This is a continuation of a theme for beginners, a collection of posts from Facebook.

” I’d like to develop this beginners mind look at astrology a bit more, but feel I should explain where my take on it comes from.

Regular readers will have heard this narrative many times so forgive me for going over it again, but it might help new followers understand why my take might be different from what they are used to.

There are as many different approaches to astrology as there are people approaching it, but I feel that they all fit somewhere along a spectrum.

This would be between what I what call a religious approach to the subject and a scientific one.

The former approach is – “This is how things are because the good book(s) says they are.” They are tablets of stone handed down over the years that says if you have the Sun in Aries you are this person, Taurus you are that etc etc.

This carries on right through until they are also telling you what it means if you have the 5th harmonic anti scion of Algol biquintile to the midpoint of your Juno/Lilith placements.

It is a top – down approach to astrology.

The vast majority of introductory books about the subject broadly follow this pathway.

People who write books are mostly rehashing and rephrasing what they read themselves in older books. So over the years there becomes a general agreement around what is being said.

Examples are produced to back up these assertions, but they are chosen because they reinforce the agreed upon principles.

This for me is the religious approach to the subject.

The opposite approach is what I would call the scientific, bottom – up one.

This is focused on what actually happens in human behaviour, rather than what the books say should or will happen.

An activity is observed to occur a large number of times, and the observer then tests the distribution of the planets for each one, to see if there is any kind of pattern that repeats itself more often than just by chance.

If there is such a pattern, it is put forward as an astrological effect, even if it doesn’t correspond with what the old books say should be the case.

If that pattern continues to be observed to occur it is assumed to be an astrological cause and effect.

All astrologers fit somewhere along that religious/scientific spectrum.

Some traditional astrologers (maybe with strong Fixed sign emphasis in their own charts) lean very strongly towards the religious view.

The truth, if it is to be found at all, is probably somewhere in the middle using both approaches.

But my experience is that there is far too much emphasis in the astrology world on the theoretical/religious side and not enough on the practical/scientific one.

I spent 40 years thoroughly testing as many astrological theories as I could to see if an effect could be scientifically proven to exist.

Up until the point where I was able to prove these things, I never made any public statements about astrology at all.

I have tested many theories that have not produced any kind of result above chance level occurrence.

But I have also found many theories that absolutely do and have a level of statistical proof that is irrefutable.

So my approach to astrology and the way I would suggest people try and understand the subject is based on this research into what actually happens in practice rather than what the books insist should happen.

The headline research that I undertook is the largest (to my knowledge) ever done into astrology.

I used every single chart that existed on the Astrodatabank’s collection of public figures at the time (March 31st 2013).

I have written about this here – The Capricorn Astrology Research Project

The main findings of this research project was that public figures or famous people are more likely to have the Sun on the left hand side of the chart than the right hand side.

The results were 11,429 to 9212.

This might not appear to be as stunning as it actually is. The larger the numbers used the more likely the distribution would be even.

There is a statistical test used to determine whether a distribution has validity and can prove to be indicative of an effect. This is called the P test.

If the result is less than 0.01, scientists would say an effect is likely to exist. If it is below 0.003, it is considered to validate that effect.

The P test for this data is 0.0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000010094

This corresponds to the chances of such a distribution occurring by chance alone.

So it is by far and away the strongest testimony for astrology that has ever been discovered.

It also reinforces similar discoveries made in the 1950s by the French scientist Michel Gauquelin

But what does this research mean? And what impact might it have on the study of astrology?

A traditional view of astrology might have an expectation that the Sun would appear more often in the 10th house in the charts of public figures.

The 10th is one of the highest scorers with 1899, but it’s only in 4th place, behind the 12th with 1975, the 11th with 1941 and the 1st with 1939.

The lowest scoring houses are the 6th with 1457, the 7th with 1467, and the 5th with 1486.

So the upper left quadrant of the chart (10th, 11th and 12th houses) is strongly loaded, particularly compared with the bottom right one (4th, 5th and 6th).

How to channel these discoveries in a way which helps us understand the rudiments of the astrological chart?

My understanding is that the top of the chart around the Midheaven is about career and focused on the world out there.

The left side around the Ascendant is about powerful expression of one’s own personal themes.

So it’s likely that public figures would mostly falling into one of these two categories.

The other ones are the Nadir with the focus on home and family and the Descendant where its on relationship or marriage.

So it’s equally likely that public figures would be less likely to have their Sun in these two areas.

Another very important thing about the research is that when the Sun is considered by sign rather than house for the same 20,000 + famous people, the distribution has no greater variety than what would come up by chance alone.

So sign placements are no guide whatsoever when looking at public figures or famous people, whereas house positions and particularly hemisphere emphasis is a very strong indicator.

So my sense is that we can use this to come to a basic understanding of the chart.

I believe that there is a social sector in the astrology chart which covers houses 9, 10, 11, 12 and 1.

People who have personal planets (Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus and Mars) in those areas are more likely to be projecting themselves outward onto society.

There is also a personal sector which incorporates the opposite houses – 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7.

People with personal placements in these areas are more drawn to focus on areas of home and family relationships.

These discoveries are so powerful that I believe they should be allowed to help form our basic understanding of how astrology actually works in practice.

This is why I would encourage students to start with a hemisphere overview before they go on to consider what signs are involved.

So I would start looking at a chart by doing a hemisphere overview.

Which one is strongest, particularly for the personal planets?

Is there a focus on one particular quadrant of the chart? Are their planets close to the angles?

So you get the sense of the main areas of focus for this person’s life.

From there you can begin to ask, what planets are they?

We’ve looked at Xena and Beyonce, both with powerful placements near the Ascendant, so obviously asserting their own themes, but we can see the different types of personal expression by checking that Xena was all Sun/Moon Aries and Beyonce was Venus in Libra.

While it’s more likely that famous people will have significant placements in the top left quadrant, that doesn’t preclude others from becoming even notorious public figures.

Take Bonnie Parker of Bonnie and Clyde fame.

She has a powerful right hand side Descendant emphasis, so she is known as being part of a married team. In fact if it wasn’t for teaming up with Clyde, we probably wouldn’t have heard of her.

The type of marriage that she had is nicely depicted by the Sun’s tight conjunction with Mars right on the Descendant.

Many charts have several planets on opposite angles. These planets will inevitably create some kind of tension between them because they are demanding that the individual focus on challenges coming from opposing areas of their life.

Joe Biden’s chart is an interesting one in this respect.

His is a chart with all the planets bar one in the upper half of the chart.

Like Charles and Harry, the rogue planet is the Taurus Moon.

Biden is focused on out their in the world, but is also pulled away from that by something to do with his home and family, much like Harry.

In his chart the Moon is in the 5th house rather than the 4th for Harry.

One of the things that the 5th rules is children. So while for Harry the problem that distracts him from where he wants to go in life is with his parents, for Joe it’s with his children.

Joe lost two children, one as a baby in a car accident, the other to brain cancer. He has also had a fair share of problems with his other son.

The other thing with Biden’s chart is the Ascendant/Descendant axis.

With Sun and Venus conjunct the Ascendant, he is self motivated and driven strongly to express his own themes.

These are opposed by Saturn and Uranus around the Descendant, and he lost his young first wife in that same car accident.

So how does my research impact on traditional views of the houses?

What it does clearly show is that there is much more to the 12th house than the shrinking violet, retreating and suffering types that are generally depicted in the old text books.

It is the most common house placing for public figures.

This is also backed up by Gauquelin’s research which shows it to be the strongest placement for Mars in the charts of top athletes, with similar findings for other planets in the professions normally associated with them.

The Gauquelins also identified another area in the 9th house as being powerful.

Why should this be when the books focus on the 10th and the 1st?

My view is that the houses on either side of an angle belong to that angle.

So the 9th house is part of the whole area of area and social standing because of its proximity to the Midheaven.

This is particularly so for planets that are towards the end of it, ie in conjunction with the Midheaven.

The same thing would apply to planets in the 12th but within 10 degrees of the Ascendant.

As well for planets in the same positions of the 3rd and the 6th to the Nadir and Descendant.

What might it mean to say the 9th house belongs to the Midheaven etc.

It is fair to say that the angular houses (1st, 4th, 7th and 10th) are the most important because they reflect the areas of life that are covered by the Ascendant, Nadir, Descendant and Midheaven.

These are the key areas of Self, Family, Marriage and Career.

The houses that are before them (12th, 3rd, 6th and 9th) will play supporting roles for the those angular ones that follow.

These cadent houses are like training grounds for the angular ones.

So the 12th supports the Self (1st) because there is a quality of looking inward to find out what the self actually is.

So you could say that the 12th is self consciousness in support of 1st house self expression.

The 3rd is learning about the local environment through short journeys or early schooling and interaction with siblings and neighbours in support of the 4th home, family and community.

The 6th is about service to others and putting your own personal needs to one side to work for someone or something else. This is an attitude of mind that helps with cooperation and living alongside another person in the 7th house of partnerships.

The 9th is higher education and travel and training for the purpose of a 10th house career.

The succedent houses (2nd, 5th, 8th and 11th) are the products or possessions of the angular houses (1st, 4th ,7th and 10th) that precede them.

The 2nd is literally the finances and possessions of the Self (1st)

The 5th covers children which are the products and the possessions of the Family (4th)

The 8th covers inheritance and other people’s money, including the products and possessions of the Marriage (7th)

The 11th is ideals, politics and social groups which could be said to be ten products of Career (10th).

When you read introductory astrology books you cover the signs first.

Then when it comes to the houses, you see how these areas of life have a correspondence with the signs and there is an assumption that this happens because of the signs.

So the 1st house is assertive because Aries is, the second is money because Taurus is into possessions etc etc.

There is obviously a similarity here but this is not derived from the signs.

The qualities of the houses is derived from the importance and essential themes of the four angles.

There are many charts that might point to 2 or even 3 angles but neglect another one. This too can tell us a lot about where that person wants and needs to focus their attention and energies.

Take Donald Trump.

Obviously there is an emphasis in the upper left quadrant of self and career.

The Sun is in the 10th house and there is a very powerful Mars in Leo right on his Ascendant.

There is a secondary thing again with the Moon and family, big houses etc.

The one area that he has zero interest in is that of cooperation, harmony and putting your own interests second for the sake of a marriage (the Descendant).

It matters not one bit to him whether its an Eastern European botox filled pole dancing gold digger, a porn star, a woman in a department store toilet or a 12 year old girl on Epstein island, they are simply there to service him and be paid off.”

To be continued.

Posted 10 Jul 2024

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