⚺ Semi-sextile
Sun semi-sextile Mercury
The only aspects these two can make are the conjunction and, at most, a very wide separation; a genuine trine or square between them is astronomically impossible. Where they are simply close but not exact, the tradition reads an easy fit between who you are and how you explain yourself.
- Angle
- 30°
- Orb used
- ±2°
- Type
- Soft
- Bodies
- ☉ ☿
What these two are about together
Identity and the way you think. These two are never far apart in reality, so the tradition reads this pair as how closely somebody identifies with their own mind and opinions.
What a semi-sextile does
A semi-sextile puts two planets in adjacent signs, which share no element, no quality and no polarity. The tradition treats it as the mildest contact in the table and disagrees with itself about whether it is helpful at all: some read it as a small supportive link, others as a low-level irritation between two things that simply do not speak the same language. Both readings agree it is quiet.
How it reads
The only aspects these two can make are the conjunction and, at most, a very wide separation; a genuine trine or square between them is astronomically impossible. Where they are simply close but not exact, the tradition reads an easy fit between who you are and how you explain yourself.
In practice
Read as a minor note rather than a theme. A semi-sextile is worth mentioning when almost nothing else is in orb, and worth leaving out of a summary when anything major is.
What to watch for
Overreading it. Adjacent signs are genuinely awkward together, but at this strength the tradition does not expect the awkwardness to be conspicuous.
The two planets
Sun: Identity, vitality and what you are becoming
Mercury: Mind, language and how you process
Sun and Mercury at other angles
Find this in your own chart
A reading like this only tells you what the pairing is associated with. Whether Sun and Mercury actually make this angle in your chart depends on your birth date, time and place.