I was brought up in a Christian family and was required to attend church twice on Sundays. 

It was C of E, not one of those exotic ones. Much more of a cake cult than a death one.

I went along with it but then dropped it when I was 14 like any normal person. 

I obviously didn’t realise it at the time but I was actually following God’s plan which specifically states that with your Progressed Moon half return it is your cosmic job to overthrow your family conditioning, and with your transit Saturn half return you should do the same for any form of traditional authority.

But as a triple Capricorn ultra serious young man, this was not the typical teenage rebellion just for the sake of it.

I was quite happy to follow rules and behaviour guidelines as long as they worked. 

I felt I’d given Christianity a fair crack and tried very hard to make it work but an honest assessment was that it hadn’t done me any good at all.

I felt no gain in terms of well being or self knowledge it just seemed to succeed in making me feel even more inadequate.

So from a purely pragmatic perspective it had to go. 

I was aided in my resolve by watching the Monty Python team remorselessly take the piss out of everything that my local church stood for. 

I didn’t realise that my decision was an early sign of a significant philosophical viewpoint. 

I did, however, know all the lyrics of the Four Bruce’s Philosopher’s Song by heart so if asked I could have definitely told you that ” David Hume could out consume Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel “.

By the time my Progressed Moon reached three quarter stage, I found myself at University studying the subject. So for a year I was bored half to death by the academic dryness of philosophy before I discovered the true meaning of life through astrology and instantly jacked it all in to start learning something useful for once in my life.

During that year I did manage to come to grips with the difference between empiricists and rationalists and how to spot which was which.

In simple terms, empiricists would say that we acquire knowledge only, or at least primarily through our own experience and observation.

Rationalists believe we do that mainly through the use of reason or logic.

I am always intrigued when people try to define what astrology is. Some bright spark would ask ” Is astrology an art or a science ? ” or ” Is it a logical or intuitive discipline ? ” and there would be a stampede to choose their own favourite and argue endlessly on astrotwitter in favour of it.

In doing this the proponent comes over as an expert, who is in total command of the true astrology, which is a pretty neat trick considering they never actually post anything at all about the subject other than the vaguest general gossip about Sun signs.

Any attempt to define astrology is absurd. It is and contains everything, art and science, logic and intuition, day and night, summer and winter, up and down. Thats the point of it.

However individual astrologers are likely to be more of one shade than another. 

There’s the Pisces type who goes primarily by feel and can shift into using tarot or tea leaves to aid their insights with no obvious change of gear. Or the Virgo stellium with an advanced software package that can instantly tell you the anti scion of your Mercury / Vesta midpoint.

I am definitely on the empiricist wing in astrology, particularly when I’m perusing my wife’s twitter ( I have a lifetime ban for the outrageous crime of being mean to a sceptic ) and shouting ” prove it with some actual examples ffs “.

I’ve always known that my requirement for evidence based proof of astrological theory is unusual in our discipline. And I’ve always put that down to my Sun, Moon and Ascendant in pragmatic, empirical Capricorn.

But it’s only just occurred to me now, 50 years after first learning about them that it might be interesting to look at the placements of the founders of Empiricism in philosophical thought.

David Hume is ” known especially for his philosophical empiricism and skepticism. He was one of the most important figures in the history of Western philosophy and the Scottish Enlightenment. “

Please forgive me for suggesting that ” Scottish Enlightenment ” might be what happens after you’ve sunk several pints of heavy, but at least I can now understand how David Hume could out consume that lager drinker Hegel.

With a Grand Trine between Neptune in Taurus, Jupiter in Capricorn and Uranus / Pluto in late Leo, I’m sure Hume would win any ” enlightenment ” contest even beating Python’s Bruces with their Fosters.

It is not surprising that Hume has that ” I won’t believe it unless I can butt it with my horns ” Moon in Capricorn.

That Moon is opposite Saturn as well as being in trine to a Taurus Sun and Mercury, so Hume would have been a right pain in the arse on social media.

And with Mercury in Taurus square to that Mars / Uranus / Pluto in Leo he would probably have been the most aggressive empiricist twitter troll of all time.

One of the first Empiricists, and an inspiration for David Hume, John Locke managed to escape the Philosopher’s Song. 

Maybe the best they could come with was ” There’s Johnny Locke who invented the soc ( ial contract ) but a couple of sherbets would send him half cock ” and left it on the edit room floor.  

Locke’s empiricism is found in the Virgo stellium.

Like Hume, he had Mercury in an Earth sign aspecting Uranus and Pluto, with Jupiter and Saturn thrown in for good measure.

Empiricism states that all knowledge comes from experience. You could simplify that by saying “ I am therefore I think “

Rene Descartes was the leading thinker in the rationalist movement. This places reason and logic first, so his motto was the opposite – “ I think therefore I am “ or as the Bruces would say “ I drink therefore I am “.

The philosopher’s song had Descartes down as “ a drunken fart “

If so with a 5 planet stellium in Aries we should just be glad he never set light to one.

Descartes effectively had 7 planets in the 3rd house of logic so a very different kettle of fish from Locke and Hume.

But just like his empiricist opponents he has a Jupiter / Uranus / Pluto aspect with all three in close conjunction.

At 11 degrees Mercury is a bit wide to include in this pattern but the fact that it all occurs in the 3rd house seems to place Descartes firmly in with the other two.

Another leading rationalist philosopher also managed to avoid the Python treatment.

Baruch Spinoza has a Sagittarius stellium with Aries rising, so maybe we are seeing rationalist Fire as opposed to Empiricist Earth.

Spinoza still has the Jupiter, Pluto, Uranus pattern with the first two in conjunction and trine the last one. Mercury also opposes the Jupiter / Pluto.

Interestingly both rationalists have birth times available whereas the empiricists do not. I’m not sure whether we can conclude anything from such a small sample but it is rather annoying that most of the drinkers in the Philosopher’s Song do not have accurate birth times.

I do have some research on the philosophers that do however and will quote from my article.

” Capricorn Research has a collection of 127 Philosophers and the results for this group make very interesting reading.  In the charts of philosophers we would expect Mercury to be the most relevant planet and this is confirmed by the fact that Mercury is conjunct the 7th house cusp at 230% of the expected figure.

The Sun is conjunct the 7th cusp at 156%, but there are strong scores for Mars at 177% and each of the three outer planets. Uranus scores 190%, Neptune 180% and Pluto 172%.

It appears that there is something about the 7th house cusp that concerns itself with consciousness of ourselves in relation to others and to the world.

The 1st house cusp or Ascendant is also concerned with consciousness but people with planets there are far more interested in asserting themselves and energetically getting on with the business of living.  

People with planets conjunct the 7th house cusp seem more able to stop and take stock of things and to analyse and think about the way people are. It seems that the 7th house cusp is a philosophical position. “

Given that the same thing applies to 206 Psychologists we may have stumbled on something here. For more details see – The Seventh House Cusp – A Philosophical Position.

I also have a collection of 338 Alcoholics. A quote from this article –

” In conjunction with the Ascendant, Jupiter occurs at 180% of the expected figure for alcoholics.

These are exceptionally high scores and maybe are enough to explain Jupiter’s connection with excess.

The Ascendant has a strong association with the physical body and its interesting that the habits of both groups have an obviously negative impact on the bodies of the people concerned.

The Ascendant is also related to how a person appears to others and how they express themselves and a inclination to excessive consumption of drugs or alcohol would obviously have an impact there. “

For more on this see Jupiter – How Much Is Too Much ?

Perhaps the notion that the Descendant is the philosopher’s area and the Ascendant belongs to alcoholics, maybe the Four Bruces exaggerated the drinking theme for comic effect.

Given our shortage of birth times its impossible to prove so we should just take it on trust.

I think its fair to assume that

” Immanuel Kant was a real piss ant who was very rarely stable “. No doubt down to his close Sun / Uranus opposition.

As this opposition focused on an apex Jupiter T Square we could include Kant in our pattern although Mercury and Pluto didn’t make it this time.

Kant ” argued that drinking to excess makes human beings little better than animals “.

This may or may not be the same ” Immanuel Kant who in his younger days was known to drink so much he couldn’t find his way home “

“ Heidegger, Heidegger was a boozy beggar who could think you under the table “ 

This was no doubt due to a close trine between his Sun and a Neptune / Pluto conjunction in Gemini on the Descendant which has the impression of wanting to take on all comers.

“ Wittgenstein was a beery swine “ Moon in Pisces sextile Neptune but with a Taurus stellium /Scorpio rising constitution.

“ who was just as sloshed as Schlegel “ – Sun Pisces opposite Neptune

“ There’s nothing Nietzsche couldn’t teach ya ’bout the raising of the wrist “ 

I’m not sure about this one but feel it has something to do with having Mars in Virgo in the 10th in close opposition to Jupiter in Pisces.

Nietzsche did have the ” Philsopher’s Stone ” pattern. He had Jupiter conjunct Uranus in opposition to Mercury.

Pluto isn’t directly involved but he did have it exactly opposite his Sun.

John Stuart Mill “ of his own free will, on half a pint of shandy was particularly ill.”

Well with the Sun exactly opposite Neptune and a lightweight Gemini Moon he probably would be. 

” Plato they say, could stick it away, half a crate of whiskey every day.”

Plato’s birthdate is unknown but I’ve seen three different charts for him with the Sun in each of the Water signs – so he obviously drank to excess.

” Aristotle, Aristotle was a bugger for the bottle ” – the same applies as Plato but Scorpio has been put forward for him.

” Hobbes was fond of a dram ” – anyone with the Sun in Aries square to Neptune would be

” Yes, Socrates himself is particularly missed. A lovely little thinker, but a bugger when he’s pissed “

Which apparently didn’t happen very often 

” Socrates managed to somehow get the best of both worlds. He was the most sober of drunks, who could drink everybody under the table, without ever showing signs of loss of control. “

But Socrates had a Sun Jupiter conjunction in Taurus opposite Pluto so you wouldn’t stand a chance in a drinking contest with him.

And as this opposition formed a T Square with an apex Uranus you could perhaps say that he was the one who started this pattern.

These Philosopher Mercury / Jupiter / Uranus / Pluto aspects are interesting.

I have an exact Jupiter / Uranus conjunction right on the 7th cusp as part of a pattern that includes my Ascendant and Pluto so you could say I’m a bit of a philosopher myself.

If so my triple Capricorn puts me firmly in the Empiricist camp.

But just like my 14 year old self wasn’t interested in listening to endless praising of Gods good grace.

Like any true Capricorn I was only interested in getting some of it for myself. 

And when it seemed clear that the C of E methods weren’t going to get it for me, I abandoned that religion and eventually found astrology and Buddhist style meditation.

These two obviously do work.

For someone who uses a lot of them, I’m not much interested in words. I’m looking for real lived experience that you can feel right through to your goaty hooves. 

For 40 years I never spoke or wrote publicly about astrology.

Before I did I wanted to make sure what I was going to say was totally, utterly irrefutable.

So I spent those years researching it all thoroughly.

This is why I can write on the subject with so much assured authority now. 

Everything I say on astrology is not mere opinion. It has been tested to death. 

There’s definitely a part of me that misses the arguments that I used to get into on astrotwitter but I also recognise that it’s largely an ego thing and ultimately a waste of my energy. 

When it comes down to it, you should take whatever astrological path your chart indicates for you.

The rationalists might argue that knowledge comes purely from an understanding of first causes and so the way to convince people is to keep on bringing the truth down from those philosophical mountains on stone tablets .

For me the simplest way to unlock astrology for the masses is to totally flood the market with unarguable empirical evidence and leave the philosophising to the Bruces of the University of Woolamaloo. 

Posted on 24th March 2023

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