Sundesmos

SOON-des-mos

greek: σύνδεσμος (Sundesmos)

Definition

Sundesmos (Greek for "bond, ligament, that which ties together") is a Hellenistic term with several related meanings. At its broadest it names a "bond" — the joining of two heavenly bodies, especially the Moon to the Sun. It is also the ordinary Greek word for a lunar Node, a point where the Moon's path crosses the ecliptic, the Sun's yearly path through the sky. And in Paulus Alexandrinus it names a particular configuration as well — the "bond of the Moon," a five-degree band around the Sun's rays used in tracking the Moon's movement over time.

In Tradition

These several meanings of sundesmos all share one root image — a tie that binds. Greenbaum treats the broad joining-of-bodies sense as basic to chart interpretation and links it to the Orphic image of the "knot of heaven." The translators of Paulus, following his ancient commentator, treat the lunar-Node sense and the special "bond of the Moon" band as two separate uses of the one word rather than a single doctrine — a distinction the old commentary itself points out.

In Practice

You meet sundesmos in three working settings. As a general bond, it points to the joining of the Moon with the Sun or with other planets — a configuration the tradition weights heavily, since the Sun and Moon anchor the chart. As the lunar Node, it names where the Moon's path crosses the ecliptic, which Hellenistic practice ties to shadow, eclipse, and ill-fortune meanings. In its most technical sense — Paulus Alexandrinus's "bond of the Moon" — you check whether the Moon falls within roughly five degrees of the Sun's rays in any figure (conjunction, opposition, the two squares, or the two sextiles), and you watch for the moment the directed Moon clears that degree as a "dissolution" of the bond: a dissolution that lands on a malefic — Mars or Saturn — is read as a marker of misfortune, illness, or constraint. Because the senses pull apart, a careful reader works out from context which sundesmos a source means before applying it.

Historical Origin

Sundesmos is a Hellenistic primary-source term. Its lunar-Node sense is attested in Hephaistio of Thebes' Apotelesmatika and the wider Greek technical literature; its special "bond of the Moon" sense is set out in Paulus Alexandrinus' Introductory Matters (4th c. CE), where a scholiast notes that this use differs from the Node sense. Dorian Gieseler Greenbaum reconstructs the general joining sense and its Orphic resonance in The Daimon in Hellenistic Astrology.

Etymology

Origin: Greek. Meaning: Bond, ligament, fastening; that which ties together.

Definition

In Tradition

In Practice

Historical Origin

Etymology

Further Reading