102 SIMPLIFIED SCIENTIFIC ASTROLOGY
at first weak, but it becomes stronger and stronger the nearer the applying planet comes to the exact aspect, and at that time it culminates or reaches its maximum strength. Then when the planets begin to separate and the aspect is gradually dissolved, the influence is correspondingly weakened, and finally ceases altogether.
Cusp:
The first degree of a house or sign. When the Sun leaves the 30th degree of Cancer and is in Leo 0 degree, 1 min., it is said to be on the cusp of Leo, the same with respect to the other signs. If Aries 10 degrees is on the midheaven, as the cusp or dividing line between the ninth and tenth houses is called, and Neptune is in Aries 9 degrees 55 minutes, it is placed in the Ninth House on the cusp of the tenth. If it is in Aries 10 degrees 5 minutes, it is placed in the tenth house on the cusp.
As the influence of planets having direct motion is always forward in the Zodiac, a planet on the cusp of a house will always have a stronger influence on the affairs signified by that house than a planet which is placed in the latter degrees of a house.
Declination:
The distance a planet is north or south of the Celestial Equator, The highest north declination of the Sun is 23 degrees 27 minutes, which it attains at the summer solstice the 21st of June, and at the winter
