Free Quincunx Calculator

A quincunx, also called an inconjunct, is a 150° angle between two planets: five twelfths of the circle. The planets usually sit in signs five apart that share no element, modality, or polarity. Modern astrologers read it as a standing demand for adjustment; Hellenistic astrologers counted those signs as averse, unable to see each other.

In Aspects in Astrology, Sue Tompkins defines the quincunx as two planets “150 degrees or exactly five signs apart”.[1] Charles Harvey writes it as 150°, five twelfths of the circle, and Steven Forrest glosses the Latin name the same way.[2][3] Its glyph is ⚻. The other name has the longer history: Robert Schmidt, translating Paulus Alexandrinus, notes that “inconjunct” is the usual rendering of the Greek asundetos, “unconnected”, and Joseph Crane calls that the original meaning of the modern term.[4][5] Kim Farnell records that older texts also called the quincunx “dissociate”, because it always joins incompatible signs.[6]

Whether it counts as a major aspect is still argued. Demetra George notes that some modern astrologers consider the quincunx a major aspect.[7] Robert Pelletier, in Planets in Aspect (1974), gives it “the same importance as the conjunction, sextile, square, trine, and opposition”.[8] Alan Oken listed it among the minor aspects in Complete Astrology (1980), then counted it among six major aspects in Soul-Centered Astrology (1996), writing that “we must consider it as a major geometric link”.[9][10] The calculator above finds every quincunx in your chart and tells you which frame each one fits.

Each sign has two quincunx partners, the signs five away in each direction. Counted the whole-sign way, with the sign itself as the 1st, they are the 6th and the 8th sign from it: Aries has Virgo and Scorpio. Every quincunx also pairs an odd-numbered masculine sign with an even-numbered feminine sign.

In Hellenistic Astrology, Chris Brennan writes that configurations by sign connect signs that share gender, quadruplicity, or triplicity, and “Without this affinity they cannot see each other”.[11] Tompkins makes the same observation in modern terms: signs in quincunx “share neither mode nor element”, with exceptions in Taurus and Libra, both ruled by Venus, and Aries and Scorpio, which share Mars.[1] Richard Idemon’s Aries and Virgo example shows the whole mismatch: cardinal against mutable, fire against earth, and a personal sign against a social one.[12]

The third column marks the six pairs that late antique and medieval authors still treated as linked despite the aversion, and the calculator puts the same mark on any result row whose signs are one of them. Paulus Alexandrinus writes that averse signs “become sympathetic through like-engirding and through ascending in the same times”, with Aries and Scorpio, Taurus and Libra, Gemini and Capricorn, and Cancer and Sagittarius among his examples.[4] Among the disjunct signs that still have sympathy, Rhetorius names six quincunx pairs: equal rising (Gemini and Capricorn, Cancer and Sagittarius), equal power (Virgo and Aries, Libra and Pisces), and like zone, meaning the same domicile lord (Taurus and Libra, Aries and Scorpio).[13]

In The Great Introduction, Abu Ma’shar explains the links: equal-rising signs agree in their ascensions, equal-power signs have the same hours of daylight when the Sun is in either, and signs of like manner share a domicile lord.[14] He calls these pairs a “natural” opposition, signs that “do not look at each other” yet “indicate harmonization and affection”.[14] The link is weaker than an aspect: Crane reports that Paulus gives planets joined this way less familiarity than planets in signs that aspect each other.[5]

Rhetorius calls most of the remaining disjunct signs “wholly ineffective as regards sympathy”, and Crane lists Taurus and Sagittarius, Gemini and Scorpio, Leo and Capricorn, Leo and Pisces, and Virgo and Aquarius as “completely disconnected”.[13][5] Cancer and Aquarius share none of the three links either, which leaves six of the twelve quincunx pairs with no traditional connection at all.

Chris Brennan counts five recognized aspects in Hellenistic astrology: the conjunction (at first defined apart from the others), sextile, square, trine, and opposition.[11] Planets not configured by sign were said to be in aversion (apostrophē), “turned away” or “unconnected” (asundetos), and Brennan writes that this lack of affinity is part of why the semi-sextile and quincunx “were never developed in the Hellenistic tradition”.[11] Planets in such signs, his glossary says, “cannot see each other, and thus are not able to form a relationship.”[11]

The older authors gave geometric reasons. In Tetrabiblos, Ptolemy calls signs one or five apart “disjunct” and “alien”: those five apart “divide the whole circle into unequal parts”, while the recognized aspects divide it equally.[15] Manilius writes in the Astronomica that sixth signs, those with four signs between them, “are not reckoned as capable of any influence”, because their line does not trace the circle in equal lengths.[16] Aversion could also work in a chart’s favor: Brennan notes that a benefic in aversion to a planet cannot lend its aid, while a malefic in aversion cannot obstruct it.[11]

The modern reading begins with Kepler. James H. Holden writes in A History of Horoscopic Astrology that Kepler “invented several new aspects”, among them 150°, and that the 30°, 45°, 135°, and 150° aspects “have been adopted by most astrologers”.[17] Helena Avelar and Luis Ribeiro note that dividing the circle by twelve gives the semi-sextile and the quincunx, and that these two were quickly received even though the tradition does not consider them legitimate aspects.[18] Benjamin Dykes, introducing Abu Ma’shar, puts the change plainly: a 150° aspect “would allow planets in Aries to see planets in Virgo, which is not possible in classical aspects.”[14] Tompkins, writing as a modern practitioner, still describes signs in quincunx as not seeing each other at all, “rather like two planes on unrelated flight-paths”.[1]

Both readings start from the same fact: two signs with no element, modality, or gender in common. The Hellenistic reading concludes there is no relationship to read; the modern reading treats the mismatch as a contact you work with. The calculator reports both, the 150° measure by degree and the verdict by sign, so you can read your chart in either frame.

Traditional astrology kept the two measurements apart. Benjamin Dykes quotes Masha’allah, by way of Sahl: “Looking is from sign to sign, and connecting is from degree to degree.”[14] Robert Hand, introducing Paulus, writes that Hellenistic aspects were usually taken from sign to sign, with no orbs as the modern West knows them: “Any point in Aries is in trine to any point in Leo or Sagittarius, regardless of orb.”[4] Demetra George states the rule directly, that aspects “are primarily determined by whole sign” and that “for the most part, no out-of-sign aspects are acknowledged as aspects”, while medieval and modern orbs are allowed to cross sign boundaries.[7]

Two examples show how the sign rule handles a contact across a boundary. Crane reads a trine by degree between planets in Libra and Capricorn as a square, because the signs square each other, and notes that some astrologers call such a contact “out-of-sign” or “dissociate”.[5] Abu Ma’shar, in Dykes’s Introductions to Traditional Astrology, says two planets within orb but in different signs are not called conjoined, and their mingled orbs signify “some small matter” next to a true conjunction.[19]

Now apply that to a quincunx. The Moon at 1° Aries and Mars at 29° Leo are 148° apart, a quincunx by degree with 2° of orb, yet Aries and Leo are trine signs. The Sun at 28°30′ Aries and Saturn at 0°30′ Libra are 152° apart, again 2° of orb, and Aries and Libra are opposite signs. Both fall inside the calculator’s default allowance of 2.5° for a luminary and a planet. None of the books we consulted discusses this case directly. Under the whole-sign rule that George, Brennan and Crane state, the first pair is a trine by sign and the second an opposition by sign, while modern degree-based practice still counts both as quincunxes.

Modern authors accept the contact and ask for care with it. Avelar and Ribeiro report that later authors accept an aspect within orb whatever the signs, and that “there is no existing doctrine with regard to out-of-sign aspects”.[18] Tompkins notes that these disassociate aspects form only between a planet late in one sign and one early in another, and that they “usually call for more delicacy and subtlety of interpretation”.[1] Steven Forrest calls them “out of quality” aspects, tricky because two incompatible principles meet, the geometrical aspect and the whole-sign aspect, and he pays attention to both.[3] Idemon reads a client’s out-of-sign Saturn and Uranus quincunx as a quincunx without remarking on the signs.[12]

The calculator labels every contact. A quincunx whose signs are the 6th and 8th from each other reads as an aversion; one that crosses a boundary reads as out of sign and names the trine or opposition its signs make. Read whichever frame you work in, or both.

The most common modern reference point is 2°. Tompkins reproduces the Faculty of Astrological Studies working model, which gives the quincunx 2° against 8° for the conjunction, opposition, trine and square, and Liz Greene uses 2° for minor aspects such as the quincunx in natal and composite charts alike.[1][20] At the strict end, Tompkins’s own tight orb for the quincunx is 1°.[1] John Addey’s harmonic rule arrives at the same 1° by dividing a 12° conjunction orb by twelve, and gives the quincunx the orb of the semi-sextile because 150° is the semi-sextile’s fifth multiple; Uranian practice, in Roger Jacobson’s account, also allows one degree.[21][22]

Others go wider. Pelletier reports the customary 2° for the inconjunct, plus 2° when the Sun or Moon is involved, but uses 3° himself and, unlike his other aspects, does not widen it for the Sun, Moon or Ascendant.[8] Oken found orbs up to 4° workable and reports that Gavin Arthur allowed 7°.[9] Howard Sasportas allows “five degrees or so”, and Idemon uses five or six, adding that “it really is up to you to choose the orbs you find that work”.[23][12] For degree-based aspects in Hellenistic practice, Brennan treats applying within three degrees as the most important or intense range.[11]

The calculator’s Standard setting, the default, gives the Sun, Moon, Ascendant and Midheaven 3° and every other body 2°, and each pair takes the average of its two bodies, capped at 3°. A luminary or angle to another luminary or angle allows 3°, a luminary or angle to a planet 2.5°, and planet to planet 2°. That is the same rule the yod calculator uses for its quincunx legs, so the two pages agree. Tight is a flat 1° and Wide a flat 3°, and the partile flag marks any quincunx under 1° in every setting. Use Tight for the contacts beyond dispute and Standard for a working list; use Wide to survey every candidate, then read the partile rows and the tightest orbs first.

Modern authors describe the quincunx in terms of friction and adjustment. Tompkins writes that where a square or opposition may describe major conflict, the quincunx describes “additional irritation and stress”: it “operates at the level of the shabby kitchen”, and it is too passive to resolve its friction without conscious effort.[1] In Astrology, Karma and Transformation, Stephen Arroyo sees a strong flow of energy between the areas of life involved that can feel compulsive or annoying, with each planet’s expression depending on the other; his remedy is “subtly adjusting one’s approach to those areas of life”.[24]

Others put adjustment at the center. Oken calls the inconjunction “an aspect of adjustment and reorientation”, and Zane Stein calls it “the aspect of adjustment”.[10][25] Idemon sets it apart from his aspects of resistance (square, opposition) and acceptance (trine, sextile) as an aspect of paradox, “like sailing west to get east”.[12] John Townley calls it “a restless, ambitious aspect that never quits”.[26]

The 6th and 8th house association comes from geometry. Firmicus Maternus, in the fourth century, calls the 2nd, 6th, 8th and 12th houses weak because “they are not aspected to the ascendant”, and begins the sixth house “at the 150th degree from the ascendant”.[27] Modern authors read the quincunx along the same line: Pelletier gives it the qualities of Aries, Virgo and Scorpio and the circumstances of the 1st, 6th and 8th houses, and Sasportas notes that many astrologers work from the natural zodiac, where Virgo and Scorpio sit 150° from Aries and ask for adjustment and transformation.[8][23] Idemon reads problem-solving from the natural 1st to 6th house line and crisis from the 1st to 8th.[12]

Tompkins reports that Charles Carter and many others linked the aspect with illness and even death, “mostly I think because the 6th and 8th houses quincunx the Ascendant”, and says she can “neither confirm nor deny” it.[1] This calculator does not read health from a chart.

To read a row, start with the two planets and what each wants. Then look at the two signs, to see why they share no common ground or which traditional link joins them. Finally, check the houses: they show which two areas of life have to be run side by side.

A quincunx behaves differently from both the hard and the soft aspects. Tompkins writes that signs in quincunx do not confront each other as with the opposition or get in each other’s way as with the square.[1] Sasportas adds that quincunxes between the Sun and Moon join signs incompatible “not only by element but also by quadruplicity, something you don’t get with a square or opposition”.[23] Oken places the aspect exactly midway between the trine and the opposition, neither flowing harmoniously nor exactly challenging, and calls it a “seesaw” aspect; Sasportas reads its swings between trinelike and opposition-like expression from that midpoint.[9][23] Idemon sorts the aspects into acceptance (trine, sextile), resistance (square, opposition) and paradox (quincunx).[12]

Its closest relative is the semi-sextile. Dividing the circle by twelve produces both, and Addey gives them the same orb because 150° is the semi-sextile’s fifth multiple.[18][21] In Hellenistic terms both fall in aversion, while Uranian astrology files both with the trine and sextile as soft aspects.[11][22] The 165° quindecile is a separate aspect with its own calculator. The table sets out what each pair of signs shares.

Signs apart are counted the short way round. What the signs share follows Brennan’s account of configurations by sign.[11]

The calculator works out the direction of every quincunx from each body’s daily motion: applying while the orb is shrinking, separating once it grows. An Ascendant to Midheaven contact has no direction and is labeled as fixed points. Direction matters when you weigh a contact. Tompkins holds that applying aspects are stronger than separating ones and that separating aspects deserve smaller orbs, and Brennan treats applying within three degrees as the most intense range in Hellenistic practice.[1][11]

The partile flag marks any quincunx with under 1° of orb. Farnell defines partile more strictly, as an aspect formed by planets “from the same degree of their respective signs”.[6] About half of flagged contacts meet both definitions. The rest sit within 1° of exact while straddling a degree line: 10°50′ Aries and 11°20′ Virgo are 0°30′ from an exact quincunx, yet their degree numbers differ.

To check the same flags across every aspect in a chart, use the applying and separating aspects calculator and the partile aspects calculator.

In synastry

Quincunxes turn up often between two charts. Tompkins finds sign quincunxes at least as common as oppositions in close relationships and working partnerships, and often sees one partner’s Sun sign quincunx the other’s Sun or Ascendant sign.[1] Forrest reports that couples linked by a quincunx are common, held together by mutual adjustment and mutual fascination, and Idemon describes the contact between two charts as a constant effort to communicate, with a fascination in the mismatch.[3][12] A Moon and Mercury quincunx between charts, in Idemon’s reading, makes sharing feelings hard but can lead to inventive ways of being understood.[12]

In Synastry, Ronald Davison writes that the quincunx “often has some karmic significance and may perhaps relate to a service one partner ‘owes’ the other”, and that one between two people’s Moons can show a lack of unity in feelings.[28] Both he and Arroyo keep the orb tight between charts: Davison wants aspects other than the majors within about a degree and a half, and Arroyo counts interaspects within about 2°.[28][29] To see every contact between two charts at once, use the synastry aspect grid.

By transit

Authors disagree on how much weight a quincunx transit carries. In Planets in Transit, Robert Hand ties quincunx transits to situations that arise in the environment without your prompting and push toward a change, while rating them less significant than the major transits.[30] Bernadette Brady gives the quincunx the key principle “moving into a new situation; change; release, letting go” and ranks it last of her four groups when weighing transits.[31] Arroyo finds quincunx transits of the five outer planets often more noticeable than their trines or sextiles, though less decisive than conjunctions, squares and oppositions, and Sasportas interprets transiting inconjuncts along the lines of the transiting conjunction, square and opposition.[29][32]

Cycles and progressions add their own readings. Writing on planetary cycles in Mundane Astrology, Charles Harvey reads the waxing quincunx as a temporary crisis with forward potential and the waning quincunx as carrying a more “fated” quality.[2] Amy Herring calls the progressed Moon’s quincunx to the natal Moon “Lost at Sea”, a stretch of confusion or awkwardness.[33]

Two quincunxes can lock together with a sextile to form a yod. Farnell defines it as two planets in sextile that both form a quincunx to a third, also known as the Finger of God or Finger of Fate, with the apex planet often called the action point.[6] Forrest describes the same geometry as two planets in sextile with a third opposing their midpoint, calls the sextile pair the base and the third planet the focal planet, and notes that yod is the tenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet.[3]

Oken writes that the strength of the quincunx is greatly increased inside this configuration, and Idemon that its focal planet “is the planet that receives the most stress”.[9][12] Arroyo cautions that one must primarily understand the planets involved rather than the type of configuration.[24]

A result row flagged as a yod leg comes from the same detector the yod calculator uses, with the same quincunx allowances, so the two pages agree. That detector also admits the lunar nodes, which this calculator does not list, so a row can be the leg of a yod whose base includes a node; the yod calculator shows the full pattern, and the yod guide covers how to read the apex. The golden yod, a variant built on quintiles and biquintiles, has its own calculator.