The Quincunx

Think of two colleagues who do not dislike each other, but simply do not speak the same language. One talks in feelings, the other in figures. Every conversation needs translation. That is a quincunx: two parts of you that have to keep adjusting to work together.

The quincunx is the angle of 150 degrees, five twelfths of the circle. Two planets in quincunx usually sit five signs apart.

The geometry

Signs five apart share nothing: not element, not modality, not polarity. Aries and Virgo, for example: fire and earth, cardinal and mutable, active and receptive. So the planets cannot easily see each other's point of view. There is no direct clash, as in a square, just a constant sense that something does not quite fit.

The aspect the ancients did not use

Here is a less-known fact. The quincunx was not one of the classical aspects. Ancient astrologers treated signs five apart as "averse", unable to see each other at all. The quincunx as an aspect became popular much later, and modern astrologers found it useful for describing a particular feeling: not conflict, but chronic awkwardness. On this site's chart wheels it is not drawn, and it is read by hand.

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