Post
by Jim Eshelman » Sun Jul 12, 2020 10:11 am
Yes, this is the main thing I've been discussing in the Uranian astrology thread, but I haven't gotten around to saying the following yet:
Tropical astrologers traditionally hold to a root principle that nothing can happen anytime in one's life unless it is already described in the natal chart. I bold and underline that for reference, not to emphasize that it's necessarily true. It is, however, a hypothesis capable of being tested. Whether true or not, it has an emotional lure. One would like to think that life were in a neater, more manageable package, though that's surely too naïve to be true. Also, this principle unquestionably was articulated long before the computer age, even before calculating many charts (by hand) was feasible. We've learned, in decades since, that prediction often requires many different charts (something Siderealists almost wear as a lifestyle) that, admittedly, in the '50s, '60s, '70s, etc. was impractical.
So, oh... to be able to have one single chart in front of you from which every single important event in the life could be read!
The great Evangeline Adams is an outstanding example of where much of this came from. She was so poor at calculating horoscopes that, once she got a natal chart in hand, she'd use it for everything! She was a great user of horary astrology - a chart cast for the moment a question is asked, from which to read all the potential future unfolding of that question. Adams was so poor at calculating charts (I suspect she had someone else do that for her) that she would do horary by calculating only the Ascendant and house cusps for the moment of a question then putting her client's NATAL planets inside it, instead of the planets of the moment. This came to be called the accidental Ascendant technique.
So a lot of the "it all has to be in the natal" comes from a time when having a single chart for a person in hand was a big deal, secondary progressions tended to be done only for one date in the year and generalized from there for the whole year, and transits were too damn hard to seriously consider doing other than, broadly, watching planets pass thr9ugh somebody's houses.
But... all that aside... is the underlying principle true? Is it true that nothing can happen anytime in one's life unless it is already described in the natal chart? And, if so, then what would it look like.
We know at least some ways in which it isn't true, but they nearly fall in the "act of God" category. Specifically, mundane astrology shows us patterns that affect the great masses outside of the framework of their individual charts. An obvious example right now would be the reshaping of the conditions of life by COVID-19. All of these conditions are easily shown by Saturn in Capricorn along with the added punch of Saturn-Pluto being the dominant aspect in the Capsolar. Individual charts will show individual sub-plots in this story, but the bigger story is obviously affecting more or less everyone in large and small ways independent of their own charts. Let's acknowledge and skip over these and move on...
In traditional Tropical astrology, trying to make this rule fit has led to obscure straining at the chart, nearly always involving house rulerships - and often very complex interweavings of house rulership considerations. To be blunt, the entire technique is BS. Of everything that has ever crept into astrology, house dispositorship in general and it's use to justify every damn thing that comes along has done astrology enormous damage - perhaps more damage than any other thing - because it has reduced it to a system where you can prove anything you want from the chart, any time you want; which, of course, reduces it to you can't objectively know anything.
But, before moving on, an example, in case you aren't familiar with the extremity. Let us assume (ahem) that I would suddenly find myself working from home in my employment for a long stretch (like I am right now). Under the rule, this could never happen unless the possibility already shows in my birth chart. (Fortunately, the rules are elastic enough to allow us to find anything.) Under the usual premises, it could never happen unless planets in or ruling my 4th house (home) have an appropriate connection to planets in or ruling my 6th house (work), or perhaps my 10th house (career), or, if really pushed to the wall, my 2nd house (making money). The simplest connection is that Jupiter, ruling my 4th house, is exactly conjunct Uranus, ruling my 6th house, so sure, it would be natural (by this theory) that home and work would come together. We could then use at least 20 other considerations in the chart to describe the details of this.
That's an example. (It's a simple one. They can easily get more complicated.)
Hindu astrology has similar weaknesses in this - the whole house dispositorship picture if used heavily in those methods as well, plus many more rules not found in Western astrology, plus plus the ability to role these rules through 16 sub-charts. To again be blunt, it's quite a mess. However, they do bring one interesting new concept to the whole thing: While every planet and house has dozens of applicable rules and relationships that make it unfeasible to interpret as a "natal reading," they then have a system (the Vimshottari Dasa method of periods and sub-periods) that "activate" one or two planets at a time. Their premise is that, what a planet's period comes, everything connected with that planet is activated - the light switch is turned on - and all that stuff in the natal has a chance to unfold.
Thus, beginning December 2019 and lasting until September 2022, I'm in the Mercury subperiod of the major Venus period. One would expect that the entire 20 years from 2004 through 2023 would be Venus-themed for me, with the current 1,020 days having a Mercury focus. This, at least, becomes manageable. Of course, all the rules of their system apply to determining what that might mean (and most of those rules are nonsense), but the underlying idea is intriguing and more manageable, that we have certain times in life when specific "natal potential" unlocks. - In my case, one might even be able to see the COVID-19 lockdown and "work from home," since Mercury rules my 10th house of career and is located in the 2nd house of money conjunct Saturn. (This is almost too severe: It implies worse losses than have occurred, and I'm not eager to start thinking that they will still occur. But it least it's reasonable symbolism.)
From the last few paragraphs, I'd like you to take away two ideas: (1) The ways this "everything big that happens has to be shown in the natal" rule has been applied in both traditional Tropical and Hindu astrology has been built on nonsense. (2) A Hindu astrology idea that (theoretically) brings greater integrity and manageability to the theory is the idea that there are certain points in life when a planet's natal pattern unfurls as events; and that, when this occurs, everything connected to that planet is potentially expressed.
In Sidereal astrology, this rule hasn't ever been asserted. There is acknowledgement that innate native patterns can be unlocked or re-expressed but - especially since we rely on few factors that have greatest certainty - it usually isn't possible to trace every single event to the natal chart. (I don't find this a loss. I find it realistic and more consistent with the limits of what astrology can do.)
Even though I don't require Fagan or Bradley ever discussing the "everything is in the natal" principle, it undoubtedly was in their minds - its discussion was so prevalent during their years of becoming astrologers. I think it is likely the main idea underlying Fagan (and later Bradley) initially claiming that a Solar Return is the new natal horoscope for a year, with a Lunar Return serving the same function for a month. That is, I think what he was saying was that, since one expects everything important that happens to shown in the natal chart, this is only true if you look not at the birth chart but for the "new natal" for the year and month called the Solar Return and Lunar Return.
Siderealists, then, don't normally think about the "everything is in the natal" rule - except that we do, in a sense, if you count the Solar Return and Lunar Return as temporary substitute natal charts.
This brings us to Cosmobiology and the application of Solar Arcs.
Remember: What follows is theory. I've seen lots of examples that something like this happens, but I can't speak to it having regular reliability. Nonetheless, there is a theoretical possibility to explore.
Something unique to directions in contrast to either progressions or transits is that the relationship of the directed planets to each other always remains exactly the same as in the natal chart. Since everything in the chart moves at the same pace, it isn't a set of new planets; it's more like a clock timing out when parts of the original natal chart are brought into strongest play.
Solar Arc directions are entirely about patterns pre-existing in the natal chart unlocking. Sure, you can just take them as single aspects - Moon aspecting your Venus or Mars aspecting your Jupiter or whatever - but the mathematical potential is that it is an unlocking of all the pre-existing mathematical properties of the planets involved.
IF it is true that "nothing can happen anytime in one's life unless it is already described in the natal chart," Solar Arc directions are probably where we will find that. Look, though, how it differs from how other methods discussed: It isn't reliant on houses or their rulerships, nor on bountiful complex symbolic rules. Using only the one rule that planets and midpoints can meaningfully aspect other planets and midpoints with all 45° aspects and small orbs, it acknowledges that a planet's natal condition can be complicated - but then gives specific points in time when that potential is most activated (like the Dasa system).
Admittedly, this also all developed long before the computer age and also was an attempt to take one chart - the birth chart - and use it for everything. Because of complexity, its authors had to create new tools, especially the dials that would make the information readily available, and they then developed techniques to use those dials to rapidly unlock future timing. Where it differs from earlier approaches is that it is more constrained and manageable, is based on individual techniques (midpoint contacts) that are confirmed to be real, and is rational and measurable.
That's why we should test it and see if it meets that promise. It violates nothing that Sidereal astrology has confirmed. It is supplemental.
In concept, the method of unlocking what was already initially stated in the natal chart can be pretty straightforward. I will give two short examples.
At birth, I have Mercury at my Jupiter/Pluto and Uranus/Pluto midpoints within half a degree. (There are other things on the axis, but let's start with this.) As a natal factor, these accurately show much of what my life has been about (although tabulating all the things our midpoints can say about us is tedious and confusing). - As a predictive cue, in theory these midpoints would be activated when, by Solar Arc, the planets came to each other. Me = Ur/Pl means that my Mercury is as far from Uranus on one side as from Pluto on the other side (about 14° from each.) With no calculation at all, we could expect it to activate about the time I'm 14 years old. - Calculating more carefully, we find:
d Jupiter sq. r Mercury 8/13/1968
d Uranus sq. r Mercury 11/24/1968
d Mercury sq. r Pluto 8/20/1969
What happened? I got into astrology! I bought my first astrology magazine in September 1968 and it rapidly became my primary intellectual absorption in the months after. Not only does this fit the individual directions of Jupiter-Mercury and Uranus-Mercury (and, later, Mercury-Pluto), but it shows the radical, positive, awakening influence on my mind consistent with Me = Ju/Pl = Ur/Pl.
By theory, everything else on that same Mercury axis would be activated at the same time. I picked the two most obvious midpoints, but could also have picked Me = Ve/Ne. I'm inclined to say that my initial exposure and enrapturement with astrology was quite romantic and idealistic. The "feel" fits.
Isolating this from the natal chart took only seconds. One would expect this natal Me = Ur/Pl = Ju/Pl to be activated at the date above, at roughly 45-year intervals (as the Solar Arc comes around to another angle), and also (in a different way) anytime anything else came to solar arc aspect to my Mercury. With a 90° these are easy to find in seconds: For example, d Mars squared Mercury the fall I entered college (think of this not just as Mars-Mercury - which gives a hint, but isn't clear - but as Mars triggering Me - Ju/Pl = Ur/Pl = Ve/Ne). Progressed/directed Sun conjoined my Mercury in 1979-80 when I was writing for Mattel, writing Interpreting Solar Returns, and about to go work my first real adult job managing publications for ACS. - We'd expect Jupiter and Uranus to be back (by semi-square) about 45 years after 1968, i.e., 2013 (it did) and so much Me = Ju/Pl = Ur/Pl was happening then, such as our explosive, revelatory work with Sidereal mundane astrology (the first edition of my book on the subject came out in 2013).
Of all these "hits," the strongest are those actually stemming from the original natal midpoint structure. For example, directed Moon to my Mercury was felt, but wasn't really worth mentioning compared to the explosive, dynamic results of the exact unlocking near ages 14 and 59 of Me = Ju/Pl = Ur/Pl = Ve/Ne. This narrows our incidents quite a lot and is easy to manage.
That's an example of a straightforward midpoint construct, one planet to a set of midpoints. We can do the same thing with "equal gaps," i.e., two or more midpoints that aspect each other. For example, my Moon/Pluto midpoint conjoins my Mars/Neptune midpoint (0°23'), which sounds emotionally charged and hurtful, likely involving separation. This would come to maturity whenever the charted midpoint (about 15° Hub) would be triggered by any of these four planets or by other planets. It's easy to use a physical dial to find these times and somewhat more tedious with a computer.
I've done a few of these. They don't seem to unlock obvious, big events like the planet-midpoint natal contacts.
THE END