It is an old tradition in astrology
that signs and houses are somehow analogous to each other: the
first house is analogous to the first
sign, Aries, the second house to Taurus, etc. In this article
I want to show that there is an even closer relationship between
them than has generally been supposed and that this relationship
can be used to make the horoscope a tool of far more precision.
In order
to prove our thesis, we will go further than stating
that, for example, a planet in the fifth house has an identical
influence to
the same planet in the fifth sign, Leo. We
will convert each planet’s
position in the houses, its position in mundo,
to the same position in zodiaco, in the signs: if a planet happens
to be positioned
exactly halfway
in the fifth house, we give it a zodiacal longitude of 15 Leo;
if it is positioned at the very beginning of the tenth house,
at the MC, it
will get a longitude of 0 Capricorn and a planet exactly in
the ascendant will get a longitude of 0 Aries. Thus a complete set
of alternative, mundane longitudes for the sun, the moon, the
planets,
the node
and other
horoscopical points can be calculated.
Experience teaches that most astrologers have
little difficulty in understanding this planetary conversion
from houses to signs. But the next step proves to be more complicated
for many of our colleagues
- It
is also quite possible to convert zodiacal cusps to mundane
cusps, although at first sight this looks more like a trick.
If, as our thesis says, signs are equivalent to houses, this
means that also the beginning points of the houses, the cusps,
are equivalent to the beginning points of the signs, 0 Aries,
0 Taurus, etc. This means that if in the horoscope point 0
Aries is positioned exactly halfway the fifth house, the mundane
ascendant for that horoscope will be at 15 Leo. If the point
0 Gemini is positioned halfway in the tenth house, the mundane
cusp three will be at 15 Capricorn, etc. Thus, besides of the
sun, moon and planets, we may also calculate the mundane equivalent
of the cusps which means we can calculate for each horoscope
a complete mundane equivalent with all cusps and planets that
is a complete horoscope in itself.
Important
information
about mundane horoscope: if you calculate
one and repeat the calculation for the same date and
place but
for four minutes later,
you will see all positions, both the cusps and the planets, progressed
backward by about one degree. This is not difficult to understand.
Just realize that when the sun is at the ascendant it will have
a mundane longitude of 0 degrees Aries equals 30 degrees Pisces.
Roughly four minutes later it will have risen upward a little in
the twelfth house and it will have a mundane longitude of about
29 Pisces. Then, four minutes later, it will have risen to a mundane
longitude of 28 Pisces, etc. The same with the mundane cusps, they
too progress backward at a speed of about one degree every four
minutes of time.
A little consideration
will show that this horoscope shows a far more individual
nature than the usual
radix. As we have seen, roughly every four minutes not only
its cusps’ positions will progress backward by about one
degree but also its planetary positions, a situation that
we astrologers are not used to at all.
Now you may
suppose that the aim of this article is to promote the
study of this
mundane horoscope, to be calculated for each
regular radix, and to show how far superior are the indications
furnished by this horoscope, and how more exact and applicable
are its results, just like proponents of midpoints, harmonics
etc. have done in the past.
On the
contrary, never will I! For me, the traditional horoscope
is the root,
the natural
object of all analysis,
progressions
and whatever treatment you want to apply on it. In
the same way, I do not think we should consider the mundane
equivalent as a more personal, more refined horoscope
that should
be interpreted
on its own. We should always compare it to the radix
by means of whatever conjunctions happen to be made between
the mundane
positions and the radical ones. Under certain conditions,
I have even found an orb of more than three
degrees acceptable.
Before going
to our examples, I need to make three remarks:
- the mundane
positions should be calculated on the basis of
the same formulae that are used to calculate the cusps/houses
of the horoscope. Unless you use equal houses, you
cannot just measure the distance of a planet to the two
cusps that is placed
between and then apply a rule of three to determine
its mundane position. You will have to use strict trigonometry.
- it
will be clear that the results of this technique are
highly dependable on the house system used. As always,
throughout
this article we will use Placidus.
- most
important: in
calculating a planet’s mundane longitude, one
should always reckon with its latitude. This may
give surprising results for especially Chiron and
Pluto, planets that may have considerable latitude.
F.e. they may be zodiacally (in the radix) positioned
in the twelfth house, Pisces, and prove to have a
mundane longitude somewhere in Aries. I even know
a case where Pluto in the fifth house has a mundane
longitude in Libra.
We will now proceed
to our first example: We will use my own horoscope.
The radix is in
the inner
circle, background white, and the
mundane positions are drawn in the outer one, background
yellow (illustration derived
from PC-program, Morinus 2000):
Mainly
with didactical purpose, we will now discuss several
mundane positions from this
horoscope:
The sun radically is somewhere
halfway the ninth house and
its mundane position becomes 13.46 Sagittarius, conjunct
to radical Chiron in the second house, for which reason
in the drawing we mark it with red. An easy case too is Saturn’s
position. Radically it is ‘somewhere’ in the
tenth house, slightly passed the middle, after conversion
this proves to be a mundane
position of 19.59 Capricorn which is in the radix’s
third house, and that’s where we draw it in the outer
circle. It does not make any conjunction to the radix and
therefore we draw it in blue.
Mercury and
Pluto are a bit at the end of the ninth house and prove
to be at mundane
positions of 26.20 and 27.07
Sagittarius respectively, both conjunct to the radical
moon at 28.27
Sagittarius, and both drawn in red. I take Pluto’s
position, as the ruler of the ascendant, conjunct to
the moon (feminine part of life in a man’s horoscope
and my ruler of nine) in Sagittarius as an indication
I was destined
to marry a foreign girl (my wife is polish) and Mercury’s
conjunction to the same moon as an indication I was to
become a writer on occult subjects: Mercury rules eight
and is conjunct
to Pluto, the natural ruler of eight.
The point
0 Aries is at the beginning of the fifth house, so my mundane
ascendant is at 3.34 Leo, a conjunction
to the sun in nine. The (mean) node is radically at
1.10
Aries,
a bit further in the same fifth house, so its mundane
position is a bit past the mundane ascendant at 4.53
Leo, also in
a conjunction to the sun in nine. The ascendant and
the node that is radically in five, in nine in Leo conjunct
to the
sun, are once more signs of foreign love affairs.
An
unexpected effect of planetary latitude is shown below:
in my radix the transgressional opposition moon-Venus
has an orb of six degrees but the mundane positions
are
almost
exactly opposite. Note however that none of these
make any conjunction to a radical point, so color them
blue.
By
now, the technique should be clear so now we can pass
to
the next example, John Allen Muhammed,
better known as The Washington Sniper: I took this horoscope
from http://www.skyscript.co.uk/sniper.html where
Robert Corre gives the birthtime as derived from the birth certificate
so we can be reasonably sure of its precision.
The
first thing that strikes us is the fourfold rulership conjunction
in intercepted
Capricorn in the first house. The sun’s and Mercury’s
partaking in this conjunction is not so fatal but Jupiter’s
position in the sign of its fall, being the ruler of the ascendant
and conjunct to its ruler Saturn, clearly is a disaster.
Robert
Corre, as may be expected, gives a very good, be it verbose,
Morinic analysis of this horoscope but he sensibly has
problems with
Saturn in Capricorn since a planet in its own sign according
to Morin generally is a benefic. In order to explain why
this stellium
nevertheless
is a bad constellation he has to take resource to Mars, opposing
the sun, Mercury and Jupiter, stating that Mars is the exaltation
ruler of Capricorn and is positioned in the sign of its fall.
If however we accept the idea of the rulership conjunction
then we
see an opposition of four planets, including malefic Saturn in
its own
sign, to malefic Mars in the sign of its fall.
In AstroSynthesis,
p. 89, we read: “Likewise, the trine of
Saturn in Domicile is constructive, its square destructive;
on the other hand, when in Detriment, its trine gives
no help,
and its square
is disastrous”. From this we see that according to Morin
the opposition from Saturn in Capricorn, although its own sign
is destructive.
It will be much more so since it is an opposition to Mars in
the sign of its fall. For a further clarification on this difficult
subject, read the footnote on p. 89 of AstroSynthesis.
In Corre’s
analysis one element is lacking: why did exactly this man
evolve to a perilous sniper? Weren’t there born
in New Orleans other people too at about the same time, or
at the same
time in other places? Why did these other people become more
or less decent civilians?
Here we see
the power and the importance of the mundane equivalent:
in this horoscope mundane Mars
is conjunct to the radical
MC, which both stresses and individualizes the importance
of the
opposition
we discussed above. Mundane Pluto is conjunct to radical
cusp 12 which may be called very applicable for one who
proved to
be a lethal
hidden enemy for at least 18 people. Please remember that
every four minutes of time mundane positions change by
about one
degree and
you will realize just how individual are these two indications,
and what a coincidence it is that both Mars and Pluto,
natural rulers
of Scorpio, are involved.
Noteworthy
also is the position of mundane Jupiter at the IC. This
indication in itself
is not so powerful but since
mundane
Mars is
at the MC it repeats, stresses the opposition between
Mars and Jupiter in the radix. Remember, both planets are
radically
in
their fall. Thus we see that mundane positions not only further clarify
what we know about the native, they also make the indications
more
personal and individualized.
Our third
and last example will be once more the horoscope of Adolf
Hitler:
where
we see:
- mundane sun, ruler of ten, conjunct to cusp 12: this career was
to end in a total disaster
- mundane MC conjunct to Neptune and Pluto in eight: a career,
drenched in blood
- Mundane Venus conjunct to the ascendant: One clear interpretation
of this Venus in its own sign in the ascendant will be the
magnetism, the unexplicable appeal he made on the German people,
especially women (you don't hypnotize tens of millions of people
without a certain talent). But its main significance is that
it does not stand there alone, it is together with Mars. Mars'
mundane position (22.42 Libra) in itself is not conjunct to
the ascendant since we accept an orb of some three degrees.
Given the narrow conjunction in the radix between Mars and
Venus, this is a clear case of transfer of light. Actually
this means that the Mars-Venus conjunction in the seventh house
is not just something that Hitler had common with anybody born
about the same time; just like Mars and Pluto in the horoscope
of the Washington Sniper were stressed, individualized by their
mundane conjunctions to the MC and cusp twelve respectively.
The Mars-Venus conjunction, with all its awful signifcances
we saw in the article on the rulership
conjunction, seemingly
posited just 'somewhere' in the seventh house. Most subtly
is at such height in this seventh house that its mundane equivalent
falls in the ascendant. Isn't astrology amazing?
- but the most striking mundane conjunction in this horoscope
for me is Saturn’s. This planet is placed in ten and
its mundane position is 8.17 Capricorn – right in the
middle of the conjunction of the moon and Jupiter. This is
a full hit: Capricorn is the only
sign where both the moon and Jupiter are badly positioned and
as if this were not bad enough both planets are burdened with
the
permanent visit of their landlord.
I hope
the reader, from the above examples, will understand
how important the mundane equivalent
can be in the radical analysis of a horoscope.
Just how important they can be in another branch of astrology
will be the subject of the next article in this series.
References:
AstroSynthesis, The Rational System of Horoscope Interpretation
according to Morin de Villefranche, Translated by Lucy Little.
Zoltan Mason Emerald Books, New York 1974.
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