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The Yod Book - Karen Hamaker-Zondag
Samuel Weiser, Inc. York Beach, ME. USA. 2000. 336
pages. 28 horoscopes. £16.95 sterling.
Reviewed by Maurice McCann Astrology Quarterly Autumn 2001
  Readers
of Réalta will know that for several years I have been researching
the origins of the aspects and the orbs of the planets, and publishing
my results in this magazine and others. This is an ongoing project that
still interests me and is even now some way from completion. Therefore
it was with great interest that I read this book hoping to learn of the
history and origins of the yod planetary formation. Karen Hamaker-Zondag
defines the yod in the following manner, "A yod consists of two inconjuncts
with a sextile at the base, and one of the points involved can be the
ascendant or the MC instead of a planet. The inconjunct, also sometimes
called the quincunx (Lat.: five-twelfths), plays an important part. It
is an aspect where the planets or points involved are at a distance of
150° from each other, and where only a small orb is allowed".
In this book she mainly refers to the 150-degree aspect as an inconjunct
or inconjunction. The use of this word inconjunction may be due to the
fact that the book has been translated out of Dutch and into English,
therefore something getting lost in the translation. It is used throughout
the book, which seems to imply that this is exactly the word the author
wishes to use. The point I'm making is that the word inconjunction means
"dissociate, or no aspect". Wilson's dictionary says that the
meaning of the word inconjunct is, "When a planet, house or sign
has no aspect or familiarity with another". If this 150-degree angle
had been mainly referred to as a quincunx, then the author's case may
perhaps have been better served.
Al Biruni writing in the 11th century said of the inconjunct, "The
two signs which are each side of the one in question and their opposites,
viz. the second and twelfth and the sixth and eighth are not in aspect
and are known as inconjunct". William Lilly wrote, "These are
called signs inconjunct, or such as if a planet is in one of them, it
cannot have any aspect to another in the sign underneath: as one in Aries
can have no aspect to another in Taurus or Scorpio, or one in Taurus to
one in Aries, Gemini, Libra or Sagittarius, so understand of the rest".
He even devised a table to help clarify the issue.
Taurus and Scorpio are both inconjunct Aries, but Pisces and Virgo are
not. This is because Pisces and Virgo are the contrantiscion and antiscion
of Aries therefore Aries beholds or sees both of them. This requires knowledge
of the antiscia, a series of aspects that are neglected by modern astrologers.
There's a lesson to be learnt here. See Lilly's Table of Signs not Beholding
One Other (‘Christian Astrology’ page 109)
Lilly and others knew the quincunx and the Kepler aspects as we can
see from this excerpt from Christian Astrology, "We seldom use more
aspects than the conjunction, sextile, square, trine and opposition to
these of late one Kepler, a learned man, has added some new ones, as follows,
viz.
- A semisextile, charactered SS, consisting of 30 degrees.
- A quintile Q consisting of seventy-two degrees.
- A tredecile Td consisting of 108 degrees.
- A biquintile consisting of 144 degrees.
- A Quincunx Vc consisting of 150 degrees.
I only acquaint you with these, that finding them anywhere you may apprehend
their meaning".
Note that there is no mention of the inconjunct or inconjunction, because
it is not an aspect and therefore would not be listed by Lilly or, for
that matter, by any of his contemporaries. Alan Oken in 1973 referred
to the yod as "the finger of fate" while at other times it has
been called "the finger of god". Bill Tierney mentioned all
this in his book "Dynamics of Aspect Analysis" where he devoted
a whole chapter each to the yod and the unaspected planets. More importantly,
because she is a modern astrologer who has done her research, J. Lee Lehman
in her book "Classical Astrology for Modern Living" called chapter
9, "When a quincunx (or Semi-sextile) is not Inconjunct". She
discusses the differences between the quincunx and the inconjunct in detail
quoting from Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos and other sources. This chapter is
of primary importance to students of the yod and should be thoroughly
studied.
It's a great pity that Karen Hamaker-Zondag did not look into the inconjunct/quincunx
and the origins of the yod, and presented her own findings in this book.
New ideas and techniques based on sound research are welcome and open
to discussion. Unfortunately, if the very foundations of the yod are unsound,
then no amount of anecdotes should persuade us otherwise.
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