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Ptolemy's Dignities | Pars Fortunæ | Planetary Values | Zodiac | Hellenistic Astrology | Symbols & Signs |
Lilly's Table for Calculating the Antiscions of the Planets | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Antiscion (pl. Antiscia; Antiscions) of any given planet is a point equal in distance on the opposite side of the solsticial axis to the planet's position, effectively the "shadow" of a planet. Once held to be a powerful fortitude equivalent to sextile or trine, this is rarely considered by modern astrologers, perhaps because it is a geometrical abstraction, rather than a real rock. However, the current interest in ancient and mediæval astrology has inclined some of us to take another look at what had been previously dismissed as obsolete techniques. One sometimes finds that there seems to be no pertinent modern astrological explanation for certain events, so perhaps we should take a more serious look at what the ancients had to say. The midpoint of a planet's position and its antiscion is always the point of the solstice (1° Cancer – 1° Capricorn). For example, when the Sun is in the tenth degree of Taurus, this is as far distant from the first degree of Cancer as it would be if placed in the twentieth degree of Leo, its antiscion. The antiscion thus energises any planet in that degree, or which casts an aspect to that degree, so planets which are otherwise not in normal aspect can have an important relationship via the antiscion. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The degree and minute of an antiscion can then be calculated using the following table. I have reproduced Lilly's explanation of the table, with spelling and grammar modernised for clarity. If you would like to know the exact degrees and minutes, you must work as follows.
It will be interesting to see if traditional techniques such as antiscion and contra-antiscion, along with even more abstruse Hellenistic methods, achieve greater popularity as the work of antiquarians such as Robert Schmidt and Robert Hand come further into the public eye—or at least the eye of modern astrologers. Using these techniques requires a restructuring of the typical modern worldview away from the concrete, psychological and materialistic modes of thought and a return to the symbolic, geometrical and numerological approach of more wholistically minded times. So far, I have found antiscion and contra-antiscion contacts to be very revealing in synastry relationship analysis, but more research is needed before we can call that a major principle. Perhaps it will remain very much a minority interest, but time will tell. This is the end of the article. |
See also our traditional | Table for Calculating Planetary Values |
For values of Pars Fortunæ, see | Table to Calculate Value of Part of Fortune |
For further info, please see also our | Ptolemy's Table of Essential Dignities & Debilities |
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