Saturday, December 14, 2013

How have Rulerships shifted since the Discovery of the Outer Planets?


©2013 J. Lee Lehman, PhD



In my book, EssentialDignities, I addressed the question of how the three trans-Saturnian planets were assigned rulerships, which is really an indirect answer to the question, how are rulerships assigned? Specifically, I performed an experiment: I compared the Medieval al-Biruni's rulerships to those of the modern work by Rex Bills. I looked for all those cases where Bills gave a rulership to Uranus, Neptune, or Pluto, and the same concept could be found in al-Biruni. By seeing which traditional planet rulership was assigned to which outer planet, we are actually mapping attitudes about the nature of those outer planets. This was specifically set up to address the modern belief that the three outer planets are the higher octave of Mercury (Uranus), Venus (Neptune), and Mars (Pluto). The results are shown in Table 1.

Planet
Uranus
Neptune
Pluto
Sun
4
1
1
Moon
0
5
1
Mercury
1
2
1
Venus
1
4
4
Mars
4
0
5
Jupiter
2
0
2
Saturn
2
7
6

Table 1. Attributions in al-Biruni which are ruled by Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto in Bills.1

The results for Neptune and Pluto show a strong conversion of Saturn words, which suggests the obvious idea that these two outer planets are malefics that have taken over some of the Greater Malefic's traditional words. Uranus is more complex, but the dominance in the transfer of Sun and Mars words does suggest that Uranus is hot and dry in nature. In Neptune's case, the large number of Moon and Venus words might suggest wet, while the Moon and Saturn words would give cold. Pluto is more complicated: Venus and Mars are polar opposites in qualities as well as signs, suggesting that perhaps Pluto's qualities are more situational than intrinsic,

When I ask astrology audiences to classify the outer planets by quality, the results are consistent with what we have just seen. Uranus is easily classified as hot and dry (increasing the energy of a system, but tending to break things apart), while Neptune is easily classified cold and wet (decreasing the energy of a system, but intensifying the connections). Pluto is always troubling for people to classify, and there is seldom agreement.

This little demonstration suggests a use of the qualities of the planets as being an important component of their rulerships. I know that the higher octave theory is very appealing aesthetically: it's just that this study indicates that the higher octave theory truly is more theory than practice.
_______

1Citation: Lehman, J. Lee. Essential Dignities. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Press, 1989, p. 107.
Sources for table:
al-Biruni, Muhammad ibn Ahmad, and Robert Ramsay Wright. The Book of Instruction in the Elements of the Art of Astrology. London,: Luzac & Co., 1934.
Bills, Rex E. The Rulership Book; a Directory of Astrological Correspondences. Richmond,: Macoy Pub. & Masonic Supply Co., 1971.

Thursday, October 17, 2013

US Government Shutdowns: What Works?

Copyright 2013 J. Lee Lehman

In my last post, I discussed a common model for timing the general length of events astrologically, by looking at the quadruplicity of the Ascendant. This idea is used in mundane astrology, for example, in timing whether an Aries Ingress in a particular location will last 3 months, 6 months, or an entire year.* In examining the history of government shutdowns, this method does not appear to apply.

I had presented a table showing the dates of all prior government shutdowns. I had also mentioned that we should be aware of an important demarcation between the pre-1980 shutdowns and the later ones: the earlier ones had few consequences, because very little in the government shut down.

What changes was a decision that a shutdown is, well, a shutdown, and so the later one resulted in an actual change in government-as-usual. Thus, it is a long shutdown after 1980 that has potential political consequences, whereas the earlier ones were seen as merely technicalities.

Here, I examine a different situation. As has been repeated many times in the last few weeks, it is Congress, not the President, which is responsible for a shutdown, because it is Congress that must pass a budget. In a mundane chart, the legislative body is the 11th house, so it seems appropriate to consider factors relating to the 11th house. There are presented in the following table, where I have distinguished the petty from the more serious shutdowns by placing the data in blue and red.



Date
Length in Days
Angular malefics
11th House sign
Cond Ruler 11th
In 11th
House 11th Ruler
1 Oct 1976
10
Ma, Pl
Ari
Detr
Ju, SN
4th
1 Oct 1977
12
Ma, Pl, SN
Ari
Fall
Mo
1st
1 Nov 1977
8
Ur, Sa
Gem
Pere
Mo, Ju
4th
1 Dec 1977
8
Ne
Can
Pere
Mo, Ma
11th
1 Oct 1978
18
SN, Pl
Ari
Ruler
5th
1 Oct 1979
11
Sa
Ari
Pere
2nd
21 Nov 1981
2
Ur, Ne
Can
Trip
NN
2nd
1 Oct 1982
1
Sa, Pl, SN
Ari
Per
6th
18 Dec 1982
3
Ne, SN
Leo
Trip
PF
4th
11 Nov 1983
3
Ur, SN, Ne
Gem
Term
4th
1 Oct 1984
2
--
Ari
Term
NN
6th
4 Oct 1984
1
--
Tau
Det/Trip
NN
5th
17 Oct 1986
1
Sn, Pl, Ma
Tau
Det/Trip/Ret
5th
19 Dec 1987
1
Ur, Ne, SN
Leo
Trip
4th
6 Oct 1990
3
Sa, Ne
Tau
Ruler
Mo
4th
14 Nov 1995
5
Ma, Sa
Can
Pere
4th
6 Dec 1996
21
Ma, Sa, SN
Can
Pere
2nd
1 Oct 2013
16
Ur, Pl
Ari
Face
SN
2nd

The two really serious government shutdowns are the last two: the 1996 and the 2013. Although they have different 11th house rulers, they share two features: a weak 11th house ruler which was posited in the 2nd house for the beginning of the shutdown.

This is actually interesting. There have been four shutdowns in which the ruler of the 11th was in the 2nd, and three of those four were long shutdowns. That's interesting by itself.

But the weak quality of the 11th house ruler is also interesting. The absence of essential dignity may be described as vacillating, or engaged in what we might call a random walk if it's peregrine, as it was for both of the shutdowns of 1995-1996. But the shutdown this time has dignity by Face, the weakest of the essential dignities. In my book, Essential Dignities, I discuss how Face often seems correlated with a serious of negative states, like anxiety and Fear. The process is being driven by negative emotion, rather than actual progressive ideals. It was certainly interesting that the resolution of the crisis did not occur until Mars had moved out of Face and into Virgo, a sign where it has Triplicity.

While it would be helpful to have more data points, there is at least a suggestion of an idea for what characterized this shutdown. But personally, I'd rather avoid any more examples very soon!



--
* For further information on this use of the quadruplicity with these charts, see my book, Astrology of Sustainability.

Friday, October 11, 2013

Beginning A Model for Predicting the Length of Government Shutdowns

Copyright 2013 J. Lee Lehman

In most of the discussions of the current government shutdown, if prior shutdowns have been mentioned at all, the it was the one presided over by then-Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich during the Clinton Administration in 1996. Actually, there have been a whole series of them. I wanted to create a table to show something about their astrology.

The reason for the particular columns is simple: there's a lot of precedence in astrology for using a predominance of cardinal meaning fast, a predominance of mutable meaning average, and a predominance of fixed being slow. Unfortunately, this table suggests that we will have to go further with our analysis.


Table One. US government shutdowns. All occur at midnight. Source: http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/a-brief-history-of-federal-government-shutdowns/. Note: source gave dates as midnight of the next day, while these have been converted to the notation as it would be put in an astrology computer program. For example, the source would give 30 September for a shutdown commencing at the midnight beginning 1 October, as in the current case



Date
Length in Days
Moon sign
Asc sign
Ruler Asc sign
Fortuna
PH Ruler sign
1 Oct 1976
10
Cap
Can
Cap
Ari
Sco
1 Oct 1977
12
Tau
Can
Tau
Sco
Leo
1 Nov 1977
8
Can
Leo
Sco
Sag
Sco
1 Dec 1977
8
Leo
Vir
Sag
Cap
Leo
1 Oct 1978
18
Vir
Can
Vir
Can
Lib
1 Oct 1979
11
Aqu
Can
Aqu
Pis
Aqu
21 Nov 1981
2
Vir
Vir
Sco
Sco
Lib
1 Oct 1982
1
Pis
Can
Pis
Aqu
Vir
18 Dec 1982
3
Cap
Vir
Cap
Leo
Sco
11 Nov 1983
3
Aqu
Leo
Sco
Gem
Sco
1 Oct 1984
2
Sag
Can
Sag
Ari
Sag
4 Oct 1984
1
Aqu
Can
Aqu
Pis
Cap
17 Oct 1986
1
Ari
Can
Aqu
Aqu
Sco
19 Dec 1987
1
Sag
Vir
Sag
Lib
Sag
6 Oct 1990
3
Tau
Can
Tau
Sag
Cap
14 Nov 1995
5
Sag
Vir
Sag
Leo
Sag
6 Dec 1996
21
Lib
Vir
Cap
Sco
Cap
1 Oct 2013
?
Leo
Can
Leo
Leo
Leo


There are several points to consider in examining these results in thinking about what factors could in fact produce a predictable result. First, we need to consider that, much like studying US electional cycles, the calendar period is constrained. Congress has rules whereby the annual budget is supposed to be passed by July 1st. Unfortunately, that often doesn't happen, resulting in continuing measures. Historically, the inability to reach agreement was met with more embarrassment than enthusiasm, and this event in 2013 seems to be only the second time in which there seemed to actually be relish in creating this crisis.

Because of this structure, it is typically only in the Autumn when such a shutdown can occur, with October 1st the earliest date. The time midnight is automatic. It should also be mentioned that shutdowns since 1980 have produced a more severe result than previously, so it's possible that the data from before 1980 may not work in the same fashion, where the length of the shutdown had a less severe impact on the government.

Over the next week or so, I hope to be able to present other facets of how we can create an astrology that productively examines these events.

Thursday, July 25, 2013

Job Horaries and House Attributions

©2013 J. Lee Lehman, PhD

There is a controversy among horary astrologers over the question of how to place job horary house assignment. The question pivots around the fact that the ancient sources gave slavery to the 6th house, not jobs. The ancient sources gave “preferment” to the 10th house. Therefore, are job questions a matter of the 10th house? The discussion which follows is an expansion on the house attributions I gave in Martial Art of Horary Astrology (MAHA).
One of the values of being able to create the historical lineage of ideas is that we can see where changes in viewpoint occur, which may help us to understand the context of the changes. This requires knowledge of both ancient and modern practices. I believe the biggest danger to astrological transmission emerges when we don't know our history, and because of that we make arbitrary choices just to do something different or new. However, clinging too tightly to past practices in the absence of admission of real societal change can be equally debilitating to our practice.

Modern astrologers are split in their attributions. In the posthumous edition of her work in 1942, Geraldine Davis gave the 6th house to servants and tenants, and the 10th house to getting, continuing, or leaving a job. In her section on the 10th house, she refers to the 10th as relating to the career or business that the person is in.1 Robert DeLuce, originally writing in 1932, gives essentially the same attribution, with the 10th house being given for promotions. The one interesting wrinkle in his case was the use of the 9th for corporations.2 Ivy Goldstein-Jacobson gave an employment example in the 6th house, but it is for the engagement of a servant. She gave questions of trade or profession, as well as whether the Querent would get a particular job, to the 10th.3

It is with Barbara Watters that we see:

“The Sixth House rules the querent's employment, the general condition of his health, his tenants, employees, and servants. In an event chart it rules the same things for the person who initiates the action. Thus, in this case, there is an overlapping of values. For instance, in the event that someone offers the querent a job, it is a sixth house matter for both of them: a job for the querent, an employee for the person who offered it.”4

How, we may ask, did Watters reach this conclusion? First, I think we need to dispense with the polemical approach and state baldly: to a classical astrologer, modern astrology is not the enemy. I would call to your attention this quotation from Charles E.O. Carter. In an editorial in 1945, Carter said:

Most astrologers probably possess Zadkiel's Grammar, published in 1910 by G. Bell & Sons together with Lilly's Introduction;...”5

This simple statement reminds us of something amazingly important. While modern students of Lilly reject that particular version as an unfortunate abridgment, Carter's reference to its ubiquity reminds us that through the 1940's, just about every serious student of astrology in Britain if not other English-speaking countries had a decent, if not wonderful, introduction to classical methods sitting right on their bookshelves. This means that all these modern horary astrologers I have quoted so far had access to the classical tradition – if they chose to read it and use it. So we cannot presume that Watters made this to shift the 6th out of historical ignorance. It was really only the astrologers who came of age in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s who could do so without being at least exposed to classical techniques. This requires deeper thought.

To extend what I argued in MAHA, the problem with our analysis of jobs is that what we forget is that our current understanding of them is completely a result of our living in a time after the industrial revolution. The references in the ancient texts to preferment describe exactly the world of what we now call the 1% - those who lived in a pre-industrial world in which energy was a scarce commodity: something provided only by wind, water, animals, and yes, slaves, serfs and servants. In these energy-poor societies, the vast majority of people lived lives of brutally hard physical labor while only a tiny portion could ever even conceive of asking a horary question about choosing a profession! If your father was a serf or a slave, what was your future profession? Professions were for the younger sons of the very small middle and upper classes.
And that brings us back to the 10th house – the king. And how did these systems of profession work, pray tell? Through the king, of course – or his equivalent! If I were a lord with three sons, then primogeniture reserves my rank and position for my eldest son, but what of the other two? As a lord, I can speak to my friend the Admiral, and get my second son his officer's commission in the navy, should that look like a good fit. I talk to the Cardinal and buy my third son a bishop's mitre. Now that's what used to be called a preferment – a boon granted by a nobleman or royalty to my son, based on bonds of friendship and loyalty – nepotism, in our current parlance. I work hard on my liege lord's behalf, and I am rewarded in lands or plum positions for my sons or relatives – that's how the 10th house works.

If you go back and read Plato's Republic you will see the utopian vision for the 1% in action – it is, as we would say, the rich men who benefit from this form of government. The women are shared communally by the men – not that they were asked - and the society depends on slave labor. Very edifying.

Meanwhile, in the emerging towns of the Middle Ages, we observe the beginnings of the professional crafts and the guilds. How did this work? To a degree, this system of apprenticeship allowed some social mobility and flexibility. A candle maker's son might not end up a candle maker, but perhaps a blacksmith or a baker: Lilly gives a table of trades for the 10th house associated with this class of people, but the bulk of his discussion is of officers, which are people of the higher classes being given boons in the usual way.6

But here's the thing: if the child succeeds and climbs the guild ladder to journeyman and then to master, what he achieves is to set up his own house: he becomes that 10th house person by going into business by and for himself. But if he does not succeed, but first stays an apprentice for a long time, and then only grudgingly makes it to journeyman, where now is his “profession?”

In Lilly's day, the industrial revolution was just beginning. Coal was being used for heating, but its use in driving steam engines was a matter for the following century. Along with land reform and enclosure, industrialization would drive a large proportion of the population permanently from rural to urban venues, changing entirely the meaning of “job” and “employment.”

Read about the condition of the workers in early factories and tell me this is different from the slaves and serfs of the Middle Ages? Workers, often children, confined in buildings for long hours at pay levels that were, as we would say, below the poverty line? Were these children or their parents asking horary astrologers about their “professions?” I think not!

Even if conditions for factory workers, and later office workers, have improved in the developed countries, we still see these stark conditions every year in industrial accidents in the developing world, whether a garment factory collapse in Bangladesh, or the Chinese poultry plant fire. On this point, anyway, the Marxists were right: it is radically different to own your means of production than to work for someone else.

This may be the clearest distinction between the 6th house and the 10th house: ownership. As I indicated in MAHA, there are other ways to relate to a job, the independent contractor (7th house) being the most common.7 But I think we do people a tremendous disservice, especially in an economically fragile period, to job-inflate their horaries by implying that their circumstances allow more choice than they do. I might add that the use of the 10th for a job question for the typical employee in our modern sense also removes the ability to see the boss as an integral part of the question – there is no house to represent this person, who would be in a clear 10th house relationship. The absence of consideration of the boss in the earlier works is actually a demonstration of how different the circumstances of the 10th house preferment idea was. In Lilly's day, a nobleman might grant a retainer a tract of land – which would then generate revenue by being farmed or leased. The retainer now becomes the 10th house person relative to this gift property or title: a petty nobleman himself. This extension of the feudal society set up personal links of service and reward for the people at the upper end of the hierarchy. Serfs were not included in this largesse.

The closest modern example of a 10th house preferment is in receiving a grant. Here, a granting body – whether an individual, a government, or a foundation – gifts the individual with money, which is then used to create something, whether skill, widget, idea, or artwork. The grant is not expected to be paid back – it is a true gift.

By contrast, a person can work an employee of a company for thirty or forty years and retire as, what? A former employee, not an owner. This doesn't preclude a comfortable life for the employee, a decent standard of living. But it is not ownership. Ownership is the 10th house.

Add caption


1Davis, Geraldine, and John Bradford. A Modern Scientific Textbook on Horary Astrology, with Authentic Charts and Predictions. Los Angeles: First Temple of Astrology, 1970, pp 181-182; 242-246.
2DeLuce, Robert. Horary Astrology : The Answering of Specific Questions. New York: ASI Publishers, 1978, pp. 92; 107-113; 156-160.
3Goldstein-Jacobson, Ivy M. Simplified Horary Astrology. Alhambra, CA: Frank Severy Publishing, 1960, pp. 185, 252-253..
4Watters, Barbara H. Horary Astrology and the Judgment of Events. [Washington]: Valhalla, 1973, p. 64. Also see pp. 125-132 for examples.
5 Astrological Quarterly, Vol 19(1):1.
6Lilly, William. Christian Astrology Modestly Treated of in Three Books : The First Containing the Use of an Ephemeris, the Erecting of a Scheam of Heaven, Nature of the Twelve Signs of the Zodiack, of the Planets, with a Most Easie Introduction to the Whole Art of Astrology : The Second, by a Most Methodicall Way, Instructeth the Student How to Judge or Resolve All Manner of Questions Contingent Unto Man, Viz., of Health, Sicknesse, Riches, Marriage ... : The Third Containes an Exact Method Whereby to Judge Upon Nativities. London: Printed by, 1647, pp. 444-451.
7Lehman, J. Lee. Martial Art of Horary Astrology. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Press., 2002, p. 177.