Ascension, Signs of Long. Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius. (v. Signs.

)
Ascension, Signs of Short. Capricorn to Gemini inclusive.

Ascensional Difference. The difference between the Right Ascension of any body and its
Oblique Ascension: used chiefly as expressing the difference in time between the rising or
setting of a celestial body, and six o'clock; or, six hours from the meridianal passage. To find
this, add the log. tangent of the declination of the planet, to the log. tangent of the latitude of
the place. The sum will be the log. sine of the Ascensional Difference. This added to the
planet's Right Ascension, when in South declination (or subtracted, when in North
declination), gives the Oblique Ascension of the planet. The reverse process yields the
Oblique Descension.

Aspect. Anciently termed Familiarities or Configurations (q.v.). Certain angular relationships

between the rays which reach the Earth from two celestial bodies, or between one ray and a
given point: such as -- the horizon; the degree that was on the horizon at a given moment, or
that represents the position of a planet at a given moment; the point on which an Eclipse or
other celestial phenomenon occurred; the places of the Moon's Nodes; or the cusps of the
Houses, particularly the First and Tenth.

Many factors enter into the delineation of the effect of an aspect: such as -- the nature of the
aspect; the character of the planets involved, their latitude, character and rate of motion; their
strength by virtue of their sign position; the measure of harmony that exists between the signs
in which are posited, and between the signs they rule; and sundry other considerations.
Various terms are employed to describe these factors.

Generally speaking, the term Aspect is applicable to any blending of rays that results in their
interactivity. The body which has the faster mean motion is said to aspect the slower. As
speed in orbit is relative to the size of the orbit, the inner planet aspects the one farthest
removed from the Sun. Thus Venus aspects Saturn, not vice versa. There are exceptions, but
only when other factors are involved. Transiting Saturn cannot pass over Venus, but Saturn
can pass over the degree which Venus occupied on some former occasion, at which time its
influence was sufficiently augmented to create a sensitive degree -- a Venus sensitivity. Thus
when Saturn transits this degree, you receive a Saturn impulse through a Venus expectancy.
This illustrates the two principal types of aspects: (a) mutual aspects -- those which occurred
between two moving bodies on some specified date; and (b) directional, progressed or
transitory aspects -- between a moving body, and a fixed point, usually the degree a planet
occupied on a specified day of birth, when it became a sensitive point in a life pattern of daily
expectancy and receptivity. The planet which "burned" its mark into your pattern, has moved
away -- but the expectancy and receptivity lingers on.