Astrology may appear to be complex, but it is actually very simple. And the further you go with it, the more obviously you see this fact.
Studying it is probably similar to any other subject. You begin by investigating as many aspects of it as possible, but in the end true knowledge is knowing what to leave out.
There is so much focus on the signs of the Zodiac that we forget that this is a man made division of the heavens. There are no clear lines splitting the sky into 12 equal parts.
And some astrological cultures have different perceptions about where each sign starts and finishes.
I was reading today that some “scientist” has challenged astrologers to take part in a “test” of their subject based on personality types.
Because of the essentially subjective nature of these kind of tests, they are always likely to fail or at least be inconclusive.
But this is because they are basically trying to test the wrong thing.
I spent 40 years trying to prove astrology using empirical methods. Most of these were targeted at Zodiac signs, although I was aware of the only serious piece of astrological research to actually prove an effect had nothing to do with signs at all.
Michel and Francoise Gauquelin were a couple of scientists who set out to disprove astrology with a large scale quantitative research project back in the 1950s.
What they actually discovered was that there was a link that proved it, but it wasn’t related to sign positions, it was related to the distribution of planets in certain areas of the chart.
This research has often been called the Mars Effect, because the headline piece was that famous sports people are more likely to have Mars in an area of the chart just above the Ascendant and just to the side of the Midheaven, areas roughly corresponding to the 12th and 9th houses respectively.
This effect was repeated with other planets that corresponded with different types of careers.
As always, this research attracted a lot of opposition and people doing their best to disprove it. Much of this was along the lines of “it cant be true so therefore it isn’t”.
You would expect this kind of thing from sceptics, but interestingly the Gauquelins attracted a lot of flak and negativity from within the astrology world.
Why? Because their findings did not fit the cosy assumptions that they themselves had made in the subject.
The 12th house has always been since as an area of weakness, of isolation, of removal and retreat from the general run of things.
So to be told that these sporting heroes were far more likely to have Mars there than anywhere else in the chart, was a challenge too far.
Eventually after decades of testing all kinds of techniques and methods, I decided that I had to cover similar ground to the Gauquelins. So I set out to do the largest piece of astrological research ever undertaken up to that point.
It took me 3 years, I first published my findings over a decade ago as absolute proof of an astrological effect – The Capricorn Research Project.
This research into the charts of over 20,000 famous people is that the Sun is far more likely to be in the 12th and 1st houses than anywhere else in the chart.
So if anyone wants to prove astrology, don’t bother with the signs, or even particular houses, just look at which area of the chart is being emphasised. And by area, I mean the top bit, the bottom bit, the left side and the right side.
Because this will tell you where the person’s main focus is.
If there’s a stellium around the top of the chart whether its 9th or 10th houses, the main focus is on career.
If its down the bottom (3rd/4th house), it will be home and family.
If its on the left (12th/1st) it will be their own immediate personal issues.
If it’s on the right (6th/7th) it will be the issues of the other/partner.
Even if it’s just the Sun occupying these areas (unless there’s a strong thrust in the chart that counters this), these will be the major themes.
It’s obvious if you think about it.
The Sun is all about individuality. When it rises it is at a starting point so there is a powerful drive to get something started, to become visible, to put our energy out there.
When it’s setting we are being asked to put something of our individuality to one side to lose our sense of individual self in a partnership.
When it’s at the top of the chart, we have to express ourself out there in society. Our focus is on the future and our achievements.
When its at the bottom, our focus is on our roots, our past and home and family.
This is the simplest essence of astrology. Anything else can add flavour and personality to these themes, but this is core stuff.
Another very simple layer of astrology is the planetary aspects.
Unlike signs and house systems, aspects are undeniable. There’s no dispute that there’s a Full Moon even if people argue about what sign or house it falls in.
And we have come to see that some aspects are difficult, of a challenging nature and others are easier.
The difficult ones, the oppositions and squares, occur in signs of different elements but the same quadruplicity.
The astrology books might say that an opposition aspect between planets in Aquarius and Leo creates a challenge because they are working in different elements (Air and Fire) but with the same entrenched Fixed quality.
But I feel it makes more sense to view these placements and the challenges that they represent through the houses.
Because if, for instance, you have a 10th house Sun opposite a 4th house Moon, you will want to focus on your career but will keep on having to face a family situation that places demands on your time and distracts you from it.
This will do much more to create that sense of challenge or conflict than whatever combination of signs are involved.
We depict the aspects in a chart by using coloured lines. And there’s never any question as to which colours are used.
Red for oppositions and squares just makes total sense, because it’s a colour of challenge, of action and even danger. It has connections with Mars and Fire.
These aspects insist on something having to happen, because the conflicting nature of being pulled in two different directions, forces something to be done about the situation.
Blue for trines and sextiles seems a much easier colour, the colour associated with Water suggests a fluidity, a natural quality, something that happens effortlessly on its own.
Certain aspect patterns will reinforce these ideas.
A T square is a combination of two planets opposite each other with a third square to each. This is depicted in a chart by a steep red mountain shape, with the 3rd planet at the apex.
This gives the idea of a hard slog up to the top, but also a herculean task that is unavoidable, you just have to climb it by the toughest route.
The Grand Trine, with three planets in trine each other is altogether easier, a blue triangle that just seems to emanate a natural ease and comfort.
There is no compulsion here, the slopes are not steep ones like the T square.
To continue the mountain analogy, while the red T square is the arduous trek to the summit, the trine is like skiing down a gentle blue run.
If two planets are in opposition, a third in trine to one and sextile to the other can help ease the natural tension between them.
In the above example, the challenge between the career requirements of a 10th house Sun and family demands of a 4th house Moon can be exacerbated by a red T square to a 7th house Mars because a combative relationship with the marriage partner will put further strain on the person. Their partner would not get on with their parents and would probably also resent the amount of time the native spends at work. In this way a T square can fan the flames of conflict, while also creating a situation that the native can’t ignore and demanding a resolution.
However if the Sun and Moon form a trine and sextile with Jupiter in the 2nd house, it’s likely that the financial gains from the person’s career will help a great deal to offset any issue that may exist with the family and could well ease the tensions between them.
Some people have both aspect patterns, a T Square and a Grand Trine. They could be said to be very challenged but also very fortunate.
One man who did was the French Emperor Napoleon. He famously said “I would rather have a general who was lucky than one who was good.”
Napoleon Bonaparte was both.
Most of the features discussed so far in this article appear in Napoleon’s chart.
He had the Sun at the top of the chart so the area of life that he would focus on strongly would be his career and getting to the top of it.
The fact that the Sun is in Leo gives extra power here, this placement in the 10th suggests someone who feels he is lord of all he surveys.
Mercury is also in Leo at the apex of a T square from the Scorpio Ascendant and the 7th house Uranus.
This makes Mercury a very important player in his chart. It is in the 9th house.
So Napoleon was a brilliant strategist and thinker who felt a compulsion to express this through travel. Since it was in Leo, this is not travel for curiosity or to learn other languages and communicate with people from different cultures.
This is travel in order to rule over them.
Napoleon’s Grand Trine sees Mars in Virgo favourably aspecting all three of the outer planets. So he had a grasp of military detail far in advance of anyone else, but also experienced a level of fortune in battle that seemed like a gift from the gods.
This enabled him to fairly quickly take control of the largest empire for over 500 years.
Until he came to the end of his blue run.
” On 7 September 1812, at Borodino, 120 km west of Moscow, Napoleon’s forces met those of General Mikhail Kutuzov in a concerted stand made by Russia against the seemingly invincible French Army. The Battle of Borodino saw casualties estimated as high as 100,000 and the French were masters of the field. It was, however, ultimately a pyrrhic victory for the French invasion.
With resources depleted and supply lines overextended, Napoleon’s weakened forces moved into Moscow, which they occupied with no delegation to receive the conquerors. Expecting a capitulation from Tsar Alexander I, the French instead found themselves in a barren and desolate city. To make things worse, 48 hours after Napoleon’s entry to the Russian city on 14 September 1812, three quarters of Moscow was burned to the ground.
Deprived of winter stores, Napoleon had to retreat. Beginning on 19 October and lasting well into December, the French Army faced several overwhelming obstacles on its long retreat: famine, typhus, freezing temperatures, harassing cossacks, and Russian forces barring the way out of the country. Abandoned by Napoleon in November, the Grande Armée was reduced to one-tenth of its original size by the time it reached Poland and relative safety.”
This would be the equivalent of skiing down a gentle blue run in the expectation of a mountain restaurant with beautiful views, only to find that it was closed and the cable cars weren’t operating, so having to trudge back up the mountain through deep snow.
Uranus and Neptune, two of the planets that form Napoleon’s lucky general Grand Trine had abandoned him.
In the Autumn of 1812, Uranus was at 22 Scorpio, in square to his Sun and Neptune was at 12 Sagittarius, square his Mars.
This was the turning point of Napoleon’s life. He had just reached the peak of his mountain, it was all downhill from there.
Within three years, this mighty empire spanning Europe and Asia, had been reduced to a tiny island in the Atlantic as Napoleon was exiled to St Helena in 1815.
Seventy years after Napoleon’s retreat from Moscow, the event was celebrated musically with the first performance of the 1812 Overture, composed by Piotr Tchaikovsky.
Tchaikovsky had his Sun right on the sweet spot for famous people, at the beginning of the 12th house.
With another T square he also had his mountain to climb but with an apex Neptune, his fame was for musical rather than military genius.
Interestingly Tchaikovsky’s T Square apex planet was opposite Napoleon’s.
If you have a pattern like this that has a slow mover at the apex, it will be very strongly triggered when that planet conjoins one of the base points of the T square.
The 1812 Overture was first performed in 1882, when transit Neptune was conjunct Tchaikovsky’s Sun.
The performance of 1812 was a massive turning point in Tchaikovsky’s life.
Neptune square to Napoleon’s Mars (having been conjunct it at birth) triggered the battle for and retreat from Moscow.
Neptune’s conjunction with Tchaikovsky’s Sun (having been square to it at birth) announced his celebration of that battle and retreat.
The end of Napoleon’s blue run, brought about Tchaikovsky reaching his red peak.
All of this just shows how much you can decipher from a couple of charts if you have a basic understanding of aspects and transits.
But even if we were going on signs alone, I’m sure at least 90% of astrologers asked could pick Tchaikovsky with Taurus Sun and Cancer Moon and Ascendant as the musician and Napoleon with Leo Sun, Capricorn Moon and Scorpio rising as the soldier.
This would be a simple as coasting down a blue run.
Posted on 4 Mar 2024
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