Cosmic Piñata #9—Yods and other Oddities

©2011 by Donna Cunningham, MSW

 You know what a piñata is, right? It’s a paper mache thingie filled with candy and other goodies, and at a party, somebody gets blindfolded and whacks away at it. The goodies fly all over and people scramble for them.

 Well, this is a feature for Skywriter in which you’ll get a shower of goodies from time to time that are astrological in nature—sometimes related, sometimes, like today, random. What you get in this series of Cosmic Piñatas are wee bits I’ve collected from the comment section of this blog, from my Dell column, or email exchanges or other venues—treats that I’d like to share. 

 Q: Is the Yod a fated chart feature? It sounds dire!

 A: For those who aren’t familiar with it, a Yod is also known as an Eye of God or Finger of Fate. It consists of three planets forming a triangle. Two of the planets are 60 degrees apart (a sextile), while the point of the triangle is a planet that is five signs (150 degrees) away from both of the others in an aspect called a quincunx or inconjunct.  

That’s a lot of awesome-sounding names for one triangle, and old-time interpretations of a Yod love to awe you by saying that Destiny and Fated circumstances will strike you in the house and sign at the point of that triangle. I don’t know that I buy that—much depends on the particular planets, signs, and houses involved…and on your point of view in terms of how much you believe that outside forces cause your difficulties.  

A more modern, psychological view would hold that the quincunx (a.k.a. inconjunct) aspect is most understandable in terms of a kind of incongruity between the houses and signs involved—that their goals, interests, and activities don’t mesh with one another naturally or easily so it is hard to fit them together comfortably. When two different quincunx aspects form to the same planet, house, and sign, the resulting lack of fit between the three almost forces a creative leap for resolving the conflicting sets of desires.  

Q: A reader wanted to know, “I have Neptune in my 12th house, in Sagittarius like most of my generation. The cusps of my 12th and 1st houses are both in Sagittarius actually. Am I right in seeing this as a sort of “tie” between the two houses, making them more closely related? Would Neptune also therefore somehow affect the first house indirectly?”

A: “Yes, there’s a 12th-1st house tie in your chart. It’s true of anyone with the same sign on the 12th and first. The ties come through the ruler of both houses–in your case, Jupiter, since Sagittarius is ruled by Jupiter. In the case of someone with Libra on the 12th and 1st house cusps, the ruler of both would be Venus. And so on.

The ruler of the 1st is considered a very important planet in classical astrology–it’s called the ruler of the chart. So then you’d look at the sign, house, and aspects of that planet for important information about your approach to life. Its house shows ways to find a certain amount of fulfillment and purpose. Here, with it being a double ruler, look for it to show some ways both the 12th and 1st can find their fullest expression.

In your case, Neptune in the 12th reinforces the pull of your energies toward the 12th house, because the 12th and Neptune and Pisces are all similar energies. Study intensively on the planet Neptune. Be vigilant for the negative creeping in and twisting the positive. It is fully possible to begin by serving and end by twisting it into something sick and destructive for both you and the party you’re trying to help. In its negative forms, Neptune is seductive and extremely deceptive and can so easily lead you down the path to self-destruction.

Q: Your tests based on planets in signs, houses, aspects with the Sun, Moon, ASC, and Midheaven were very interesting. What if almost all planets score high? This makes it difficult to find out which one is most dominant. (See: Take the Planetary Tests.)

A: A very good question. Some charts have a lot of oomph–that is, many planets in the angles, many that have lots of aspects, especially many conjunctions, and certain signs or houses strongly emphasized, in which case the scores are probably high on a number of the tests. Others have few aspects, not many connections to the angles, and no particular planets, signs, or houses emphasized, in which case, there are few high scores.

When you find either extreme to be true, you’ve discovered something important about that person. The one with many high scores has a lot going on, can be very intense, juggles and integrates many interests, and make quite an impact on those around them. The one with low scores overall probably doesn’t have many aspects in their chart either, which can mean fewer tools to use to integrate the energies of the planets, and usually makes less of an impact.

If two or more of the outer planets have high scores, then you may have what I call an Outer Planet Person (OPP), someone who is unusual because their issues, concerns, characteristics, and focuses are not those of the average person, but more transpersonal, global, futuristic, etc. As a result of focusing so much attention on several outer planets and their connections to the inner ones, they also generally have greater difficulty fitting in with ordinary people and have many difficult questions, issues, and needs to resolve on a personal level.

Because of juggling such huge issues, OPPS don’t exactly come into their own in their 20s, and are more likely to reach a point of comfortability with who they are during their 40s. That’s when they go through that cycle of outer planet aspects to themselves. Transiting Uranus opposes natal Uranus; Pluto squares natal Pluto; and Neptune squares natal Neptune.
You’ll find lots more in-depth information about OPPS in my ebook trilogy, The Outer Planets and Inner Life, at: moonmavenpublications.com. Volume 1 deals with the outer planets as vocational indicators.

Volume 2 deals with outer planets and our relationships (aspects to Venus and Mars).

In addition, volume 3 is where you’ll probably find a lot of high scoring folks, as it deals with subgenerations like the Pluto-Uranus conjunction in Virgo and the Pluto-Saturn conjunctions in Leo and Libra.

 Readers, If you get new insights from this or other Cosmic Pinatas, share them in the comment section. 

Other Editions of the Cosmic Piñata Column:

• The Cosmic Piñata, Part 1 — Saturn Transits and Insights into the Houses
• The Cosmic Piñata #2: Treats from other Astrology Blogs
• Cosmic Piñata #3: A Plutonian Potpourri
• Cosmic Piñata #4: Astrological Oddities—or Not?
• Cosmic Piñata #5—Mercurial Morsels
• Cosmic Piñata #6—a Moon Miscellany
• Cosmic Piñata #7: Astro*Carto*Graphy Stories
• Cosmic Piñata #8: Readers’ Observations about Quintiles and other Aspects