Separating and Retrograde Planets in a Natal Chart versus Applying Planets - How to Interpret Each

It's here, the Ray Merriman Forecast 2025 audiobook is now available for sale, and I can say with 100% confidence, knowing how astrology works, I would not want to enter 2025 without the information in this book, and that's how important I feel it is for you. Learn about the Aries Vortex, the New Era AIRA, and Ray's incredible insights into 2025 and beyond. And to order yours, go to the top of Hightimelinebooks.com and it will link you directly to the book. Welcome to the Old Soul New Soul Astrology Podcast. We have a listener question about a topic that probably all of us have in our charts, one way or another. Hi guys, thank you for your podcast. My question is, do separating natal aspects have a different type of effect on you? What is the difference if there is one? Thank you. That's a great question that so many astrologers forget to take into consideration. If an aspect between two planets is applying, then it is something that is coming into your life after you are born, and it will get stronger as the aspect becomes partile, or exact. If an aspect is separating at your birth, it is something you are born with already, and that means that it is karmic, either from past lives, or it's hereditary, or it's gestational. It was there at your birth and before your birth because it's separating in this life. As to which one is stronger, applying aspects traditionally are considered to be stronger because they're building toward exactness, whereas separating aspects are considered to be less strong because the aspect, the conjunction, or the square, or whatever the aspect is, has already happened before you were born. It still is a part of your life, but it's considered to be less strong. In fact, separating aspects tend to indicate a more likelihood that you can integrate them holistically even if they're hard aspects, whereas applying aspects, if they're in hard aspects, will tend to indicate a crisis or turning point involving those two planets, the one applying to the other, that happens in your life after you're born to be dealt with then. And one way to calculate the when is to use solar arcs. You can shorthand that by simply using one degree for a year. So if a planet is applying to, and remember you have to consider which planet is moving fastest, so that's the one that's doing the applying. If two planets are applying, let's say they're seven degrees apart from an exact square, then at seven years old, one degree for a year, the person will have a crisis or a turning point involving those two planets and the houses that they are in, and the houses that they each rule. Furthermore, that same square, that applying square, or applying trine, whatever it is, if it's seven degrees apart, it will repeat every seven years of their lives, symbolically. It won't be the same event every time, but the themes are the same, and each time they reoccur or recur, which is at age seven, 14, 21, 28, and so on, they're evolving and maturing and they're meant to learn more about what that aspect means in terms of their gestalt in their lives. So it's very important information, but I hope that's answering the question. Simplistically, applying aspects are stronger, separating aspects less so. Applying aspects are happening after you're born, separating aspects have happened before you're born. Okay, now you mentioned something that I just wanted to clarify, partially for myself, but also for everybody. You mentioned that these are the fastest planets is applying. Symbolically. Well, let me give you a scenario. Saturn is at three degrees, and Mercury is at 12 degrees in the same sign. Which one is applying to which? All right, Mercury is separating from the conjunction with Saturn. Okay. If that... Yeah, maybe I was... Well, no, that's a great distinction, because somebody could look at that and say, well, in my natal chart, Saturn is moving toward Mercury, but what you're saying is, think about what's going on in the sky at that moment. True. Mercury is moving away. So yeah, Mercury's at 12, Saturn's at whatever you said, seven. Mercury is the faster moving, it's going to be separating from a conjunction. Yeah. Where in horary, for example, if you're doing the timing table, you look at the early... Yeah. So, okay, just wanted to distinguish that. You got me there. That's very good. You caught me listening. Okay. There was another little point that I thought was interesting, and you said that separating planets are less strong. And I wondered, was there anything, was I reading into anything, why did you use less strong instead of weaker? Only because in a separating aspect, the aspect already has occurred. So in the one you just mentioned with Mercury at 12 degrees and Saturn, let's say it's seven. Mercury's the fastest moving planet. It's already made the conjunction and it's moving away from it. Whereas if Mercury were at four degrees and Saturn were at seven, Mercury would be applying to the conjunction with Saturn. And the applying aspect is stronger in that sense. The separating aspects are leaving exactness. Applying aspects are approaching exactness, if you think of it that way. So really, you just think about your birthday and that moment, that snapshot second of your birth as a fun astrology podcast of transits, that the transits are really what's going on that day. And just think of it that way. That seems like it would clarify a lot. Yeah. Who's moving where, what direction, what's retrograde? Don't forget about that. Oh, that's very true. Thank you for that. Yeah. Let's think about that. So let's take our Mercury now in our little example, but it's in retrograde. So it's moving backwards towards Saturn. So it's moving backwards. So in fact, it may be applying, but it is applying. It may never reach the exact conjunction before it turns direct. But if Mercury is at 12 degrees retrograde of, let's say Pisces, and Saturn is at seven degrees Pisces, then Mercury retrograde is moving backwards at the time of birth. So it is applying. It's an applying aspect when it's retrograde. So you do a very good point. Just be sure you are aware of whether the planet is direct or retrograde to assess whether it's applying or separating. Well, and let's take that a step further. So let's say that Mercury in two examples, let's say that that Mercury would not reach Saturn and this is where somebody would just have to take their transiting chart on the day that they were born and step it forward to see if that retrograde Mercury would reach that Saturn or if it did not, would it reach it or would it not reach it? So my question is, if it did reach that Saturn, does that make that separating but now applying aspect stronger than if it didn't reach Saturn? Yes, it does. If it does reach, if it's retrograde and it does reach a partile aspect with another planet, that is stronger than if it is retrograde and applying to an aspect with another planet but doesn't reach exactness or partile, it turns direct before it becomes exact. That is a little less strong than if the retrograde planet actually reaches the exact aspect before turning their back. Okay, and we're going to leave it there because I know a lot of you are digging out your chart program right now to look at your retrograde planets to see if and then stepping them forward to see if they actually reach the planet that they are moving toward. That's a great point, Robert. Thank you. Glad we got to stumble onto that as well. All right. Hope that answers your question and thank you for submitting it because it's a topic that we needed to camp on just by itself. We'll see you guys next time on the Old Soul New Soul Astrology Podcast with Robert Glasscock. Thanks for listening.