Understanding Septiles–Your Input Needed

I’m doing research for the next article in my series on aspects in  The Mountain Astrologer.  I’ve been through all the better-known aspects from the conjunction through the opposition, but for the final article, the editors want to know about the lesser-known aspects like the  septile, semisquare and sesquiquadrate.  There’s one problem with that…..

Nobody really knows what they mean.  All you ever read about them is one fairly abstract and abstruse sentence or phrase. It gets repeated over and over in books, journals, or online with no real documentation of the aspect in action.  Authors rarely give interpretations of these aspects in people’s charts with case examples of how they work in their lives.  It’s all theory, no application. 

What I’m looking for here and what seems missing in the literature are examples of real-life experiences of individuals who have these aspects.  What do they mean in terms of behavior patterns, feelings, urges, repeated situations or events, and inner and outer conflicts? Conversely, what gifts, abilities, and personality traits do they convey? Specific, concrete details, not abstractions. 

One of the most pleasurable surprises about blogging for me has been the reader participation.  When I write about a topic like stelliums or accidents or a particular aspect, readers share their experiences and data in the comment section so that we all learn more.  It’s a great and unanticipated tool for research. A good researcher does not begin with a preconceived theory and then collect data that confirms the theory.  It starts from a neutral place with no preconceived notions that we’re trying to prove.  We then  collect tons of data and observations and then digest the data.

So what I’m wondering is this.  I’d like to gather a lot of real-life examples of these little-known aspects, because we really don’t have much in the way of  documentation.  I’m wondering if you’d look at your chart and see if you find a particular aspect there.  In this post, it’s the septile we’ll focus on.

 Think about the meanings, urges, and needs represented by the two planets in a septile and about how they’d affect each other.  Ask yourself whether you can see that combination of planets operating in your life and how.  And then share about it in the comment section by scrolling down below the bottom of this article.   Are you in?

Let’s begin with the septile.  That’s 1/7 of the 360° degree circle, and my calculator informs me that’s about 52° degrees (51.428, to be exact).  How you’d find them easily in your chart is to start with the earliest planet in the zodiac, move ahead 60° (a sextile), and then subtract 8°. 

For example, if  you have a planet at 10° Aries, move ahead to 10° Gemini, and then subtract 8°.  The septile point is about 2° Gemini.  If you have a planet at 10° Aries and one at 2° Gemini (plus or minus about 3° orb), then those two planets are septile one another.

But what does it mean?  Suppose one of them is Mars and the other is Mercury.  What do you know–or what can you guess–about Mars-Mercury aspects?  How would Mars affect Mercury’s patterns of thinking and communication?  What verbal or manual skills would Mercury bring to Mars’ leadership abilities and competitive spirit?  And so on through other qualities and concerns of Mars and Mercury. 

Continue going around your chart looking for sextile points to locate possible septiles. Think about the meanings of the two planets and combine them. Do you see those qualities in yourself?  What does it look like in your life? And how does it FEEL? And if it seems significant, then are there any other features in your chart that could account for it?

A Sample Analysis

To illustrate the reporting process, let me share one of my septiles.  I found several of them in my chart when I began the search–aspects that in 42 years of studying my own chart,  I’d never realized I had. It was exciting after all this time–like finding a long lost ancestor or unsuspected talent.  Or like when I was 47 years old and found out a family secret–that my grandfather was half Comanche and therefore I was an eighth Native American. 

 A Mars-Mercury septile was the first of the aspects I found, and it made perfect sense in terms of my writing style and ever-active mind. I work to make my writing sharp and clear, and often say that when I get to the revision stage, I edit with a stilletto. I cut, cut, cut all the extra and repetitive words so automatic with my Mercury in Gemini.  There is a precision in my word choice that my Neptune in the 3rd surely does not lend itself to! 

 But is the septile a “good” aspect or a “bad” one?  Despite my verbal  dexterity, my manual dexterity is almost non-existent–pathetic is the precise term! I have no mechanical skills and adviseably don’t drive–my sister refers to me as automotively challenged.  I’m forever making little cuts and burns on my hands by accident.  And despite a strong Mars, I’m no athlete, and my warrior self comes out mostly in the written word.

Are there other factors in my chart that could explain the Mars-Mercury connection?  Partially, yes, because if I were doing my full set of planetary scores,  Mars/Aries and Mercury/Gemini would be the strongest influences by far.

However, the only aspects between my Aries and my Gemini placements are a wide sextile between my Aries Midheaven and my Mercury in Gemini and a  wide semisquare between my Aries Moon and Uranus in Gemini.  Those aspects don’t seem to me to explain the deep Mars-Mercury connectedness I sensed when I found this septile. 

Readers, let us know if you found any septiles–and what you think they illustrate in your life–in the comment section.  No theories from ancient or modern astrologers, just your own experience.   And come back and read what others found out about their own septiles.

More Articles from the Series about the Lesser-Known Aspects:

• Understanding Semisquares—Your Input Needed
• Understanding the Sesquiquadrate—Your Input Needed
• Understanding Septiles–Your Input Needed
• Understanding Quintiles—What’s YOUR Talent?
• Understanding the BiQuintile—Your Input Needed
• Quincunx vs. BiQuintile–an Answer from Numerology?
• Understanding the Mundane Square—Your Input Needed
• Mundane square case study: Outtake from a Moon-Pluto Life
• The Not so Minor Aspects—Results of Our Research
• Breathing Refined Air: The Esoteric Aspects
• Is the Semi-Sextile a Good Aspect or a Bad One?
• Neptune & Uranus in Mutual Reception
• Pluto and the transiting Antiscia–not Over ’til It’s Over
• The Antiscia are Coming! The Antiscia are Coming!

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