Anthony Louis's Blog, page 10

Another Marriage Prediction

A reader (James) responded to the previous post, asking whether I had tried Frankland’s techniques with other charts presented by Vedic astrologers using the sidereal zodiac. In fact, I had done so and would like to present one such example presented on the YouTube site Exotic Astrology at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGCfjF7NY64&t=1475s.

The birth data of the native is: 15 Feb 1985, 9:29 AM IST, Hamipur, India (31n41, 076e31). Here is the sidereal chart with the relevant Vimshottari dasa periods used by this Vedic astrologer.

SUN Dasa Periods
These begin in Oct 2007 and end in Oct 2013.
Note that the column on the right gives the end dates of each subperiod.

This was an arranged marriage, and the astrologer took into account social, cultural and familiar factors to estimate that this native was likely to marry in his early to mid-20s, probably during his Sun majadasa period (2007 – 2013), that is between the ages of 22 and 28. He then shows how in each subperiod the native was able or unable to advance his goal of a marriage.

His initial attempts in his early 20s to find a marriage partner did not go well, Finally, during the Saturn subperiod (2010 – 2011, around age 25) he met someone who would be a suitable wife but there was conflict with the parents about it. During the Mercury subperiod (2011 – 2012, around age 26) he finalized the agreement with this woman but she wanted to complete a graduate degree and wanted to postpone the formal wedding for a couple of years. The actual marriage took place in 2013 during the Venus subperiod when the native is 28 years old.

How would William Frankland have handled the question of marriage in this chart? Here is the tropical chart with Placidus houses, which Frankland used, and my guess as to how he would have estimated the time of marriage.

In this chart Aries is on the Ascendant, making Mars the Asc-ruler. The Descendant signifies the event of marriage and, with Libra on the cusp is ruled by Venus (domicile) and Saturn (exaltation). Pluto occupies the 7th house and has some say in this native’s marriage.

Assuming that the birth time is accurate, then by Alan Leo’s phases of life scheme, the Point of Life begins and 0 Aries and will conjoin the 4th cusp (domestic life) at 10 Cancer 27 around age 23.5 and then square the 7th cusp (marriage) when it reaches 16 Cancer 47 around age 24.9. This age range corresponds the the findings of the Vedic astrologer that he became strongly interested in finding a marriage partner in his early 20s (around age 22) but did not meet someone appropriate until about age 25.

The next aspect the Point of Life makes is a trine to Saturn, ruler of the 7ths by exaltation, when the Point of Life in the domestic 4th house reaches 27 Cancer 46′, which corresponds to about age 27.5 in the latter part of 2012. His official wedding took place in 2013 when he was 28 years old.

Further studying the chart, he might have advanced the 7th-house Pluto at one degree per year to around age 27.5 to see what it would aspect at that age. Pluto at 4 Scorpio 43′ plus 27.5 degrees equals about 2 SAG 13′ in close sextile to benefic Jupiter at 01 AQ 55′. Jupiter rules the 9th of religious ceremonies, which could include a wedding.

Frankland also paid attention to the orbital period of planets, especially the slower planets. He would have immediately noticed that Saturn, the exalted ruler of the 7th, would return to its birth position around ages 29 – 30. Since Saturn spends about 2.5 years in each sign, he would have quickly calculated in his head that Saturn would conjoin the 7th cusp around age 26, signifying a serious relationship that could result in marriage. Transits of Saturn traditionally are regarded as being slow to manifest.

Frankland’s Age along the Zodiac (one degree per year, starting at 0 Aries) will sextile the 5th-ruler Sun around age 26.5 and quincunx the 7th-ruler (exaltation) Saturn around age 27.8, indicating important events related to 5th and 7th house issues during this period. He also paid attention to midpoints and would likely have noticed that the Age along the Zodiac formed a hard aspect to the Sun/Moon (marriage) midpoint at age 29.2.

From this analysis, I think Frankland would have predicted a marriage at some time between ages 27.5 and 29.2. The Vedic analysis placed the wedding between Oct 2012 and Oct 2013, during the Sun/Venus period. In fact, the wedding took place in 2013.

On Predicting Marriage from the Birth Chart

Recently I watched a video entitled “Timing of Marriage – Vedic Astrology Master Class 2021” by Raman Suprajarama in which he discussed the result of his research on 1000 birth charts in which he was able to predict, within 3 months, the age at which the native would marry, with 82% predicitive accuracy using his techniques. This is quite an impressive result, and I wondered whether Western techniques would also work on the case example he presented.

The case example was of a woman born on 02 Feb 1994 at 11:12 AM in Bangalore (Bengaluru), India. Her Vedic chart with Vimshottari dasas looks like this:

In this chart she has Moon and Jupiter in Libra in the 7th house (marriage) and the Jupiter/Venus dasa period begins in February of 2020 (using the Raman ayanamsa). She married in April of 2020. In the video Raman Suprajarama explains how he uses transits to get a more precise timing of the wedding withing this Jupiter/Venus dasa period.

In my recent book on William Frankland’s predictive techniques, I presented Frankland’s various methods of symbolic directions by which he could rapidly assess a birth chart and indicate important periods in a person’s life. Let’s see if these methods work in this woman’s chart. Frankland used the tropical zodiac and Placidus houses. Here is what the chart looks like:

Frankland usually began by calculating the native’s “birth number” in his head. This involves adding together the numbers (digits) of the birth date: 2 Feb 1994 yields 2 + 2 + 1 + 9 + 9 + 4, which equals 27, so he would expect the period around age 27 to be important if significant astrological factors became active around that time. He typically looked a year back and a year ahead. This woman turned 27 on 2 Feb 2021, so Frankland would have carefully studied the period from 2 Feb 2020 until 2 Feb 2022 for significant life events. Interestingly, in the Vedic dasa system, the Jupiter/Venus period begins on 2 Feb 2020, indicating the possibility of marriage during that period.

Frankland mightnext have considered the “Point of Life,” which is a measure that begins at 0 Aries and progresses at a rate of one zodiac sign (30 ecliptic degrees) for each 7 years of life. Aries in this chart lies in the 12th house, Taurus (age 7 – 14) in the 1st house, Gemini (ages 14 – 21) in the 2nd house, and Cancer (ages 21 – 28) in the 3rd & 4th houses. Gemini lies in aversion to Scorpio (7th house) whereas Cancer lies in trine to Scorpio (7th house), so marriage is most likely when the Point of Life traverses Cancer (ages 21 – 28) and especially when the Point of Life enters the 4th house (domestic life) at the I.C. (23 Cancer 25′). The IC is 23.4 degrees into Cancer, so 23.4 / 30 = 78% of the 7 years assigned to Cancer = about 5.46 years into the Cancer 7-year period, so we add 5.46 years to age 21 (at the start of Cancer). Thus, we estimate a significant event in her domestic life, possibly marriage, around age 26.46 when the Point of Life conjoins the 4th house cusp.

This reasoning may seem complicated but Franklin could do it in a matter of seconds in his head, and he would have advised this client, based on the previous two calculations that a major event related to her domestic life, possibly marriage, was likely around age 26 as she was approaching age 27.

If she asked specifically about marriage, he would have studied the 7th house, its cusp, the ruler of the cusp, aspects to the 7th cusp, and planets in the 7th house, and he would have done all this with reference to the client’s “Age along the Zodiac,” which is simply the age converted to ecliptic degrees and progressed from 0 Aries. He also directed all points in the chart by the Age along the Zodiac at a rate of one ecliptic degree per year.

Noticing that Mars rules the 7th cusp (marriage) and Mars lies at 3 Aquarius 56′, he would have calculated that 7th-ruler Mars, directed at 1 degree per year (the Age along the Zodiac rate), would trine the 7th cusp in 26 degrees 07′. This figure is consistent with his estimates from the prior calculations and places marriage closer to age 26.

In addition, Frankland was one of the few English-speaking astrologers who, early in the 20th century, began to use midpoints in his work. He would have noticed that the Moon (one’s emotional life) was angular at the end of Libra and was only about a degree away from the 7th cusp (marriage). Also, Uranus (change, alterations) was similarly angular on the MC (one’s public status). Hence the midpoint of the Moon and Uranus could symbolize a significant change in one’s public status and emotional life related to marriage and partnership. Quickly calculating the midpoint of Moon and Uranus, he would have noticed that Moon/Uranus = 11 Sag 06′, which is equivalent to 26 06′ of cardinal signs (modulus 90), corresponding to the Age along the Zodiac at 26 Aries 06′ at age 26.1, around the same time that directed Mars perfected a trine to the 7th cusp. Most likely marriage would occur close to her birthday at age 26.

Given that all these calculations coalesce around age 26, he would have told the client that she was likely to marry around that age and not too long after her birthday in that year (2020). She was born in February and married in April. If we calculate the average the three specific figures which were calculated using Frankland’s technique: 26.1 + 26.1+ 26.46 = 78.66, and dividing by 3 we get 26.22, which corresponds to age 26 plus 2.6 months, suggesting a wedding around April 21 of 2022. The video does not mention the exact date of the wedding, just that it occurred in April of 2020.

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Do Scorpios cause their own accidents and infirmities?

In a recent meeting of a group of astrologers studying William Lilly, we came across an aphorism which Lilly employed to judge medical issues in astrological charts: “When you find Scorpio Ascending, you may for the most part judge, the party was cause of his own infirmness, either by peevishness, folly, choler or the like; and your judgment will be more firm if Mars be then placed in Scorpio.” (CA p.152)

At first glace this seemed like an odd statement. Why was Lilly picking on Scorpio of all the 12 signs of the zodiac? My first thought was that maybe at some time in his life Lilly had dated a woman with Scorpio rising and Mars in the that sign. Dismissing that thought, I pondered Lilly’s comment a bit and realized that if Scorpio is rising, then Aries will be found in the 6th house of illness and probably on its cusp, so that Mars will signify the body and vital force of the native as well as his or her infirmities, injuries and accidents, which gives the native agency over his or her own ailments. Lilly must have viewed people with Scorpio on the Ascendant and Mars affecting the Ascendant as being prone to peevishness (querulous, fretful, obstinate), folly (tragically foolish, lacking good sense) and choler (hot-tempered. irascible).

What interested me about Lilly’s aphorism is the way in which he combined several conditions into a single meaningful statement, namely:

Mars occupies Scorpio.Mars occupies the 1st house (the body and its vital force).Mars rules the 1st house.Mars also rules the 6th house (accidents, injuries, illness), which has Mars-ruled Aries on the cusp.[He did not include the fact that Mars, by exaltation, rules Capricorn on the cusp of the 3rd house (short trips), but this may be relevant in the example cited next.]

It would be interesting to study charts of notable people who have Scorpio rising and Mars in Scorpio. I did a quick search and found that the actress and princess Grace Kelly met Lilly’s criteria. Here is her chart from astro.com.

I don’t know much about Grace Kelly’s health issues or whether she was, in fact, the cause of her own infirmities. She died tragically in a car accident in 1982. This accident is prefigured in her chart by 3rd-ruler Saturn, the contrary-to-sect malefic, in square to Uranus, which conjoins the 6th house cusp. Saturn in Sagittarius is also disposed by Jupiter Rx and in detriment in Gemini in the 8th house. The 8th-ruler Mercury (travel) conjoins the South Lunar Node in the 1st house near the Ascendant. Here is the account of the accident from wikipedia:

“On September 13, 1982, Grace suffered a mild cerebral hemorrhage while driving back to Monaco from her country home in Roc Agel. As a result, she lost control of her 1971 Rover P6 3500 and drove off the steep, winding road and down the 120-foot (37 m) mountainside. Her teenage daughter Stéphanie, who was in the passenger seat, tried but failed to regain control of the car. The Princess was taken to the Monaco Hospital (later named the Princess Grace Hospital Centre) with injuries to the brain and thorax and a fractured femur. She died the following night at 10:55 p.m. after Rainier decided to turn off her life support.”

According to a 2019 article in Town&County, Princess Grace was driving her daughter to the train station because 17-year-old Stephanie was about to start school in Paris. The article continues:

“Grace’s chauffeur brought out the princess’s 11-year-old Rover, and offered to drive, but Grace insisted that she could do so, as they couldn’t fit three people in the car with the luggage. About two miles outside of La Turbie, Grace missed a particularly sharp turn, sending the car over a 120-foot slope.” (Bold and italics mine).

If Grace had allowed her chauffeur to drive and if she had had a mild cerebral hemorrhage on the way to the train station, the accident might not have happened and the chauffeur could have taken her to get medical attention. Her insistence that she drive instead of him led directly to the accident and the injuries to which she succumbed, so maybe Lilly does have a point. On the other hand, Grace Kelly’s public persona was not of a peevish, choleric and foolish woman. Could she have displayed such traits in her private life?

The “bendings” of the Moon in classical astrology

The universe must be trying to tell me something. In a recent post I reviewed Ptolemy’s comments about the moon at its nodes or its bendings. Since that time I continue to come across charts in which planets are at the bendings, that is, in close square aspect to the moon’s nodes.

By way of review, Claudius Ptolemy in his 2nd century CE text Tetrabiblos (Book III, Ch.12 Of bodily injuries and diseases, p.325 of the Loeb edition, Robbins trans.) wrote about the “bendings” of the moon’s orbit around the Earth. I don’t read Greek, but in the Loeb edition one can see that Ptolemy in discussing the moon’s orbit uses the word κάμψη, which according to Greek-English dictionaries refers to a flexion point, curve, bend, turning point, or change of direction. Here is Robbins’ translation of Ptolemy’s text:

“Again, if the luminaries, together or in opposition, move toward the maleficent planets upon the angles, or if the maleficent planets move toward the luminaries, particularly when the moon is at the nodes or her bendings, or in the injurious signs such as Aries, Taurus, Cancer, Scorpio, or Capricorn, there come about deformations of the body such as hunchback, crookedness, lameness, or paralysis, congenital if the maleficent planets are joined with the luminaries, but if they are at the mid-heaven points, elevated above the luminaries or in opposition one to the other, the deformations will result from serious dangers, such as falls from a height, the collapse of houses, or the attacks of robbers or animals. If Mars prevails, the danger is from fire, wounds, bilious attacks, or robberies; if it is Saturn, through collapse of buildings, shipwreck, or spasms.” — Claudius Ptolemy, 2nd century CE

The Moon’s nodes are simply the two points at which the moon’s orbit crosses the ecliptic (the apparent path or orbit of the Sun around the Earth). Upon crossing it north node, the Moon then ascends 5 degrees to its highest latitude above the ecliptic, changes direction at the north bending and begins to descend toward the south node on the ecliptic. Upon crossing its south node, the Moon continues to descend to its maximum southern latitude, 5 degrees below the ecliptic, changes direction at the south bend and begins to ascend toward the ecliptic. Comparing the Moon’s orbit that that of the Sun, we see a similarity between the north bend of the Moon and the summer solstice of the Sun (in the northern hemisphere). Similarly, the south bend of the Moon resembles the winter solstice of the Sun (in the northern hemisphere). This diagram is from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbital_elements:

Recently someone asked me to look at the birth chart of a friend who suffered from a seizure disorder. I was struck by the prominence of the bendings of the Moon’s true nodes in her friend’s natal chart, shown here:

In this natal chart the true lunar nodes are prominent because they are stationary and the span the 2nd and 8th houses. As an aside, in my research on solar returns I have found that stationary lunar nodes routinely mark memorable and often tumultuous years in which major life events are likely to occur.

Natal Uranus is in partile square to the moon’s nodes and is thus exactly at the bendings. The natal Moon has just passed its north node (has north latitude) and is rising toward its north bending. Uranus lies exactly at the south bend of the moon’s orbit, which symbolically is a point of difficulty, stress, sacrifice, elimination, release, letting go, and the outflow of energy. In Hinduism the south lunar node is associated with “moksha” or the release from the cycle of rebirth impelled by the law of karma. In contrast, the north lunar node is linked to the insatiable craving for material goods, which in the West is viewed as extremely benefic.

In mythology the south node is the headless body and tail of the serpent, an eternal enemy of the life-giving Sun and Moon. This serpent has stolen and ingested the elixir of immortal life from the gods. The north lunar node is the severed head of this serpent, which can only ingest food and take in energy but is unable to swallow and assimilate that which it ingests because it has no body. When the moon’s nodes (the severed head and the headless body of the serpent) encounter the Luminaries, eclipses occur because the immortal severed head tries to devout the Light, and the immortal headless body, tail and anus cover the Light with its excrement.

In this chart, Uranus (a symbol of sudden disruptions and electrical discharges) squares the south bend of the moon’s orbit. Uranus at the southern bending is in a vulnerable spot, which Ptolemy links to bodily injuries and diseases. Saturn, which rules the Ascendant (body, life force of the native) closely conjoins Uranus and is also at the southern lunar bending within an orb of 3 degrees. Ptolemy didn’t know about Chiron, but we see here a potent T-square with Chiron opposing the Uranus-Saturn conjunction on the axis of the moon’s orbital bendings. The symbolism is apt for a person who suffers from a significant seizure disorder (sudden disruptive electrical discharges in the brain).

Further thoughts on Zael’s “Not-reception” in astrology

In September of 2017 I posted some comments about Sahl’s concept of “not-reception,” which I will summarize here as background to this post:

Astrologers talk about how one planet receives another in one of its dignities, including mutual reception in which two planets in aspect occupy a major dignity of the other; for example, Venus in Cancer (ruled by the Moon) sextile the Moon in Taurus (ruled by Venus). The traditional literature defines “reception” as a situation in which two planets are in aspect and at least one of the planets occupies a major essential dignity (or two minor essential dignities) of the other.

When two planets are in the essential dignities of each other but no aspect is present, the situation is called “generosity” because each planet is inclined to behave helpfully and ungrudgingly toward the other but there is no aspect bringing them into contact. For example, if Venus occupies Gemini (ruled by Mercury) and Mercury occupies Taurus (ruled by Venus), there is no aspect connecting them but each is in the domicile of the other, so they are feeling amiable and generous toward one another.

Curiously, the 9th century astrologer Sahl ibn Bishr al-Israili, often known as Zahel or Zael, utilized what he called “not-receptions” in his work. Lilly studied Sahl and incorporated many of his horary principles into Christian Astrology (1647).

What did Sahl mean by a not-reception? In his translation of Sahl’s text (Introduction §5.9), Ben Dykes cites the following example.  Suppose the Moon lies in Aries, which is the sign of “fall” or “descension” of Saturn, and furthermore that the Moon is applying to an aspect with Saturn while Saturn is not receiving the Moon in any of Saturn’s dignities. According to Dykes’ translation, “in such a case, the Moon [in Aries, the fall of Saturn] would be like someone approaching Saturn from the house of his enemies [Aries], and he [Saturn] will neither receive nor esteem her.” 

Sahl’s idea seems to be that because the Moon occupies Aries, the sign of Saturn’s fall, an inimical place where the ringed planet is held is low esteem, then the Moon can only beam its rays toward Saturn from a scornful, degrading and toxic environment, but Saturn is under no obligation to accept such nasty rays from the Moon and would, in fact, try to avoid them. If Saturn were Superman, the the Moon in Aries would be like someone on a planet laden with Kryptonite who can only send items contaminated with the toxic substance back to the superhero.

Since the publication of Ben Dykes translation outlining Sahl’s use of “not-reception,” several astrologers who practice with traditional methods have begun to use this concept in their work. For example, medical astrologer Marcos Patchett in a recent YouTube video on medical astrology (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjByBh-6LRM&t=229s) discusses the usefulness of recognizing what he calls “rejection” (not-reception) and “hostility” (as opposed to generosity) in charts.

By “rejection” Patchett means Sahl’s “not-reception.” In other words, there are two planets in aspect (beaming their rays at each other within orb) and at least one of them occupies the sign of fall or detriment (exile) of the other. Because one planet’s rays are tainted with the nastiness of detriment or fall, the other planet rejects those rays and refuses to cooperate.

Be “hostility” Patchett means the opposite of “generosity.” In other words, if planet A is not in aspect (not able to “see”) planet B, then planet A will be “hostile” toward planet B whenever planet B occupies the sign of fall or exile of planet A. This occurs because planet B’s rays originate from an environment which is toxic to planet A.

Since we’re talking about medical astrology, let’s look at an example of a notable person person who was known to be sickly much of his life. Author Marcel Proust suffered from chronic debilitating asthma attacks, which began in childhood. At age 31, in the autumn of 1902, his health deteriorated considerably, forcing him, from then on, to limit his activity and lead a retiring life. From his biography we know that Proust was born at 96 rue la Fontaine in Paris, France (coordinates 48n51′ and 2e16) on 10 July 1871 at 23:30 LMT, according to his official birth certificate. Here is the chart with Placidus houses.

Proust was born on a Moon day during a Mars hour.

His Ascendant sign is Aries, ruled by Mars.

At age 31 (in the autumn of 1902), when his health declined dramatically, his profected Ascendant was Scorpio on the 8th Placidus cusp. Natal Mars lies in Libra, the sign of its exile (detriment) and occupies the 6th house of illness. Lilly writes in Book 3 of Christian Astrology (p.577): “If the lord of the ascendant be in the 6th or 12th, it argues a sickly person.” Here the lord of the ascendant, Mars, is in the 6th in Libra, the sign of its detriment. Modern astrologers will note that Asc-ruler Mars is in partile opposition to Chiron (the wounded healer) in the 12th house.

Libra is also the sign of fall of the Sun, which is exalted in Aries. Thus, 1st-ruler Mars lies in the fall of the Sun, which makes the Sun regard any contact with Mars as toxic or hostile. In this chart the Sun is in square aspect to Mars, and the Sun rules the cusp of the Placidus 6th house of illness. Furthermore, the Sun in Cancer occupies the sign of fall of Mars, which is exalted in Capricorn, so that Mars regards any contact with the Sun as coming from the toxic and hostile environment of its fall. Here we have a mutual not-reception. The Sun and Mars are connected by square aspect, but the Sun occupies the fall of Mars, and Mars occupies the fall of the Sun. The Sun views Mars as hostile, Mars views the Sun as hostile, and they are beaming their rays at each other with a hostile square aspect. This is especially bad news because Mars is the Ascendant-ruler, signifying the life, body, and vital energy of the native. Poor Marcel ended up chronically ill for his entire life.

Traditional astrologers did not know about Neptune, but in this chart Neptune is in partile conjunction with the Ascendant degree where it can have a dissipating or debilitating influence on health. On the positive side, Neptune here can indicate great imagination, spirituality, creativity and artistic talent.

If we take a more modern perspective, looking at Asc-ruler Mars and Neptune conjunct the Ascendant, we see that their midpoint lies on the Mercury-Sun conjunction in Cancer, which traditionally rules the lungs (he suffered from chronic asthma). Here is the 90-degree dial with the Mars/Neptune midpoint.

Sun = Mars/Neptune correlates with his lifelong ill health.

Mercury = Mars/Neptune is consistent with his tremendous imagination and literary genius.

The traditional language of primary directions

Reading old texts, such as those of William Lilly and other Renaissance astrologers, can be a bit taxing because of their archaic vocabulary and modes of expression. For example, it is puzzling why traditional authors speak of the Significator of a primary direction being directed to the Promissor, when it is the Significator that is imagined to stay still while the Promissor is carried toward it by the primary motion of the sky. Morin also found this standard way of describing primary directions to be odd, and he argued that strictly speaking it is the moving Promissor that is directed to the fixed Significator. Let’s look at the example of the merchant from Book 3 of Lilly’s Christian Astrology.

Here is the same chart calculated by modern computer in Solar Fire:

Interestingly, Lilly states (CA 651) that the Art of Direction is only “to find out in what space of time the Significator shall meet with his Promittor.” In primary directions the “space of time” is measured by converting the arc in equatorial degrees to a time measure such as Ptolemy’s one equatorial degree equals one year of life. Thus, when traditional authors write that the Significator is directed to its Promittor, they mean that the arc between the Signficator and the Promittor in the natal chart, along which primary motion will carry the natal position of the Promittor to that of the Significator, is converted to a measure of time.

For example, in the merchant’s birth chart, Jupiter at 21 Sagittarius in the Regiomontanus 12th house casts it opposition to 21 Gemini in the 6th house. As the Earth rotates on its axis after birth, the primary motion of the sky will carry 21 Gemini in the 6th to the Moon’s position at 1 Gemini in the 5th house. Here the Moon is the Significator, which signifies “the Complexion of the Body, and its Intentions, the Native’s Journeys, Peregrinations, his Matrimony, the state of his Wife, Women and Kinsfolkes.” (CA 653) These are significations of the Moon itself. In addition, the Moon has accidental significations of the 5th house, which Luna occupies, and the 7th house, which Luna rules.

The Promissor Jupiter in itself has significations of “Glory, Renowne, Riches, Children, Religion, Sobriety, etc.” (CA 654). In addition, Jupiter has accidental significations of the 12th house, which it occupies and rules, the 11th which he rules, and the 2nd house because Pisces is intercepted there.

Lilly’s calculations are fairly inaccurate in Book 3. He states the the opposition of Jupiter reaches the Moon by primary motion when the merchant is 27 years old. Calculating the Regiomontanus primary directions with modern software, we find that the direction perfects in January of 1641 when the native is 24 years old. Lilly is off by 3 years in his calculations.

In any case, Lilly writes that “Moon ad opposition of Jupiter Gemini” (Moon directed to Jupiter’s opposition in Gemini) occurs in March of 1644 and interprets it as follows:

This direction “is in the sixth and twelfth house, Jupiter being Promittor, denotes the quality of the accident to happen, and he was Lord of the 11th, 12th and had dominion in the 2nd in the Radix, the event must either be from such things as are signified by Jupiter in radice, as Lord of those houses, or as he hath a general signification naturally. Being essentially strong, we take the former and leave the latter judgment; yet it will doe be well to thinke of both.”

“The Direction falling in the 6th, threatens a slight jovial disease by drinking for surfet, or distempering the body; the reason is, the Moon was in the 5th, viz, house of good fellowship; now Moon being significatrix in an aery sign and Jupiter in a fiery, may well denote the blood heated; for Gemini is hot and moist, and Sagittarius hot and dry; ergo, tow significations of blood heated ….” (CA 781 – 782)

Have we been miscalculating planetary hours?

Recently a fellow astrologer asked me how we define sunrise and sunset in the determination of planetary hours, a method of measuring time which dates back to ancient Babylonia. Looking up Babylonian time measurement online, I found the following at https://www.babylonianhours.com/:

“There are two different types of units of time in the Babylonian system, the first is set by homogeneous phenomena (i.e. always the same length), either astronomical (appearance of a star or movement of a celestial body) or physical (water clock), the second is a seasonal system whereby the length of an hour changes depending on the length of daylight. The Babylonians used multiple methods for measuring the passage of time throughout the day, a common system was dividing the 24-day up into 12 “double”-hours (bēru), these units of time were equivalent to 30° of the sun’s movement around the earth (360° divided by 12 is 30°) …”

My understanding is that the Babylonians used direct observation of the first appearance of the Sun or of a fixed star on the eastern horizon, and during the day they used a sundial to track to movement of the sun across the sky for time-keeping purposes.

The Sun measures about 32′ to 33′ of arc as viewed from the Earth, depending on the time of year and how close the Earth is to the Sun in its annual orbit.

The angular diameter of the Sun varies between about 32′ and 33′ of arc, as viewed from Earth.

Today we are aware of the refraction of light, which causes the Sun to appear to have risen above the eastern horizon while the body of the Sun is still below the horizon. I could find no references to indicate that the Babylonians were aware of the refraction of sunlight at sunrise, but they may have been because Claudius Ptolemy mentions refraction in his writings. The earliest reference I could find to the modern scientific law of refraction was to a text by the Persian astronomer Ibn Sahl in Baghdad in the year 984 CE. I don’t know whether Sahl and the medieval Persian and Arabic astrologers accounted for the refraction of sunlight to calculate planetary hours.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snell%27s_law

Now let’s consider the modern calculation of sunrise and sunset. According to the site https://stardate.org/astro-guide/sunrise-and-sunset:

“The official timekeeper for the United States, the U.S. Naval Observatory, defines sunrise and sunset as the moments when the center of the Sun is physically 50 minutes of arc below the horizon, which is a bit less than one degree. That accounts for the size of the Sun itself, and the “bending” properties of the atmosphere.”

This definition takes into account the fact that, due to refraction of its light, the sun appears to rise a few minutes before the body of the sun actually reaches the eastern horizon. Let me give an example. Suppose someone lives in New York City. What time would the sun rise on 8 November 2023?

According to the site https://sunrise-sunset.org/us/new-york-ny, the sun rose in NYC on 8 Nov 2023 at 6:33:05 AM EST. Let’s look at the astrological chart for that time in NYC, calculated using Solar Fire software.

Scientifically calculated sunrise in NYC on 8 Nov 2023, taking account of refraction of light. Note that the entire body of the sun lies below the eastern horizon at the moment the upper rim of the sun appears to be just coming up over the eastern horizon. Based on the definition used by the official timekeeper for the United States, the U.S. Naval Observatory. The program PlanetDance gives the time of sunrise in NYC on this date as 6:34:03 AM EST..

Now let’s look at the table of planetary hours produced by Solar Fire for this chart:

Sunrise, based on direct observation and taking into account the refraction of light, occurred at 6:33:05 AM EST, but this table lists sunrise as being at 6:39 AM EST (a rounded figure), some 6 minutes after the sun appears to have risen.

It seem likely that the Babylonians, who gave us planetary hours, based their definition on direct observation, which would be in accord with the modern definition of sunrise by the U.S. Naval Observatory. If so, our modern astrological software may be off by several minutes in calculating the onset of planetary hours during the day. My view is that we should take account of refraction because the light of the morning sun reaches the Earth when the center of the sun arrives at 50′ of arc below the horizon and carries the influences of the sun to the sublunar world at that moment. It does not matter when the light of the sun has traveled a perfectly straight path or has been bent a bit on its journey from the sun to the Earth. What matters is that at a certain moment the light from the Sun first reaches the surface of the Earth at a given location.

In other words, I believe we should be calculating planetary hours based on the definitions that sunrise and sunset are the moments when the center of the Sun is physically 50 minutes of arc below the horizon. These definitions appear to be consistent with the ancient Babylonian use of direct observation of the sun rising over the eastern horizon as the start of the day to determine the first planetary hour of the day. This site is useful for calculating exactly when you can first see the morning sunbeams at your location: https://sunrise-sunset.org/

Experimenting with my own chart, I created an Excel spreadsheet to calculate planetary hours based on the U.S. Naval Observatory definition, which takes into account the refraction of sunlight. Here is the result:

A table of planetary hours from the Janus 6 program (which is very similar to the list generated by Solar Fire) for the same birth chart looks like this:

The Janus list of hours is off by about 4 minutes, as is the one from Solar fire.

The program PlanetDance does a much better job and is quite close to the list generated by the Excel spreadsheet differing by less than half a minute. The difference may be due to the fact that Planet Dance only allows coordinates to the nearest minute of arc, whereas I calculated the birth chart in Solar Fire with more exact coordinates of the birth place to the nearest second of arc. It may also be that PlanetDance uses a slightly different formula that that of the U.S. Naval Observatory:

From Planet Dance

My recommendation, based on my current understanding of the history of planetary hours, would be to calculate them using the program Planet Dance (https://www.jcremers.com/) because the commercial programs do not appear to take into account the refraction of sunlight. Planet Dance differs slightly from the U.S. Naval Observatory formula, and it is possible that the program uses a slightly different formula to calculate sunrise and sunset, and it may even be more precise than the use of 50′ of arc from the center of the sun to the horizon. (For example, one site commented that the UTC time of sunrise (or sunset) in minutes is sunrise = 720 – 4*(longitude + ha) – eqtime where longitude and hour angle are in degrees and the equation of time is in minutes. See https://gml.noaa.gov/grad/solcalc/solareqns.PDF for details on using the longitude and latitude of the location and the Equation of Time to measure the time of sunrise and sunset in a given location. The values in PlanetDance are consistent with those found at this site: https://gml.noaa.gov/grad/solcalc/sunrise.html and its updated version at https://gml.noaa.gov/grad/solcalc/, which appears to be highly accurate. Unfortunately, this site only give the result to the nearest minute on the clock.

To use Planet Dance, go to the “TIME” menu and select “PLANETARY HOUR.” Put in the date and location and press “GO.” The program will then generate a list of planetary hours.
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Addendum: In a comment a reader mentioned that the online program Astro-seek.com produces a list of planetary hours very similar to the one produced by PlanetDance. Experimenting with Astro-seek, I got the following planetary hours list for my own chart, which is almost identical to the list calculated in excel using the U.S. Navy Observatory definitions.

Planetary hours for my own chart calculated by Astro-seek, which is essentially identical to the one produced in my excel spreadsheet based on the U.S. Naval Observatory definitions of sunrise and sunset.

Mass Killings in Maine

Due to the ready availability of weapons of war, the USA has become the land of massing killings. The recent event in Maine was apparently the work of a troubled man with significant mental health problems who had no trouble buying a weapon of mass destruction. His birthday was given in the media as April 4, 1983. Assuming he was born in Maine near the location of the shootings, I cast his chart (actual time unknown) for sunrise in Lisbon, Maine, where his body was found after his apparent suicide. Around the natal sunrise chart is placed the chart for the time and location of the first shooting according to the first call to the police.

Center wheel = sunrise chart of Mr. Card, the shooter.
Outer wheel = the start of the first incident.
The Angles and house cusps are those of the natal Sunrise chart.

The man accused of the crime, Mr. Card, was born with an almost exact Mars-Pluto opposition, with Pluto in late Libra conjunct Saturn at the beginning of Scorpio. His natal Sun lies in Aries and conjoins Mercury in Aries, which is combust, and Pluto at the end of Aries. This configuration implies a tendency to violence.

His natal stellium of Sun, Mercury, Mars lies in Aries, the Mars-ruled sign of the Ram and archetypically of the warrior of the zodiac. As the site essentialzodiac.com explains: “When your Aries energy is misdirected it can be heavily destructive in its explosion of selfhood. In shadow, Aries becomes a crude warlord of strength and power, oblivious to the needs and concerns of other people.”

At the time of the incident on Wednesday October 25th, transiting Pluto was closely squaring the natal Mars-Pluto opposition, transiting Sun was partilely conjunct natal Saturn and closely conjunct natal Pluto, which had recently stationed direct on October 10th, thereby strongly activating the natal Mars-Pluto opposition.

Without the exact time and location of birth of Mr. Card, we cannot say much more about the house placements or exact aspects in his birth chart. Nonetheless, transiting Pluto square the natal Mars-Pluto opposition is a strong marker of the potential for violence, and the involvement of natal Mercury suggests paranoid thinking.

Alexander Marr and the National Chart of Israel

The war in Israel has dominated the news since Hamas attacked Israel shortly after sunrise on October 7, 2023. I wondered how this event would show up in the mundane chart which astrologers use for Israel. Various “birth” charts of the nation exist for this purpose.

According to  Nick Campion in his book World Horoscopes: “In the atmosphere of crisis, and an invasion by the Arab Legion at dawn on 12 May [1948], the Jewish leaders arranged a meeting to proclaim independence at 4.00 pm on 14 May in the Tel Aviv museum… The meeting began precisely at 4.00 pm, as arranged, when [David] Ben-Gurion, the first prime minister, struck the table with his gavel. The audience then rose spontaneously and burst into the Hatikva, the anthem of the Zionist movement. It is clear that Ben-Gurion himself regarded 4.00 pm as the critical time…Ben-Gurion finished reading the independence statement and manifesto at 4.24 pm. The scroll of independence was then signed by the 24 members of the National Committee who were present and the meeting concluded at 4.32 pm when Ben-Gurion spoke the words ‘Israel has been born!’ 

Based on this quote, a chart for the “birth” of Israel could be cast for 14 May 1948 in Tel Aviv for a time between 4 PM and 4:32 PM. The late astrologer Alexander Marr carefully rectified the national chart of Israel for a time between 4 PM and 4:32 PM, using historical events and the topocentric system, and he found that an MC of 28 Cancer 39′ with and Asc of 26 Libra 15′ worked best according to his methods. The Alexander Marr rectification with Topocentric Houses looks like this (cast in Solar Fire):

National chart of Israel, according to Alexander Marr’s rectification for the period between 4 pm and 4:32 pm on 14 May 1948 in Tel Aviv. Note that Mars rules the 7th cusp, which is related to war and open enemies.
The Lunar Eclipse of 5 May 2023, just before this year’s solar return, falls at 14 Scorpio 52′ in partile conjunction with the natal south lunar node in the 1st house and in square to the Saturn/Pluto midpoint in Leo in the 10th house.

As a check on this chart, I cast the Wynn Key return to the beginning of the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, shortly after sunrise (according to news reports). Here is the Wynn Key of the current solar return.

Wynn Key chart in Tel Aviv for 7 Oct 2023 based on Israel’s current solar return. Note the connections between the Wynn Key chart and the natal chart.

The Wynn Key chart is remarkable for Mars on the MC conjunct a stationary south lunar node. Mars rules the natal 7th cusp of open enemies. Mars, the south lunar node and the MC of the Wynn Key chart conjoin the Ascendant of the natal chart.

In addition, Pluto in the 1st house lies in exact square to the MC, and Pluto and Mars mutually apply to a square within a little more than a degree of arc. Pluto of the Wynn Key chart opposes the MC of the natal chart.

Also, Uranus of the Wynn Key chart conjoins the Sun and the 8th cusp of the natal chart, the Sun being the ruler of Leo in the natal 10th and the ruler by exaltation of the natal 7th, which involves open enemies..

Now let’s look at the solar return of Israel, which is currently in effect.

Solar Return of Israel in effect since May of 2023.

Solar Return Mars, which rules the natal 7th cusp, occupies the solar return 8th house of death and destruction, and exactly squares its position in the Wynn Key return chart for the date of the invasion (7 Oct 2023).

It appears that Alexander Marr’s rectification of the national chart works quite well for the current crisis in Israel.

Addendum: Eclipses

Paulo reminded me in a comment that it is important to consider eclipses in mundane events. For example, the solar eclipse in April 2023 at 29 Aries 50′ falls on Asc-ruler Jupiter at 29 Aries 32′ of this year’s solar return chart, in square to solar return 12-ruler Mars at 26 Cancer 38′ in the solar return 8th house, and in square to the MC of the Israeli national chart, as rectified by Marr.

Here is a list of this year’s eclipses from Solar Fire. Times reported are for Eclipse Maximum.
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Solar Hybrid Apr 20 2023 29°Ar 50’22” Saros 129 7 North
Lunar Appulse May 5 2023 14°Sc 52’01” Saros 141
Solar Annular Oct 14 2023 21°Li 07’43” Saros 134 7 South
Lunar Partial Oct 28 2023 05°Ta 03’09” Saros 146