I’m currently writing about the difference between squares and oppositions, those wonderfully maddening hard aspects in astrology, and I have to say, it’s driving me slightly mad. I’m not always happy with what I’ve interpreted, mostly because the more I think about it, the more questions I seem to create for myself. So when you eventually read this article, please know that this is me trying to work out what these aspects actually mean, rather than confidently declaring, “This means that, and that means this,” as if I’ve just descended from the astrological heavens carrying two stone tablets. I keep going back to my own squares and oppositions, trying to feel out the difference between them. Because the planetary themes are essentially the same, aren’t they? But how much does the aspect itself change how those themes are experienced? And which really is the harder aspect? Is one actually more difficult, or do they just have different ways of making our lives wonderfully complicated?
I can feel myself getting increasingly tense trying to work it all out, which is amusing. Perhaps I’m experiencing the very frustration of a square while trying to explain what a square feels like. And perhaps the answer is behaving more like an opposition, standing directly in front of me, staring me in the face, while I somehow manage not to see it. So when this article is finally ready to be unleashed upon the world, please read it with a bit of kindness. Not because I want you to agree with everything, quite the opposite. Agree, disagree, question it, argue with it if you like. Think about your own squares and oppositions and whether what I’m saying actually rings true for you. Because I’m not trying to deliver the final word on these aspects. I’m trying to understand them more deeply, and sometimes this means getting thoroughly tangled up in the very thing you’re attempting to untangle. Which, come to think of it, might be the most square-like experience of all.