The two planets at the lips or rim of the Bowl may or may not be opposed; if they are, their opposition is known as the “rim opposition.” Both the presence of a rim opposition and a T-square strengthen a Bowl. The more exact the rim opposition, the stronger is the Bowl pattern’s influence in your character. If your rim opposition is wide (say more than 8° from exact), or there is no reinforcing T-square in the Bowl, the Bowl Pattern in your chart may not be extremely definitive of your character or compelling in its nature. But it is still present.

If you have a Bowl chart, you are probably very self-contained, and often have a mission, cause or advocacy in life, which manifests either as dedication to an ideal, or more onerously as a cross to bear. You often base your sense of self-worth upon a significant contribution that you’ve made to life that others have valued and acknowledged; if you haven’t already done this, it is probably a necessary and important step for you. You function best in crisis situations, where, according to Marc Jones, you have “an ability to hold steadfast under strain.” Be aware, however, that your reliable steadfastness doesn’t turn into intractability. You’re also a whole-hogger, putting your heart and soul into the enterprises you take on.

If you're a Bowl Pattern, you seek balance and harmony with your environment, perhaps to compensate for the polarity between the occupied and unoccupied halves of your charts. The occupied half of your chart symbolizes what you have to give to the world, and the unoccupied portion what you, consciously or unconsciously, feel you lack.

Imagine your planets rotating around your chart in a clockwise direction, which in fact they do, due to the daily rotation of the earth. The planet at the clockwise end of the Bowl group is the most highly emphasized planet in the chart, and is known as the "cutting planet." (In the Bowl sample chart in the upper left on page 52 in You and the Universe, and shown above, the cutting planet is Uranus-¨.) The name comes from the fact that as the Earth rotates, the cutting planet seems to "cut" into the ascendant rather than being drawn passively through it as is the other rim planet. If the cutting planet is also the ruler of the ascendant, it is a very important planet in the chart! The cutting planet is also greatly emphasized if it’s in an angular house, especially the first or the tenth. The affairs of whatever house the cutting planet occupies are emphasized in proportion to the cutting planet’s emphasis. The rim opposition symbolizes—through the signs and houses of the opposed planets—a need for compromise between their opposing energies that is usually resolved in favor of the cutting planet.

Celebrities with the Bowl pattern are/were Paul Anka, Desi Arnaz, Arthur Ashe, Candice Bergen, Daniel Berrigan, Pierce Brosnan, Julie Christie, Bill Clinton, Franco Corelli, Jane Curtin, Donovan, Patty Duke, Steve Forbes, Joe Greene, Phil Hartman, Goldie Hawn, Jimi Hendrix, Tommy Lee Jones, Caroline Kennedy, Billie Jean King, Stephen King, Penny Marshall, Steve Martin, Bette Midler, Joe Namath, Olivia Newton-John, Carlos Santana, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Kenneth Starr, Oliver Stone, Barbara Streisand, Pete Townshend, Margaret Trudeau, Donald Trump, Henry Winkler and Peter Ustinov.