Almagest

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The Sun opposite the Sun

the transiting Sun's yearly passage opposite its own natal place, roughly a half birthday, or one person's Sun opposite another's in synastry

What the tradition reads

A natal chart cannot show the Sun opposite itself, since a single body cannot stand at an angle from its own degree; the tradition reads this key through transit, roughly six months after the solar return, the point astrologers sometimes call a half birthday, when the transiting Sun stands directly opposite its own natal place. Cafe Astrology's transit pages name this the harder stretch of the yearly cycle: a time more likely to bring a cold, a flat or unappreciated mood, and a general sense of being ill at ease, with rest and a frank revision of one's own goals recommended rather than simply pushing through it. Between two charts, one person's Sun opposite another's is read, in the tradition's own phrase, as opposites attracting: sources describe real and fundamental differences of temperament between the two people, a relationship that swings between genuine appreciation and genuine frustration, counselling that the two learn to respect the difference itself rather than treat it as a flaw either side needs to be argued out of.

The story

An opposition sets two points a hundred and eighty degrees apart, the full diameter of the circle, the greatest distance either can stand from the other; Ptolemy counts it, together with the square, discordant, set against the trine and sextile's harmony. The Sun's own year gives the opposition its clearest image without needing two separate figures: the winter solstice that gave Sol Invictus his festival of rebirth stands, on the very same yearly wheel, directly opposite the summer solstice, the year's longest day. Met in transit or in synastry, the Sun facing itself across the wheel is simply the light meeting its own opposite season, the two points marking one continuous cycle rather than two separate suns set against each other.

Written from

Corpus key aspect:Sun:Sun:opposition.