← Encyclopedia of Astrology · lesson 49/235
Antiscion
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What it is
A planet's antiscion (plural antiscia, sometimes "antiscions") is its reflection across the axis of the solstices — the line from 0° Cancer to 0° Capricorn. Imagine that axis as a mirror laid across the zodiac: every degree on one side has a twin on the other, the same distance from the solstice point. When one planet stands on another's antiscion, tradition reads the two as linked, as if by a hidden aspect.
Why the solstices
The mirror is astronomical, not invented. Two degrees equally far from a solstice share the same declination: when the Sun passes through either one, the days are the same length. Ptolemy already called parts of the zodiac equally distant from the same solstice "of equal power", and said they "behold" each other, for exactly that reason (he paired the signs themselves a little differently, counting whole signs). A pair of planets in antiscion are therefore also in parallel of declination, at least when both lie on the ecliptic; the two techniques see the same symmetry from different sides.
How it is worked out
The sign pairs that mirror each other are:
- Gemini and Cancer
- Taurus and Leo
- Aries and Virgo
- Pisces and Libra
- Aquarius and Scorpio
- Capricorn and Sagittarius
Within a pair, the degrees add up to 30. A planet at 10° Taurus has its antiscion at 20° Leo; one at 5°30' Aries has it at 24°30' Virgo. In absolute longitude the rule is simply 180° minus the planet's position. Lilly sets out the arithmetic step by step, down to the minute.
How it is read
- A planet on another's antiscion is read as a bond of sympathy between them — a connection that does not show as an ordinary aspect. Lilly and Ramsey both report the view that a good planet's antiscion works like a sextile or trine.
- A planet on the antiscion of an angle — the Ascendant or Midheaven — is read as touching that angle quietly.
- In horary, some astrologers count a significator reaching another's antiscion as a way a matter can be brought about, even with no ordinary aspect between them.
The contact is used with a tight orb, about a degree. Its companion across the other axis, the equinoxes, is the contra-antiscion, read as the more frictional counterpart.
In the tradition
Antiscia are old: Firmicus Maternus discusses them in the fourth century, and they run through medieval and Renaissance practice to Lilly's day. They faded with much of traditional technique, survived in Uranian astrology as "mirror points", and have returned with the revival of traditional astrology. A note on words: some writers use "antiscion" loosely for both mirrors, or call the point a "solstice point"; here it means only the solstice mirror. Like midpoints, antiscia are an advanced, optional layer — years of good chart reading can be done without them.
In a reading here
Birth chart readings include a section of advanced chart techniques that lists antiscia: pairs among the ten planets, the Ascendant and the Midheaven that stand within 1° of each other's antiscion (or contra-antiscion).