Antiscion

I hope you have missed me. I missed you, and I missed writing. Let’s talk about antiscia.

This is an important part of astrological judgment — and an easy one, to be honest; some astrologers make a big fuss about it, but it’s very simple to use — but it might confuse some people.

So, let’s explain what is an antiscion, and how to use it.

Antiscion comes from the Greek “ἀντίσκιον”, “other shadow”, “opposite shadow”, or something like that. Astrologers use either “antiscia” or “antiscions” for the plural.

And they really are an “alternative”, or “opposed”, shadow.

Every degree in the Zodiac has a corresponding degree for its antiscion, so anything at a degree of the Zodiac “casts two shadows”; one, where it is by body (this expression applies, strictly speaking, only to planets, which are bodies), the other, at its antiscion.

But let’s start from the beginning. Why do these things exist?

I mention it a lot, because it’s always important, so bear with my repetitions: astrology works within a model of the Universe that is very different from the one we learn at school.

It consists of concentric spheres that revolve around the Earth, which is static. Each of the seven traditional planets moves within a sphere of its own.

The Sun goes around, in its own sphere, on a circle called “the Ecliptic”. Around the Ecliptic, there’s a belt which we call “the Zodiac”.

The Zodiac is divided in a way that reflects the annual course of the Sun. Western astrology starts this division at the point where the Sun crosses the celestial Equator — the Vernal Equinox (for the Northern Hemisphere), the Point of Aries.

So, the Zodiac, the signs, are linked to what the Sun is doing along the year. It is not only the primum inter pares of the planets, but the “most important symbol” of astrology. As the Sun move, astrological symbols change, and things on Earth change.

The Zodiac and the course of the Sun cannot be reduced to their effects down here, the celestial symbols are really and hierarchically above us, but the relation is strong and obvious.

The Zodiac is divided into four quarters (by the two equinoxes and the two solstices); the weather is divided into four seasons that match these quarters. As the Sun enters each of these groups of three signs, the weather changes.

This is good, because it makes things very easy for me.

Let’s imagine the Sun is exactly at 0 Capricorn: at the Solstice (winter for the North, summer for the South; I’ll keep my examples north of the Equator, to make things easier).

Remember, the Sun not only never deviates from the Ecliptic, but it also doesn’t change gears. It moves at the same pace.

When it’s at the Winter Solstice, the day is the shortest of the year, and the night is the longest.

Now, let’s imagine it moves ten degrees, up to 10 Capricorn. The day is a bit longer, the night a bit shorter.

If we retrace the Sun’s steps the exact same amount of degrees, we arrive at 20 Sagittarius.

When the Sun was there, the day was a bit longer than at 0 Capricorn.

In fact, the day when the Sun was at 20 Sagittarius has the same duration as when it is at10 Capricorn.

And it happens to any amount of degrees — if the distance to the Solstice is the same, the days (and nights) have the same duration.

This marks a correlation between these degrees. It’s as if the Zodiac was two set of stairs, one “descending” from the Summer Solstice to the Winter Solstice, and the other “ascending” back to summer. In these two sets, the steps (“degree”, after all, means “step”) at the same distance to 0 Cancer and 0 Capricorn have equal duration of the days and nights.

So, these degrees are linked by the Sun. They have a “shadow relationship”.

Anything at, say, 15 Virgo casts two shadows. One, where its body is, at 15 Virgo; the other, at 15 Aries. One is the antiscion of the other.

How to use it?

This is simple.

Treat it as an alternative position. If a planet is in 10 Taurus, and another in 20 Leo, it’s as if both were in either place — they are in conjunction.

It’s not exactly the same thing, of course. First off, receptions and dignity don’t change, as they are a product of the interactions between the qualities of the planets and of the signs they’re in; they are a body thing, as it were.

For the same reason, a planet cannot be combust by antiscion, its body is not there.

Secondly, stars do not have antiscia — they’re symbolically “part of the background”.

Moreover, saying A is on the antiscion of B and saying B is on the antiscion of A is the same thing.

What is a contrantiscion?

I’m 100% with John Frawley here: this word should be abandoned.

If the antiscion of a planet A is at 15 Libra, anything there is conjunct it by antiscion.

But anything at 15 Aries is opposed to it by antiscion, too (and A, of course, also opposes it by antiscion). Being opposed by antiscion is traditionally called “being in contrantiscion”.

The word does not add anything except confusion.

And what about the other aspects?

I personally have never seen they doing anything relevant, although, in theory, I see no reason for a sextile, a trine, or a square to be disregarded. But they just don’t seem to work, neither in horary nor in natal.

(Which is probably a good thing, God forbid people naming them).

Are there any differences in interpretation?

Most of the time, no. A conjunction by antiscion works like a conjunction; an opposition by antiscion, as an opposition.

But, because it is not bodily, depending on the situation, and as long as the context allows it, there are some differences.

First, things linked directly to the body — death, sickness, pregnancy — are not signified by it.

Secondly, as it is a “shadow”, if the context allows it, it can carry the meaning of something hidden, occult, or secret — but, I must stress, only if the context allows it. In a horary, if someone asks “Will I manage to buy XYZ?”, and the contact between querent and thing is by antiscion, it does not mean querent will steal it.

→ It does work in translation and collection of light. I know, no textbook says anything about it, but I’ve seen it work countless times.

This is it.

I am not going to post any table, or any correspondence between the signs that are in antiscion to each other, because a) people with doubts on it usually already know this table, b) it’s available everywhere, c) it’s easy to derive them from what I just said.

One last bit, for those whose software does not present antisicia. When you are calculating the exact degree of the antiscion, as they are inverted in their position by degrees (that is, the antiscion of the first degree in a sign is the last in the other, the antiscion of the second, the second-to-last, etc), you’ll have to subtract the position of the planet from 30 degrees to get the antiscion. It’s easier to calculate if you consider 30 degrees as 29 degrees and 60 minutes, the subtraction will be simpler.

I hope this was useful. Please let me know if you have any doubts, or if any passage of the text was hard to understand.

See you (I hope!) soon.