Solunars by Aldebaran Sidereal Academy

The (seemingly) angularity curve of the Gauquelin statistical studies has somewhat (or a lot!) stymied most astrologers who have paid close attention to it. Some have taken it in the most straightforward manner, concluding that a seeming peak of appropriate planets in the 12th and 9th houses should be interpreted in terms of those houses.

But the "cadent house effect" is at least partly a misinterpretation. When I discussed it with Michel Gauquelin one one of those summers in San Diego when I saw him more or less every day, I (fortunately!) remarked once that the reason I still had serious questions about his work was that every bit of other research and personal practice I had done kept leading to the conclusion that the maximum effect was exactly at the angles, whereas his work kept producing results somewhat past the angles. He quickly corrected me, "Oh no," he said of most of the studies they had done, "the strongest sectors are always the two immediately on either side of the angles."

This was revolutionary to me! It meant that his research really was confirming the majority of what we already know from other work. It freed me from wasting time trying on other theories, such as suspecting birth times were systematically recorded late, etc. There was still the puzzle of why the curves tended to wave-lean more heavily on the cadent side, etc., which I still think is possible an effect of the mathematical model used for calculation. (For example, what would the curve look like if calculated in prime vertical longitude, without or without smoothing from moving averages?) But the main effect was, in fact, quite simple and quite matching what we already knew.

The appearance of a "cadent house effect" came from calculating the data in 12 sectors (essentially mundane Placidus houses) with the data "leaning" cadent, or 18 sectors, etc. When calculated in tiny sectors (say, 36) the effect shaped itself differently. What if it were tallied in 5° sectors or whole degrees?

Nonetheless, the distinctive shape of the "Gauquelin curve" has been quite intriguing. There is a complex way of synthesizing the basic shape from a combination of three mathematical curves. What if this was really hiding a more complex picture, some of which was unsuspected? Did we have something further to learn here?

The statistical output from various Gauquelin studies produced slightly different curves. This is to be expected. Nonetheless, they all have certain things in commnon.

1. Peaks appear, at first glance to fall just past the angles, especially just past the Ascendant and Midheaven.

2. While four distinctive peaks are visible in most results, those of MC and Ascendant are most pronounced. (I accept this as a probable consequence of there being some distinction between the natures of each angle, with Asc and MC having more outward-facing, public expressions and Dsc and IC having more inward-facing expressions.)

3. The Dsc effect is usually the slightest. The IC effect skews westward, not past the angle at all but more in the 5th house direction.

Before explaining how it was derived, I give two diagrams below. One is an example of Gauquelin statistical output (the Saturn effect vs. Jupiter for one professional group, physicians). The second is a theoretical composition.
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The curve is created by combining three sinusoidal waves (cosines), each with equal weight.

1. A 90° wave peaking at each of the four angles and troughing half-way between them.
2. A 120° wave peaking at the Asc and, thereafter, at the 9th and 5th cusps; it troughs at the 11th, 7th, and 3rd house cusps.
3. A 360° wave peaking at MC and troughing at IC.

Add these together and you get the theoretical curve. Notice how No. 2 drags the composite curve west of MC and IC and hollows out the effect at Dsc, while No. 3 lifts the main curve a bit above Asc, strengthens the MC effect, and hollows out the IC effect. These are the exact characteristics of most of the Gauquelin findings.


What follows is all theory. It's a mental inquiry. I'm not saying it is so.

Start with the known fact that the Gauquelin data collection consists of eminent professionals. Not just ordinary people, not just people who picked a profession, but, rather, people of eminence in the profession, such that their names would appear in Who's Who type collections and other comparable collations.

It may be professional eminence is a function of much more than outward intensive expression of the right planetary influence. In fact, it makes sense that this is so.

The usual theory (to which I broadly subscribe, and at least mostly subscribe with the G data) is that planetary effects primarily produce character, individual professions have a distinctive temperament that is common to the majority of its most successful professionals, and therefore the character attributable to strong planetary expression precipitates into more likely success in that profession or something similar.

If this were only a 90° wave peaking at the angles, it would be showing the highest levels of outward expressiveness of a single planetary energy. Suppose, though, that professional eminence requires generally more factors - many kinds of factors - that amalgamate into a magic mix of success.

Let's examine these four waves:

No. 1 is the most familiar to us. It is the familiar 90° angularity wave, peaking at Asc, MC, Dsc, and IC.

No. 3 is pretty familiar to us also, though we don't necessarily think of it in the same terms. It is an elevation wave that peaks at MC and troughs at IC. It would refer to such things as externalization or outerworld expression. Its theoretical presence fills the root literature of Sidereal astrology. Fagan and Bradley, for example, often would distinguish between above and below the horizon, saying, for example, that luminaries in the background of a solunar return were bad for health, especially under the earth where they experienced greater weakness. It is (at worst) theoretically conceivable that this is a real factor and, if so, not surprising that it would be a component in the mixed stew of professional eminence.

Most of the new thought come with curve No. 2, a 120° wave peaking at Ascendant and the 9th and 5th cusps. This has little familiarity in Western astrology (Tropical or Sidereal) other than the tendency of some Tropicalists to think of these as "Fire houses." However, Eastern astrologers will recognize them in a second! These are the trikona or "trine" houses that, among other things, represent key ingredients of raja yogas, or "royal combinations." I don't need to go into the details of their many and complex formulae, many of which rely on highly questionable usages, but the main thing they rely on is the importance of the 5th and 9th houses in the pattern and, especially, the empowerment of integrating them with the angular houses.

Intriguingly, that's exactly what this blending of curves seems to be doing: merging the kendra (angularity) and trikona (trinal) waves to produce something beyond either of them individually. (In Western thinking, one might over-simplify this as a blending of energy and luck.)

The biggest theoretical problem I have with this is that I've spent a decade or two, on and off, trying to find empirical verification that there is an actual 120° wave that has any characteristics that might be conducive to success, eminence, wealth, spiritual aristocracy, or other outstanding "royalty" in life, or might create a character that would conduce others to think this about one. I haven't been able to find it. There are theories aplenty - the modern Western model of mapping houses to signs equates these houses to Sun and Jupiter (Leo and Sagittarius). But I'm not looking for theory, I'm looking for something observable and demonstrative outside of single-case excuses, something statistically demonstrable.

It's possible that if I had the Gauquelin data in digitized form and could crank everything up by computer, I could isolate it. I don't know. Perhaps, for example, the Mars distribution for eminent athletes would disclose a 120° wave if one went looking for it. I'm not in a place to find out.

But, for example, there seems no trigonal distribution of the mundane positions of luminaries or key planets (or, for that matter, for any planets) among the not-quite four dozen U.S. presidents. Perhaps the sample is too small (probably), but at least an inference should be present in that specific collection if it were present. I've also looked at individual charts of unusual eminence with an eye toward close concentration of planets around the 5th and 9th cusps, hoping then to find life conditions or character elements I could isolate biographically to get a startup clue. So far, no luck. - From observation thus far, I'd have to conclude that there is no such trinal wave.

But, of course, maybe I just haven't isolated it yet. I admit I don't even know what I'm looking for. It won't look like a kind of angularity, since the three trikona cusps (1st, 5th, 9th) include foreground, middleground, and background sectors, respectively.

If such a thing exists and we could identify exactly what it is, we would have learned something quite new and probably quite important - maybe as big a deal as the primary importance of angularity. But that's a big if. Traditional interpretations (I have Tropical books with many of these) don't give persuasive arguments for what this raja yoga effect would be, and don't provide interpretations that match facts I can confirm. Eastern books mention these much, use them it highly questionable ways, are very short on character descriptions, and end up treating these fortune and eminence interpretations primarily as luck, providence, or karma, none of which helps.

But I thought I'd mention to all of you, partly because it seems to me an intriguing view of the G-curve, and partly because one of you - in my life or after my life - will figure out something about this that I've missed.

It would probably be useful if I told you exactly where these theoretical peaks and troughs (highs and lows) fall, in case the model is somehow applicable by itself. These will be expressed in mundoscope terms. I give them as scores 100 times the average of the strength of the three curves (there is no point that has a score of 100).

High: 1° past Asc (29° of 12th house), score 83.7
Low: 49° past (11° of 11th house), score 32.6

High: 10° past MC (20°of 9th house), score 87.5
Low: 63-64° past MC (26-27° of 7th house), score 49.8

High: 10° before Dsc (11° of 7th house), score 51.2
Low: 38-39° past Dsc (21-22° of 5th house), score 31.9

High: 11° before IC (11° of 4th house), score 54.7
Low: 38° past IC (22° of 2nd house), score 6.9

In other words, the highest peak is at MC with a nearly-as-strong peak at Asc. The Dsc "bump" is quite negligible, since, at 51.2, it is barely above the 49.8 low nearby, and IC is only noticeably more pronounced by contrast since, at 54.7, it is about the same as Dsc but surrounded by deeper lows on either side. The lowest score is 6.9 in the bottom half of the 2nd house, with nothing cutting so deep in the rest of the wheel.

At least, that's the theory. Just a theory. May not be anything at all.

Finally, as a curio, here are the mundoscope positions of my natal planets scored with their mundane position being a percentage of the MC value (i.e., MC is 100%, everything else is a percentage of that). In parentheses are the mundoscope positions of the planets in my natal. I don't know what this shows if anything but, what the heck...

Sun (20° in 1st) 66%
Moon (27° in 6th) 55%
Mars (28° in 4th) 53%
Neptune (28° in 1st) 46%
Uranus (3° in 11th) 44%
Jupiter (3° in 11th) 43%
Pluto (29° in 11th) 32%
Saturn (12° in 2nd) 16%
Mercury (15° in 2nd) 12%
Venus (30° in 2nd) 11%

Don't know if this would be useful or not (scroll past the photos)
http://cura.free.fr/gauq/17archg.html

Lots of stuff in the C.U.R.A. archives

Is this currently available anywhere in digital form; say, in some form that could be directly imported into Solar Fire? Typing tens of thousands of sets of birth data (aside from the risk of errors) would be prohibitively time consuming.

C.U.R.A. supposedly already has it digitized and will make it available to "serious researchers." I am in and out because I'm shoveling after the blizzard last night, so it'll take me a while to get around to dig though that site to find out how to get them to give you the data. I'm probably going to need a nap too. If someone else wants to read through and figure it out (it would help if that person read French, but I don't think it's necessary) that would be great.

Thank you. No rush, but there is a lot we could maybe do with that.

I just popped a RockStar myself in lieu of a nap.

http://cura.free.fr/gauq/902gdB1.html

Code: Select all

NUM	SEX	DAY	MON	YEA	H	MN	SEC	Ci	TZ      LAT     LON	COD

1	F	22	5	1866	16	50	40		0	48N50	2E20	75
2	S	12	10	1925	22	0	0	15	0	48N50	2E20	75
3	F	22	11	1867	16	50	40		0	48N50	2E20	75
4	D	2	1	1924	14	0	0	2	0	48N50	2E20	75
5	F	19	12	1873	9	50	40		0	48N50	2E20	75
6	M	5	4	1886	17	20	40	5	0	48N50	2E20	75
7	D	26	12	1923	11	0	0	16	0	48N50	2E20	75
8	F	28	2	1876	13	50	40		0	48N50	2E20	75
9	D	15	10	1923	12	30	0	19	0	48N50	2E20	75
10	F	4	5	1876	3	50	40		0	48N50	2E20	75
11	D	22	9	1928	5	0	0	9	0	48N50	2E20	75
12	M	30	7	1876	10	20	40		0	48N50	2E20	75
13	S	30	11	1923	10	0	0	8	0	48N50	2E20	75
14	F	27	2	1877	5	50	40		0	48N50	2E20	75
15	M	23	1	1882	18	50	40		0	48N50	2E20	75

...

Couldn't that be hauled into Excel, and then exported into Solar Fire?

Jim Eshelman wrote: Sat Feb 23, 2019 6:03 pm If such a thing exists and we could identify exactly what it is, we would have learned something quite new and probably quite important - maybe as big a deal as the primary importance of angularity. But that's a big if. Traditional interpretations (I have Tropical books with many of these) don't give persuasive arguments for what this raja yoga effect would be, and don't provide interpretations that match facts I can confirm. Eastern books mention these much, use them it highly questionable ways, are very short on character descriptions, and end up treating these fortune and eminence interpretations primarily as luck, providence, or karma, none of which helps.

I still think that the idea that these placements express as luck, providence, or karma provides nothing directly useful. Nothing in my experience suggests that this is true or gives a practical "real world" meaning of this as a general principle.

But today I asked myself a slightly different question: I asked what might actually be occurring if a lot of observers, looking on someone's life, thought (as a not unreasonable observation) that there were factors of luck, providence, or advantageous karma operating that could give either a "royal" characteristic of a short at combining energy and extroversion to the world into eminence. (Maybe there is a different factor in the same sense that the Vertex' reflection of unconscious expression is consistent with the observation-based theory of "fate.")

Simply as a mental exercise, a theoretical reflection, it seems to me that these characteristics are all a consequence of a person (or a particular energy - a particular planet - within the person) being anchored more solidly to their True Will, i.e., the commonly invisible link-point of an incarnate person to his or her deeper purpose. This connection could still operate as foreground, middleground, or background - it could have outward expression or no outward expression or casual, moderate outward expression, could affect their impelled action or only their thoughts - and yet would be consistent with seeming luck, with providential help, or with what passes for good karma.

In other words (still thinking aloud) planets closest to the Ascendant, 5th cusp, and 9th cusp (say, within 10° of any of them) would represent needs and drives more naturally plugged into the person's deep linkage to the universe as a whole, while planets closest to the Descendant, 3rd cusp, and 11th cusp would have the least of this. Interestingly, those latter three are positions historically most linked to one's placing attention on others instead of oneself.

Just an idle though, something to mull when I look at a chart, though I can't say I know what this (if true) would look like in practice (in character and behavior).