Orbs and other hot potatoes

I'm taking a risk of asking this here since it seems this side of the forum has minimal activity. But I have a few questions. Can anyone explain these to me please? I am trying to learn more about orbs and how they work

1. How small should an orb be?
2. Do large orbs not count in someone's chart or is it's effect not as strong?
3. Why do some orbs have letter A or S behind it? What does this mean?
Example: 9 degrees 15s/ -0 degrees 54a
4. What matters most the orb or the aspect itself?

And other hot potatoes... that sounds familiar.

Still--


1. The tighter the orb, the stronger the aspect.

2. Wider orbs can be used on a case by case, I think.

3. A and S... I don't know.

I think A is ascending or means approaching, but

I'm not certain.

No clue what S means, but would like to know also.

4. You can't have an orb without an aspect... sooo

Posted by tiziani
1. It's your choice, it's mostly trial and error at first. The modern types based it on aspects (commonly the widest acceptable orb is usually around 10 degs max for the strongest aspects, conjunction and opposition, then gets smaller with others) but I've never found basing it on aspects made any big difference. Traditional astrologers base it on the size of the planet
and its moiety (the light it carries) I have seen orbs as wide as 17 degs for the biggest planets if you go down that route.

2. The wider the orb, the weaker the interaction between the planets involved because it's not even hitting the planet anymore but just the light that surrounds it.

3. I don't know what that is

4. Depends on your view on 1 but without aspect there is no orb so...

I'm too slow... 😛

Posted by LuckyLibra979
As far as no 3. It means approaching or separating. All that means is the orbs are approaching exactness or a point where the distance is consider significant(like four orbs wide)or if its leaving the point of pressure.

I think it's applying and separating.

Thank you so much everyone! It is a lot clearer to me I was totally confused by it. I have heard a couple people mention they don't work with anything more than 2 degrees and it had me confused, but I guess that's their preference.

Also the A/S makes more sense too. When I did my natal chart on astro I saw this in the chart. I wanted to know if it made a difference