The Sextile:
[60° with 4° – 6° orb] Keyword: Opportunity
“Planet X refines Y … X and Y maintain a state of harmony. X and Y cooperate with each other … X and Y act as partners.”
Theos assigns Ray 2 and Ray 6 to Sextiles: The Sextile is an Aspect which shows a working, cooperative effort which can lead to productive growth. Ray 2 and Ray 6, being founded on the Love line, blend and merge beautifully into a Soul-infused partnership which opens the door to opportunity through growth. The Sextile asks the personality to participate by actively cooperating with the energies present with the intent to cause the energies to succeed in their positive purpose. Otherwise called “a little push.”
The Aspect Potential for the Sextile: Building a New Ability.
Key Concepts for the Sextile: Productively combines with, facilitates the expression of … Ease with effort, openness to the new.
Like the Trine, only of lesser intensity, the Sextile is a bringer of opportunities. Unlike a Trine, however, the Sextile cannot ensure good fortune [what can?] … the energy is weak so that you must conscientiously go out of your way to work on realizing the potentially positive effects into your life. They point the way towards identifying the opportunities in your life and also reveal the best way to develop and apply these opportunities. The Planets and/or Houses are in a harmonious relationship to each other, allowing the energy flows to move smoothly. This is not a dynamic angle, but a passive one.
In effect, the Sextile might be described as a “safe” Aspect because planets in Sextile easily surrender to conscious control. Safe has quotation marks around it because safety is an illusion unless one holds a personal focus of safety, thus making it Real in your reality. Control is also an illusion … there is only Choice. Choice directs flow but does not control it, start it, or stop it.
There is a Venusian feeling to this Aspect. The Sextile is an Aspect of enjoyment, pleasure and intellectual valuing. Sextiles have also been linked to rhythm and repetition and thus with dancers and musicians. The Sextile is an Aspect of harmony and planets linked by this kind of contact tend to cooperate with each other … however, again, this is a rather passive Aspect, so that even cooperation takes some degree of effort.
Sextiles normally connect planets in Signs of different, but compatible, Elements and opposite Polarities. The flow of energy combines the ease of the Trine with the conflict of the Opposition … as a result, planets in sextile tend to generate a stimulating blend of fluency and contrast. There is not the dynamic tension or instability of the challenging Aspects, but neither is there the stability of the Trine. Sextiles generally demand greater effort – or less complacency – than the Trine to manifest the talents indicated by the planets concerned. Although they do not lead to rapid change, Sextiles can provide opportunities for measured growth. The Sextile presents opportunities which, if acted upon, can produce the abilities and benefits of the Trine.