For instance, Leo (fire) and Scorpio (water) are both fixed and square one another. So they can both be stubborn, which can create problems, but they are also both known to be loyal, another fixed quality. That may actually create a deeper harmony than is typically attributed to signs that are square. In contrast, Leo and Aries (both fire) are trine and may be in the comfort zone together in their fiery, enthusiastic, and spirited temperaments. Yet, Leo is fixed and Aries is cardinal, so on the one hand the difference in qualities may compliment one another — for example, Aries will start something new and Leo with keep it going. But the difference in qualities may also be a point of contention — for example, Aries will be onto the next adventure while Leo is still attached to the old one. 

Another example is Gemini (air) and Pisces (water). They are both mutable and square one another, so they might both be so changeable that there is no solid ground on which to stand. Yet on the other hand, they also both share an openness to all walks of life, adapting as necessary; Gemini is curious about all and Pisces naturally intuits the underlying oneness of all…

It is my practice to remember squares are not only negative, and trines are not only positive. All types of aspects, either within an individual birth chart, or when comparing two charts for compatibility, provide opportunities and gifts. 

To look up the Sabian Symbols relevant for your chart, click here. 

I happen to use this longer, more poetic version of the Sabians, because they seem to hold more meaning for me, personally. But there is a concise version that is more well known. In that version the equivalent of my Sun is: 

Leo 6: An old fashioned ‘consevative’ woman is confronted by an up-to-date girl. 

I don’t feel this version captures my essence as well, but some feel the concise version is the more original version. To look up the Sabian Symbols in this version, click here.

Regarding the different versions of the Sabian Symbols, here is an excerpt from Diane Applebaum:

“The story of how the Sabian Symbols came about will be found in the second chapter of Part One in Dane Rudhyar’s ‘An Astrological Mandala.’ Briefly put, on a day in 1925 Marc Edmund Jones and a well-known psychic, Elsie Wheeler, sat in a quiet area of a San Diego Park, yet a spot not far from the bustling world. He had a stack of 360 index cards, each with a degree of the zodiac written on it. Jones would shuffle the pile, and then, as he drew an index card, without either of them seeing which degree was written on it, Wheeler communicated a scene that came before her mind’s eye. In connection with each card, Jones ‘made a brief pen notation of what she said.’

[One version of the Sabians is the concise wording that Jones jotted down on the notecards and another is a more expanded version that Jones later wrote.] 

Although Jones felt moved to repudiate this later version, it is also said that early on he doubted the validity of the Sabians in general. Nevertheless, a circle of astrologers around him began working with the vignettes and found them uncannily accurate and informing. Which version is the most ‘credible’ I leave up to the reader to choose. In my experience the different versions work for different people. In connection with this, my mind always goes to the point in the story of events in the park that day in which Jones is said to have felt that one of the symbols that Wheeler had seen internally was incorrect. He asked Wheeler, who he apparently felt was channeling a representative of the ancient Mesopotamian brotherhood with whom this ancient system of symbols had abided, to inquire about the accuracy of this symbol. After making the inquiry Wheeler conveyed to Jones that the Brother’s answer was to the effect that it was up to Jones to discover.

I believe that this detail in the series of events indicates a significant aspect of the event that took place at that momentous point in time, and should not be discounted as an irrelevant detail or of no account. The meaning or meanings of this occurrence are not something minor or inconsequential to be cast aside as simply inscrutable or without implication to the subsequent unfolding of the phenomenon of the Sabians coming forth to be formulated. It is my opinion that that question and answer indicated the next phase after the park event — of bringing the conception to birth. The uncertainty that was expressed by Jones and the question he put forth are part of the profound and esoteric living dynamics of the advent of these symbols in their reappearance, now in the modern day world. As they unfold in this ‘incarnation,’ the symbols are ‘stamped’ with this seed-developmental phase, much as a natal chart illustrates dynamics that become stamped upon the incarnating soul at the moment of its first breath in this life, and the unfolding shown by the progressions.

It may be noted that it was Jones who wrote down the particular words on the note cards, the brief descriptions. I wonder what all Wheeler said in connection with each card. And even if the case may be that she spoke only those few words which he wrote on each card, the Brother may have implied that Jones had a designated destined role to play in the rich and more descriptive formulation and  presentation of the Symbols to the modern day world. 

Each version has adherents and resonates with intuitive knowing and insight. Each may serve as a tool that has the potential to spark inspired and accurate imagination in different people. The version I work with is the longer more descriptive formulations which Jones circulated not in book form but in manuscript form. They are titled Lecture-Lessons, and, according to the dates at the tops of the pages, were issued between May 18, 1931 and November 9, 1931.” 

*Always round up to the next degree when working with the symbols. Dane Rudhyar’s explanation: “if the symbol is referred to the position of a planet in an astrological chart, Cancer 5º begins at 4º 1” (four degrees and one second or minute) and ends with Cancer 4º59’59”; just as the first year (year number 1) of a life begins at birth and ends with the first birthday. We are dealing with a process, and ‘Phase One’ starts the very moment the process begins.”

**A holon is something that is simultaneously a whole and a part (Wikipedia).