⚻ Quincunx
Mercury quincunx North Node
The thinking argues with the direction. Read as talking yourself out of it, which the tradition frames as a habit rather than a verdict.
- Angle
- 150°
- Orb used
- ±3°
- Type
- Hard
- Bodies
- ☿ ☊
What these two are about together
Thinking and the direction of development. Associated with learning as the route forward, and with the difference between what a person already knows and what they will have to.
What a quincunx does
A quincunx, also called an inconjunct, puts two planets in signs that share nothing at all: not element, not quality, not polarity, and not even the awkward adjacency of the semi-sextile. The tradition is specific that this is not a weak square. A square describes two things in conflict, which at least implies they are on the same terms. A quincunx describes two things that do not have terms in common, so neither can be traded off against the other.
How it reads
The thinking argues with the direction. Read as talking yourself out of it, which the tradition frames as a habit rather than a verdict.
In practice
Read as adjustment rather than conflict. The classical picture is of continually correcting for something that never resolves and never quite becomes a crisis, in the way a person compensates for a limp without noticing they are doing it. Modern practice associates it with health and with habits maintained past the point of usefulness.
What to watch for
The absence of a decision. Squares get resolved. A quincunx tends to get accommodated instead, and the tradition treats the accommodation itself as the thing worth looking at.
The two planets
Mercury: Mind, language and how you process
North Node: The direction of growth, and the thing you have no practice at
Mercury and North Node at other angles
- Mercury conjunction North NodeTwo bodies at the same degree, acting as one
- Mercury semi-sextile North NodeThirty degrees apart: neighbouring signs, with little in common
- Mercury semi-square North NodeForty-five degrees apart: half a square, and read as half its weight
- Mercury sextile North NodeSixty degrees apart: cooperation that has to be taken up
- Mercury quintile North NodeSeventy-two degrees apart: a fifth of the circle, and the odd one out
- Mercury square North NodeNinety degrees apart: two things that will not sit still together
- Mercury trine North NodeA hundred and twenty degrees apart: the same element, working together
- Mercury sesquiquadrate North NodeA hundred and thirty-five degrees: a square and a half
- Mercury opposition North NodeDirectly across the chart: two ends of one axis
Find this in your own chart
A reading like this only tells you what the pairing is associated with. Whether Mercury and North Node actually make this angle in your chart depends on your birth date, time and place.