The Vertex
In astrology, the Vertex/Anti-Vertex is a sensitive point in the birth chart that is often associated with fate, significant encounters, and destiny. Essentially, the Vertex/Anti-Vertex acts as the third angle in our birth charts. The Midheaven/Imum Coeli is the second, and the Ascendant/Descendant is the first.
The Vertex/Anti-Vertex is not a planet or celestial body but rather a mathematical point that is calculated based on the intersection of the ecliptic (the apparent path of the Sun) and the prime vertical (a great circle that passes through the east and west points of the horizon and the zenith and nadir).
“It was proposed by L. Edward Johndro, a Canadian astrologer, who began likening its opposite angle, the anti-vertex, to an Electric Ascendant’ His astrological colleague Charles Jayne, began experimenting with this point and reported the Vertex to be responsive to solar arc directions. Both agreed that the Vertex was fated and represented issues beyond our control; therefore the Vertex entered astrological thinking strongly imprinted with being a point of compulsion and fate”
The Vertex, is pretty much a mystery, when you stare at the void what do you see? But you can compare it to the North and South Nodes in the sense that neither the Vertex nor the Nodes are physical bodies in the sky. Instead, both represent cosmic gateways to chance and destiny. The Nodes symbolise aspects of ourselves that feel familiar and unknowable and instinctively encoded in our psyche. Similarly, the Vertex points to our personality blind spots, attracting others who mirror these aspects in an effort to help us bring them into consciousness, and people who can push us on to the path of destiny. The nature of the Vertex, is where we don’t have ‘free will’ we can’t push it into action, we’re bound by the hands of fate. So, even if you try to understand your Vertex placement, you will understand it through experience, practice and Vertex activations.
In moderate latitudes the Vertex will generally be located in the 5th to 8th houses. In latitudes near the equator the vertex can swing into the 4th and 9th houses.
Every angle and axis has an opposite, and the Vertex’s opposite is called the Anti-Vertex. Johndro and Jayne’s early testing of these two angles were more inclined to focus on the Vertex. The Vertex can be called the ‘Spiritual Descendant’ and the Anti-Vertex the ‘Spiritual Ascendant’ Both can also reveal the desires and urges that remain overshadowed within us. Anything we repress for too long will inevitably find its way into our lives. As Carl Jung says ‘Until you make the unconscious ‘conscious’ it will direct your life and you will call it fate’
How to Calculate your Vertex/Anti-Vertex placement in your birth chart?
Go on: Free Astrological Chart Selection - Astrodienst
Type in your birth details
Scroll down to ‘Common Elements’
Select Vertex
Select ‘Show chart’
Voila, you whipped up your chart!
To read more about the Vertex, my E-book on The Vertex can be found here
What’s covered?
What is the Vertex
Vertex on the inner planets
Vertex in the houses
Vertex in the signs
Vertex real life examples (Beyoncé and Jay-Z, King Charles and the late Princess Diana, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie etc.)
Karmic relationships
Jungian Psychology on The Vertex
Vertex in Synastry
Journal questions for Vertex connections
