Contrantiscion

greek: ἀντίσκιον ἀντίθετον / akouonta kai blepontai ("hearing and seeing signs") · latin: contrantiscion

Definition

A contrantiscion (also "contra-antiscion") is the degree located opposite a planet's antiscion across the equinoctial axis — formed by reflecting the planet's zodiacal longitude through the 0° Aries / 0° Libra line. Where the antiscion mirrors a degree across the solsticial axis (0° Cancer / 0° Capricorn) to its "shadow" with the same declination on the same side of the equator, the contrantiscion produces the partner point with the same magnitude of declination on the opposite side.

In Tradition

In Hellenistic and traditional Western practice, contrantiscions are read as latent oppositional contacts of the nature of a square or opposition — points of resistance, blockage, or hidden contradiction between significators. Holden treats the contrantiscion as the ancient antecedent of the modern declination contraparallel, in which two bodies have equal declination but on opposite sides of the celestial equator.

In Practice

Astrologers compute a planet's contrantiscion by subtracting its longitude from 360° and adjusting into the equivalent sign; for instance, a planet at 10° Taurus has its contrantiscion at 20° Libra. The same configuration appears in declination as a contraparallel — useful in traditional natal, horary, and electional work to surface hidden tensions that the standard aspect figure misses. The doctrine pairs zodiacal contrantiscions with what Greek practice called the *akouonta kai blepontai* — the "hearing and seeing" signs — the same sign-pairs viewed through their equinoctial-axis symmetry. With the equinox now fixed at 0° Aries, the canonical pairs are Aries–Pisces, Taurus–Aquarius, Gemini–Capricorn, Cancer–Sagittarius, Leo–Scorpio, and Virgo–Libra.

Historical Origin

Antiscia and contrantiscia doctrine is Hellenistic in origin and preserved in Ptolemy, Firmicus, and the medieval Arabic-Latin transmission. The Greek "hearing and seeing" sign-pair vocabulary (Holden trans.) is the conceptual ancestor. Lilly preserves the contrantiscion in *Christian Astrology* (1647). Holden identifies the modern declination contraparallel as the surviving form.

Etymology

Origin: Latin / Greek. Meaning: Against the shadow / counter-antiscion.

Further Reading