Opposition
Two bodies 180° apart, on opposite sides of the circle, counted within 8° here or 10° with the Sun or the Moon.
In the sky now
Every exact one for three months
What it means
Two things facing each other. An opposition is read as awareness and tension together, the two bodies looking straight across the chart at one another.
The geometry of the opposition
An opposition divides the circle by two and draws a straight line through its centre. Opposite signs are six apart, and they always share a modality: Aries and Libra are both cardinal, fire facing air; Taurus and Scorpio are both fixed, earth facing water. Fire and air, earth and water, are the pairs the tradition treats as complementary, which is why opposite signs are read as two answers to the same question, independence against partnership or possessions against what is shared.
Every chart with houses has oppositions built in: the ascendant faces the descendant, the midheaven faces the IC, and each house faces the one six places round, so that the seventh is the only house opposing the rising sign.
How the opposition is read
The tradition reads an opposition as polarity: two planets that see each other clearly and pull in opposite directions, so the task is balance rather than choosing one side. It is often read as lived out through other people, with the self holding one end and a partner, rival or circumstance the other. Between fast planets it is read as a swing between two needs. The Sun opposite the Moon, the full Moon, is read as a tension between will and feeling; Venus opposite Mars as attraction charged with rivalry.
With a slow planet the opposition is read as a long negotiation. The Moon opposite Saturn is read as emotional needs weighed against duty, and Mars opposite Jupiter as enthusiasm inclined to overreach. Mercury and Venus never oppose the Sun, since they stay within about 28° and 47° of it. Among transits, Saturn opposes its own birth position at about fourteen and again at about forty-four, and Uranus does so somewhere around forty, so everyone of those ages shares them.
Orb, applying and separating
This site gives the opposition the same orbs as the conjunction, 8° between planets and 10° with the Sun or the Moon, and 8° on the compatibility page. An applying opposition, the faster body still moving towards 180°, is read as tension coming to a head, and a separating one as the moment of clarity having passed. The full Moon is the plainest example in the sky: an exact opposition of Sun and Moon that starts to separate the moment it is reached.
Where you meet a opposition
In a birth chart oppositions are drawn as red lines straight across the wheel, often close to its centre. A third planet square to both ends makes a T-square, two crossing oppositions a grand cross, and two oppositions joined by trines and sextiles a mystic rectangle, all on the aspect patterns page. In synastry an opposition between two people’s planets is read as strong attraction and strong difference at once, and among transits it is read as a stretch of weighing one thing against another. Opposite houses, such as the first and seventh, are read on the same principle.
Common confusions
An opposition is not a fight to be won. The tradition reads it as the aspect of relationship and perspective, and its hard label means demanding, not doomed. It is also easy to miss across sign boundaries: 29° Taurus and 3° Sagittarius are 184° apart, an opposition by degree between an earth sign and a fire sign that do not normally face each other, so it is read as less clearly polar than one between truly opposite signs.
Questions people ask
What does an opposition mean in astrology?
An opposition is two planets about 180° apart, on opposite sides of the zodiac. The tradition reads it as polarity and awareness: the planets pull in opposite directions but see each other clearly, so the reading turns on balancing the two. It is often described as experienced through relationships, with another person seeming to hold one end.
Is an opposition worse than a square?
Neither is worse; they are read differently. A square is described as internal friction that pushes for action, while an opposition is described as tension between two sides that can be seen and balanced, often through other people. Both are called hard aspects, meaning demanding. Many astrologers see the opposition as the more aware of the two.
What orb is used for an opposition?
This site counts an opposition within 8° between planets and 10° when the Sun or Moon is involved, the same orbs as the conjunction and the widest of the five. Comparing two charts uses 8°. Orbs are a convention, and other astrologers set them differently, but most agree that closer oppositions are read as stronger.
Is a full Moon an opposition?
Yes. A full Moon happens when the Moon is exactly opposite the Sun, 180° away in the zodiac, so that the side facing Earth is fully lit. A new Moon is the matching conjunction, and the first and last quarter Moons are squares. The tradition reads each phase partly through the aspect the Moon is making to the Sun.