☍ The Opposition · Polarity

A hundred and eighty degrees: the two ends of one axis. Each becomes visible mainly through the other, which is why an opposition so often turns up as a person across the room rather than a feeling inside you.

The opposition at a glance

• Angle180°
• Umbriel calls itPolarity
• Typical orbabout 8°
• Keywordstwo ends, one axis, seen through the other

What the opposition means

An aspect is the angle between two planets: how they talk to each other. At 180°, the opposition is the aspect of the axis you stand on, and why the far end usually arrives wearing someone else's face. In a chart it's associated with two ends, one axis, seen through the other, projection.

We call this one Polarity, after what the angle does rather than how it is supposed to feel. Elsewhere you will see the opposition called a “challenging” or “hard” aspect. Same geometry. Both words are worth having, and we would rather hand you the mechanism first and let you decide how it feels.

Why oppositions work like that

A hundred and eighty degrees is six signs apart, and here is the part that usually gets missed: an opposition shares more than a square does. Same mode, same polarity, and complementary elements, fire with air or earth with water.

Aries and Libra are both cardinal, both positive, one fire and one air. They are not incompatible. They are the two ends of one axis, and each is holding a half the other has left alone.

Which is why filing the opposition alongside the square is a mistake rather than a shorthand. A square is two things that share a tempo and nothing else. An opposition is one thing seen from both ends.

How close does it have to be?

About 8 degrees, the same as the conjunction and the square.

It is also the easiest aspect to find with your eyes on the wheel, because the two planets sit straight across from one another. If a chart is drawn honestly, an opposition looks like exactly what it is.

Is it a good aspect or a bad one?

Called challenging, and more accurately called relational. An opposition is very often met through other people: the half you are not carrying tends to walk in wearing somebody else's face.

That is neither good nor bad, but it is the aspect where the difference between projecting and integrating is the whole story. This app calls it Polarity, because that is what the geometry does, and the traditional name is kept in the heading so you can take either word anywhere else.

How common is it?

One place on the circle, like the conjunction, so geometrically among the less likely of the majors.

And the same rule about impossible pairs applies, in reverse. Mercury can never oppose the Sun and neither can Venus, because neither one ever gets far enough away from it.

A question to sit with

Which two needs sit at opposite ends of you, and who is holding the far end just now?

Working with it

Find who is currently holding the far end for you: the person who irritates you in exactly this register. Then try, once, saying the thing they represent in your own voice, as a preference of yours, not a complaint about them.