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Aspect shapes

Cradle

Modern

A cradle bridges an When two planets sit directly across the zodiac from each other, about 180 degrees apart. It creates tension, awareness, and a pull between two sides that need balancing. with a chain of A friendly, opportunity-shaped aspect between planets about 60 degrees apart. It offers help you have to reach for rather than receive automatically. and A flowing, supportive aspect between planets about 120 degrees apart, usually in the same element. Things come easily here, sometimes too easily to notice., so the hard pull of the opposed bodies is surrounded by supportive, talent-bearing aspects. The gift is a real capacity to mediate, to find the helping resources around a problem, and to soothe tensions for yourself and others. The shadow is leaning on the supports to avoid facing the core opposition. The work is using the helpers to actually resolve the tension, not just pad it. At your best you turn a hard place into a place of healing and mediation.

Traditional (Hellenistic)

The cradle strings sextiles and trines between bodies so that the chain bridges an opposition, the agreeable regards forming a supportive arc beneath the tension of the opposed pair. In the older language the sextile and trine behold with goodwill, so the figure surrounds a hard regard with helpers. The condition is supportive: the opposition has a cushioned path between its ends.

Sources

  • Hand, Horoscope Symbols (1981)Defines the cradle as sextiles and trines bridging an opposition, a supportive arc.
  • Tompkins, Aspects in Astrology (1989)Reads the cradle as soft aspects surrounding and easing a hard one.
  • Carter, The Astrological Aspects (1930)Catalogues the sextile and trine as the easy aspects forming the cradle.