Chart patterns
Yod
A narrow triangle pointing at one planet
- Planets involved
- 3
- Built from
- both
- Focal point
- Yes
What it is
Two planets 60 degrees apart, both 150 degrees from a third. The third sits opposite the midpoint of the other two, and the shape drawn on a wheel is a long narrow triangle with a sharp point.
The 150 degree angle is the quincunx, and it is the reason this pattern reads oddly. Signs 150 degrees apart share no element, no modality and no polarity, so the two planets have no common ground of any kind to negotiate on.
How it reads
The apex is where the whole reading sits. Two planets that get on easily both point at a third that has nothing in common with either, and the tradition associates that with an area of life that never settles into the rest of the chart.
Quincunxes are read as adjustment rather than conflict. Nothing is opposed and nothing agrees, so the pattern is usually described as continual small correction rather than a fight, and as something a person keeps returning to rather than resolves.
The popular name for it is the finger of God or the finger of fate, which is worth knowing because it is what people search for and worth setting aside because the tradition behind the geometry does not claim anything of the kind.
Where the reading sits
The apex, the planet quincunx to both others. Everything the pattern is associated with attaches to that placement.
How common it actually is
More common than almost anything written about it suggests. It appears in 11.1 per cent of charts, one in nine, which is more than twice as often as a grand trine. The name it has picked up is not carried by the numbers.
What to watch for
The destiny framing. The name attracts more claims than any other pattern here, and the quincunx is a minor aspect with a tight orb, so a yod detected at the edge of orb is a weak finding presented as a momentous one.
Do you have a yod?
The birth chart tool checks for this and the other seven, and names the planets involved. Whether you have one depends on your birth date, time and place, and on the orbs used: this site detects yods on the ten planets, without the angles.
The other patterns
- T-squareTwo planets opposite each other, both square a third
- Grand trineThree planets each 120 degrees from the other two
- Grand crossTwo oppositions at right angles: four planets, four squares
- KiteA grand trine with a fourth planet opposite one of its points
- Mystic rectangleTwo oppositions joined by two trines and two sextiles
- Grand sextileSix planets evenly spaced: six sextiles, six trines, three oppositions
- StelliumThree or more planets in one sign