I want to tell you about a little project called @INCONJUNCT. But first, a few words about “inconjunction,” a technical term from astrology that’s neither “conjunction” nor “opposition.” It might not even be anything at all as, indeed, it wasn’t for ancient writers like Ptolemy who called it a “non-relationship.”
To understand the concept, you may want to hold in your mind a certain metaphysic of cosmic influence—as above, so below, etc—but even that is not entirely necessary; you may choose to follow the symbolic geometry instead:
“Dividing a circle into two parts creates a diameter and two points on a circumference separated by a 180° angle. Characteristic of this angular value (yet little attention paid to it) is the fact that whether one starts from one of the two points or the other, there is the same distance between them…This distinctive relationship is what underlies consciousness and the development of the thinking mind.” (Rael & Rudhyar, 1980)
This 180° “opposition” is the basis of cognition: “duality and separation—the division between an inner and an outer realm…’I’ and the ‘Other,’ ‘in here’ and ‘out there’…Even more fundamentally, if there were no symbolic diameter separating ‘I’ from ‘Other,’ there could be no ‘I’ as the thinker, and there could be no ‘Other’ or categories to think about, because everything would be One, and One would not be conscious of itself or anything else.” (Rael & Rudhyar)
Astrology draws exactly such a circle around various “divisions” of inclination & motivation, and a circle divided twelve times makes each 30° of separation come alive with character & significance. An inconjunction is one of those meaningful combinations at 150°.
So what does this angle or “aspect” mean?
From a process-oriented perspective, Rael & Rudhyar note two ways of reading this angle: as a “waxing” (first-hemicycle) “evolutionary” step towards 180°, or a “waning” (second-hemicycle) or “devolutionary” step back from 180°. And that’s just one possible hermeneutic yielding two potential readings. That’s a meta-theme for inconjunctions—it’s a splitting tendency, it demands a decision made every time.
That’s one way of making sense of INCONJUNCT.
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@INCONJUNCT is a project I started planning with @stoneroseshandmade on the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows after many conversations at the intersections of Witchcraft and Christianity.
We conceived this project as “a meeting at the mouths of the caves.” A bringing-forth and -together of that which is essentially different and yet ultimately comes from the same “great darkness.” That’s a reference to Rilke, in case you’re wondering. INCONJUNCT is a merging of two streams and yet not a sub-merging: a braid.
On January 1, we’ll be posting more publicly about this, but I wanted to put this on your radar today—both Christ the King Sunday AND Feast of the Presentation of Mary—because we want you to join us where X marks the spot.
Through this zine, we seek to weave together our sticky webs of inter-dependence. From the connections made in short flashes of each other’s mediatic lives, we seek a deepening—a pause. A place to think thoughts. Disparate thoughts, together.
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We say that two heavenly bodies are inconjunct when they are 150° apart. When we factor in the various significances of every 30° of a star chart, this means that these bodies have ‘nothing’ in common. They perceive differently, operate differently–they are in disharmony. And yet, they have to integrate within the greater body of a person, a relationship, or an event. This is why Hamaker-Zondag calls the inconjunct or “quincunx” (five-twelves) a “troublesome” aspect.
@INCONJUNCT is inspired by that trouble.
The idea for a zine with that name was sparked by conversations with @stoneroseshandmade, who noted pretty significant inconjunctions in both of our charts. In my case, a troublesome aspect is core to my personality, as the moon & sun are thought to signify in astrology:
“Cancer & Aquarius form…an inherently discordant aspect that requires two radically different signs to reconcile the irreconcilable: Cancer is the sign of clannish attachment to family, Aquarius is the sign of cerebral attachment to ideals. Cancer hates change, Aquarius loves shaking things up. Cancer is the sign of social shyness, Aquarius the sign of the social network. Cancer’s idea of a great vacation is spending a week watching old movies at Grandma’s house, Aquarius would rather spend a week doing lord knows what at Burning Man.” (Hexagon Astrology)
This is due to the meaning given to these slices of the symbolic circle, but’s also due to the significance given to the two bodies that passed through them at the time of birth:
“Dissonance chords in music are said to be unpleasant to the ear, we expect them to move to a more stable chord. But a piece of music without dissonance is boring…People with Sun inconjunct Moon tend to be people who shake things up. I liken it to the pearl in the shell caused by that niggling grit of sand. It seems quite alchemical. So these guys succeed in marrying paradoxical elements together successfully after some initial struggle & then make their name from that. Merging the masculine and feminine, logic & intuition into a totally new creation.” (Darkstar Astrology)
@INCONJUNCT is kinda like that too. You can learn more at inconjunct.org/zero