Blame it on Yod

Not exactly a traffic jam, the yod configuration in a natal or transiting chart still causes chaos and confusion.  After reading The Yod Book by Karen Hamaker-Zondag, an astrologer from the Netherlands, I know I felt perplexed.  How, I wondered am I going to find these little devils in client's charts.  However, with practice, perhaps spotting yods, also known as "the hand of God" in a chart will feel like a cake walk.

According to Hamaker-Zondag, you can look for signs in your client's life such as feelings of restlessness, feeling pulled in three directions, or getting tossed into an event that is out of the client's control and just something he or she must endure until an endpoint with a transiting yod or until middle age, when the client learns how to handle the three-way energies of the yod.  Some times more than three planets involve themselves with the yod and it's no longer a menage a trois affair.  For instance, (and I'm getting ahead of myself), yods involve planetary conjunctions so you could theoretically have 6 planets involved in a yod.

So what the heck is a yod? A yod involves two or more planets in a sextile, with another planet inconjuncting the sextile.  The example Hamaker-Zondag gives in her book involves a sextile between a planet in Sagittarius and a planet in Aquarius with an inconjunct to a planet in Cancer.  A yod must have the sextile and conjunction with an orb of 3.5 or less degrees and the signs of the planets fall into three different modes (mutable, fixed, cardinal) as well as, three different elements (water, earth, air, fire).

So in the example the author gave, we have a planet in an fixed air sign, another planet in a mutable fire sign, and the third planet in a cardinal water sign.  Now the problem someone faces with these energies is that the elements and modes operate differently.  For instance, cardinal signs want to start something now.  They are pushy.  Mutable signs don't start something, but keep what has ever started moving along. They feel restless and bored. The fixed sign is the least flexible and I like to think of the fixed signs as bringing closure and creating permanence.  They tend to act stubbornly in a chart as well as in a person.

The element of air wants to think, the water wants to feel and the fire wants to intuit.  Imagine having three people representing those qualities trying to solve a problem together, and none of them wants to sense what the others sense.  We also must consider the houses that the yod planets fall in and the rulers of those houses.  So you see, it gets complicated, not just for the person with the yod, but also the astrologer.  It's next to impossible to give any kind of advice because yods don't bring clear thinking, but more or less a cognitive traffic jam.  Imagine if you saw a fork in the road ahead of you and each of the forks had a dead end sign posted on it.  That's how I describe a yod.

So why am I bringing up yods? For several reasons, but most important, everyone on the planet will experience a transiting yod this December involving the slower moving planets and fiery Mars.  This yod involves Saturn in Scorpio at 8 degrees, Mars conjunct Pluto in Capricorn at 8 degrees with an inconjunct to Jupiter in Gemini at 8 degrees.  The yod will be exact on the Solstice or December 21 and continue through the holidays.  Since my moon calendar stops on December 31, I don't know when the yod will end.  Especially since the outer planets enjoy going backwards and forwards over sensitive points in charts.  Anyone with planets in Capricorn in early degrees have felt this with Pluto crawling back and forth across their sensitive points. (Note that people with natal yods handle transiting yods better than those of us who don't have natal yods).

The other interesting thing about this December yod is that Pluto is in Capricorn and Scorpio, the ruler of Pluto is in Capricorn's planet, Saturn.  What are they switching houses to see how the other lives? Feels like a cosmic joke, but let's end 2012 with huge drama and hopefully we don't take the world with it.  I cannot overestimate the powers in this yod.  I recommend finding the houses with Scorpio, Gemini, and Capricorn on the cusp. This will give you an idea of what areas of your life this yod will highlight.  Oh, and I bet you, it will pack some punch in those areas of your chart.  Steel yourself, my dears.

The other reason I'm bringing up yods this week (not just to frighten you), but to inform you that when you understand the yod, you can also see grace in action.  For instance, Hamaker-Zondag pulls out charts of controversial figures such as Monica Lewinsky, Linda Tripp and Kenneth Starr in regard to the debacle with President Clinton and oral sex, not to mention illegal taping of a conversation between Lewinsky and Tripp.  But before you sit yourself in the judge's chambers, view the yods and unaspected planets in the charts of the people mentioned.  You see those yods and suddenly you see that when people aren't spiritually-evolved and the hand of God pushes them into the ring (circus ring or boxing ring), they will react from their lower instincts. You see grace in action and you forgive these folks.  This could happen to any with a natal yod or even experiencing a transiting yod that aspects planets in natal charts.

Growing up with a yod brings confusion and restlessness to a person.  They don't quite know who they are or what their purpose is in the world.  They have seething anger in some cases, frustration I would guess in most cases, and more psychological issues you could shake a finger at.  They feel like they're lacking and inadequate in some ways, especially when they also have unaspected planets, then they feel disconnected too.  So if we expand our consciousness beyond the people mentioned, think of all the other people you have met in your life who you can't forgive.  Now, imagine that they have yods in their charts.  Each of these people brings a turning point to the people they touch and in some cases, an entire nation or the planet, depending the power players involved with events in which they find themselves entangled.  Imagine if for you all roads led to nowhere.  Now, wouldn't you feel uneasy and frustrated?

I understand that we all need to take responsibility for our actions, but try taking responsibility for actions coming from an empty place or from a person who doesn't know them self.  Yods are something people live with and if they work on themselves, if they can find themselves, they can extract beauty from that yod.  The author gives graceful examples of people who developed many talents and skills because of their yod and the desire to keep seeking.  Then when these people reach middle age, they combine all those skills they acquired during their restless searching days and create something of real value, whether that's a new way of living on the planet or a work of art.

Symptoms of a Yod:

Do you feel restless, always seeking, moving in several directions, taking classes, or changing jobs like changing clothing, but not knowing which direction you wish to pursue? Do you feel at odds with your family, with humanity, in a way you can't articulate?  Do you have a yod in your natal chart? Do your family members have yods in their natal charts? What about your partner?  By the way, yods run in families and lineages.  Often when an ancestor fails to live out their mission or theme, this theme gets passed down to their children, or most likely, their grandchildren who just feel like the black sheep in a family.

I recommend reading The Yod Book.