Contrantiscions

greek: ἀκούοντα καὶ βλέποντα (akouonta kai blepontai) · latin: contrantiscion

Definition

Pairs of zodiacal signs (or degrees) equidistant from the equinoctial axis (0° Aries to 0° Libra), mirroring each other across it. In Greek practice these were called the 'hearing and seeing signs' (ἀκούοντα καὶ βλέποντα). After Ptolemy fixed the equinox at 0° Aries and 0° Libra, the post-Ptolemaic pairs became Aries–Pisces, Taurus–Aquarius, Gemini–Capricorn, Cancer–Sagittarius, Leo–Scorpio, and Virgo–Libra. The modern declination-based derivative is the contraparallel: two planets with the same declination, one north and one south of the equator.

In Tradition

In Hellenistic and traditional Western practice the contrantiscion is treated as a less important but still recognised special sign relation, distinct from the antiscion (mirror across the solstitial axis) and analogous in mode but reversed in axis. The modern reception preserves the contrantiscion principally through the declinational contraparallel rather than the longitudinal sign pairing.

In Practice

To find a degree's contrantiscion, reflect its zodiacal longitude across the 0° Aries–0° Libra axis (the equinoctial line): e.g., 10° Taurus reflects to 20° Aquarius (post-Ptolemaic). When a transiting or progressed planet contacts the contrantiscion of a natal planet by conjunction, the contact is read as an additional hidden testimony. The modern contraparallel — two planets with equal declination on opposite sides of the equator — is used the same way: a transiting body contraparallel a natal body activates that natal body even without an apparent longitudinal aspect. Practitioners typically check antiscions and contrantiscions together and treat them as secondary, supportive testimony rather than primary aspects.

Historical Origin

Holden in A History of Horoscopic Astrology (p. 106) traces the contrantiscion to the Greek 'hearing and seeing signs' doctrine, recording the shift in sign-pair assignments after the Ptolemaic fixing of the equinox at 0° Aries. The doctrine is preserved in the medieval Arabic-Latin tradition and survives into the early modern period (Lilly, Christian Astrology). Its 20th-century revival came partly through declination-aspect work (Sepharial, Carter, Kt. Boehrer) that translated the longitudinal mirror into the contraparallel of declination.

Etymology

Origin: Latin / Greek. Meaning: Against the antiscion.

Further Reading