Munchies for Astro-Thought: Your Closest Aspect – What Does It Mean?

© 2016 by Joyce Mason

Here’s a little background on the Munchie posts.

Mother-Daughter Reunion--a portrait of Moon trine Ceres.

The importance of precision in astrology is endlessly debated among the star-speaking public. Take how many degrees of arc count to consider an aspect truly a square, opposition, trine, etc. And let’s not get started with the “minor” aspects! (I’ll buy 4-degrees for a quincunx which many would say is overly generous.) I know highly credible astrologers who consider many of these quibbles unimportant. They say if a planet is in the same sign, they’re conjunct, particularly when mining their symbolic meaning.

While you’d think The Radical Virgo would love this kind of nitpicking, the adjective radical modifies my thinking. I’m not going to debate the subject, but I do admit: your closest aspect must count for something. It’s almost like having that particular relationship between two planets zipped into your skin.

Today’s munchie: Go to your astrology software or to Astro.com for a free chart and pinpoint your closest aspect. Introduce or reacquaint yourself with it. Reflect on your life so far and ponder what it might mean.

My personal example(s) are a double header, as I have two aspects at the same degree of relationship and the tightest one you can get—0^o 01’. They are Moon trine Ceres (applying) and Uranus quincunx South Node (separating). Many would consider the applying aspect stronger, so let’s start there.

I admit, while I’ve looked at this in the past, I’ve never really done much more than say to myself “interesting.” Digging a little deeper, I have a huge relationship with Moon/Ceres in general. Half my chart squares the Moon. Chiron (my Astro-specialty) sextiles Moon and opposes Ceres. Both these aspects are less than a degree. Looking at how the same pair of planets involved in your closest aspect interacts in your chart and what aspects they have with other planets provides context.

How Ceres has played out in my life is indeed mythical. Ceres is the Roman equivalent of the Greek figure Demeter, Goddess of the Harvest. The myth of Demeter and her daughter Persephone tell us much about the issues of life’s seasons—and love and loss. Ceres/Demeter lost her daughter to Hades/Pluto who abducted her to the underground to be his Queen. In her angst and anger at the loss of her daughter, Ceres allowed the crops to die and finally cut a deal with Pluto to return her daughter for half of each year. The return of Persephone heralds spring.

I was Persephone lost to my birth mother for most of the first four decades of my life. In 1986 I found her living 90 miles away from me in San Francisco. Pluto returned me to her from the underworld where I was hidden for all those years. For both of us, the flowers again bloomed and all was well in the world in ways we never knew possible until our reunion. I can see how natal Moon (mother, nurture) trine Ceres (abandonment, grief, growth) at such an amazing degree of exactitude played into this happy ending.

For those wondering about transits at the time of my mother-find, they were intense and indicative of a life-changing event involving my mother. Among them: T-Ceres trine N-Ceres, T-Moon conjunct N-Uranus, T-Neptune conjunct N-Moon (repeating the natal pairing), and T-Pluto conjunct N-Chiron.

As to Uranus inconjunct South Node, a whole “past” I never knew existed suddenly greeted me in my return  from the underground.  What a surprise and adjustment! When I started my birth family search, I wanted to know more about myself and my roots. I was realistic, knowing that I could encounter anything from complete rejection—she might have had another family and wanted to continue to keep me secret—to total acceptance. I figured the truth would lie somewhere in the middle. Frankly, I not prepared for total acceptance to the max.

Despite adoring my adoptive family and never once wishing my life had turned out differently, the built-in abandonment issues of being given up by my original family constitutes my Chironic wound. It was a pain I never understood till my late 30s. The theme of my life revolves around healing a sense of separation and sharing with others how to do the same. I certainly learned that my Chiron opposite Ceres natal construct coupled with my most exact aspect of Moon trine Ceres had their story to tell about two different chapters in my life.

I don’t know what you’ll find, but this experiment proved to me that my closest aspects are definitely a big header in the playbill of my personal drama.

As always, if you discover anything interesting, thanks for sharing in the Comments.

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Photo: Taken at my Miraculous Motherfind Open House in November 1986 where I introduced my newfound original mom to my friends.