Interpreting Yod Configurations    N ow that we have seen what the general hallmarks of yods and unaspected planets are and what you can generally expect to experience with them, we can now shift to interpre-  tation. What does a particular unaspected planet do, and what can you say about the yod planets themselves?  There is a big difference in approach between interpreting an unaspected planet and interpreting a yod. It is as easy to describe and interpret an unaspected planet as it is hard and  complicated to approach a yod. Here we are not only involved with the various planets in the yod, but these planets are each also additionally the ruler of a house, or even several houses. If  the ruler of a house is located in a yod, the affairs of that house will become involved with the theme of the yod, or you will have “yod-like” experiences with or relating to matters per-  taining to that house. If Mercury and Venus both take part in a yod, it may well be that half the horoscope is involved in the dynamics of the yod. The picture that comes out then is almost  not to be untangled; one thing works against a second and the second contradicts the first. And yet there is a latent ability in the air that wants to break through. The idea of the yod is in  conflict with any clarity or system, and even talking or writing about yods is more complicated than you'd like it to be!  If you want to explain to a client with a yod how it works and everything that is related to it, it's good to begin with the general backgrounds and tendencies that we discussed in chapter  4. Even if you don't know how to interpret the yod any more specifically, the general story will already be very recognizable in practice and may promote acceptance. Later we will also start  looking at how you can best live with yods. Considering that the feelings of a yod can so often be overpowering in someone's life, it is good to talk about this at the very beginning of your  interpretation; doing so will also provide starting points for the rest of the interpretation.  The planets that participate and form a yod are a good place to start in building your interpretation of the yod. My experience is that in general the personal planets (the Sun through  Mars) seem more tangible than the rest. In my view, this is mostly related to the fact that the personal planets generally happen to be more recognizable and therefore play a clearer role in  everyday life. The slow planets are much more difficult to recognize in the individual, but in a yod they play as important a role as that played by the personal planets.  Because the participating planets in a yod are constantly influencing and making things difficult for one another, you will need to keep pointing out, in discussing any of these planets  individually, that each particular interpretation you offer will again be influenced or even undermined by the other participants. As soon as you are engaged in the domain of one of the  planets, another yod planet will get mixed up in it and seem to try to take over the helm, as it were, through emotions and restlessness. The result is a fishtailing back and forth between  emotions and/or activities. As soon as a calm seems to have arrived, number three will get involved and the upheaval is complete. In a yod, you will never be able to isolate and distinguish  the wishes, longings, and activities of one planet (something you can do with all the usual major aspects and aspect configurations). It will seem as if a kind of veil were covering the partic-  ipating planets. It also seems that this simply will not be allowed, whether because your own feelings, restlessness, or emotions intervene, or because of troublesome events or devel-  opments outside you. Just as if it had to keep being proven to you that the very thing you achieved or combated in the area of the participating planets was real.  Because of all of this, none of the planets in a yod can be described well in isolation. They'll slip through your fingers like a piece of soap. This is unfortunate because you would love to  be able to offer your client security and clarity in this area, but it seems even interpretation and clarification fall under the yod effect. This also means that I have to keep my options open  in the discussion below and point out other factors. This is why I will illustrate various things as extensively as possible with anecdotes and work out my interpretation primarily based on  examples. A number of steps follow below, but a different order is also possible.   1. Take each yod planet separately and explain that each represents an energy that will be accompanied by restlessness and searching.  This stage of the interpretation will seem very much like that of unaspected planets (see chapter 6), where this is also one of the steps in the interpretation. You can simply take the basic  meaning of the planet concerned and describe it in terms of a latent power that is covered up by restlessness, insecurity, and searching. This goes for all the planets, both the personal ones  as well as the collective ones. If we use the Moon as an example, we first need to look at what the Moon means for everyone, what its general dynamics are. In order not to turn everything  upside down right away, it's best if you leave the background signs out for now and introduce them in a next step as an interpretational factor.  The Moon is subject matter that becomes active when we feel unsure or unsafe. The Moon in a sign indicates how we try to get back on our feet and feel good again, and lunar aspects  are possible tools for this. The Moon also provides information about how we care for others and are able to accept care, how we can give and receive nurturing, and how we want to shape  atmosphere, domesticity, and congeniality. If the Moon is located in a yod (or if it is an unaspected planet) we are more vulnerable and insecure regarding these points. We are thrown off  balance more readily. This has nothing to do with instability, but we more readily have inner doubts and we have more trouble calming down again right away. We have a great need for  warmth and congeniality, and show this in an exaggerated fashion at one moment, while at another moment we crawl all the way back into our shell. Experiences of rejection cut deep and  make us more readily vulnerable than is the case with others.  In the area of the Moon we are restless and searching. Even if you get all the nurturing in the world, there will still be a “But…,” as if it were hard to grasp that everything is fine. Some-  how, under the surface there is still a longing, although at the same time you don't know why or what's wrong. This makes itself known particularly in a gnawing, restless feeling that can  make you unsure when care-giving and nurturing, or creating a mood, or substantiating your role as a parent are concerned.  With regard to this last point: the Moon is relevant for both the father and the mother in parenting. After all, it represents nurturing and care-giving, and both father as well as mother  can shape this. The Moon therefore does not indicate the mother, but much more your own sensitivity to atmosphere, domesticity, and care, which you can easily project onto both par-  ents. The Moon in a yod can make you very sensitive to tension at home, to emotional pressure and problems. These may actually have existed, in fact, but they don't always have to by a  long shot! So even if they didn't exist, there would still be an emotional vulnerability to any tension around. A Moon in a yod often has a hard time feeling at home, understood, and ac-  cepted, and parents will have to pay particular attention, because a fear of attachment can easily arise. Paradoxically enough, this is also frequently accompanied by an (often obsessive)  urge for attachment, and both extremes can come out in behavior.  Most adults with an unaspected Moon or yod Moon who have children go through a phase in which they have to seek and feel around for what it means, exactly, to be a father or a  mother. It is not unusual for this to be associated with the feeling of not being good, not being able, and a lack of self-confidence on this point, and at the same time a fascination for fam-  ily, extended family, and children, and feeling yourself very attracted to these things. It can't be predicted whether balance will be established, or whether you'll remain at one of the two  poles. At the one extreme you will do everything to avoid starting a family, and in the other case your whole life may even revolve exclusively around your children.  Doubts about care-giving, nurturing, atmosphere, domesticity, home life, etc, can keep raising their heads, create uneasiness at the craziest moments, and make you wonder if you're  doing things right, or whether what is here now is in fact what you want, and so forth. Meanwhile you may radiate something that asks for nurturing and security, which those around you  are supposed to give you, and oftentimes this may—unintentionally—come across as possessiveness. At the same time this Moon is an ability, a theme through which you can express  something exceptional, in a small way or in a large way. For the internal world of the psyche it doesn't matter whether you are a tremendous support for many people and children in and  around your home, and can help them very well, or that you set up grand projects on a governmental level to help children in the third world. In both cases you see a great strength in the  area of the themes of the Moon.    You can also approach the collective planets in this way, considering each planet is linked to its own domain and has its own dynamics. Pluto, for instance, gives us the urge to dredge up  stones from the bottom, to undergo and live through things intensely, and leads us through processes of transformation. At the same time, it is the energy that confronts us with the dark  sides of ourselves and life. It is the urge to grow and gain depth, and at the same time the fear of anything connected with these things.  In a yod configuration, this energy is already difficult to grasp and not to be guided, which normally causes us to be restless, and makes us even a bit more uneasy. It seems as if it were  brewing and simmering deep down inside us. It is not unusual with Pluto in a yod configuration to have a spot hidden deep inside you that always hurts. You don't know what it is or  why, but it's as if there were some kind of deep sorrow or deep pain inside, often accompanied by a feeling of fear. The dynamic of this same Pluto is, however, one that wants to hide this  as much as possible from the outside world, so that nobody really knows you. Sometimes this pain literally has something to do with experiences in your past, although even as a baby you  had this as a factor in the way you reacted to things. Here, too, nothing has to have happened in reality to give you that “wounded feeling.” It can result in the arising of a distrust of life,  which can be projected onto particular people, sometimes onto people in general. The dark side with which Pluto confronts us is also a side to which you are not only more sensitive, it also  seems to cross your path in the form of experiences with people who are not trustworthy or who are psychically not well balanced.  Here the searching nature of a planet in a yod configuration turns Pluto into a motivation that wants to go deeper than deep in both a positive as well as a negative sense. The deepest  still isn't deep enough, because the question, “So is this it?” will always be in the background. This entails a tremendous potential for renewal and transformation, but at the same time a  big chance to go through a significant crisis. With a Pluto like this, if you cannot achieve one, you will strive with singular intensity to achieve the other. An example of this is Pluto in the  yod of Diana, Princess of Wales. If she couldn't become a queen anymore, then she would be the Queen of Hearts in the hearts of the people. The crises in Diana's life are probably famil-  iar to most people. Another example is Pluto in the yod of C. G. Jung, who, after a severe crisis and great internal desperation, was able to provide enormous depth to psychology, and who  kept searching up to the moment he was lying on his deathbed. He also absolutely did not want to be identified with a school of thought or a movement; he didn't even want to be a “Jun-  gian,” because he couldn't stand being pinned down in any way whatsoever. That would limit his space to seek and only hamper throwing old baggage overboard.  In the positive sense, people with Pluto in a yod can become gentle from the depth of the values they have stumbled across. Again, this can be in little things or big things. However,  there is an equal risk of succumbing to an ever-deepening distrust. The yod itself cannot indicate which way things will go; this will have to do both with circumstance as well as a person's  own choices.  In this way you can delve into all the planets of a yod. The Moon was an example of a personal planet and Pluto of a collective one. The crux in any case is that you take the basic mean-  ing of that planet and combine it with restlessness, insecurity, seeking, and strength.   

2. Take the backgrounds of the signs into consideration to further fine-tune the effect of the planets.   The collective planets (Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto) remain in a sign for so long that they present something more akin to generational data. This is why they will need less explanation re-  garding sign background; they come into play more in the picture of the times. The planets Jupiter and Saturn are half personal and half collective. Although they, too, remain in a sign for  a long time, they move significantly faster than the outer planets. Jupiter takes almost twelve years to move through the zodiac, Saturn takes almost thirty years. So Jupiter remains in a  sign one year on average, and Saturn two-and-a-half years, although there are great variations due to the retrograde movements of both. Nevertheless, we do need to weigh the sign back-  ground of these two planets. It will become clear that Saturn in its own sign of Capricorn can have a lot more impact in a yod than when it is in Aries, for instance. The most important  thing, though, is to interpret the personal planets from their background sign. It makes a big difference in a yod whether you have the Sun in Leo, or in Cancer. Sun in Leo has a greater  urge to manifest itself than the Sun in Cancer, and could therefore show greater extremes of expression than a Sun in Cancer. Thus the background sign helps you to fine-tune things.  Imagine that you have Mercury in a yod. The theme of communication then gains all the aforementioned hallmarks. We should take communication in a broad sense: the way in which  you organize knowledge and facts, and line things up, the way in which you talk, read, learn, and write, are all part of this concept. In a yod, Mercury becomes insecure and restless in  these areas, and is vulnerable.  If Mercury in Gemini is located in the yod, there is always a big chance that such a person will speak and respond with ease anyway, because Mercury in Gemini is capable of a glib  chat and a rapid response. A yod will change little in this as such, even though the yod will insure that at unpredictable moments this person will feel unsure and so may make mistakes.  Making mistakes is not so much a hallmark of a planet in a yod, but may be the result of the restlessness and nervousness of the yod.  Mercury in Cancer by nature has a lot less of that ability to chat glibly. This background for Mercury demands emotional safety and a congenial mood; only then can Mercury in Cancer  express itself well. If the mood's not there, Mercury's capacity for contact will also be placed under pressure. Not that Mercury in Cancer is incapable. Far from it, these people may be gift-  ed speakers! On one condition, though, and that is a feeling of belonging, a congenial atmosphere or “feeling at home” with people. As it happens, Mercury in Cancer is in a good position  to create these conditions in order to be able to feel good.  Now, if you have Mercury in Cancer in a yod, you are confronted by the problem that you have with yods in general regarding the theme of “belonging.” You feel different than other  people, and are very vulnerable where atmosphere, security, and congeniality are concerned. These are precisely circumstances that are important to you in order to be able to come into  your own in word and deed. This means that in a yod configuration, Mercury in Cancer will still be confronted by different problems than Mercury in Gemini! Even though Mercury in  Gemini will seem to have it easier because, due to its background, Mercury is not dependent on a feeling of security, its problems play out on a different level, such as being preoccupied  by facts that haven't quite been accepted yet. Mercury in a yod is often interested in precisely those things that are less accepted, or that are rejected by others around, and the like. The issue  in this example is therefore not a question of which sign background would be better for Mercury. What is most important is to show that a planet functions from a sign, and that this  important facet counts in the interpretation of a yod.   3. Show that the planets in a yod constantly influence one another and that they will cause a lot of restlessness and movement.   An example from practice: A yod involved the Sun, Saturn, and Uranus. The woman who has this yod has been practicing astrology for years. She says it took a long time before she was  able to develop a feeling of identity. Through her orientation toward personal growth and psychological insight, she managed to gain more perspective on who she is and what she wants  (Sun). From time to time, however, she was confronted by the feeling she couldn't hold on to that perspective. Just when things are nice, a feeling of distrust (Saturn) crops up, just like  that, out of the blue. This might be a distrust of herself, and also a distrust of life in general. Or else sudden events (Uranus) and circumstances will make sure that she starts doubting her-  self again. Or just when she really feels like doing some astrology (Uranus), she'll get saddled with circumstantial obligations, inhibiting circumstances, with adversity, and so forth (Sat-  urn), or a defensiveness will crop up inside that gives her the feeling she first has to check whether she did in fact fulfill all her obligations. Unwillingly she has to change course, and is  unable to get to herself (Sun). It would seem as if her hobby, astrology, cannot be free of problems that place her on the spot and force her to make choices, and then she often has to  “choose” things she would rather do at some other time. Family life and obligations may also easily undermine her identity and sense of self. Still, she derives a lot of pleasure from astrol-  ogy and psychology, and manages in cheery fashion to face tensions. If we look at this example, it seems her Sun (identity) is very vulnerable as soon as she activates this subject matter. In  other words: as soon as she chooses for herself, wants to show who she is, feels good in her skin, has confidence in herself, and vitally steps toward life from this standpoint, the doubts of  Saturn come, as if Saturn were standing by, waiting to bring the Sun down a notch as soon as it manifests itself. So the Sun cannot come out without Saturn starting some undermining  action, an action filled with doubt and distrust.  This can also be the case, of course, in a simple square between the Sun and Saturn, but in the normal major aspects you are capable of gaining perspective a lot sooner on what you are  doing and what is wrong, so that a square or opposition between the Sun and Saturn may symbolize not only a troublesome aspect, but also a good and reliable tool for you. This is dif-  ferent with a yod. The undermining is more insidious, more invasive, less comprehensible, and harder to shake off, at least in the first part of your life. It usually takes longer before you  really learn to deal with this. It seems as if the contents involved are much more interwoven. So you can't talk about the Sun without also taking into account the vulnerability, doubt, and  distrust of Saturn. This isn't all though. Uranus is also participating. This means that as soon as this woman wants to be herself or wants to choose for herself, sudden tensions, inner rest-  lessness, irritation, and such, crop up. Often I also notice in a yod configuration with Uranus that the person in question just cannot find the peace of mind to start doing something. You  want to do something, but in one way or another fritter away your energy (or allow this to happen) by simply allowing a thousand and one things to intervene. Before you know it, the time  you had to spend is gone, and you are left with that feeling of dissatisfaction and restlessness.  The yod is thus a remarkable and conflicting mixture of all these factors, and initially none of them succeed in gaining the upper hand or any elbow room. As I have already mentioned,  it often takes years to find out about this, so the second half of life for people with a yod is often more pleasant that the first half (if they are aware of their dynamic and are prepared to tack-  le it).  In this example we studied the yod primarily from the Sun. This is a tendency you can easily have as an astrologer, because the personal planets offer an easy leg up for interpretation.  Now, take Saturn, for instance, as a starting point. It is the planet of durability, responsibility, method, and resoluteness, on the one hand, and of fear, distrust, and melancholy on the  other (I am restricting myself here to just a couple of buzz words; it has infinitely more nuance, of course). The minute the woman responsibly wants to do the things she has to do (Sat-  urn), all kinds of things can intervene (Uranus), or she might feel strong resistance from the Sun, and have the feeling that life is setting traps for her and not giving her any space. This is  when the Sun would like to go its own way most and choose to do what she enjoys, which gets in the way of her meeting her obligations. Uranus seems to help the Sun just a little bit by  demanding space and freedom, but the minute she makes room for herself, the Sun peeks around the corner again with a question like, “Do I really want this?” and Saturn meanwhile  holds an onslaught of guilty feelings in store. Thus the entire process seems to consist of a nonstop shoving and tugging among the three subject matters involved, so that none of the  three can just function in peace. Right away the other two intrude and thwart the first somehow. This is also why it is so difficult, as I mentioned earlier, to describe a planet in a yod: as  soon as you try, your client will say that none of it is recognizable. That would be true, too, since the picture simply cannot be clarified due to the constant interference. Astrologers will  have the problem of wanting to describe and interpret the subject matter, but continually having to say that the situation is always different from what they are now pointing out.   4. Explain how what has been discussed leads to insecurity for each of the participating planets, and how that insecurity may express itself.   It is good to take a longer look at the insecurity that this dynamic brings about with your client. In fact, you are dealing with two sources of insecurity. Because of the fact that yods and  unaspected planets are usually connected with a generational dynamic, its inherent restlessness will play a role in your existence, and along with it the troublesome projections you can get  from it. Added to this is the insecurity deriving from planets in the yod configuration that exhibit a dynamic where they cannot develop and nonstop have to fight all kinds of resistance,  possibly coming from the outside but primarily internal much of the time. Your lack of comprehension, due to the background of the three different elements, the three different modes,  and the two polarities, accentuates this once again.  However, it is also important to emphasize that this insecurity can have a particular function. In the areas of the participating planets you will find no rest, and this also means that you  can't play hide-and-seek in those domains. You cannot escape the urge to do something with them and find a form for them. Due to the fact that these contents prevent you from sticking  to a “sluggish” and customary pattern, and force you always to keep on searching, a capacity for deep wisdom and great power lies hidden here. If you are capable of accepting insecurity as  the price for this ability, and to see that it is not meant to undermine you but to keep you searching, a lot will already have been gained. I will always repeat this, because it is crucial point  for dealing with yods and unaspected planets—let the insecurity be for what it is, knowing that you just happen to feel it, but that the real situation is not “your fault.” Flip the channel and  continue on your way! Only when people keep identifying with their insecurity will they in fact be constantly busy suggesting (hypnotically) to themselves that they can't do anything. This  is unfortunate because you can do incredibly much precisely because of your yod or unaspected planet. You can take the basic meaning of each of the three planets, supplemented by the  sign in which each is located, and the hallmarks of that planet described as you always do, but supplemented with the distinguishing feature of a larger doubt, insecurity, and restlessness  this time. Don't forget to talk about the positive side though!   5. Indicate how people seem to get hopelessly entangled in situations of fate.   Yod configurations are unmannerly enough to get you caught up in troublesome situations, and often very unpleasant or impossible circumstances at that. Painful situations that elicit  feelings of a stalemate are often associated with yod configurations. These may be situations in which you rightfully ask yourself, “Why did I deserve this?” In the previous chapter I al-  ready presented a couple of general examples of this. In this chapter my concern will be a more specific interpretation. The stalemate, the painful and troublesome situations, happen to be  very strongly linked to the planets participating in the yod, and with the houses that these planets rule. It is hard to deduce from the yod itself which of the yod planets will step into the  foreground most, so around which planet the stalemate will occur. Although I have often heard the opinion that the apex planet is supposed to be the most important (the planet at the top;  

the base being the sextile), in my experience that has never been true. Precisely due to the constant turbulence and mutual influence of the participating planets, there is no single planet  that comes to stand at the forefront. Sometimes, though, the painful situation or stalemate will exhibit itself most clearly around one of the yod planets, and this might be the apex or any  other planet (or planets) in the yod. I have often seen that at other times other planets within the yod would drive people into a corner as well.  Regarding their tendencies, they can all three symbolize a specific situation, and if more planets are participating in a yod, then that also applies to them. It is, however, messy to indi-  cate beforehand whether problems will occur primarily around one, two, or all three of the participants. On top of this, the issue may also be a planet as ruler of a house, so that the crisis  has less to do with the theme of the planet than with the theme of the house that the planet rules. I have found that when people tell me about their life and experiences, they recognize the  personal planets within a yod much more easily than the trans-Saturnal ones. I will provide a couple of examples of experiences you can have with yod configurations, focusing on the par-  ticipating planets. In later chapters even more extensive examples will be discussed.   Examples of the Venus–Pluto–Neptune Yod   A well-known example of this yod is Prince William, the oldest son of Prince Charles and Princess Diana. Venus is the apex, and Pluto is in sextile with Neptune, the base. William's child-  hood was long subject to his parents' marital problems, which were carried too far by the media in an almost unbearable way for a child, both through the books his parents authored as  well as by the paparazzi and tabloids in England and abroad. He was born already burdened by a generational theme, and Venus is certainly indicative of the many relational problems in  previous generations, on his father's side of the family as well as in his mother's line. This makes him extra-vulnerable when he experiences this dynamic up close. Together with his  younger brother he was audience to this ever-intensifying drama, and it must have been frankly awful to have to see the contents of his parents' bugged intimate phone conversations and  arguments in the media. After the divorce, things seemed to be better between his parents, but due to the premature death of his mother, things can no longer be talked out to closure. His  mother's last love brought him once again to a stalemate: it is known that he did not advocate her marrying Dodi. What goes through a child when he sees his mother become happy with  a controversial man, in a relationship that will result in a lot of problems for everyone involved?  Venus in his horoscope is Ruler 4, and Pluto, Ruler 10. The pivotal point that symbolizes both parents emphasizes the dynamic in William's childhood even a bit more.  Pluto in the yod might have to do with the intense manner in which the dramas in his childhood developed. Jung also has Pluto in a yod (but not Neptune or Venus) and Jung was in-  wardly confronted by intense issues and certain irrational fears. The ability inherent in the yod of understanding the human psyche and fathoming it is often the result of that inner Pluto-  nian confrontation (Jung), possibly coupled with intense events in the outside world (William), so that the theme of Life and Death may also play a role. For William, this theme will be ex-  pressed by, among other things, the death of his mother. For Jung, the theme of Life and Death came into play, among other things, through his fascination and fear of the corpses that  washed ashore around the Schaffhausen waterfall, close to where he lived for a time, and through ominous dream images when he was a child.    Other difficult life situations I have seen with a Venus–Pluto–Neptune yod are also linked to the themes of Love and Marriage, clearly a Venus theme. A few examples. A woman with this  yod was born into a family she experienced as being pleasant. Her grandparents (on both sides) had been dead set against the marriage of her parents, and had never brushed this under  the rug in the presence of their grandchildren. There was no direct problem with the parents, or in their marriage, or affecting the children, but there was a very tense family atmosphere  surrounding the parents' marriage. Her grandparents on both sides turned out to have marriages that were held together for the sake of appearances (money played a significant role  here), but marriages whose contents didn't amount to much, according to this woman. When this woman moved into a rooming house and began to develop herself independently, she  fell in love a number of times, and finally married. Every single one of the men with whom she fell in love turned out to be unable to handle a relationship. Once she fell for a very rich  man (with whom she felt very sure of herself), until she noticed that he was having her secretly followed everywhere, and that he was throwing her increasingly off balance through ma-  nipulation and subtle “twists” until she no longer knew who she was. Another boyfriend turned out to have the traits of a pathological liar. The man whom she married at first also seemed  to be the real McCoy, but she hadn't been aware initially that the man had a multiple personality disorder, even though she thought he acted strange now and then. Their marriage was  exceptionally complicated for years, until she couldn't stand it anymore, and asked for a divorce.  Manipulation (Pluto) or undermining (Neptune) linked to the theme of relationship (Venus) is an expression of this yod that occurs with regularity. We just saw an example in which  experiences cross your path from the outside. Pluto in the yod, however, can also affect your own behavior, and likewise mean that the demands and expectations you have of the rela-  tionship are exceptionally high because you feel unsafe and insecure. Then you, yourself, are unconsciously and unintentionally the manipulating factor in the relationship, so you may  elicit very unpleasant responses. Or else you idealize everything to escape from reality (Neptune) and land with a jolt face to face with yourself again. With such a yod, you could thus  unconsciously and unnoticeably be the crux of the problem yourself, or go through life with somebody who has a lot of problematic sides. If, however, you are aware early on of this situ-  ation, it is definitely possible to have a good, longstanding, and happy marriage, a marriage that may even be exceptional, and in which the two of you may form a deep unity. A significant  coping process and inner confrontations often do come first though.  Venus also often literally has to do with security. It's not for nothing that Venus indicates the kind of money or paper currency in the horoscope of a country! Venus yod situations may  also entail a confrontation with a choice regarding concrete security. I have seen this work out more than once in the sense of keeping a marriage together and remaining in a financially  comfortable situation that is, however, an emotional drama; or stepping out of that marriage, to be consequently completely bled dry by the partner, financially or emotionally. I met one  woman with a Venus–Pluto–Neptune yod whose ex-husband transformed into a stalker and didn't give her a moment's peace. This only happened after she had started a new relationship.  One man with the Venus–Pluto–Neptune yod experienced as a child that his father used him as a “cover” for his extramarital affairs. He would often go off supposedly to do something  with the boy, and then take him to his girlfriend's. The boy was bribed with candy and toys so he wouldn't tattle, and at the same received subtle, but unmistakable threats as to what  would happen if he did say anything. His father had many girlfriends, one after the other, all of whom started following him. The father also had children with some of these women.  They started making financial claims on him, so then his father saw only one way out with his family, and that was emigrating to Australia. The son had just started elementary school and  felt totally uprooted. In Australia his father didn't have a permanent job right away, and this meant that sometimes they would live in the same place for a year, and then move again to live  somewhere else for a couple of months. Sometimes things went well for the family for a while, materially speaking, and then in the next months they would be poor again. Finally the fam-  ily returned to the Netherlands, but couldn't really settle down there anymore. The man has a lot of trouble building up a feeling of attachment because there is a deep fear that it will be  broken again. And as it would happen, he was to experience that the first girl he fell in love with in the Netherlands had to go abroad because her father's company was sending her father  out for a number of years, and he was taking the whole family along. He literally said, “Why did that have to happen precisely to me!” For this man, Neptune is the ruler of his 4th house, so  there is also an indication of domesticity and domestic circumstances, childhood, and parents involved in the theme—very appropriate for what the man experienced. Although Venus, the  female planet (besides the Moon, of course), is oftentimes brought into connection with one's mother, the active problems in the yod of this man can clearly be traced back to his father. So  this makes it difficult to make any statements about which parent is actually causing the problem. Often there are also all kinds of psychic problems that are hidden from the eyes of the  outside world, but that determine a lot, as the following example will show.  A woman with a yod including the Moon, Venus, and Pluto grew up in a family where the mood was often very oppressive. Her mother suffered from bouts of depression, something  that is obviously emotionally stifling for any child. The relationship between her parents wasn't good, either. The woman described their situation as difficult, having an undercurrent she  could describe no better than as “threatening.” Although the Moon and Pluto in her yod may well indicate her mother's depression, there was more. The woman noticed, as she got older,  that her mother's depressions very often coincided with her father's behavior. She became aware of how he always managed to break her mother down in a very two-faced way. So, for in-  stance, if he gave the mother a compliment for something she had done, he would relativize or negate it afterward, or would make a sly dig, often suggesting that you simply have to cheer  up a depressive woman. She and her brothers and sisters did not see either this or any other undermining behavior on the father's part. The little compliments were considered real, so the  children had the impression that their father was, in fact, being good to their mother. Gradually, however, they discovered the great unspoken tension in the marriage, and their father's  morbid mindset to keep his wife so controlled and to treat her like a patient, so that the outside world would say how good he was not to run out on a wife like that, but to keep taking care  of her. The woman discovered this during her high-school years, but wasn't able to talk about it with anyone. It was just as if she were seeing things wrong; she felt as if she were trapped  in tremendous isolation. It turned out later that she was right, but only after years of falling out with various family members.  In this example, we see that, with the Moon in the yod, it seems at first that the issue is the mother, but later that the deeper cause lies with the father. Of course it lies with both, be-  cause neither of the two turned out to be emotionally adult enough to break through the pattern. The daughter with the yod, however, felt the “whispering of the walls” and became  trapped, even though she was the only one to distinguish the truth. But then, a child who is still living at home, going to school, and who is a minor has no options.  I have heard countless stories of this nature, dramatic ones as well, of parents who ran away, of abuse, of very serious illnesses, and more. So many that during the first years of my yod  research I started with a very negative picture. This adjusted later on when I had met more people with yods who had found a way to deal with them and clearly seemed to be happy. How  you can deal with a yod is something I will talk about in the following chapters. Here, for a moment, the emphasis will be on the unpleasant experiences and the feeling of “Why me?”   6. Give examples of how people can keep ending up in exceptional situations, or how a yod gives rise to misunderstandings.   With a yod configuration you often get into situations where change is needed on a small or a large scale, or where it is at the point of taking place—turning-points. Again it is the planets  in the yod that indicate which domains will be involved, both in their meaning as planet as well as in that of house ruler. An example is a woman who has Mercury in a yod with the Moon  and Neptune. She told me that in her childhood she had often had problems with teachers. Mercury in a yod will have its repercussions in education in the broadest possible sense, and a  yod with Mercury can present problems in the area of learning. This may be a learning problem, although not always by any means. It can also be a problem around teachers. I have met  various children with Mercury in a yod (or as an unaspected planet) who had to change schools one or more times, and when they were finally at a school where they were starting to feel at  

home and had a really good instructor, the instructor would become ill, and the substitute would turn out to be a problem. However, what I see just as often (a lot of times even when Nep-  tune participates in the yod) is that the child will innocently ask a question about the one thing the teacher doesn't know. Or, if in an instance the teacher “rattles on,” not knowing the  exact answer to a question concerning a slightly obscure topic, it will be precisely the yod child who happens to know the answer. This child is then caught in a dilemma. For, if the child  says what he or she knows, the teacher will look like a fool and it will be obvious that the latter was beating around the bush. If the child says nothing, then the truth will have been violated.  These kinds of moral dilemmas belong with yod configurations and force the child to face a major problem.  With Mercury in a yod, the issue is often facts, knowledge, subject matter, or conversations. The woman in this example with Mercury, Moon, and Neptune in her yod, experienced  both sides: “catching” teachers on misinformation, but if she said anything about it, she would be blamed for something. She also had many unfortunate changes of instructors. Further-  more, she sees a lot of things most people don't see, like soft colors around people—their aura—and moving shapes in that aura. If she responds to this, she also often receives all kinds of  negative responses, and has learned that she can oftentimes see things in their aura even before the party involved has become aware of the emotions, moods, and problems that go along  with them. In other words, she sees in the figures inside the aura and the movements of the aura what is coming down the road, and sometimes also which direction somebody's thoughts  are taking. As a child she often reacted to what she observed in this way and was considered “fanciful,” and “lacking manners,” because you're not supposed to say those kinds of things  about adults. Thus she learned to distrust not only her capacity to observe the unseen world (and later on the ability to see what goes along with it), she also lost any trust in her capacity to  observe everyday reality and to transmit this. She didn't know anymore where one thing ended and another began, and what was real and what was not. It took a very long time before she  was able to unravel that problem.  Neptune gives her the ability to see through a fixed form, but immediately meddles with Mercury as soon as she is engaged in learning, reading, thinking, etc. Since it is in a yod, this  intervention will be troublesome and chaotic, or strange (in “normal” eyes), but this doesn't have to mean that she is seeing things incorrectly, or that she is wrong! With a yod, you seem  to have a nose for bringing something of yourself out in the wrong situation! The woman in question might be able to sense, as it were (Neptune), what someone else needs or what's  wrong, and then want to take care of it (Moon). However, when she wants to put this into words (Mercury), she happens to be too vague, or suddenly becomes unsure of herself, or starts  to show caring before she has explained various things, or suddenly starts feeling very unsure emotionally, and on and on. It seems as if the wheel starts turning and she has trouble shap-  ing and expressing what she is experiencing or observing on another level. If this happens to you as a child, you can easily get an inferiority complex, of course.  Often, though, I see the communicative skills of children (and adults) who have Mercury and Neptune in a yod develop a great deal when they develop a hobby in the area of music or  art—I have seen music work particularly well. As if this can somehow make the tension ebb away. This may even cause a great inspiration to break through which can express itself, for in-  stance, in the way in which a musical piece is interpreted. With Mercury in a yod, technique somehow cannot become completely polished, although this is more than compensated for by  the exceptional expression and power that can come out in the interpretation, whether this concerns professional musicians or people who play music for pleasure. Thus with yod configu-  rations we see more opportunity for misunderstanding because of the yod, and there is also more chance of ending up precisely in that position in which you hit the exception to the rule,  or where you are the only one who knows the answer, although that answer brings you to a stalemate. Often a yod pops up where a piece of Shadow needs to be coped with, and certainly  not always just by the person who has the yod. In this person's surroundings, that other person—with his or her yod —pops up exactly at those moments when those themes are coming  into play.   7. Point out the risks of the yod planets involved.   In light of the above, you might conclude that each planet in a yod entails a particular risk that can run out of hand, from the previously mentioned insecurity and ambiguity, the lack of  understanding, and erroneous projections, down to the unpleasant events and stalemates. The extent to which such a risk will occur is, however, not to be specified. I do want to empha-  size here that in the many cases I have investigated I have noticed that you cannot say that whatever happens to the person who has a yod is her or his own fault. We should rigorously dis-  pel the idea that it is a “punishment for a mistake or sin,” because you do more harm than good with such comments.  I know a woman, for instance, with a yod configuration that also includes the Moon. As a toddler during World War II she was placed on a transport to a concentration camp and lost  her mother there. After the war she went from one foster family to another and had severe emotional problems—small wonder. She really wanted to have children and give them every-  thing in order to offer them the opportunities for development in life of which she had had to deprive herself. She married and is happy with her husband. Her first child was a daughter  born with Down's Syndrome, a significant and serious form at that, in addition to a severe motor disability, causing the child to keep flailing and rolling and screaming day and night. The  woman cared for this little girl night and day, until she died a natural death at age 19.  I have come across other cases in which the Moon in a yod goes together with a child who needed a lot of extra attention, or with a child who was in some other kind of trouble. Here,  too, this is not by any means always due to dysfunctional domestic circumstances. On the contrary, one can often say it in fact entailed parents who dealt with their children consciously  and with concern.  In addition I should mention in reassurance that there are many people with the Moon in a yod who do not experience these problems, and with whom the yod takes shape in another  way. So you can't flatly say that the Moon in a yod will cause problems with parents or children. However, the possibility of this, it is true, is greater.   8. The MC or the ASC with two planets: a yod and a duet   Whenever two planets form a sextile with each other, and neither forms an aspect with any other planet, we have, in fact, a duet, and the two planets in it have an unintegrated effect. Now,  should the two planets form an inconjunct with either the MC or the Ascendant, then there is both a yod—two inconjuncts with a sextile at the base—as well as a duet—the “unaspected”  sextile. The criterion for being unaspected is, after all, the absence of aspects to planets; and the MC and the ASC aren't planets. The same thing of course goes for an inconjunct both of  whose planets form no aspects to other planets, but one of which forms a sextile with and the other an inconjunct with the MC or the Ascendant. Here, too, one can speak of a duet and a  yod at the same time. The interpretation remains simply that of a yod, but the effect, in terms of tension, lies somewhere between that of a yod and a duet. After all there is no third planet  to increase the turbulence. The fact that the MC or the Ascendant is involved, means primarily that we experience the field of tension in finding an attitude to maintain outwardly. The  constant action of three planets is missing though. There are two here, so this is easier to get a perspective on and easier to handle, even though the whole will, of course, still have a lot of  the troublesome attributes and fall under the interpretation of unaspected planets.   9. Analyze the possible ability of the yod.   Both the astrologer, as well as the client, will have to make peace with the thought that with a yod you are not in any position to articulate the latent and dormant ability of the yod in ques-  tion. It can encompass so much, and so differently from how it first showed itself, that it is simply the safest thing not to bum your fingers on the subject. Often the second half of the life  of someone with a yod is totally different than the first. This is usually not the result of a conscious choice, but mostly of a combination of circumstances in which all kinds of unforeseen  events and situations contribute to a chain reaction, as it were, and cause the second half of life to bring forth a totally different life situation. It is very possible that along with this you re-  ally find or have found your rhythm. Many people with a yod who have actively wrestled with the aforementioned problems and have found their way through, will even point out that they  have found a haven that is difficult to describe in the middle of what is otherwise a turbulent life. They will also point out that they have figured out that because of the searching and inse-  curity during the first half of life—which included doing the most diverse things, holding very different jobs, starting various programs of study (without completing them all), and the  like—they have ended up during the second half in a situation where, to their surprise, they need, can use, and can integrate the experiences they accumulated through all those falteringly  undertaken activities. As if there were an invisible thread running through all their fishtailing back and forth that unconsciously pointed out the way for them. However, to get to this  point, the person with the yod has to watch out not to end up in the negative side of the yod, the side of self-pity and inactivity—because then things will start getting really difficult.  A yod can make a person incredibly creative, precisely because of that urge to be searching all the time. This is why people with a yod can be very refreshing and ahead of their time in  many respects. They will always notice that those around them can't muster much understanding for this though—during the first half of their lives, at any rate. The second half of life is  different in this respect, as well. I have met a variety of people with yods who, during the course of their lives, changed their circle of friends radically, ended relations with a number of  family members, and finally had a whole new group of people around them among whom they felt very much at home. In this case, you will see that those with a yod can finally arrive at a  situation in which they are understood and in which their qualities are recognized, but which they will themselves have cooperated actively to create. A yod gets nothing for nothing, and  so it forces you to shape your life.  If we look at the horoscopes of well-known people with yods, we will see that the themes that made them famous always had to do with the themes of their yod (or unaspected planet).  Jung is a good example of this: Jupiter, Pluto, and Mars in a yod, where Jupiter represents the doctor (and religion) and Pluto psychology. Mars can indicate unbridled effort and energy.  The enormous conceit that goes along with a yod-Jupiter combined with Pluto and Mars got him into trouble: he simply couldn't adapt himself to the teachings of another, in this case  Freud, and therefore he abandoned his prospects of a safe job and a position of honor and prestige.  Pluto is Ruler 10 and Mars Co-Ruler 2 in the yod; here we see in a yod the theme of social profiling (10th house) and that of the need for concrete security (2nd house) also involved in  the situation of the stalemate. On the one hand, the connection between the two rulers indicates that he is seeking security (2) and career possibilities (10). On the other hand these two  houses, if only because of the fact that they are involved in a yod, brought him once or more times in his life into a stalemate, so that he had to choose between “evils” as it were. In his  situation it was Jupiter as Ruler 11, the house of friendship, which completed the stalemate: he was a friend of Freud's (11) and had good prospects because he was Freud's designated fol-  lower (10), which would offer him security (2). However, he couldn't commit to a compromise between his own insights and those of Freud (Jupiter) in the area of psychology (Pluto) and  was thus faced with an impossible choice. He could go his own way and break off the friendship, with all the insecurity this would entail, or keep going along the same road as Freud and  retain security, but continue to feel nothing but resistance inside. Neither option was a pleasant one for Jung, but he was driven from inside to choose his own way.  The crisis followed, but after that he was able to follow his own path and become an innovator and a pioneer in the area of depth psychology. And, as is customary with a yod, he