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Contra-antiscion
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What it is
A planet's contra-antiscion (also written contrantiscion, plural contra-antiscia) is its reflection across the axis of the equinoxes — the line from 0° Aries to 0° Libra. It is the twin of the antiscion, which mirrors across the solstices instead, and it always falls exactly opposite a planet's antiscion. When one planet stands on another's contra-antiscion, tradition reads them as linked — but with more strain in the link than the antiscion carries.
Why the equinoxes
Two degrees equally far from an equinox lie at the same distance from the celestial equator, one north and one south: their declinations are equal and opposite. So a pair in contra-antiscion are also in contraparallel, when both lie on the ecliptic. Ptolemy said that parts equally distant from the same equinox "command and obey", because they rise in equal times — the northern one commanding, the southern obeying.
How it is worked out
The sign pairs that mirror each other across the equinoxes are:
- Aries and Pisces
- Taurus and Aquarius
- Gemini and Capricorn
- Cancer and Sagittarius
- Leo and Scorpio
- Virgo and Libra
Within a pair, the degrees add up to 30. A planet at 10° Taurus has its contra-antiscion at 20° Aquarius — the point opposite its antiscion at 20° Leo. In absolute longitude the rule is 360° minus the planet's position.
How it is read
Lilly and Ramsey both report the view that where the antiscion of a good planet works like a sextile or trine, the contra-antiscion works more like a square or opposition. Accordingly:
- A planet on another's contra-antiscion is read as a hidden tension or rivalry between them — a pull that does not show as an ordinary aspect but is felt.
- On the contra-antiscion of an angle, a planet is read as pressing quietly on that angle.
Not every astrologer reads it as harsh. Some treat both mirrors simply as connections and judge them by the planets involved, as they would a conjunction. The orb used is tight, about a degree.
In the tradition
Contra-antiscia have always been the lesser-used half of the pair. Lilly tabulates them beside the antiscia; Uranian astrology later kept both as mirror points. As with antiscia, the vocabulary varies — some writers call both mirrors "antiscia" — so it is worth checking which axis a given author means. This is an advanced, optional technique.
In a reading here
Birth chart readings include a section of advanced chart techniques that lists pairs among the ten planets, the Ascendant and the Midheaven standing within 1° of each other's contra-antiscion, described as a hidden link with more friction in it.