of the same modality but different elements, so they act in different ways within one area of life. The orb runs up to 10 degrees for the Sun, 8 for the Moon, 7 for Jupiter and 5 between the other bodies.
In the natal chart
A square is an inner conflict with no once-and-for-all solution: both needs are real. That is exactly why it moves a person: for years they look for a way to satisfy both sides, and in that search they acquire skill. Charts without tense aspects describe someone with no inner reason to change anything.
In transits
A transiting square usually feels like pressure from circumstances: what used to work stops working precisely in the theme of the two planets. In practice it helps to know the date of the exact aspect and not to schedule decisions that are hard to revise for that day. A square from a slow planet to a natal point lasts months and returns three times through retrogradation.
Common reading mistakes
The square is read as a verdict, and that is the main mistake: a chart with tense aspects describes a person with a reason to move, not a broken one. The second mistake is looking for which of the two planets is at fault. Both needs are real, and the answer always lies in giving room to both rather than suppressing one.
Major aspects
Orb by body
- Sun 10°
- Moon 8°
- Mercury 5°
- Venus 5°
- Mars 5°
- Jupiter 7°
- Saturn 5°
- Uranus 5°
- Neptune 5°
- Pluto 5°
The orb of a pair is the smaller of the two numbers. A Sun conjunct Pluto counts up to 5 degrees, because that is Pluto's figure, even though the Sun's is 12.