Section One
PUTTING UP THE WHEEL
Few things are as fascinating as putting up a horoscope, and watching its patterns unfold on a sheet of paper. Beginners in astrology however will often go out of their way to make the task harder than necessary. Thus they jump to the conclusion that horoscopic calculation involves a lot of difficult mathematics. They fail to realize that all the complicated computations have been performed for them in advance, and are incorporated in quite simple tables readily available and easy to use. They assume that it is quite out of the question for an average person to understand what the mathematical side of astrology is all about. They make sheer drudgery out of the procedures, either by trying to commit them to memory in a thoroughly blind fashion, or by following the uninformative directions of a printed form no less blindly.
The Two Operations
Making a horoscope has two parts. First is finding the position of the horoscopic wheel in the heavens. This is the matter of locating the houses and signs. Second is determining the location of the planets, or putting them in place by house and sign. These two operations are entirely separate procedures.
The position of the horoscopic wheel for a daily time and place, commonly at either midnight or noon at the Greenwich or prime meridian passing through the 1675 observatory in a southeast borough of London in England, is given in the astrological ephemerides currently in print for more than a century back. If birth did not occur in the London area or elsewhere at 0° geographical longitude, a simple correction is made to adjust to that circumstance. This of course is in order to make use of the ephemeris consulted.
If birth did not occur at the zero hour or midnight beginning the day, if the one form of ephemeris is used, or at noon if the other, a similar and equally simple correction is made to adjust for this second contingency. These steps are in order to locate the horizon of a living individuality properly and accurately in the heavenly scheme of things. To be noted parenthetically is that the midnight-based ephemeris is a recent innovation, and in consequence is not encountered except for relatively recent years.
With these preliminary corrections made to the extent they are necessary, the elements of the horoscopic wheel can be taken from the two kinds of tables where the more intricate mathematical calculations have already been performed for the astrologer. With the aid primarily of one of the convenient sets of tabulations, the horoscope can be half completed quickly and quite handily. With the notation, in the familiar circular diagram, of the data obtained from the other set of tables the horoscope is complete and ready for interpretation.
The Two Kinds of Tables
The astrological ephemeris is needed for both operations in the calculation of a horoscope. These ephemerides are usually published annually, but sometimes for a series of years. No element of any year is ever precisely duplicated in any other, however, and so there is no practical substitution among them even if leap years are matched. Each monthly tabulation of planetary factors also includes a column of sidereal time, which will be explained shortly, and this special column identifies the heavenly position of any horoscopic wheel for a birth on the prime meridian at the midnight or noon of the particular ephemeris consulted. Here in consequence is the basis of the initial operation in putting up the horoscopic chart. In its other details the ephemeris is the source of the information needed for determining the positions of the planets at birth.
The other kind of tables are published separately, since they do not change from year to year and only rather imperceptibly from century to century. They are known as Tables of Houses, and they give the zodiacal positions of the twelve houses of the horoscope once its own or individual prime meridian has been established. Preparation must now be made for the consideration of the fundamental wheel-diagram in detail, and of its celestial placement in any specific instance.
The Wheel-Diagram
A beginner must be familiar, at the outset, with the form of a horoscope. The four example charts as well as the illustrative ones in the preceding chapters are presented in what has become the almost universal custom in preparation. Individual astrologers will have their characteristic differences of indication or notation, but seldom of any extreme nature. In the present or 1969 revision of this book concerned with the making of a horoscope, and in all the larger volumes of the Sabian series, a minor economy of identification of planetary place by sign still found in the earlier pages of this text and also in the Guide to Horoscope Interpretation has been abandoned as an idiosyncrasy of the author. The omission of the zodiacal symbol in connection with each planet, which was his habit in his own early practice, came to prove more confusing than helpful.
In its diagram form the horoscope consists of a circle with a horizontal and perpendicular division into quarters, and with each quarter further divided into three equal wedge-shaped sections to make twelve in all. The dividing lines are not brought to center but only to a central circle that sometimes is considered to represent the earth, but that primarily serves to spare the eye from a measure of visual distraction. These twelve segments shown by actual line printed or drawn are the identification of the houses of the chart.
The signs are divided in their circle in exactly the same way as the houses, but they are not shown directly in the horoscopic wheel. Instead of putting in the lines of another twelve pie-like divisions, with results that can be very confusing to the eye even when different colors are used, the degrees or perhaps degrees and minutes of the zodiacal sign corresponding to the cusp or beginning of each house together with the symbol for the sign are noted at the line indicating the house. Except in the case of the ascendant or first house the minutes are generally omitted and the zodiacal point rounded to the next full degree, and not infrequently this is the procedure at the ascendant. In similar fashion the zodiacal sign, degrees and minutes of position of a planet are written in the usual order of reading next to the planetary symbol which in its turn is placed in the diagram in closest possible juxtaposition to the house lines on the one side or the other. In other words, except most rarely, there is no attempt by the astrologer to give the eye any indication of the actual spacing of these bodies in house and sign but instead the emphasis is on the house cusps in order to facilitate delineation.
What is most important to realize at this point is that the planets in an astrological chart are thus indicated in their heavenly positions of two altogether different sorts, but both at the same time. Their place by house is seen directly, and their location by sign is indicated indirectly through the notation of zodiacal degrees and minutes. Their dual signification can in this manner be seen as the fundamental basis of all individuality in a personal horoscope.
The Elementary Background
If the beginner is starting with making the horoscope rather than looking at the horoscope, he will have to learn the numbers of the houses and the symbols of both the signs and the planets at this point. He will have to know that a sign of the zodiac consists of thirty degrees, and any degree of sixty minutes of which each minute comprises sixty seconds. He must recognize the symbol of a degree (°), a minute of a degree ('), a second of a degree ("), an hour (h), a minute of an hour (m), and a second of an hour (s). The numbering of the houses may well be shown as a whole at this point, but it already has been seen in the four diagrams in Chapter Two. The scheme of the signs may also be presented as a whole at this point, but the symbols for each of them have been introduced in Chapter Four.
Their arrangement in pairs of opposites, necessary to know by heart in any use of a Tables of Houses, has been tabulated in Chapter Five, an introduction and explanation of the symbols for the planets begins in Chapter Three.
THE SCHEMATIC BASIS OF HOUSES AND SIGNS
The young student must be particularly careful not to confuse geographic or terrestrial with astronomic or celestial longitude, or in an alternative way of saying it he must keep a complete line of separation between what is his concern on a map or in connection with the surface of the earth on the one hand and what requires his attention in the heavens when dealing with the zodiac on the other. By the same token he must remember the same distinction between the two kinds of latitude even if only one of them enters the picture in all usual or more familiar horoscopic procedures. In the meanwhile he must be patient, since there will not be too many things or any at all of appreciable complication for him to have in mind in order to function effectively at almost the very start.
How the Horoscope Operates
Much of the supposed difficulty in astrology will disappear if the beginner will take a spare quarter-hour, and use it to get an effective grasp of the horoscope's manner of operation. What lies before him on a sheet of paper is a chart of the planetary bodies that in its nature is much like a photograph of their arrangement in the heavens. This can be made clear for him by diagram, but it is necessary that he prepare himself for a little shock when he sees just where north, east and the like are placed in the astrological symbolism. However, he will not get very far if he starts in to quarrel with things because they are different. If he wanted to study French he would adapt himself sooner or later to the French way of thinking about things, and he must realize that the practitioners of astrology have their own ways of procedure as just about everybody else has. They may seem unnecessarily individualistic at times, but they have the tradition of many centuries behind them.
The person who looks at a horoscope is sitting to all intents and purposes at an immense distance out in space on an extension of the north pole. The twelve horoscopic houses that he sees are formed in the equator of the earth, but it is an equator also extended like the north pole out into the whole heavens until it becomes a gigantic saucer or hoop. The houses thus can be visualized as a heavenly wheel of which the earth's two poles would be the axle. The beginner can imagine the great hoop to be filled in with thin white paper, in the manner of the one through which animals jump in a circus, or he can think of it as an immensely round photographic plate on which an exposure is made by the planets at the moment of birth. Irrespective of how near the surface of the paper or plate the planets and all the true and distant stars may be or how far away, whether on the observer's side or the other, they are seen from such an infinite distance that their relations with each other are all flattened out and brought together in the patterns of the one horoscopic wheel and the celestial vault of which it is a part.
Thus the heavenly bodies are placed where they actually are seen to lie in the great wheel. The question of the astrological house in which each will be found depends on the relation of that illimitable saucer in the skies, or what technically is the celestial equator, with the particular locality of birth on the surface of the earth. Emergence into existence as a living human entity establishes a horizon that represents the given particularity of each and every individual, and this becomes the factor of fundamental significance in the horoscopic analysis. The left-hand point or east in a horoscope, and the right-hand point or west, together identify or show the horizon that is created very literally and physically at the time and place of birth. The upper point or south, and the lower point or north, together locate or show the individual prime meridian that passes directly overhead each native at the moment he is born.
The Compass Directions in Astrology
The beginner will be very wise at this point to put the book down for a few minutes, and to step out into some convenient open space. If he extends both arms wide, and turns around very slowly, he will describe the horizon actually found in any horoscope made for the moment and place of this act on his part. The ascendant is where the sun actually would rise, and the descendant where it would set. Then, if he will look directly over his head he will see a point in the skies that will lie on the same meridian where at true noon the sun would be found. Probably at that sundial noon the sun will lie to the south of him, although it will be to his north if he himself is far enough to the south in geographic latitude for the particular time of year. This meridian passing overhead at any significant moment in his affairs as well as at birth, and passing through the sun at true noon, is the midheaven or south point in astrological language. It is called south for the simple but not altogether logical reason that the planets when placed here in the horoscopic diagramming are seen to the south by most of the people in the world. The point directly underfoot and beyond the earth on the other side is on the same great circle of this personal prime meridian, and in astrological language it is the nadir or north point that is not literally or precisely the same as the astronomical nadir in a particular opposition with the zenith. Nadir as a word is merely given an additional and horoscopic meaning.
Thus east, west, south and north are terms of special astrological significance. The horizon points east and west are in literally correct conformity with everyday usage, but the south and north designations at the meridian are only directions of the compass in a very special sense. Most importantly for the beginner however, it must be noted that these directions exactly reverse those universally employed in geographic maps. The original idea in this was probably to remind the interpreter of the horoscope that he was looking up at the sky, so to speak, and not down onto the surface of the earth.
The Use of Time to Show Circle Position
For reasons that probably seemed valid to the astrologers of early generations in their art, position on this circle of the houses was called time. Actually it is nothing of the sort in any usual sense, but is merely a case of dividing the circle into twenty-four hours instead of 360 degrees. More specifically this measure is known as sidereal time, and often identified as just S.T. While it is identical with the astronomer's sidereal time, it has nothing to do with any sort of clock measure. A definite conception of the proposition at this point may save considerable confusion in later mathematical operations.
To make a horoscope it is necessary first of all to take an ephemeris for the year of birth, and first find the S.T. or sidereal time for the day of the event. This is sometimes provided for midnight, but always for noon in the tables for earlier years. It is rather universally given for Greenwich, although one recent and short-lived ephemeris was calculated for Philadelphia. It identifies the point on the celestial equator, or the great heavenly hoop represented by the sheet of paper on which a horoscope is diagrammed, that is crossed by the meridian overhead either at midnight or noon and in the usual case at Greenwich. This S.T. is put down as the starting point in calculation. It however should always be taken for the midnight or noon immediately preceding birth, and this can be a day before as will be illustrated shortly. The reason for going back in such a fashion is to encourage accuracy by following an accustomed procedure in every computation in horoscopy. It is a studied policy of performing all mathematical operations by addition rather than subtraction if reasonably possible. A factor strikingly peculiar to astrology is that the mind whether of a young student or an experienced practitioner is likely to get ahead of itself in fascination with what is unfolding as the chart is prepared, and consequently is apt to have an embarrassing stutter in the dull chore of figuring and thus even slip into an unrealized error in delineation.
The Proper Time of Birth
What is next needed in making a horoscope is the proper time of birth. Obtaining this may be the greatest problem the beginner will face. There are means for compensating the rather common deficiencies of information concerning the reasonably precise hour and minute of the arrival of the newborn citizen into his world of trial and error, but accuracy in the employment of these corrective procedures requires high skill and long experience and hence any more than this casual reference to them has no place in an introductory manual. A novice however cannot start too early in a close questioning or persistent checking of the sources of the data on which he must lean. He can suggest ways of refreshing memory, or he can draw out relationships to other events or contributing circumstances. When it comes to the place of birth he may have to consult an atlas to get the correct geographic longitude and latitude he will require from the start in his calculations.
It may seem that there is altogether too much promise of complication or confusion of factors for the average neophyte to face in putting up a horoscope, but the problems he will meet are all minor ones. One of the most serious possibilities would be a lack of alertness to the chance of mistake at the very start of calculation. Thus all horoscopes are calculated from the local mean time, which is often abbreviated as L.M.T. This is the mean time at the exact geographic longitude of birth, and it nearly always requires a correction from the standard time shown almost universally by the world's clocks. While there are almost continual adjustments in astrological mathematics, they are simple enough and for the major part quite necessary. Meeting these necessities in smooth routine can become a species of fun in performance, or can defeat the monotony of any series of procedures followed blindly by rigid rule.
New York City, at this point a convenient example of adjustments to be made, is situated at 74° west geographic longitude but it uses eastern standard time which is based on a time meridian established at 75° west. If its clocks show 3:27 p.m., the astrological time or L.M.T. is 3:31 p.m. This correction is at the rate of four minutes for each degree of geographic longitude, or a fifteenth of the hour marked off at each time meridian or as from 60° to 75° in this instance. Correcting is by addition if toward the east or back in the direction of the prime meridian at Greenwich, but by subtraction if toward the west as with Annapolis at 76°30' west where the difference of a degree and a half would mean an adjustment by six minutes and a L.M.T. of 3:21 p.m. compared with New York City's L.M.T. of 3:31 p.m. The beginner can avoid an easy stutter of mind here by remembering that where the sun gets first, it's later.
Various Kinds of Time
It is important to realize that the designation of ordinary time as mean does not identify any sort of difference with which the astrologer ever needs to be concerned, since mean time is the only basic durational measure he might ever be likely to encounter. All clocks around the globe show it, either directly or as standardized in geographic zones or advanced by an hour in summer or war time or other emergency. What the designation indicates is the time created by an averaged rather than an actual sun. This of course is a way of speaking, since it hardly is necessary to point out that it really is the earth and not the sun that is doing the moving in the celestial mechanics. The real or precise crossing of the midheaven meridian by the sun to mark off a true noon each day is irregular in a small way that has no possible astrological significance. In February the sun does not reach the midheaven until fifteen minutes of mean time after noon, and in November it is there ahead of itself in the same interval of mean measure. Its actually irregular movement is designated as apparent, or apparent solar or sundial time.
Standard time can be a genuine annoyance to astrologers, since geographic sections may not be at all consistent in determining the zone in which they will function. An extreme case of this provided by the decision of Great Britain, at the time these pages are under revision, to adopt Central European Time for its standard although actually situated on the prime meridian. Daylight saving or summer or war time can constitute an even greater annoyance because of irregularity in the dates of its effectiveness and possibly also because of some uncertainty of the area in which it is effective.
Why Corrections Are Necessary
With the local mean time of birth obtained, the beginner is ready to proceed. He makes his start by putting down the S.T. of the midnight or noon preceding the moment of birth, and now as he finds them necessary he must make the two corrections to which his attention already has been called. This of course is over and above the adjustments he may have made in determining the L.M.T. and he may have a very fascinating insight into the underlying unity of the great world about him, once he is able to observe the perfection with which everything with all the eccentricities yet dovetails into everything else through the universal mathematics of experience. Thus he may find it very profitable, as an aid to understanding, to take any convenient ephemeris at this stage of things and examine the column of sidereal time for any month at random and notice the regularity of its change from day to day. He should check this for a week or so in the tabulations in order to have a mental picture of the rhythm, and then ask himself what the progression in these hours and minutes represents in general or quite apart from astrology and the horoscope. Most simply it is nothing more than the movement of the sun, or the differences in the heavens that add up the midnights or noons as the case may be and thereupon measure the sun's yearly pilgrimage through the sky. It is a very regular procedure, practically the same year after year. Its principal variation results from the recurrences of the extra leap-year day.
The S.T. of the individual horoscope always indicates the point on the house circle that in essence is directly overhead, or through which more correctly the overhead meridian will pass at a given time and place. If the birth does not occur on the earth's prime meridian or at 0° of geographic longitude, but rather at some location to the west on the surface of the earth, the heavens obviously must keep on turning to get the S.T. for the given horoscope on the actual overhead meridian. While this is going on the sun necessarily continues with the daily quota of its annual movement. This is very slight on the whole, yet it definitely changes the S.T. point in that day-by-day rhythm the beginner has noted in the ephemeris. In other words, while the whole heavens turn to reach the day's S.T. for a given birthplace, that S.T. itself is also advancing on its own account in these same heavens. A correction normally must be added to adjust for this.
What has to be done to find the correction is to divide this particular movement of the S.T. for the whole day into parts that will correspond to the geographic sections of the globe over which the sun will pass in the course of the day, or more specifically up to the place of birth. By making this division it is found that 9.86 seconds of sidereal time or ten seconds in round figures will equate with fifteen degrees of geographic longitude. Hence 9.86s or a rounded 10s will have exact correspondence to a usual standard time zone. As illustration, New York City is slightly less than five hours of time difference west from Greenwich and the correction is slightly less than 50s rounded or is 49s precisely for the first of the example charts. This T.D. or time-difference relation to Greenwich must be noted preliminarily in the case of every horoscope.
If the S.T. of an individual horoscope is for a birthplace lying east of the earth's prime meridian, as in the case of the third of the example charts or the one calculated for Moscow, the correction must be subtracted. This obviously is necessary because if the sun gets there first in comparison with points on the earth's prime meridian or westward from it, the S.T. of the sun's daily movement is not as far along as at the midnight or noon of the ephemeris. Thus a time difference from Greenwich of 2h 30m to the east calls for a subtracted correction of 25s both in round figures and precisely. Conformity here to the policy of always adding in the astrological procedures would of course be needlessly cumbersome. This adjustment of 9.86s precisely or 10s in round terms is known as the correction of mean to sidereal time, and a tabulation for the use of it precisely is provided below. However, while it may be wise for the professional astrologer to make this correction in the more exact terms and for the beginner to get in the habit of doing so, there is seldom an instance where the difference has any practical significance. Furthermore, in the actual practice of horoscopy, the curtailment of available hours or even minutes to be used for the basic calculations means that a great deal of rounding of figures must be employed.
A Beginner's Dilemma
The newcomer to astrology now encounters what is quite a dilemma at times. He may feel himself in the impasse of the five-year-old youngster who, in the baffling process of adjustment to adult ways, has approbation for a bit of mischief because company at the house finds it amusingly cute and then a few days later receives a severe scolding for the same conduct because it is misbehavior. If at the start the neophyte is encouraged to make these corrections involving not only minutes but seconds of the minutes with the help of the table for precise correction of mean or clock to astrological or sidereal time, and then is told in usual practice he may round 9.86s to 10s and actually might be told further that in many cases he could use a near fifteen-degree meridian for the place adjustment, he may wonder what is what.
"When am I to be exact, and when is it unnecessary to be so?" he might well ask. "How inexact can I be when it is all right to be inexact?"
There is a great deal of difference between a lack of precision, and a capacity for establishing a proper plateau of preciseness. Thus in modern technology a mechanical refinement to a hundredth of an inch may be more than adequate in some instances whereas in others the exactness necessary may be to a thousandth of an inch. In astrology the seconds of arc or time are frequently eliminated from consideration by ignoring them or rounding them to minutes, whether of sidereal time or in the zodiac, and the minutes in turn are rather commonly disregarded in a rounding to parts or wholes of hours or degrees. This may seem to be imprecision, but as done intelligently it is a commonplace of all skilled computation. The extent to which it is proper is whether or not in a given operation the difference involved is significant. Suggestions concerning the procedure are incorporated in these pages as they may be pertinent in an introductory text, and the niceties of astrological mathematics as the background of the expert's skill have a broader consideration in the author's Scope of Astrological Prediction.
For the sake of the beginner's ultimate excellence in horoscopic analysis he should be as precise as possible in his arithmetic procedures, even if no more than as practice in a refinement of his skills. This can help him build to the capacity for delineation of a nativity, such as can come to its full only by gradual steps in sound experience. In any case the charts he retains for his own record or private information should have complete notation of his procedures, so that in later reference to them by himself or others it can be seen to what extent he has averaged out the minutiae of differences he has considered insignificant.
To be especially noted is that throughout the textbooks, of which this is the introductory manual, there is one special modification of the mathematician's manner of rounding numbers or say taking 4°29' as 4° and 4°30' as 5°. Thus in the case of zodiacal degrees, but only in that case, a next full degree is always taken even if the previous one actually has a most minuscule increment. Thus 15°0'1" is rounded to 16° for the sake of possible recourse to the symbolization of the zodiacal degrees that have their full exposition in the author's Sabian Symbols in Astrology.
The Adjustment for Time of Birth
The other of the two operations in locating the wheel-diagram is to correct the time of birth from mean to sidereal if the event has not occurred at the precise Greenwich midnight or noon of the ephemeris from which the S.T. of the midnight or noon is taken. Behind this second correction in putting up the horoscope is the same proposition as in adjusting the S.T. of the midheaven for the geographical place of birth. It has been seen if not quite in these terms that twenty-four hours of clock time correspond to twenty-four hours, three minutes and fifty-six-odd seconds of true circle measurement as in sidereal time. Since a clock hour is shorter in this connection each one of them, when it comes to determining position on the house circle or in a sense indicating a space factor, must be lengthened by the precise 9.86s or rounded l0s that has been the correction in the first operation. The whole procedure will be illustrated in the cases of the four example charts. In other words there first will be the location of the whole wheel in the heavens, and then there will be the necessary notation of all twelve house cusps in their zodiacal correspondence to complete the horoscope.
The Function of Geographic Latitude
With the S.T. of the midheaven of the individual horoscope determined by adding to the corrected S.T. of the place of birth the corrected interval of time from the previous midnight or noon to the moment of birth, the location of all twelve house cusps in the zodiacal equivalents needed for the placement of the planetary elements in the wheel-diagram can be copied out of the Tables of Houses. At this point the terrestrial horizon comes into consideration. The beginner has been asked to stand out in the open with arms outstretched horizontally and to turn clear around to describe his horizon of that place and moment to himself in his visualization of a horoscope's functioning. What is represented is in all respects the basic plane or ground of his personal existence, and its particular position in the heavenly scheme of astrology is determined by the geographic latitude of the birthplace. The cusps needed in their zodiacal correspondence are found in the Tables of Houses at the proper latitude. As already noted, the minor ones usually together with the midheaven and nadir are rounded to the even next degree and the ascendant and descendant are by contrast brought generally to degrees and minutes of preciseness or perhaps rounded to quarters or tenths of a degree. At the time of first writing and now of the revision of this text there are two published tabulations of house cusps adequate for the standards of workmanship recommended in the Sabian exposition and needed in all widely accepted horoscopy. The calculations by Joseph G. Dalton were made available in 1893 in his Spherical Basis of Astrology and those by Hugh S. Rice were issued in 1944 as the American Astrology Table of Houses.
Summary
In summary, what has the beginner learned in Section One of how to make rather than how to look at a horoscope? He has been introduced to all the basic elements of horoscopic mathematics, and has been shown how to proceed in accomplishing the first of the two tasks in establishing an individual horoscopic wheel in the heavens. He has been brought face-to-face with the distinction between troublemaking carelessness and intelligent fluidity, and shown the value of schooled or consistent method in all astrological procedure. He has been assured that all computations of unusual complexity, or beyond the average skills of everyday life, have been performed for him in advance and with the results readily available in printed form. He has been introduced to the two kinds of tabulations he must employ continually, or the ephemeris and the Tables of Houses, and prepared for using them effectively and without appreciable difficulty. He has been given a detailed visualization and explanation of the nature of the horoscopic map or wheel-diagram he must learn to make for himself, so that he can know exactly what he is doing and thus be less likely to let some error slip by him. He has been drilled in the nature of apparent, mean, standard, daylight saving and war time on the one hand and the species of circle measurement known as sidereal time on the other. He has been helped to understand the relations among these different sorts of time, and what necessity for correction arises in considering them in their connection with each other.
The Example Horoscopes
The example charts are presented at this point in the bare skeleton of their structure, to the end that the beginner may concentrate on the establishment in the heavens in necessary zodiacal correspondences of the twelve horoscopic houses created at the birthplace at the time of birth. The completed wheel-diagrams are presented later.
Example I is prepared from a noon ephemeris and Dalton's Tables of Houses. The birth data is July 4, 1969, New York City, 3:06 p.m., L.M.T. The calculation is as follows:
| S.T. Greenwich noon, July 4th: | 6h | 49m | 17s | |
| Correction for 73°57' west longitude: | 49 | |||
| Elapsed time, noon to birth: | 3 | 6 | ||
| Its correction to sidereal time: | 31 | |||
| _______________ | ||||
| 9 | 56 | 37 | ||
The T.D. or time difference from Greenwich of 4h 56m requires a first correction by the table of 48.63s, which rounds to the 49s used. With its closeness to the 75° meridian, that T.D. of 5h at the approximate 10s per hour would give a correction of 50s as a more than adequate approximation for the calculation. By the same token, in the case of the second correction, the precise 30.56s rounded to 31s is not significantly different from the 30s derived from taking an even 3h at 10s per hour. In Dalton's tabulations a S.T. of 9h 56m 52s is only a hairsbreadth more than the 9h 56m 37s found to be the S.T. of the horoscope's midheaven, and in consequence Leo 27° is taken for this example with virtually no rounding involved.
Example II is prepared from a midnight ephemeris and Dalton's Tables of Houses. The birth data is December 25, 1969, Chicago, 10:09 p.m., L.M.T. The calculation is as follows:
| S.T. Greenwich midnight, December 25th: | 6h | 13m | 19s | |
| Correction for 87°39' west longitude: | 58 | |||
| Elapsed time, midnight to birth: | 22 | 9 | ||
| Its correction to sidereal time: | 3 | 38 | ||
| _______________ | ||||
| 28 | 26 | 55 | ||
| (-) | 24 | |||
| _______________ | ||||
| 4 | 26 | 55 | ||
As is done here, 24h or 360° may always be added or subtracted in the course of calculation in hours or degrees around a circle. The T.D. of 5h 51m requires a first correction of 57.66s, which rounds to the 58s used. To work from a time meridian nearby or in this case by about two and a half degrees of terrestrial longitude, in a procedure that is quite legitimate in approximate computation, would mean taking the T.D. as 6h and to correct at 10s per hour or by what in this instance would be an adjustment of 60s or 1m. The difference in S.T. of 2s could only have significance most extraordinarily. With the second correction of a precise 3m 38.32s rounded to 3m 38s in usual mathematical practice, in comparison with an approximate 3m 40s for an even 22h, is this close in the approximation because 9m of elapsed time from midnight are ignored. To take them into account would add 1s more and make the approximate correction 3m 41s. Even then the 3s of difference could hardly be of any importance, but a failure to make any correction could put a different zodiacal degree on some or all of the house cusps of the horoscope. In this example the midheaven then would move back to Gemini 8° and the whole more subtle import of the wheel would be altered. In the Dalton tables the S.T. for an even Gemini 8° midheaven is 4h 24m 25s, and for an even Gemini 9° is 4h 29m 11s. The S.T. of 4h 26m 55s for the individual example horoscope is between these points and therefore the next full or even degree of Gemini 9° is recognized as its proper midheaven.
Parenthetically, if the beginner wishes to be sure whether he is using a midnight or a noon ephemeris, he can turn to March and if the S.T. shown there is changing to 12h 0m 0s its positions are for midnight and if changing to 0h 0m 0s the planetary places are for noon and of course for Greenwich in both cases.
Example III is prepared from a noon ephemeris and Dalton's Tables of Houses. The birth data is May 1, 1969 (N.S.), Moscow, 12:30 p.m., L.M.T. The calculation is as follows:
| S.T. Greenwich noon, May 1st: | 2h | 36m | 57s | |
| Correction for 37°36' east longitude: | (-) | 25 | ||
| _______________ | ||||
| 2 | 36 | 32 | ||
| Elapsed time, midnight to birth: | 30 | |||
| Its correction to sidereal time: | 5 | |||
| _______________ | ||||
| 3 | 6 | 37 | ||
The abbreviation N.S. is for new style or the Gregorian calendar now in worldwide use. It was only early in the present century that Russia and other eastern countries changed from the older Julian calendar now designated O.S. for old style. The beginner may never encounter the confusion that can result from an erroneous identification of dates here. It is possible that people born in the areas in question from March 1, 1800 (O.S.), to March 1, 1900 (O.S.), will have to add twelve days, or from March 1, 1900 (O.S.) to the adoption of the new calendar will have to add thirteen to have their birthdays correct in today's proper (N.S.) designation.
The T.D. in this example of 2h 30m requires a first correction of 24.64s, which rounds to the 25s that would be obtained for two and a half hours at the approximate 10s per hour. Because of east terrestrial longitude of birth, this is subtracted. The second correction is for a mere half hour, but for the sake of a regular rhythm of routine it should be made as shown. In the Dalton tables the S.T. for an even Taurus 19° on the midheaven is 3h 6m 10s, or very slightly less than the S.T. of the individual midheaven in the case here of 3h 6m 37s, but by the regular procedure adopted in these texts the next full degree or Taurus 20° is taken.
Southern Hemisphere Horoscopes
A horoscope for the southern hemisphere is prepared in precisely the same fashion as one for the northern hemisphere, with a single and simple modification. The tilt of the horizon in places below the terrestrial equator is the reverse of its tilt in the geographic north at the same point in the house circle, and the result is that the apparent distortion of the houses when seen in their zodiacal correspondence in the northern hemisphere will be complemented by the mirror image of this distortion in the southern one. In a way of putting the matter and going back to preliminaries, if more than a quarter of the zodiac appears between the midheaven and ascendant relative to a given quarter of the globe's surface there will be correspondingly less than a quarter left to divide among the other cusps on the same side or between the ascendant and the nadir. This apparent house distortion is what as a constant phenomenon in all horoscopes is reversed between the nadir and midheaven through the descendant. The geographical shift in hemisphere to the other side of the terrestrial equator thereupon additionally reverses the total basic distortion in the zodiacal equivalences because of the change in horizon due to the different curvature of the earth away from its equator. All that is necessary mathematically is to add 12h to the S.T. of the individual southern-hemisphere horoscope in order to get the house cusps in their mirror image zodiacally from the Tables of Houses, but then to be careful to take the signs opposite at each cusp from the sign shown in the Tables of Houses when the 12h are added thus temporarily to the proper S.T.
Example IV is prepared from a noon ephemeris and Dalton's Tables of Houses. The birth data is July 9, 1969, Buenos Aires, 9:37 a.m., L.M.T., and this is the only one of the four examples where calculation is from a previous midnight or noon and as follows:| S.T. Greenwich noon, July 8th: | 7h | 5m | 3s | |
| Correction for 58°22' west longitude: | 38 | |||
| Elapsed time, noon to birth: | 21 | 37 | ||
| Its correction to sidereal time: | 3 | 33 | ||
| _______________ | ||||
| 28 | 46 | 14 | ||
| (-) | 24 | |||
| _______________ | ||||
| 4 | 46 | 14 | ||
| To reverse zodiacal distortion | (+) | 12 | ||
| _______________ | ||||
| 16 | 46 | 14 | ||
The T.D. of 3h 53m by the table requires a first correction of 38.28s rounding to 38s, and a second one for the elapsed time of 21h 37m is 3m 33.07s rounding to 3m 33s. To be noted is that the geographic longitude of birth is not too close to the 60° meridian although closer than to 45°west. The 4h time span to 60° multiplied by 10s for each would give an approximate correction of 40s, and the difference of 2s would have little possible significance. Taking the elapsed time as twenty-two and a half hours would by the approximate 10s per hour give 225s or 3m 45s for a correction that in virtually any possible case would be adequate but with 12s difference yet beginning to approach a risk of lack of precision. In the Dalton tables the sidereal time for an even Sagittarius 13° for a horoscopic midheaven is 16h 46m 16s and this is within 2s of exact conformity to the 16h 46m 14s of the fourth example chart's prime meridian. It therefore is taken for this wheel-diagram, but as Gemini 13°.
Determining the Ascendant
In copying the house cusps out of a Tables of Houses the beginner has no problem if birth has taken place at a location found on an even degree of geographic latitude, and at a time that has produced an even degree of some sign on the midheaven when he is using the Dalton tabulations. He already has encountered the adjustment necessary when the individual S.T. of a horoscope lies between the S.T. of one midheaven degree and the next, and in a measure this process must be repeated with the five other cusps he must establish in the wheel-diagram. The cusps of houses four to nine are exactly opposite in zodiacal position to the midheaven and on through the third in order, and are not needed in the tables. If the birthplace does not lie on an even degree of geographic latitude there is a second adjustment, but this usually is slight and easy to approximate.
Since it is the general custom to indicate the ascendant of a horoscope in degrees and minutes, rather than the rounded degrees of other cusps, the beginner in consequence faces the need for at least a relative precision in making what usually is an adjustment in two ways. This is particularly a necessity for all the cusps if there is to be any recourse to the zodiacal degree symbols. The procedure need not be confusing if each adjustment is made in its own turn, and always by addition from a lesser to a greater longitude in the zodiacal positions. In the case of the minor cusps an estimation is sufficient and this usually is adequate if taken to quarters or tenths of degrees, whichever proves to be the easier in facilitation of the rounding. Because the ascendant should be calculated to minutes, the best practice locates it immediately after determining the position of the midheaven and the details of the process can be illustrated in connection with the example horoscopes.
Example I is a case where only a single adjustment is really necessary in locating the ascendant in its zodiacal correspondence. This is because its individual S.T. is only 15s short of the S.T. of a precise Leo 27° midheaven, and such a small difference could hardly ever be a matter of significance for any of the twelve cusps or call for any consideration here. The adjustment for geographic latitude by contrast always tends to be slight, if seldom to this extent, and should be taken into account except in very approximate calculation. The place of birth in this first example is at 40°45' north latitude or a quarter of the way south from the 41st to the 40th parallel. In Dalton's tabulations, in the column of house cusps established by a Leo 27° midheaven, the first house or ascendant at 41° north is Scorpio 16°29' and this increases by 26' to Scorpio 16°55' at 40° north. A quarter of the 26' of increment here or approximately 6' must therefore be added to Scorpio 16°29' in order to locate the example ascendant in its zodiacal equivalence at Scorpio 16° 35'.
What the beginner must note very carefully at this point is whether he is dealing with mathematical measure on the increase or decrease. What the case may be is always obvious, but it may not be in accordance with expectation to find the zodiacal factor increasing north to south while geographic latitude is decreasing. The phenomenon occurs under certain conditions in polar balance with an opposite occurrence under the complementary situation. Thus he can turn to an Aquarius 27° midheaven in the Tables of Houses where he will see the ascendant increasing south to north with the latitude or from Gemini 21°2' at the 40th parallel to Gemini 21°49' at the 41st.
The minor cusps should present no problem, such as would require particular attention. With a Leo 27° midheaven there is no difference of more than a half degree between the relative positions of any of them at the two adjacent parallels, and the rounding to the next full degree is quite simple by no more than eye inspection. In using the Dalton tabulations it is necessary to be careful in noting the difference between a decimal point of degree and a presentation of degrees and minutes in columns parallel to each other. Since .1° is 6', the eleventh cusp location at Virgo 29.2° could be expressed at Virgo 29° 12'. In this example the rounded zodiacal equivalence of the cusp could be Libra 0° as well as Virgo 30°, but the latter usage is more precise since a zero point of Libra excludes everything possibly comprised in the sign even though Libra 0°0'1" embraces Libra content.
Example II is again a case where only a single adjustment is really necessary in locating the ascendant in its zodiacal correspondence, but in this instance it is the other of the usual two that must be made. The 8' of divergence from 42° north geographic latitude here is less than an eighth of the 60' from 41° north and only needs to be taken into account in much more precise calculation than is worth while in normal course. With an extent of exactitude adequate for the beginner and in instances where the time for calculation is limited, the zodiacal equivalents are taken from the Tables of Houses at 42° north. Quite another matter is the difference between the S.T. of the individual wheel of 4h 26m 55s and the S.T. corresponding to an even Gemini 9° midheaven or 4h 29m 11s. The preceding column for Gemini 8° in the Dalton tabulations shows the equivalent S.T. as 4h 24m 55s. This can be subtracted from the individual S.T. thus:
| 4h | 26m | 55s | ||
| 4 | 24 | 55 | ||
| _____________ | ||||
| 2 | ||||
The S.T. for even Gemini 8° can be subtracted from the S.T. for even Gemini 9° thus:
| 4h 29m 11s expressed as | 4h | 28m | 71s | |
| 4 | 24 | 55 | ||
| _______________ | ||||
| 4 | 16 | |||
In order to arrive at the midheaven of the example horoscope the S.T. must move 2m out of 4m 16s, and for all general purposes this can be taken as a half and a midheaven accepted as Gemini 8°30' rounded to Gemini 9° as already established.
For the ascendant it can be noted that at 42° north geographic latitude Virgo 11°24' is the first-house cusp equivalent for a Gemini 8° midheaven, and Virgo 12° 14' similarly for Gemini 9°. Expressing Virgo 12° 14' as 11°74' and subtracting 11°24', the difference of 50' is the advancement at the ascendant corresponding to 60' or from Gemnini 8° to 9° at the midheaven. The midheaven has been seen to lie approximately halfway in the 60', and so halfway in the 50' would be 25' which added to Virgo 11°24' becomes the Virgo 11°49' ascendant accepted for illustrative purposes. The minor cusps are handled in the same fashion. For the eleventh cusp the difference from Cancer 12.6° to Cancer 13.6° is 1.0°, of which half is .5° to be added to Cancer 12.6°. Cancer 13.1° then is rounded, in the special practice presented in these texts, to Cancer 14°.
Example III is close to the situation in the first example, where only the correction for terrestrial latitude was needed for the ascendant and minor houses. But while the S.T. 3h 6m 37s for the individual wheel is almost identical with the 3h 6m 10s of a Taurus 19° midheaven it is slightly more rather than slightly less. Therefore in the recommended practice of the Sabian exposition the cuspal equivalences are rounded to Taurus 20° at the midheaven and nadir and of course if needed for other cusps. Adjustment is much more important for terrestrial latitude in the case of the ascendant and minor cusps because the difference between 55° and 56° north varies from 6' to as much as 36' for these ten of the houses. Birth at 55°45' north is a quarter of a degree in latitude away from the 56th parallel. In Dalton's column for Taurus 19° the first cusp is shown in correspondence with Virgo 1°18' at 56° north and Virgo 0°52' at 55° north. This is a difference of 26', of which a quarter can be taken as 6', and the 6' subtracted from Virgo 1°18' establishes the ascendant at Virgo 1°12'. For determining the minor cusps, at the eleventh it can be seen that the increment between the two geographic parallels is .5° of which a quarter is .1° plus. This subtracted from Gemini 29.9° yields 29.8° and the cusp's zodiacal equivalence is rounded to Gemini 30°.
Example IV duplicates the case of the first and third examples in which only the adjustment for geographic latitude is necessary, and here the adjusting procedure differs in no respect from what has been outlined for the northern hemisphere. In connection with a Sagittarius 13° midheaven taken as a purely mathematical substitute for Gemini 13°, the ascendant at 35° south geographic latitude is shown at Pisces 1°53' representing Virgo 1°53' and at 34° south at Pisces 2° 17' representing Virgo 2° 17'. The movement between the geographic parallels is thus 24'. Birth at 34°35' south can be taken as halfway between them, and half of 24' or 12' added to Virgo 1°53' locates the ascendant at Virgo 2°5'. The minor cusps are obtained in the same manner illustrated for the eleventh house in connection with the other examples.
It might be well for the beginner to have a clear idea of the extent of apparent zodiacal distortion of house cusps as well illustrated in this instance.
For the sake of possible greater comprehension of their nature, the two ways in which in their zodiacal correspondence the house cusps other than the tenth and fourth must be corrected at times have been illustrated separately. Where both types of adjustment seem advisable, the operations are merely performed individually and their results added together. Thus, if in the second example it is desired to correct for geographical latitude, the 8' of decrease from the 42d parallel is approximately an eighth of the total difference between the 41st and 42d parallels. As the ascendant for a Gemini 8° midheaven changes position in Virgo between the two parallels by 11', an eighth of that or approximately 1' is subtracted from the ascendant already located by the other correction and the ascendant could be taken somewhat more precisely as Virgo 11 °48' rather than Virgo 11 49'.
Calculation from the Rice Tables
The Tables of Houses calculated by Hugh S. Rice present a great difficulty for the beginner since the midheavens and related cusps are presented for each even four minutes of sidereal time rather than for each even midheaven degree of the zodiac. In the first example horoscope the S.T. of the midheaven is 9h 56m 37s. This is between the columns of the Rice house-cusp calculations for a sidereal time of 9h 56m 0s and l0h 0m 0s. The midheaven movement of the example horoscope's S.T. from 9h 56m 0s to 9h 56m 37s is thus 37s out of 4m or 240s of distance from column to column, or in approximate calculation is a little less than a sixth of this distance. The midheavens in zodiacal correspondence for the two positions presented for each 4m in S.T. are respectively Leo 26°46'41" and Leo 27°49'4". Expressing this as from 26°46'41" to 27°48'64" the zodiacal distance traversed in the 4m of sidereal time is 1°2'23" that can be expressed as 62'23" or 60'143" of which a sixth is approximately 10'24" to add to Leo 26°46'41" and give Leo 26°56'65" or 26°57'5" to round to Leo 27°.
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