INRTODUCTION:
In the preceding article we saw
that it is possible to derive a second horoscope, the mundane equivalent,
from a radix by
converting the planets’ positions in the houses to a zodiacal longitude.
Similarly, mundane cusps may be calculated from the positions in
the houses of the beginning points of the signs. This derived horoscope
then
should be checked for conjunctions to the radix.
In order to explain the subject of this paper, let us first have a look
at my own radix, for Haarlem, Netherlands, with its mundane equivalent
positions in the outer circle:
Note
the position of the mundane moon (21.38 Taurus) opposite to mundane
Venus (22.16 Scorpio), none of the two being in
conjunction to any radical
position. As I remarked in the preceding article, the zodiacal
(radical) positions of these two planets are far from
opposite, yet their mundane
positions are. This is due to the moon’s excessive latitude
(over 5 degrees south), remember that in calculating mundane
positions
we do reckon with planetary latitude.
DEFINING RELOCATION:
I had been using these mundane positions for years, until one day just
for curiosity I decided to cast my horoscope for the right date and time
but for Warszaw, since my wife is from there. I did not immediately study
the mundane positions, I studied the following table as a whole, not
from my Windows-program Morinus that did not exist yet at the time, but
from its DOS-predecessor AstroPas.exe:
when I suddenly noticed, much to my astonishment, that
this Warszaw mundane Venus at 10.07’ Scorpio was conjunct to my radical ascendant
for Haarlem at 9.09’Scorpio and the Warszaw mundane moon at 10.38’ Taurus
conjunct to my radical Haarlem descendant, 9.09’ Taurus. Note that
neither the Warszaw mundane moon nor mundane Venus is conjunct
to the Warszaw ascendant and descendant.
After some confusion (I asked myself, “What
is this? How can positions for Warszaw relate to my Haarlem radix?”)
I began to understood what was going on here:
Mundane positions, planets as well as cusps, for the same moment of
time are different for each place on earth, just like for the same moment
each place on earth has its own regular cusps.
This means that for Warszaw, at the time
of my birth, all horoscopic points had mundane positions different
from the Haarlem
ones. And for
Warszaw, the mundane moon-Venus opposition at that moment happened
to be conjunct to the ascendant-descendant axis of that same
moment for
my birthplace Haarlem. A most fitting indication that I was to
find my wife in Warszaw: not only these are the two feminine
planets par excellence
in a man’s horoscope, they also are the rulers of seven (marriage)
and of nine (foreign affairs).
These findings forced me
to adjust my PC-program, Morinus: no longer were mundane positions
implicitly
to be calculated for the place of birth, I had to enable the
user to enter another place for calculating them. Now have a look
the result for my radix, combined with the mundane positions
for Warszaw and you will see they differ from the Haarlem ones:
Note
that besides of the moon’s and Venus’ positions on the
horizon, mundane Pluto, ruler of one, is conjunct to radical Chiron – if
you agree with me that Chiron is the ruler of Libra and the natural
ruler of seven as I have been stating for decades 1) , this is
a most fitting indication for marriage too.
If you don’t think
Chiron rules relations, study my astrological compass where the
moon and Chiron together pinpoint close enough to Warszaw at
84 degrees (as demonstrated on the diagram below):
EXPLAINING THE NATURE OF THE
PHENOMENON
A bit of reflection will show that here
we have in fact an extension of the well-known technique of Relocation,
where we calculate the regular
cusps for the time of birth for another place, and see whether
they are conjunct to a radical point, mostly a planet. Thus the
first time I read
a lecture on astrology abroad (about primary directions) was in
Reading, Great Britain, where at the moment of my birth Mercury
(in my radical
ninth house) was at the MC. So the technique presented in this
paper is not meant to replace relocation, it just adds up to
its results. In
fact, if relocated cusps did not have any astrological value, relocated
mundane positions would not have it either, only I think relocated
mundane positions give more indications more often.
In some cases, both systems give indications.
For example, if one studies the indications for my horoscope
for Moscow by the
technique
of relocation, we find Moscow cusp nine (study) on my Mercury
(languages), which is highly applicable for a student
of Slavonian languages. In the
mundane positions we see Neptune conjunct to cusp three, languages
once more. For Warszaw we find relocated cusp nine conjunct
to the sun in
Leo in nine, an indication for foreign romantic affairs (though
not specifically for marriage 2). In other cases however,
as we will see, we find only
indications by the mundane positions.
The orb to be used is probably some two and a half degree but
may be larger in case of translation of light.
The one great advantage of the
mundane method when compared to relocated cusps is that it
is more personal: in the first place,
not only mundane
cusps are different for every place on earth but so are the mundane
planets’ positions.
Further we do not only consider conjunctions to radical planets
but to radical cusps too. Anyone born at the same moment as I
everywhere in
the world, has his/her geodetical MC for Reading at the same
zodiacal point, conjunct to Mercury. Everyone born at the
same time as I, will
have his relocated Moscow cusp nine on his Mercury and his
Warszaw cusp nine on his sun in nine; these indications are
not very
personal and
I wonder what these places mean in the lifes of those who were
born elsewhere at the same time as I. In what is at first sight
the same way, everyone
born together with me will have the same position for the mundane
moon-Venus opposition for Warszaw, but for most birthplaces this
opposition will
not be conjunct to the radical axis ascendant - descendant. Thus
we see that mundane positions in combination with radical cusps
give more personal
results, even in those cases where the technique of relocation
gives applicable indications too.
A HOLIDAY CANCELLED
Summer 1988, my wife and I had booked
a holiday of one week in Istanbul. My wife still had and has
a polish passport and therefore needed a Turkish
visa.
We went to the Turkish embassy in
Rotterdam and
from there in growing despair to the embassy in The Hague to
complain. In the last 10 days of this process (driving like crazy
from Leyden to the Turkish consulate in Rotterdam), the embassy
in The Hague assured us that everything was
alright and that we will receive her visa the next day in
Rotterdam. Each wait however ended up
with a visa refusal. Finally on
the
day we
were to leave we had to give up and I wrote an angry letter
to the Turkish ambassador. The Turkish ambassador wrote
back a very kind letter of excuse but that did not
help us any more. My wife and I lost about 2000 then
dutch guilders by this affair.
If I, as a client, had asked you “Can
I book a holiday for Istanbul?” and you use only relocation,
you would smilingly consent for you would not find any negative
indications. But if you use relocated
mundane positions you could have given an explicit warning. Look
at my relocated mundane positions for Istanbul on the diagram
below:
Relocated
Saturn is on cusp three (papers, the refusal of the visa), its
opposition to cusp nine is also
very much applicable since we were
not to travel abroad; and
relocated Pluto is on cusp two, loss of money.
As
usual in astrology, there are more indications at another level.
At the time, transiting
Saturn was stationary on my moon,
ruler of nine
and posited in two, no explication needed.
Looking back, every resistance was futile : did you ever even
try to fight
Saturn? What a pity I had not discovered this technique
some years earlier!
KENNEDY AND DALLAS
You will find below four more example horoscopes using the Relocated
Mundane Equivalent technique. The first one is John F. Kennedy’s
mundane equivalent, calculated for Dallas, Texas where we see two
major indications:
- Dallas’ mundane Saturn, radically
in ten and very badly placed in Cancer, is placed at
the radical IC (end of life) and
opposite to
the MC (a fall in the career), which stresses the natal
fatal significance of Saturn in ten, and
- mundane Venus,
ruler of eight, is placed at natal cusp three, which is an indication
for his death on the public
road, the more so
since radical Venus is on cusp nine, death on travel.
I can understand
one will object that Venus is a benefic and therefore its indication
is not much applicable. Unfortunately,
as every Morinist
knows, even Venus is a malefic when it is ruler of eight, and it
also rules the stellium with Mars on the cusp of eight. Further
proof for
this is given by Kennedy ’s astrological compass (shown below) where
we see that of all cusps and planets only Venus (253 degrees) pointed
(exact!) to Dallas (253 degrees). Q.E.D.:
As far as I can see, the technique of relocation does not give any applicable
results.
NIXON GOES TO WASHINGTON
No paper with Kennedy’s horoscope would be complete without the
one of Richard Nixon.
Here we have what I think one of the
great American tragedies of the twentieth century. Two men,
actual class mates, both
strived to the most powerful position in the world, the American
presidency. Both succeeded – but one got murdered, the other
one was the first president in history that had to resign. Shakespeare
could not
have thought of a more tragic plot.
Nixon’s radix most clearly shows
the followng:
We see Pluto in Gemini (press)
in the tenth house, threatened by a conjunction of Mercury (journalists),
Mars and Jupiter
in the fourth
house. There really was no escape, actually my teacher of astrology
as early as September 1972 foretold that Nixon was to be re-elected
but
subsequently he was to fall "because of financial bungling by his
subordinates". This "financial" problem prediction did
not come true. The phrase "by his subordinates" however most
certainly did and it is still one of the most astounding examples
of astrological
prediction I have ever seen. Remember that in 1972 Nixon was quietly
serving his first
term as president of the US, with no cloud at the horizon and sure
of his re-election.
What was the place that proved to be
so fatal for Mr Nixon? Washington of course. If we calculate
his mundane equivalence for Washington, we
get the following results:
- the sun, ruler of the twelfth house (of course meaning Woodward and
Bernstein, the proverbial secret enemies !) is on Pluto in ten,
- Saturn is on the cusp of three (papers) and above all,
- the fatal stellium with Mercury (journalists) is conjunct to
the MC and
- the natural ruler of twelve, Neptune, is positioned on the radical
position of this same stellium in the radix.
So we see that for Richard
Nixon, Washington was indeed not the place for him to be. Therefore,
let sceptics laugh their hearts out,
I certainly
do not think it was coincidental that Woodward and Bernstein
worked for The Washington Post.
Relocation gives one indication: local
IC at his radical sun, but this is a weak indication, for the position
of the sun in the radix is not
distinctly good or bad. I suppose this is more an indication that
he was to have his career in Washington, with all its ups and downs.
HITLER AND MOSCOW
I will now discuss Adolf Hitler’s
horoscope for Moscow which is no doubt a fatal place for him
(of course attacking Russia was about
the most
stupid act of his life):
We find the following indications for
Moscow:
- mundane MC on his fatal conjunction of Mars and Venus
- mundane moon and Jupiter on his cusp eight (most applicable,
besides of this we now know that his dead body was found and burned
by russian soldiers and that they took the skull with them to Moscow),
and
- mundane Mars (war) on cusp twelve (dissolution), not just a
vague negative indication but highly suggestive of the way his
attack on the
USSR (‘operation Barbarossa’), after some initial victories,
in the Russian frozen steppes dissolved into a disaster, costing
the lives of at least a million German soldiers, not mentioning
the uncounted Russian victims.
Relocation gives two weak indications:
cusp six conjunct to Mercury on the descendant and cusp nine
conjunct to the node in nine. Mercury
is ruler of nine. The best we can make of this is that, the
USSR was to become a foreign (nine) enemy (descendant). I however
think that this
a rather
artificial interpretation and a typical example of backward astrology.
HITLER AND WASHINGTON
About as fatal for this native was of
course the war with the U.S.
For Washington we find:
- mundane MC conjunct to radical Saturn in its detriment in ten,
- mundane Mars and Venus conjunct to the conjunction of the moon
and Jupiter in Capricorn; Mars, the moon and Jupiter are all placed
in non-fitting signs, Venus is conjunct to its natural enemy, Mars,
all malevolent indications, and finally
- the mundane axis ascendant-descendant is conjunct to the radical
axis two-eight (death).
All of the above being very bad, especially the first one.
I have not found any indications by relocation.
BUSH AND BAGDAD
With some hesitation I will now discuss
George Bush’s
mundane positions for Bagdad. With hesitation, not for political
reasons but because at
first sight it is what we call a zero-experiment (any outcome will
affirm the theory): positive results will affirm the initial
success of this
war, negative results will affirm its later setbacks. If we want
to have some interesting results, what we should expect to find
is indications
that on their own clearly show initial successes transiting into
the present dead-end situation:
A neutral indication is
local ascendant on the Mercury-Pluto conjunction in the first
house. I don’t know how to interpret this, in fact
it is a repetition of the radical conjunction. Here I suppose it reflects
not so much the initial successes of the Iraqi war as Bush’s
undoubted talent to use these for propagandistic purposes.
A positive indication is cusp three
on the moon-Jupiter conjunction in three (once more stressing
the native’s oratorical abilities).
Another indication is seemingly positive but definitely
this is not the case: mundane sun on cusp 5 at first sight
would be splendid since it is the sun’s natural position,
if not its radical position were in twelve. This is the main
weak point of this
horoscope and its being
stressed for Bagdad is a very bad indication. Therefore
this means
initial popularity,
later to turn into its opposite.
Another bad indication is mundane
Venus on cusp six. Here the pattern is the same: Venus is a benefic
but six
is a
malefic house and
Venus does not belong here at all (cf. Nixon’s radix)
and since Venus is intercepted ruler of ten its significance
is initial success in the
native’s career followed by disaster. Even worse is the
stellium formed by mundane moon, Jupiter and Chiron, all joined
around
cusp eight, meaning that even the splendid influence
of this constellation, the best
part of his horoscope, will peter out because of the
Iraqi war.
Relocation gives two indications:
local mundane cusp twelve on the Moon-Jupiter conjunction,
indicating once more waning popularity, and
cusp nine on the sun. This may be compared to mundane local sun
conjunct to cusp 5 and has exactly the same interpretation:
in itself a positive
indication. The sun however is radically positioned in the twelfth
house, turning this into a most ominous indication.
BUSH AND WASHINGTON
For a more general look on Bush’s
political career, we may now study Bush’s local mundane positions
for Washington:
Here we see the mundane axis
MC - IC on the axis cusp 2 - cusp 8, a bad
sign, just like mundane axis cusp 2 - cusp 8 on radical cusp
6 - cusp
12 and, most important, Saturn on cusp nine, also a malevolent
indication, at least for his foreign policy. This career is not
going
to end well.
Relocation gives two positive indications: relocated
cusp two on Venus (not quite clear, financially positive?) and relocated
IC on Jupiter.
No negative indication at all.
CONCLUSIONS:
We may conclude that relocated mundane positions
are a mighty tool for the astrologer. Far more than with only the
technique of relocation,
we are now able to give a well-considered answer to questions
from clients like: will I do well to move to that place, is it
advisable
for me
to marry someone from any location, can I go for a holiday
to … ,
should I start a war against… (not the most probable question
to be asked in your daily practice, but as we have seen it would
be wise for statesmen to consult a competent astrologer in these
questions).
Even the combination of the technique of
relocation and mundane relocated positions is not the complete
tool for astrologers
in these affairs. We should also always consider the information
provided by the
late Neil Michelsen’s Astrological Compass. I used it twice
in this article for additional proof and I have some
remarks to make on it, so that will be the subject of the
next article
in this series.
1) This view was ridiculised in Erminie Lantero,
The Continuing Discovery of Chiron, Samuel Weiser Inc. (1983).
This book presents itself
as ‘a
detailed and well-founded aid to interpretation’ based on a ‘symbolic’ and ‘archetypal’ approach.
Indeed, I must admit my view on astrology is not based on symbols
and archetypes but on hard boiled facts, so the reader will understand
my
view on Chiron differs widely from Lantero ’s
view.
2) One might object
that in the preceding article I argue that the mundane ascendant
together with the mundane node on the same
sun in Leo in nine
is most fitting for marriage, whilst I explicitly deny this significance
to the indication relocated cusp nine on the same sun. The
significance of marriage in my mundane horoscope is given by
the axis ascendant-descendant plus the node,
not by the sun, even when it is in Leo – at least in a mans’s
horoscope.
I hope you enjoyed reading this article as much as I enjoyed researching
and documenting it.
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