STUDY: Angularity curve in mundane astrology

[Jim Eshelman]

While the importance of angularity is well established and we know where the points of maximum concentration are, this leaves open the question of where the weakest, least expressive zones are. Previous published data has seemed inconclusive.

Some studies see to defend "the three grounds," with the idea that the weakest (or least-expressive) part of each quadrant is the cadent cusps. Other published studies seem to show that it is mid-quadrant.

I've offered the following composite theory: So far, it seems that the mid-quadrant results are all from mundane astrology, while the cadent cusp results are all from natal astrology. I have speculated that there are two interweaving curves, one that exists in nature and discloses expressibility, peaking at the angles; and one that is distinctive to human consciousness, peaks at the cadent cusps, and discloses resistance to expression (possibly some form repression or a similar personality mechanism). This theory, if true, would resolve the seeming discrepancy between existing reports.

I decided to see if I could learn something about this from the data collated for the Sidereal Mundane Astrology project. If I could find something specific to test, it could give further information on the behavior of the "strength curve." We could, for example, anticipate one of three broad types of results:

1. Strength at the angles, irrelevant everywhere else: The idea that something sufficiently close to the angles has one characteristic, and everything else comes under "everything else" - no distinctions, no gradual tapering, simply "not angular."

2. The "cadent cusp is lowest" model that I've seen in natal astrology studies.

3. The "mid-quadrant" model that I've seen in mundane phenomena such as the rainfall Caplunar study. (One can't really ignore the largest, best study of its kind ever done, eh?)

This left me with the challenge of creating a study. I reasoned as follows:

1. The most powerful, reliable tool in SMA is the solar ingress quotidian. However, quotidians really do express as "conjunct the angles or not." There's no reason I can think of to assume that they are gradually tapering to a low somewhere else in the quadrant. Quotidians seem the wrong way to go.

2. The second most powerful, reliable tool is the "chart of the week," the most recent lunar cardinal ingress. This seemed an excellent subject for study!

3. In other studies of weekly lunar ingresses, the sharpest results have been obtained by excluding dormant ingresses. I decided to ignore that consideration. First, in looking at NON angularity, it isn't necessarily true that the dormancy standard would apply. Second, this decision would, at worst, weaken the first study's outcome and leave open the possibility of getting stronger results in a more finely tuned follow-up. So I used, in each case, the most recent lunar ingress regardless of dormancy considerations.

4. Mars and Saturn are the most often angular planets in the disaster charts studied in SMA. Of these, there is a difference in how they generally appear. Saturn most often appears (for many classes of event) in the solar ingresses and daily charts - this makes it a bad choice for studying lunar ingresses. Mars most often appears (for most classes of event) in the lunar ingresses and daily charts - this makes it a good choice for studying lunar ingresses.

5. So I decided to plot the mundane position of Mars in those categories of events for which we would expect Mars to be angular. (Remember, the goal is not to discover or prove that Mars would be angular for fires, etc., but to take a phenomenon for which Mars is normally angular, such as fires, and see how its distribution behaves when away from the angles - what parts of the quadrant it avoids most.)

6. I ignored all secondary angles such as squares to Asc/MC or EP/WP contacts. I'm only interested in the primary foreground curve.

7. For volcanoes, earthquakes, coalmine disasters, hurricanes, fires, bombs, explosions, shooting massacres, and structural collapses, I plotted Mars' Mundoscope position and recorded it in thirds of Campanus houses, I.e., 10° segments of the prime vertical.

8. Although the results were pretty clear by this point, I then replotted as 3-segment (30°) moving totals to smooth out the effect.

[Jim Eshelman]

Here is a graph of the raw plots. (A1, A2, A3 are the thirds of the angular houses; same for S and C for succeedent and cadent.)



Here is the same information in 3-segment moving totals:



Although one study is not definitive, these data do reinforce the view that, so far as lunar ingresses are concerned, angularity tapers off to the middle of the quadrant.

The two highest scores are the 10° segments immediately on either side of the angles, C3/A1. The two lowest absolute scores are S1 and C1, and, in the moving totals, S2 and S3, the two more cadent-tending thirds of the succeedent houses.

[Jim Eshelman]

Brilliant!