A Readers’ Question: Foodpoisoning?

Recently a reader of Altair Astrology approached me with a question that had puzzled him. As it is a health question, I must add a disclaimer that the presentation of this chart is for entertainment purposes only, and that I make no pretence of understanding medicine as it is practised today. With that said, let as look at the question and at the charts. There are two charts, as this person uses the whole sign house system for horary questions, should there be any discussion in that line. Both charts more or less show the same situation and I will concentrate on the 1st chart. I would like to remark that it puzzles me why anyone should exclusively use whole signs. Why limit oneself to only one tool when there are also others available?

He had been asked by someone who had been feeling sick in the last two or three days whether she could have had food-poisoning. At the time of the question she felt better. His question was whether there is an astrological connection between eating and any house or planet.

Let us look at the charts first:

Chart 1: Foodpoisoning?, Regiomontanus houses

Chart 2: Foodpoisoning, whole sign

Now one of the first things to look at in any health question is whether or not the person is healthy. This is shown by the condition of the Lord of the Ascendant. In this chart L1 is Saturn. Saturn a cold and dry sign is quite cosy in Virgo a cold and dry sign. So although peregrine in the 8th house of chart 1 (cadent in the 9th in chart 2). The querant is healthy and this is supported moreover by the North Node in the first house (both charts) and close to the ascendant. So the answer is no, it wasn’t food-poisoning, just a minor disturbance in the digestion. If we look at the Moon’s motion, we see that there was a recent contact with Mercury, Lord 6 (both charts). Now this was a sextile, and so one might think, “hey, isn’t a sextile a good aspect?” Well, yes it is, which means that all is not as bad as it seemed. The Moon however provides us not only the timing (recent focus on health) but also reveals something of the querant’s perception of the situation. The Moon is peregrine and in Saturn’s detriment, her antiscion is very close to Algol and she receives Saturn from the 8th house (in chart 2 she is in the 8th house and receives Saturn from the 9th), so the perception of the discomfort has a more grim quality. After all the querant could have asked, “what is wrong with me?” Instead she immediately asked about food-poisoning. If we look at the reception between L1 and L6 we see that there is very strong reception. Saturn is in Mercury’s domicile, exaltation and face. Mercury is in Saturn’s, exaltation, triplicity and term. So we see that querant has an unusual interest in her health and is likely to notice the slightest change to her well-being.

The answer for the querant is: No, it wasn’t food-poisoning, it was a passing condition and you are healthy. The rest may be told at the astrologer’s discretion.

Now what about the astrological connection between eating and any house or planet. Yes. The second house. What we eat is property that we ingest. (by the way kitchens also belong to the second house). But the question was about the feeling of unwellness and stomach or belly problems. So looking at what was ingested might just lead off into a tangent and complicate the answer. If we wish for more detail we might look up Wm. Lilly’s  planetary significations for parts of the body in each of the signs of the zodiac on p. 119 of CA. We discover that Moon, Mercury and Venus (dispositor of L6) are all in signs that point to the stomach or belly.

Ye Quizze før Øctøbyr

Declination. What is it?

1. Every schoolchild knows that it is the Dianthus caryophyllus, cultivated in the Mediterranean region for more than 2000 years and favoured by Vettius Valentine in his collection of blossoms. Although some say it was already cultivated in the hanging gardens of Babylon.

2. It is what any sensible planet does after it has encountered the equator. It is ‘cross and distances itself.

3. It is what occurs when one occupies a chaise longue after a long day at the charts.

4. The word has been misspelled. You mean D-E-C-L-I-M-A-T-I-O-N. Like in the declimation of interference.

5. Declination is part of a coordinate system that shows the position of an object with respect to the equator. Its companion coordinate is right ascension.

6. Declination is a form of inflection much used in hoary astrology, particularly in questions where number, gender, case and possession play a major role.

Let in the Rain…

One of the central interests of Astro-Meteorology, and probably  the oldest field of astrological interest, is which planetary configurations favour rain. The first level is knowing which planets are wet and which dry. The next level is how they interact with one another. The fluctuation between temperature and moisture and their planetary connection was noted by Johannes Kepler, though he was by far not the first, nor the last to discuss this. (We speak nowadays mostly of the interaction of cold and warm fronts, although usually no planetary connection is taken into consideration.) The third level is of course how planetary configurations effect local conditions. This is important as any single planetary configuration applies to all of the earth. Methods of localization need to be taken into consideration here.

Of the traditional planets, along with the Moon, Venus is considered to be the wettest. Saturn also plays a role because of his crystallizing tendencies. He causes moisture to condense. In modern Astro-Meteorology Neptune is also considered to be a very ‘wet’ planet, though interestingly enough after his discovery Astro-Meteorologists first explored the possibility of his being warm, dry and stormy. They did however add that such “…predictions must be to some extent speculative.” (Alfred Pearce’s discussion of Neptune around 1863). More recently George McCormack wrote of Neptune being, “the most pluvial of all the celestial bodies.”

There are of course many configurations between wet and dry planets. Let us choose one. Venus in configuration with either Mars or the Sun. I’ll note it as:
Venus : Mars/Sun,
where the configuration, “:” can be an aspect by longitude or declination.

Take a peek into your ephemeris and look for the next significant configuration between Venus to either Mars or the Sun. You will find it on the 13th of October, 2009. Venus sextiles Mars on this day, and not only that she has just previously, in the same degree, also conjuncted Saturn. This is an intensive conjunction as she is also at the same declination of Saturn and is therefore parallel. Let us note it thus:
Venus : Mars + Venus :: Saturn
we can expect this aspect to be very pluvial. But that doesn’t mean everywhere. There we need to place it into the locality. This is best done by casting a chart for the location when this aspect is exact. From my previous discussion on expecting more from aspects we may also take the standpoint that the effectiveness of this aspect is not only on the day it takes place but already begins one to two days before (application) and will last for two days afterwards (separation). So we are looking at the period from the 11th of October to the 15th.

I will be looking at three charts for my location. These are the previous lunar phase (Last Quarter on the 11th of October), the partile Venus/Mars sextile and the preceding partile Venus/Saturn conjunction and parallel within 29 seconds of arc. You might want to cast these three charts for your location (I am using GMT so you can take the GMT time for your location) and then observe what the weather conditions were in this period. It would certainly be very interesting if these observations were to be posted as a comment here when the time comes.

Last Quarter Moon:

Last Quarter Moon, Oct. 11, 2009 8:55 am GMT

Important for location are the 4th house and Ascendant, respectively. The Moon/Sun square is not predominant in this chart. The Lords of both the 4th and 1st house are also not prominently placed. Uranus is in the 4th house and Venus, Saturn and Mercury occupy the 10th house, with Venus and Saturn being in the same sign as the MC and Mercury in the following sign.

Venus/Saturn conjunction:

Venus/Saturn Conjunction, Oct. 13, 2009 10:51 GMT

In this chart the 4th house is immediately brought into focus by the trine of the Moon at 17 Leo 37. Also Lord 4 is Mars, who is already in sextile to the Venus/Saturn conjunction. Jupiter, Lord 1 is also exactly in sextile with the IC. So we can definitely speak of an activation of the locality.

Venus/Mars sextile:

Venus/Mars Sextile, Oct. 13, 2009 5:50 GMT

Here the Mars/IC conjunction is immediately noticed. This particular aspect is focused on the locality, that is for sure!

Now what does it all mean? The Venus : Mars configuration occurs when Mars is focused on a locality with a cold and moist sign on the IC. So cold rainy and slightly stormy weather should be expected.

I’ll keep you posted around the 15th of October and then we can look at the charts with hindsight!

Expect more from Aspects

Grammar is for the most part considered a dry, dusty and sleep inducing discipline. It is hard to understand why the ancients, especially the Greek, held it in such high regard. In the following article I would like to explore this with regard to astrology.

Modern languages generally have a linear system of time forms. An event occurs either in the past, present or the future. The focus is when an event occurs. But there are languages, usually ancient, where this is different. A notable example is ancient Greek (including the Greek spoken in the Hellenistic period). The ancient Greek was more interested in how an event occurs. In fact the whole language is structured around this. The focus was on viewpoint. Linguists speak of aspect. For example is an event viewed as being continuous or does it repeat itself? Or are we interested in the beginning of an event or it’s end? Or is the whole event from beginning to end all rolled up into one what interests us? Are we part of the event? The Greek language was so structured that a simple change to a verb ending or the addition of a suffix could simply and effectively express this.

Such grammatical considerations can open up a whole new understanding about the nature of planetary aspects, which essentially function in the same way as the verbal aspect of the ancient Greek language. The modern astrologer generally treats aspects in a linear fashion, hence the enormous interest in transits. Lists of when aspects occur provide a base for prediction. But if we want to expand our understanding and perhaps also understand how the ancients understood aspects – why did they make a distinction between sinister and dexter aspects? – then we must ask how they occur. This means an aspect can only be looked at with respect to each individual planet. Seen in this way a trine between Mercury in Aries and Jupiter in Leo is qualitatively different from one made by Jupiter in Aries and Mercury in Leo (disregarding a consideration of the dignities). We can also ask if an aspect is repeating, which is often the case between planets going into and out of retrogradation. (Grand Conjunctions between Jupiter and Saturn have a repeating character, they are multiple, and must be seen not only singly but as a whole.) Or we can ask when an aspect begins, application; becomes exact, perfection; or ends, separation. Or we might wish to look at the aspect as a whole – application, perfection and separation all rolled up into one. As you can see we arrive at a qualitatively richer and deeper understanding of what planetary interaction is. A trine is not just a trine. If we only look at it as an angle of 120 degrees between two planets taking place at such and such a time and nothing more, most of what is really happening escapes us! This also gives us some insight into how astrology works – please excuse the jump! It is of course essential to understand what is happening astronomically but astrology attempts to understand how these configurations manifest and their qualities.

PS Stay tuned to Caroline Allen’s website as she will soon be posting an excellent article on “How Astrology can Predict the future Weather”.

Weather: the Big Three

There are three factors that determine the weather, each in its own way and each in combination with the other. These are warmth, moisture and the movement of the atmosphere, wind. In Astro-meteorology each has a ruler. These are the Sun for warmth, the Moon for moisture and Mercury for wind. Each shows both a general weather pattern and in a particular weather chart can also provide specific information.

True to mundane astrological practice the charts that show a general weather pattern are either ingress charts (for the Sun and Mercury) or Lunar phase charts. So the general pattern of warmth is shown by the ingress of the Sun into Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn; the solstice and equinox points. The general moisture pattern can be read from the Lunar Phase, most importantly the New and Full Moon. The general wind pattern can be read from the ingress of Mercury into a sign. This is generally monthly.

Let us look at some charts:

Solar Ingress into Cancer, 2009

Here is the Solar Ingress into Cancer on the 21st of June for my location (Bavaria, Germany). Unlike a natal chart, the most important house in a weather chart is not the Ascendant (the Ascendant has only secondary importance) but the 4th house. This is the location, the place where the weather will be happening. So, what information does the 4th house give us? Libra, a warm and moist sign is on the cusp. This promises some warmth for the summer season, but also moisture. But there are modifying factors. The first being the condition of the Ruler, in this chart Venus, and the second any direct aspects to the cusp, in this chart, the trine from the Moon/Mercury conjunction. Cool Venus in domicile in Taurus, a cold and dry sign in conjunction to warm Mars in detriment in cold and dry Taurus promises a cooler summer. Venus generally enhances any moisture and the conjunction with Mars suggests the collision of a warm and cold fronts, which in the summer season usually generate thunderstorms.  The Moon/Mercury conjunction promises plenty of moisture and wind so the general forecast will include plenty thunderstorms and more then enough wind and rain. The general warmth pattern is constant alternation between warm and cool. It might also be noted that the 12th house position of the Sun also hinders a full development of its nature.  No BBQ summer for Bavaria!

Now let us look at the moisture pattern for the end of June. Here we use the New Moon chart, which also is a solar eclipse chart:

New Moon 22nd July 2009 (solar eclipse)

Here cold and dry Virgo is on the IC. Cold Saturn is conjunct the IC. Mercury, L4 is in warm and dry Leo separating from a sextile to Mars. Venus in warm and moist Gemini squares the IC. The Moon eclipses the Sun at the very end of cold and moist Cancer. Also to be noted is how Mercury L4 picks up on or reactivates (by sextile) the Mercury/Moon conjunction of the Ingress chart. So what does this tell us about the moisture situation? At first glance we might be inclined to say dry. But there are important factors against this. First the Moon is in her own sign, and Cancer is wet. Secondly Venus square Saturn on the IC tends to condense any available moisture. Low and dark clouds pregnant with moisture and the winds to carry them! Particularly through the reactivation of the Ingress Moon/Mercury conjunction. Mercury L4 in hot Leo, enhances summer thunderstorm activity. So the amount of moisture to be expected is above average.

And what about the wind situation?

Mercury Ingress, July 18, 2009

And what is the situation in the 4th house? Though not L4, Mercury is in the 4th house but not in the same sign (please note, my software absolutely insists on placing the ingress at 29 Cancer 59!). So the wind potential is somewhat lessened. The Sun in the 4th house in Cancer and Moon L4 in Taurus in the 1st house favour winds carrying low-lying moisture laden clouds.

During this period in July it was generally rainy, with some very hot days, quickly followed by thunderstorms. Generally, for July it was very cool with average temperatures of around 18* C only a few days had temperatures above 25*C.

Dear reader, of course it is justified to say that I am writing out of hindsight. If you want to read a weather forecast for the season for Devonshire, using the method demonstrated above, please visit Caroline Allen’s site. She has written an excellent weather forecast for her location and she has been more accurate so far than the British Met who predicted a BBQ Summer! Here is the link.