Karen Hamaker-Zondag - The Yod Book: Including a Complete Discussion of Unaspected Planets

Karen Hamaker-Zondag is the author of fifteen books, many of which are published by Weiser, including The Twelfth House and Tarot as a Way of Life. She gives workshops and lectures in Europe as well as in the United States, where she is a very popular speaker. She is the recipient of the 1998 Regulus Award for Education from the United Astrology Congress.

She is a founding member of two schools: Stichting Achemar, an astrological school; and Stichting Odrerir, a school of Jungian Psychology. Since 1990, she and her husband Hans, have published Symbolon, a popular astological journal. Karen lives near Amsterdam with her husband and two children.

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Hamaker-Zondag, Karen. Aspects and Personality. York Beach, ME: Samuel Weiser, 1990.

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CHAPTER ONE

What Is a Yod?Technical Background of the Yod Configuration

A yod is an aspect configuration where one planet (MC, Ascendant, or a planet) forms an inconjunct with two other zodiacal points, while these two planets form a sextile between them. In a yod either the MC or the Ascendant can participate, but because we don't draw aspects between the MC and the Ascendant, they can never be involved in a single yod at the same time. [Jod comes from the Hebrew word jod = hand.]

Astrology recognizes a number of different aspects that form a closed configuration; for instance, we recognize the grand trine (whose points connect three signs of a single element), or the grand cross (or square), whose points connect the four signs of a single mode, and so on. The direction the interpretation of any aspect configuration takes is determined, for one, by the meaning of the kinds of aspects involved, and by the planets involved. More is going on though. In order to understand thoroughly what aspects are all about, aspect configurations in general, and the yod in particular, we will sidestep a bit and look at other astrological rules and interpretive factors so we can bring these together later on at a deeper level in discussing the yod configuration.

Aspects

Technically speaking, an aspect is an angle a planet forms in relation to another in the sky, as seen from Earth. There are countless possible angles, but history has taught us that particular angles exhibit a clear effect and others do so less or not at all. After Kepler, classification according to so-called major and minor aspects was recognized; the major aspects were traditionally the conjunction (0), sextile (60), square (90), trine (120), and opposition (180). These are all angles divisible by 30, the number of degrees comprising a whole sign. At that time, aspects were considered exclusively with reference to sign. The only two aspects missing from this list of major aspects that are also divisible by 30 are the semi-sextile (30) and the inconjunct (150). These used to be minor aspects.

By combining music and numerology with the concept of astrological aspects, Kepler created many new aspects. He was familiar with the inconjunct (also called a quincunx), but also made totally new ones. Because Kepler came up with quite a few aspects whose angles were no longer divisible by 30, the problem arose, for instance, that you could get a quintile (72) between the signs Aries and Cancer (i.e., a planet at 29 Aries, and the other 72 further at 11 Cancer), but also one between Aries and Gemini (i.e., a planet at 2 Aries, and the other 72 further at 14 Gemini). He gave aspects their own meaning based on music and numerology, and the angles that belong to the aspects were, from Kepler's time on, pretty much considered from a strictly mathematical point of view, rather than from the sign where the planets were placed. This meant changing the traditional manner of reading the chart, where a planet was inseparably linked to its sign and where the sign was of considerable importance when thinking of aspects. In the old days, as Greek sources report (think of Ptolemy), it was even the case that aspects were not seen as having an orb, but only used as whole-sign aspects.

For example: every planet in Aries, regardless of the degree was considered to be sextile to every planet in Aquarius, again regardless of the degree in which that planet was located. The reason for this was that Aries and Aquarius are sextile, and any planets located in these signs, because of their background, will also have a sextile-tendency to each other.