Understanding Aspects:  

Why Would Anyone Want to Study Harmonics 

 By Donna HENSON   

Why would anyone want to study harmonics when there is so much to be learned in traditional astrology?  Actually, harmonics are traditional astrology, but understanding them also borrows from numerology and certainly from Vedic astrology.  Vedic astrologers have long used harmonic charts such as the Navamsa and Saptamsa, 9^th and 7^th harmonic, charts.

Minor Aspects

My curiosity was piqued when I heard David Cochrane refer to harmonics frequently in his lecture at the last AFA convention.  He does not consider minor aspects to be minor, but he does admit that they are hard to see, especially those like the 7^th harmonic, which is 51 3/7°.  The harmonic charts show these aspects clearly so that the astrologer gets a deeper insight into a chart.

Harmonic aspects

Harmonics essentially have to do with aspects.  They are a way of studying a wider range of aspects than is normally used in traditional astrology.  All planets have some relationship to each of the other planets.  Theoretically, there could be as many as 180 (actually179 since the 180^th harmonic would bring one back to the 2^nd harmonic – 360° divided by 180 equals 2) harmonic charts although only a few of them are usually used, the 4^th to the 10^th.   The 360° circle is divided by any number to find these “minor” aspects.  For example 360° divided by 9 gives 40°.  This makes 80° and 160° (multiples of 40) 9^th harmonic aspects too.  The same is done with any number, such as 360° being divided by 5, which gives 72°, etc.  Fortunately computer programs do this for us.

Harmonic Charts

Then a chart is calculated by a somewhat elaborate method of dividing each sign by the number of the harmonic* to create a new chart.  Computer programs do this too. (For Solarfire, press F6 to set one up.) An important square in a harmonic chart could be indicated by a semi-sextile in the radix chart.  Partile (exact) aspects will usually show up in the charts of every harmonic chart although a radix square may be a conjunction or trine or vice-versa. 

How to Use Harmonic Charts

Thus in counseling a person who may have much trouble expressing his energy, such as being violent or hot tempered, even though he has a sextile between the sun and Mars could have these two in square in his 4^th harmonic chart.  Talents and creative ability that may not be seen in the natal or radix chart may show clearly in the 5^th or 7^th harmonic charts.  Addey has found that the 2^nd harmonic may pertain to wealth or possessions, The 3^rd, to communication or brothers and sisters; the 4^th to home and property, etc.  Doctors usually have the 6^th and 12^th harmonics strongest. The 7^th is often a strong chart for clergymen and sacred matters, the 5^th and 7^th for creative people, and the 6^th for rhythmic activity.  He says the 5^th (the quintile, 72° and multiples or divisions of this, 144° and 36°) shows single-mindedness as well as mental ability. He gives the examples of Hitler and Mozart (who both have many quintile aspects and thus strong 5^th harmonic charts) explaining that the planets involved in these aspects indicate partly how one uses this single-mindedness and mental ability.  Of course we usually have some choice of how we use these aspects.  We’ve often heard that all sun-Mars aspects, or any other combination, indicate the same energy, but some people use that energy very differently from others.  Cosmobiologists have long maintained that any aspect or combination of two planets (they use the 8^th harmonic aspects, the conjunction, the semisquare, the square, the sesquisquare) has the same energy.  Addey would add the other harmonic aspects too, such as the quintile, the decile, etc.

Degree Areas and the Wave Theory

In the 1970’s I wrote (or compiled) a book Degrees of the Zodiac.  I had no understanding of why certain degrees had certain indications.  The positions of Fixed Stars explained some but not all of them.  It was a complete puzzle to me why indications like having any planet at 17° of Taurus indicated a sensitivity to color, 13° of any sign, severity, cruelty, or punishment, or planets near 27° of Leo or Aquarius and 11° of Virgo or Pisces were often in the charts of astrologers.  John Addey explains this by using a wave theory.  He cites Gauqueline’s work to support the idea of planetary energy expressing in waves around the 360° circle according to the harmonic used.  This means that the 5^th harmonic would have 5 peaks and troughs, the 104^th harmonic 104 peaks and troughs, the 12^th harmonic 12, and so on.  This also explains why some degrees are areas of perhaps six or eight degrees while others are only one degree.  By considering the meanings of the numbers themselves, he saw significance when several of these peaks or troughs coincided.  This also would help explain the difficulty astrologers have in determining the orbs of aspects since the peaks and troughs have different lengths, and it also indicates that we should think of signs and aspects in these waves rather than as one box placed against another box with definite boundaries.

Numerology and the Interpretation of Aspects

Haven’t you wondered why trines are favorable and squares are not, or that trines can be creative or rewarding while squares demand action?  The conjunction  is regarded as two energies united or merged with each other.  They are in the nature of Oneness or unity.  The opposition is in the nature of Twoness as are the square 1/4^th of a circle or 2 X 2 or 1/8^th, which is 2 X 2 X 2, which form the semisquare, and sesquisquare.  Twoness is regarded as hard or difficult.  There is tension, conflict, challenge, difficulty, and effort since with Twoness there is the self and another.

Next, we have the trine which is regarded as soft, easy, harmonious, pleasurable, enjoyable, giving facility or a free flow.  It is an aspect of pure Threeness.  Then we have the mixed groups such as the sextile, semi-sextile, and the quincunx.  The sextile is regarded as being mainly a soft aspect, but since it is made up of 2 and 3, an element of Twoness  (tension, effort, etc. are combined with Threeness (facility and enjoyment).  So we say that sextiles are favorable (Threeness) but effort is required to realize their benefits (Twoness).  With the sextile, one is striving toward facility and enjoyment.  The semi-sextile and the quincunx represent one-twelfth and five-twelfths respectively, and since 1/12 is 2 X 2 X 3, they have more of the elements of Twoness than the sextile.

Therefore, we see that most aspects are made up of Twoness and /or Threeness except for the prime numbers five and seven that also form harmonics. Now astrologers are having to look to numerology to understand Fiveness and Sevenness.

Conclusion

To answer the question “Why would anyone want to study harmonics?”  I would say there is great value in studying it.  It isn’t enough to blindly accept the fact that aspects both major and minor “work,” that degree areas “work,” or that establishing orbs of influence is very complex.  Life is made up of cycles within cycles within cycles.  The beauty of this is that it does all make sense.  We haven’t yet discovered all the reasons it makes sense, but, after all, isn’t trying to do so the reason we all study astrology in the first place?

See John Addey’s Harmonics in Astrology, p. 100.

Bibliography

Addey, John. Harmonics in Astrology.  Somerset, BA 11 4AG, UK: Eyebright Books, 2002.

Hamblin, David.  Harmonic Charts.  Wellingborough, Northamptonshire: The Aquarian Press, 1983.

Tierney, Bil.  Perceptions in Astrology. Lynchburg, VA: Mercury Hour, 1980.

Rudhyar, Dane. The Astrology of Personality.  Berkley, CA: Doubleday Paperback, 1970.

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150 Degrees:  

Give the Quincunx More Respect 

 By Donna HENSON   

In the 70’s and earlier we considered the quincunx to be a minor aspect.  According to Ed Dearborn, a very respected astrologer who is a board member of NCGR, which is only one of his many credits, “most of us are blind to the many ways this 150° aspect functions in a chart.”

We have been taught that a keyword for the quincunx is “adjustment” since it pinpoints where we tend to drain forces in a haphazard, nonproductive fashion before we synthesize the two energies.  The lower or waxing quincunx has a 1^st and 6^th house (Virgo) influence and is called the “health quincunx.”  This is especially true if it relates to the 1^st or 6^th houses or their rulers in the timed chart.  The upper or waning quincunx has a 1^st and 8^th house (Scorpio) influence and is called the “death quincunx,” but unless the regenerative side of this aspect (Scorpio) is recognized, its true significance is overlooked.  This type of quincunx can also result in crises involving money (Scorpio).  It is like a nagging problem operating over an extended time until circumstances develop forcing us to give it our utmost attention.  Often its conflicts are not obvious to us.  We need to make long-standing adjustments on the feeling level.

There is nothing compatible in the two signs of a quincunx.  They differ in every way:  male-female signs, diurnal/nocturnal, element, quadruplicity, hot/cold, and moist/dry.  None of these qualities is present to ease the harshness of the quincunx.  Some astrologers consider this to also be true of the semi-sextile, which is not just half of a sextile but also involves two incompatible signs.

Dearborn, Lehman, and others do distinguish between the quincunx and the inconjunct as they are often called.  They say that a quincunx is technically an inconjunct only if one of the two planets, sun or moon, involved is in a fixed sign.  Otherwise, the aspect does not qualify as an inconjunct.  If no fixed sign is involved then the situation is a little easier to handle.

Lee Lehman suggests that we should not limit quincunxes to a 1^st-6^th house or 1^st-8^th house influence.  She suggests that we use any cusp relationship in determining its meaning such as the MC - 3^rd house or 5^th house. Here we might expect improprieties of a 3^rd or 5^th house nature making an impact on the 10^th house of honor, public face and one’s superiors and in general damaging the reputation of the native. Ed Dearborn gives the example of a 10^th (or MC) – 3^rd that was evident when a longstanding political boss resigned after illegally signing his signature by adding it to an election petition after the deadline.  A few examples that I found are the chart of the Duke of Windsor who abdicated the throne of England to be with the woman he loved.  He has the MC quincunx his 5^th house sun.  Another is Sarah Ferguson who has the MC quincunx her 4^th house moon.  Neither of these examples involves a fixed sign planet though, but in the chart of Princess Diana, her MC is inconjunct her 5^th house Venus that is in the fixed sign Taurus.  Donald Trump also has his Taurus MC inconjunct his 2^nd house Neptune.  Is it any wonder that his activities are associated with business and money?

Even in charts that do not have one of these aspects natally, everyone will experience them by transit or progression.  Sometimes transits or progressions may bring a yod when two quincunxes are joined by a sextile to one point of the two.  The planet the two have in common is the “action point” where the energy is released or manifested.

The astrological chart has layers and layers of symbolism.  Try giving the quincunx the respect it deserves and give yourself another depth to your interpretations

Ed Dearborn. “The Ramifications of the Quincunx,” Article used by permission.

J. Lee Lehman, Ph.D. Aspects, Vol. 17, No.11 (Summer 1992). pp 7-14.

Bill Tierney.  Perceptions in Astrology (Currently titled  Dynamics of Aspect Analysis). Lynchburg, VA: Mercury Hour, 1980.