The Universe – “ Here’s the truth “

Humanity – “ Give us more “

The Universe – “ Facepalm “

This is it in a nutshell. The truth is utterly simple and clearly visible all around us. All human suffering comes from wanting more. 

This fact is as true in the world of astrology as anywhere else.

Astrology is simple perfection. And it absolutely works. Just read any one of the thousand or so articles on this site for clear proof of its fundamental principles.

All you need are the 10 planets and their major aspect relationships to explain all phenomena on Earth. 

But apparently that’s not enough for many astrologers.

They need asteroids, midpoints, fixed stars, arabic parts, harmonic charts, different zodiacs and all manner of space debris to fill out their charts and will pick on whichever piece of absurd nonsense floats across their brain at the time.

There is no sense of overall structure which can be used again to predict other events or even explain them to their followers.

They present charts that are so overloaded with junk that you can’t even see what the individual parts are. The idea behind this is ” this astrology game is far too complicated for your little brain, just trust me to tell you what’s what and subscribe below “.

I have hundreds of articles devoted entirely to the power of Pluto transits. These will invariably document the real watershed events in your life. 

At most you can have two to any placement in your chart in your lifetime, they last for two years as a rule, so if you include them to your Sun, Moon, Ascendant, Venus and Mars you probably have a quarter of your life already covered.

Neptune transits do not have the same dramatic external power, but they will point to important periods of internal change.

Uranus will make up to twice as many in your life as Pluto but they generally only last a year.

So the transits of the three outer planets have three quarters of your life nailed down.

This vital knowledge was denied to the ancients so they had to invent loads of different things to try and explain their lives.

Vettius Valens, the Whole Shit House System hero, had the Sun in Aquarius opposite a 12th house Neptune so is mainly remembered for a whole lot of nonsense that he probably dreamt up while smoking opium. 

But amongst those delusions there was the odd pearl and Valens was the first astrologer to document a method similar to what we now call Secondary Progressions.

The problem with a predictive system based on transits alone ( even those including Jupiter and Saturn ) is it focuses solely on change that the external Universe demands of us and our capacity to respond to that challenge.

Transits are broadly things that happen ” out there ” impacting on us. 

Progressions are a balancing mechanism for transits. They describe themes occurring within us and how they shape the way we interact with the world. Here the focus is on the personal planets rather than the outer ones.

By far the most important one is the Progressed Sun, it has an internal power that is comparable with the external influence of a Pluto transit.

It may be the case that the progressed Venus and Mars are comparable with the transits of Neptune and Uranus respectively.

With progressions we have to allow all of the major aspects to our 10 planets plus the ascendant and Midheaven.

Using these three we again have a system that covers about three quarters of your life.

But that doesn’t seem to be enough for most astrologers.

The ones that use progressions want access to loads of add ons because the more options they can give themselves the more chances they have of finding something that fits with their hunches, despite the fact that those things would have occurred by sheer chance alone.

Not being content with progressions to natal placements, they also want to include progressions to progressed placements.

This is the kind of thinking that believes every single planetary movement applies to all of us whether or not our natal charts are involved and enables them to write horoscope columns full of useless rubbish that brings the study of proper astrology into contemptuous dispute.

Another ” method ” that was in vogue when I started my astrology journey was Converse Progressions ( they got the first three letters right ).

This was taking one day for a year backwards from your date of birth and applying that to your future life. 

This is a ridiculous idea both philosophically and practically because its based on the notion that if something is true the opposite must also be true.

It’s the kind of thinking that makes people wet their knickers over absurdities like anti scions and appeals to the type of follower that is happy to use both the Tropical and Sidereal Zodiacs simultaneously.

I have heard people defend this kind of thing by saying ” I’ve got Gemini rising so it works for me “. That would give them Sidereal Taurus rising. So they could jump from one Zodiac to another but be unable to jump back again. 

But of course the main advantage of this kind of thinking is it gives the astrologer twice as many options to indicate the same thing.

But that’s nothing compared to the Solar Arc crowd.

This is another philosophically bankrupt method that takes the distance that the progressed Sun moves in a year and applies the same distance to all the other planets, despite the obvious fact that they have their own natural progressed arcs.

Of course the problem for these people with normal progressions is any planet beyond Mars moves so slowly as to be useless. 

Even Jupiter is only going to average a movement of 7 or 8 degrees in a lifetime, so any placements that aren’t natally aspected to it are out of reach.

No matter, these arcs are happy to give it and Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto a 90 degree run so they aspect everything at some point or another.

Earlier in this piece I explained that the major progressed aspects of the Sun, Venus and Mars to your natal planets would cover three quarters of your lifetime.

If we use Solar Arcs, we get to cover nine quarters of it.

Which is very handy, because any event that you wish to indicate will automatically be shown by this method by chance alone.

But I have said many times, the average astrologer’s understanding of chance and its influence over their prognostications could be squeezed into the one tiny space in their charts that’s not already filled with arcane symbols.

And despite this absurd statistical advantage, Solar Arcs are still unable to light up things in the way that simple Progressions can.

On average the Progressed Venus would move about the same distance as the Sun so the only one of the big three that would have a significantly different place between the two methods is Mars.

My first article on Secondary Progressions featured Joe Biden and his first marriage that ended in tragedy with the loss of his wife and baby daughter in a car crash.

His wedding was indicated by his Progressed Mars being conjunct his Sun and the crash was shown by that Progressed Mars being conjunct his Ascendant and opposite his 7th house Uranus.

The solar arc chart for the wedding shows nothing at all and the only feature for the accident shows the Moon applying to a conjunction with that natal Uranus.

Even the most ardent Solar Orc would have difficulty claiming that would trump the progressed Mars aspect.

I wondered about a suitable subject to test for Solar Arc and the name occurred instantly.

Joan of Arc was a French peasant girl who ” Inspired by her visions and voices, she led the French armies to momentous victory, marking a turning point of the Hundred Year’s War. Her victory at Orleans in 1429 opened the way for the coronation of Charles VII at Reims. Joan said that she heard the voices of St. Michael, St. Catherine and St. Margaret, who divinely inspired and instructed her.

During a later siege, Joan was unhorsed and when she could not remount, was captured by the Burgundians. As Charles was working toward a truce with the Duke of Burgundy, he made no attempt to save her. Joan was tried as a heretic ” and was burned at the stake.

The only problem was which Joan because the Astrodatabank has three of them with a DD for Dirty Data

The opposition between Mercury and Neptune in the 12th could cover the visions and the Moon / Jupiter conjunction in the 4th could be the heroine status in France.

But as this article is about Secondary Progressions I propose to try and use that method to work out which chart is the true Joan of Arc.

The one thing we know for sure is that on June 18th 1428 she had a great victory over the English and less than 3 years later she was burned at the stake. 

This chart would suggest this all occurred when Joan was between the ages of 16 and 19.

We would naturally expect powerful progressions during this period.

Her Progressed Sun was trine Jupiter from 1428 to 1430. This is as good as it gets.

Her Progressed Venus was conjunct Uranus and quincunx Mars from 1427 to 1429.

Naturally the Solar Arc Sun / Jupiter aspect would have the same timing but the Venus one occurred the year after her death.

An alternative chart for Joan makes her 4 years older

It could be said that Joan’s life was more Sun Scorpio, Moon conjunct Saturn in Pisces, Pluto rising than Sun Capricorn, Moon conjunct Jupiter in Libra, Leo rising.

A Mars / Neptune conjunction in the 1st square to the Moon / Saturn would also fit well and Venus / Uranus conjunction in the 8th house would explain her death better than the North Node would.

However this chart has no significant progressions at all for the period so it’s safe to discount it purely on that basis. 

This chart with a T Square involving the Sun exactly opposite Mars right on the Ascendant focusing onto an apex Saturn in Aries has a very strong claim as warrior woman burnt at the stake.

The Moon conjunct Mercury and Uranus in Aquarius in the 7th opposite Jupiter in Leo in the 1st could account for her visions and her triumphs.

But for me the exact ( to the minute ) Venus in Sagittarius opposite Pluto sums up so much of the symbolism of Joan’s life.

Again we would expect her progressions for the period to pick out the major themes in her chart powerfully. They certainly don’t disapppoint

Joan 3’s Progressed Sun was trine her Pluto and sextile her Venus. It was exact on the day of her victory against the English.

Her progressed Mercury was conjunct her Sun and opposite her Mars between 1427 and 1429.

Her progressed Venus was quincunx Jupiter and semi sextile her Moon in 1430 to 31 when she died.

Given that the Progressed Sun moves very slowly ( approximately one degree per year ) I feel that it is fair to consider its minor aspects, although I’d be reluctant to extend this favour to other planets.

This seems particularly appropriate for someone who died young like Joan because the number of aspects of any kind that it could make in her lifetime would be extremely limited.

So maybe the progressed Sun’s semi square to the Midheaven exact for her death in June 1431 could be a consideration.

The Solar Arc Sun progressions would always be the same, but her Mercury and Venus progressions would be missed out.

However Solar Arc Mars would be matching that of the Sun by being trine Venus and sextile Pluto.

Another important factor to take into account is that transit Saturn was conjunct her Sun and opposite her Mars / Ascendant when she was burnt at the stake.

My feeling that this is the right chart for our Joanie is backed up by these progressions.

Solar Arcs do not add anything to our understanding of her short life, which given their massive statistical advantage is in itself interesting.

I would naturally require far more evidence to ditch the whole theory than that and will return to this topic in future articles.

However I believe there is enough evidence here and with Joe Biden to indicate that they are not necessary and that simple Sun, Venus and Mars progressions are all we need for our understanding.

But so far I have ignored the most powerful progressions of Joan of Arc’s life. 

These articles are supposed to be about soulmates and when you meet them.

The 7th house in a chart is likely to provide the strongest clues to these beings making an appearance.

Joan of Arc was too young, too busy thrashing the English and too dead to have any meaningful relationships in this world.

Charles 7th claimed to be her mate as he had Mercury at 14 Aquarius right on hers. 

But he was only interested in her Mercury opposition Jupiter in Leo aspect and once he was crowned he threw her under a Burgundian bus. 

This was because he had Mercury conjunct Saturn which at 7 Aquarius was exactly on Joan’s Moon. 

Joan of Arc might have had no friends down here on earth but she had three from the other side.

The archangel Michael would probably be Jupiter in Leo, Saint Catherine and Margaret would be the Moon and Mercury.

Joan of Arc only lived to be 21 years of age.

This meant that her progressed Sun could only travel from its natal degree of 25 Capricorn to 16 Aquarius.

It’s obvious looking at the chart that the Sun’s conjunction with the Moon and Mercury and opposition to Jupiter would be by far the most powerful of her short life.

This occurred between 1423 to 1425, right at the time she started to hear her voices and have her visions.

So that’s Joanie Three Mates to you.

Posted on 22nd May 2023

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