Assembly (Sunodos)

uh-SEM-blee

greek: σύνοδος (Sunodos)

Definition

Assembly (Greek sunodos, "a meeting, coming-together," from sun- "together" plus hodos "way, road") is a Hellenistic aspect term for a particular stage in two planets drawing toward conjunction. It names the moment when a faster planet is applying to an exact conjunction with a slower one — more than three degrees away from exact, but less than fifteen. It is the middle band of a three-stage scale for close conjunctions: adherence (within three degrees), assembly (three to fifteen degrees), and engagement (an aspect by degree rather than a body-to-body meeting). The two planets are usually in the same zodiac sign.

In Tradition

Modern astrologers reconstructing Hellenistic aspect-doctrine treat assembly as a graded stage of a conjunction, not just another word for conjunction in general. Brennan and George both keep it as one named step in a scale that measures how close an applying body-to-body meeting has come: assembly marks the wider applying range, sitting between the tight three-degree adherence and the merely same-sign nearness. The term is also rendered "concourse."

In Practice

When two planets are applying to a body-to-body conjunction, you measure the degrees between them to see which stage of the scale they have reached. If the faster planet is between three and fifteen degrees from exact with the slower, the configuration is an assembly: the meeting is forming and matters, but it has not yet reached the tighter adherence stage where the two bodies are read as fully fastened together. You read an assembly as a real applying bond whose force grows as the gap closes, leaning toward the closer adherence still to come; tracking the stages this way lets you tell a conjunction that is only just beginning from one nearly complete. The scale is measured in degrees and assumes both planets in the same sign, so it sharpens rather than replaces the whole-sign reckoning of conjunction; modern traditional practitioners use it chiefly when timing the perfection of a body-to-body meeting between significators, where the stage of approach carries diagnostic weight.

Historical Origin

Assembly belongs to the Hellenistic degree-based aspect-doctrine reconstructed from the Greek technical literature. Chris Brennan sets out the three-stage close-conjunction scale — adherence, assembly, engagement — in the glossary and aspect-doctrine chapters of Hellenistic Astrology (2017), and Demetra George gives the same sunodos definition in the glossary of Ancient Astrology in Theory and Practice, keeping the Greek roots (sun- plus hodos) and the alternative rendering "concourse."

Etymology

Origin: Greek. Meaning: A meeting, gathering, coming-together.

Definition

In Tradition

In Practice

Historical Origin

Etymology

Further Reading