Perfection (Aspect)

Definition

Perfection is the moment an aspect between two horary significators completes — and it is read as the moment the thing you asked about actually comes to pass. Only aspects the planets are moving toward perfect; an aspect they are moving away from describes something already over. The kind of aspect at perfection — conjunction, sextile, trine, square, opposition — colors how the matter resolves, from easy to hard-won.

In Tradition

Arabic and medieval astrologers held that an aspect perfecting between the Lord of the Ascendant — the planet for you — and the Lord of the quesited house — the planet for the matter — is the main positive sign the question will work out. Sahl ibn Bishr set out the indirect routes — translation of light, collection of light, bodily conjunction — that "substitute for a direct aspect and can perfect matters otherwise incapable of direct perfection," and listed the impediments — prohibition, besieging, combustion — that destroy the promise.

In Practice

Once the two significators are identified, the astrologer checks whether the faster one is moving toward the slower by sign and by degree, what aspect they will form, and how many degrees of exactness still lie ahead — each degree usually read as a unit of time scaled to the question. Sextile and trine point to ease; a conjunction with mutual reception (each planet hosting the other) points to a strong result; square and opposition point to a result reached through friction or loss. When the two significators never aspect each other, perfection can still arrive by translation — a faster planet carrying light from one to the other — or by collection, where a slower planet gathers both. Reception at the moment of perfection reads as good will; perfection without it delivers the event but not the satisfaction. Refranation, prohibition, abscission, and besieging all destroy perfection.

Historical Origin

The technical doctrine of perfection is fully set out in Sahl ibn Bishr's On Questions (9th century, carrying the Greek tradition of questions into Arabic) and developed by Masha'allah, Bonatti's Liber Astronomiae (13th century), and Lilly's Christian Astrology (1647). Its Hellenistic precedent is the doctrine of bond and connection between planets in the natal compilations of Dorotheus and Valens.

Etymology

Origin: Latin. Meaning: From perfectio, "completion," from perficere, "to carry through" (per- "through" + facere "to make")..

Further Reading