I have done a fair amount of research on the quintile; as you may know it is a fifth harmonic aspect which John Addey always associated with the use and abuse of power; because of the occult significance of the pentagram it is considered by some to be an aspect which requires activation lest it be triggered into its base expression with often uncomfortable results. Bill Tierney noted that it is often found in the charts of composers and artists, but also mass-murderers and murder victims.
Adolf Hitler’s chart shows some configurations which other astrologers have claimed explains his motivation, I cannot agree. The inclusion of Eris, Goddess of strife and discord in his nativity, aspects to the ascendant too, evidences an incredible and absolutely perfect fifth harmonic pentagram. If Addey is correct and the 5th denotes the abuse of power, then clearly Hitler was the perfect 5th harmonic instrument.
Of course, there are other interesting factors in his chart that support the historical outcomes. The partile conjunction of Ma/Ve in square to Saturn on the midheaven tells a story of idealism brutally expounded, and Taurus, fixed earth is powerfully material, Venus disposits the chart, is energised by Mars (which it overwhelms) and is given ruthless staying power by Saturn in fixed, autocratic Leo. With all of those ponderous outer-planet energies configured in this pattern, the Moon-Jupiter conjunction creates the most obvious channel for its expression, in the 3rd: by use of slowly building oratory (Cap. on 3rd) he was able to focus the fanatic zeal for power of Saturn in Leo and the near spiritualised intellect of Neptune in Gemini, itself lent destructive intellectual power by Pluto, accidentally dignified in the fixed 8th.
The quintile when viewed retrospectively in this way is comprehensible, and even beforehand it might be possible to put these clues together, but really, the most remarakble feature of this configuration is its power. It is like a Yod, but supercharged, and without the element of hunting dissatisfaction found in that pattern; it becomes, once activated, innate and in some manner overwhelming and undeniable.
The ‘Golden Yod’ then, is an intriguing configuration formed from a quintile between two planets which each biquintile a third. An angle works just as well. From my research the Golden Yod is often found in the charts of musicians and actors. Kevin Costner has a Golden Yod to his Mc. Many iconic film stars charts evidenced Golden Yods, or what I call ‘Golden t-squares’ (two quintiles joined by a biquintile), such as Joan Crawford, Charlie Chaplin and James Dean. James Dean has an incredible configuration of quintiles if you take a look at his chart.
Musicians too, Buddy Holly and Carole King for example.
The negative potential is found in the charts of many notewrothy individuals. Murder victims like Albert Ayler who was found dead in NYs East River on 25th Nov. 1970 for one; there are many other examples; victims of anothers power misuse; like Patty Hearst for example.
I have a fairly extensive library on the [bi]quintile now. You may wish to include 36 deg. and the sequiquintile of 108 deg. That’s a magical number too, according to Crowley it is the sum of Jesus and Mary, and there are 1080 bricks in a Turkish oven, always, and of course it is representative of 9 and 12 numerologically.
So, how do you interpret the quintiles in everyday astrology? For practical purposes it is uninterpretable, at least, not without the gift of hindsight. The majority are quite oblivious to this aspect because it is – as in music- an off-beat rhythm, it is decidedly Uranian in that respect, if the aspect were a style of music it would be a rather obscure form of jazz. On the other hand, it may be possible to explore some of the theme blends and see where that leads you. Consider this list of personages with Moon in 5th harmonic aspect to Saturn:
- Adolf Hitler
- Arnold Schwarzenegger
- Willy Brandt
- Bill Clinton
- Betty Ford
- Edward Kennedy
- Robert Kennedy
Are you seeing a common quality? Moon – Saturn always speaks to matters of self-discipline, self-control inadequate maternal relationships and staying power; but here it is lent a different quality, one that if “switched on” can become a true asset, for good, or for evil.
Reading the book on YODs and Unaspected Planets by Karen, it appears that The North Node is excluded from consideration and that a Golden Yod that has the North Node as one “leg” does not fit into the definition of a Golden Yod.
From your experience would the North Node become a “dumb” point in this configuration?
nah add north node 2 ..my north node is in 10 pices so i care about honor qa lot also it is a part of my yod that activates badly
Hi Nigel, I assume you are referring to the book by Karen Hamaker-Zondag, and I haven’t read it so I cannot vouch for it. If it contains information on golden yods as opposed to normal yods however, I would be very interested in reading it.
As for the NN question, I am not sure if you are referring to Hitler’s chart (since the NN is not configured in this pattern: Mo/Ju – Eris – Ne/Pl – Sa – Ur) or to a hypothetical configuration. I am personally not convinced that NN would fail to function in either a yod or a golden yod, but they would certainly operate in very different ways, and a golden yod is always difficult to activate of course.
The Node is also not really an area of great expertise for me either, I keep meaning to read more and look at it more closely.
It seems to me that NN has maternal, fated/destined connotations, but mostly I am with Ebertin who creates from it a power of association, this seems to bear out. Ju in good aspect to NN always seems to create a positive leaning to fellowship in a person for example.
Hi Chirotic,
Good article on the Golden Yod. I appreciate that you truly seem to get it. As the person who first identified and wrote about this configuration, I appreciate that this concept is finally getting into the general discourse of astrology. When I named this configuration about 20 years ago, my rationale was based upon my interest in sacred geometry and the relationship between the Golden Mean (what Kepler and Da Vinci called “the Divine Proportion”). As you probably know, this ratio (1.6180339…) can only be created exactly by the construction of a 5-pointed star. I began to realize that this “quintile yod” was the real thing and the “quincunx you” was a shadow of the true magic. By the way, what you refer to as a “Golden T-Square”, I call a “Golden Triangle.” And when there’s 4 adjacent points on the Grand Quintile (Joan d’Arc), I refer to this as a “Golden Bowl” (Robert Bly.” Anyway, I just wanted to connect with a fellow quintilian. Cheers! ~Rick Levine.
To Rick Levine –
the great (albeit controversial) Magi Aleister Crowley had 3 interlocking quincunx yods that formed a pentagram. Rather a fitting symbol given his talents. You say you have come to believe quincunx yods (and so pentagrams) are a weakened down version of their quintile counterparts. Crowley was a master of the crafts so I’m not sure this take can be applied to all people with quincunx pentagrams ?
Leonardo da Vinci had one , so did Karl Yung and I happen to have one too. Hitler, we know, was very into the occult and magic etc etc. I myself study Astrology, read the Tarot and similar. There seems to be a definate tie to psychic/occult talents and interests when one has this configuration. I’ve seen it in the chart of a Tai Chi master and healer as well as someone else well into the mystical path. Recently a lady studying mediumship contacted me for a report and I noticed she had one too . They are rare and whenever I do see them they ALWAYS tie in with some sort of psychic/magickal abilities . Curious….
ps) Between my chart and my partners we have a grand quintile pentagram pattern. He is an artist, musician, Reiki Healer and very intuitive.
Great article.
I think I have a Yod and a Golden Yod, that is if you count Chiron for the first and Lilith for the second.
Success seems unreachable for me.
A moon in Hayz.
The moon is the finger.
I feel I am struggling towards some great personal revelation.
thanks for the help
HAIL ERIS! Praise Discordia!
Hello
I wonder if you could help me to understand better the yod in my chart…its not a golden one, but its mine!
Well, Its between sun (scoprio 8 house), sextile moon (capricorn 11 house) quincunx saturn (gemini 4 house) . Should I mention that saturn conjunts my IC?
Thank you in advance for any reply
Hi Airsea,
You have a real Yod here, and it’s going to be tricky for you. Any Yod is an ongoing attempt to realise perfection; without the benefit of seeing all your astrology and being able to follow the rulerships it would be difficult to give a full and concise answer. The sextile creates a platform for the attempt to perfect the two quincunx aspects, thus a well-integrated character, harmony between soul and spirit, a ‘good’ nature, these are key; with the 8th and 11th you have a situation where you can strike a good balance in relating to others, keeping your inner nature private, being cool and demure in company; that makes you quite hard to read, but in a way that is comfortable. Saturn on the 4th says something quite difficult about your father, and there is the imperative of the Yod. In some way your relationship with him, or your witrnessing of his life situation have given you this impetus to improve your mind, to test yourself as a communicator. The position of Mercury and Pluto also feed into the interpretation.
Next you have to consider that Saturn is ruled by the Moon in the 11th. Because of your father you had to take on board undue responsibility in childhood. You might not see it that way (having instead a rather pragmatic perspective) but certainly, this suggests a childhood that is characterised by some measure of unusual responsibility, because both mother and father were not up to the job. Maybe they were too involved with each other to devote themselves properly to your development. In any case, you perhaps could not cut loose and just have fun in your childhood years in the way that most children can. With Sun quincunx Saturn then you will too have Saturn retrograde, so your father was not there for you in some way. Maybe he was physically absent, or he simply did not make the effort. At some level, you internalise the lack of parental concern as your own failing, you therefore have a legacy of insecurity which you try very hard to suppress. You probably can be very successful, but you are driven more by a fear of failure than by a craving for success, and it relates back to a difficult childhood situation where you experienced a lack of leisure, carefreeness and independence, so now you are testing yourself continually. There is usually an enormous need to prove oneself in these situations as a result, often there is considerable capability in business.
All of which is as much as one can say without seeing the entire picture, which would undoubtedly clarify the picture considerably, but it’s a good starting point even so.
Hope that helps!
Hello
I am not sure if this even a YOD. But could not stop my curiosity. Can you please clarify?!
Neptune in Sagittarius – 2nd house
Saturn sextile Neptune orb -0°27′
Sun inconjunction Neptune orb +0°14′
Neptune sextile Pluto orb +1°19′
Saturn in Libra – 12th house
Saturn conjunction Pluto orb +1°46′
Sun inconjunction Saturn orb +0°12′
Saturn sextile Neptune orb -0°27′
Pluto in Libra – 12th house
Saturn conjunction Pluto orb +1°46′
Neptune sextile Pluto orb +1°19′
Sun inconjunction Pluto orb -1°34′
Sun in Taurus – 7th house
Sun inconjunction Saturn orb +0°12′
Sun inconjunction Neptune orb +0°14
Sun inconjunction Pluto orb -1°34′
Theres two pointed triangles according to astro.com. Neptune to pluto and neptune to saturn is blue in color. Saturn to sun, pluto to sun and neptune to sun are green lines. Does it mean that I have two YOD’s?!. So whats the story behind this?!. Can you please explain?!..
Thank you kindly
Oh yeah and added to this I have two T-squares and one grand trine…yummy yummy. Well my mentality is ‘I am already in ashes so whats next’. I am looking for a career change., quitting my current of study (cuz I have a feeling that what I am doing is not helping me to see the bigger picture) and in the process of cleaning my closet (severing a close tie cuz its just a pain in the bottom).. Well any hopes to my situation?!.. Please respond
what a geometry. it points to saturn (in leo) the jews planet. his father was a jew, if I am not totally wrong. I also think that planets which nearly over a (fortunate) fixed star (sun/mirach-art) sometimes show disastrous effects. but maybe it just my imagination, like “I just missed a good buddy”.
wups. and saturn is on the by vehlow called german axis. 13 degrees aqu/leo.
wups. read on wikipedia that the jewish influence was just a rumour.
So I learned something new here, thanks Jem. I also discovered that I too have a Golden Yod involving Moon-Mars-MC Quintile to Neptune, with Jupiter at the Apex by BiQuintile. I had to take all other aspects out of my chart wheel to see it – that might be interesting in itself…
This is going to need some thought and examination, although I immediately vibe with Victoria’s comment about magic and the occult etc.
A quick question, because I think this has a bearing on delineation – how rare/common is the Golden Yod? If one in ten has one, that’s a very different feeling to say, 1 in 100 or 1 in 1000. If relatively common, then I think it’s easy to get a bit overblown in interpretation, as the Yod in general gets talked about as ‘fated’, or in terms of some grand mission or purpose etc etc.
Thanks again
Hi Mandi, I don’t think the Golden Yod is very common, of course it depends on what orbs you use: I use 2 deg, and don’t find many. I have a GY of Sun Q Jupiter BQ Saturn. Alice has one too, and so does Ted (his is Moon – Neptune to Saturn, Alice’s is Sun – Pluto to Mars) so it does seem to be passed on. I rarely see them in my work, and I take the view that they’re difficult to activate and work with, but are probably very useful when you’ve got the hang of navigating with them. Let’s assume the base Quintile is the platform for realising the ‘talent’ or power of the apex.
My daughter has one too, but apart from my own children, none of the other 30 people in my family charts registry has a GY. Other than that very cursory investigation I can’t say with certainty, but my experience tells me that they don’t appear often.
There are 4 yods in my chart, 1 golden yod, and two other quintiles plus another biquintile but not in the yod formation. I would really appreciate some help with making sense of it. They are all with planets and major asteroids with very tight orbs (mostly one and two degrees).
How would you understand a yod in the 5th harmonic chart?
Hello, I’m curious if there’s a term for three planets combined with one quintile and two biquintiles… It’s essentially the same aspects as the golden yod, but in a different triangular formation.
I think this is actually a Golden Yod.
Hi, I am very intersted in this aspect.36 deg. and the sequiquintile of 108 deg.is this valid relating those: Leo Jupiter 22deg-Virgo Merc 28deg and Merc 28virg to 16deg desc to create these aspects or is descendant valid at all to create aspects..
I have also this Moon biguintile Saturn
and have a golden yod thru merc,asc and mc
descendant in capricorn..
Golden Yod in the house! Mine is a quintile between Neptune and Moon(in Aqua and Scorpio respectively) with a biquintile at Mars in Gemini. What does this mean?