From time to time it is a useful and important exercise to reexamine the premises upon which astrological judgement is based (other areas of life and study are not excluded!). Traditional astrologers are traditionally (although the use of the concept ‘traditional astrologer’ is fairly recent) reticent to use the outer planets. This is understandable as there are no rulerships or dignities that can be ascribed to them.
I have recently been thinking of the outer planets and their possible roles in organ transplantation, dementia and euthanasia. All three are issues of deep moral responsibility so please do not be offended if I do not represent your view on these matters. It is not my intention to discuss in detail all aspects of the relevant discussion I will only try to characterize them.
Dementia and euthanasia are not new to mankind, the transplantation of organs from the ‘brain-dead’ or newly dead is however very modern. The question is, can the outer planets be used in their signification? And which ones?
Let us begin with dementia. In the industrial nations life expectancy can be extended beyond what traditionally is considered the full span of a human life. If we take the Firdaria as a base, this is 75 years. Anything beyond that is considered grace. But what if high old age is not a period of grace? What if it is attended by a deterioration of memory and independant conscious activity as in the case of dementia? Traditionally high old age belongs to Saturn but it doesn’t take very much to also find a signification using the planet Neptune, which in modern astrology has signification for fuzziness and indeterminate decrepitude. Reinhold Ebertin describes Saturn/Neptune in terms of biological signification as “chronic and inexorable dissolution and disintegration of the organs” (Das chronisch unaufhaltsame fortschreitende Übel. Organverfaulung. Organzersetzung).
The transplantation of organs from the dead or dying is not only a Mars activity, but as it involves the dead also belongs to Saturn. But could not Uranus, the ripping out of context and forcing of a new context (the immune system of the recipient must be convinced to accept something foreign), also be given signification? Or would Pluto also be given signification as something dead or dying is placed in a living organism? Here Reinhold Ebertin gives Saturn/Uranus a signification for operations in which something is removed from the body. An amputation for example. For Mars/Pluto he writes of the replacement of organs through a prosthesis.
The issue of euthanisia, as the personal and legally sanctioned choice of the terminally ill to end their life before the disease that is killing them has run full course, may also be considered a Saturn affair. But could Pluto, often given signification of death in modern astrological practice, also be considered in this light?
Of course there are a few fixed stars with unsavoury characterizations, see the recent discussion of Algol, that may also be considered.
It is still possible to use a combination of Saturn along with the Moon and Mercury for dementia, of Saturn and Mars for organ transplantation and Saturn and Mars along with the Sun and Ascendant and maybe Algol or Antares for Euthanisia.
Altair Astrology 