Chart Delineation: Donald Trump Step #3
Our third step in chart interpretation is judging the condition of each star in the chart.
If you did not do Steps #1 & #2 correctly then you will fail because you won’t be able to apply the rules of astrology correctly.
Step #3: Judging the Conditions of the Stars
We will make use of the following concepts:
- Sect
- Houses
- Counteraction by Sect
- Counteraction by Placement
- Enclosure
- Phase Cycles
- Spear-bearing
- Affliction
- Elevation
You will use those concepts to judge the condition of the stars. You can go in Sumerian (Chaldean) order, reverse Sumerian order, by house rulers, in zodiac order or diurnal motion.
Let’s review sect quickly.
Team Sun: Sun, Jupiter and Saturn
Team Moon: Moon, Venus and Mars
Common: Mercury — the free agent
We like Robert Schmidt’s view that sect is like political parties and to keep it simple for the Europeans that visit us, we’ll say Team Sun is the Conservative Party and Team Moon is the Liberal Party. When the Conservatives are in power, they want to push their agenda and Liberals try to thwart them. When the Liberals are in power they have their agenda and Conservatives try to thwart them.
But sometimes when Conservatives are in power Liberals side with Conservatives to pass legislation and the opposite is also true. When Liberals are in power sometimes Conservatives side with them to get legislation passed.
That’s how it works in your chart.
Two sides. One is light. One is dark. The chart sect determines which side is in power. The opposing side will either hinder or help.
Trump’s chart is diurnal. That means Team Sun — Mercury, Sun, Jupiter and Saturn — are in the driver’s seat. Mercury’s sect is determined by chart sect.
We’ll go in reverse Sumerian order to judge the condition of the stars. For simplicity’s sake, the conditions are: Elevated, Good, Neutral, Bad, Afflicted. The idiots making astrology way harder than it has to be is why people struggle reading charts.
Moon: Neutral
Moon is well-placed in the advantageous 5th House. Sadly, Jupiter who is both domicile ruler and domicile master is situated in the 3rd House. In this chart, the 3rd House is without advantage, although that won’t be true in your true if the Midheaven Point falls in the 9th House. Jupiter is the “dispositor” but more than that, Jupiter is the final dispositor. We don’t play the Modern astrology game chasing our tails going ’round and ’round with this dispositor and that dispositor and still totally botch the chart interpretation.
There’s another minor problem. Moon is a nocturnal star in a diurnal sign (Sagittarius) ruled by a diurnal Jupiter. That is counteraction by sect. We judge Moon’s condition as neutral.
Mercury: Afflicted
Since the chart is diurnal, Mercury plays for Team Sun. Mercury is a diurnal star in a nocturnal sign (Cancer) but ruled by diurnal star Jupiter and that is good. But, Mercury is afflicted by being badly placed in the 12th House with Jupiter as domicile master in the 3rd House. Jupiter as dispositor of Mercury does nothing to offset the very bad placement of Mercury in the 12th House. For that reason, Mercury is afflicted.
Venus: Bad
Normally, Venus in the Cancer 12th House would be afflicted by placement since Jupiter does nothing to counteract the bad placement; however, Venus and Jupiter are in mutual reception by house-exaltation. Libra is the house of Venus and Cancer is the exaltation of Jupiter. Venus is also counteracted by sect being a nocturnal star in a nocturnal sign ruled by diurnal Jupiter. We judge Venus to be in bad condition.
Sun: Neutral
Sun’s good placement in the 11th House is ruined by dispositor Jupiter being in the disadvantageous 3rd House. Aside from that, Sun is a diurnal star in a diurnal sign ruled by sect-mate Jupiter. Sun’s condition is neutral.
Mars: Elevated
Leo Mars sits in its own bounds in the 1st House. Dispositor Sun is well-placed in the advantageous 11th House. This elevates, glorifies or bonifies Mars
Jupiter: Neutral
Normally, Saturn overcoming Jupiter by right square from the 12th House would afflict or maltreat Jupiter but that is negated by mutual reception by exaltation-exaltation (Libra the exaltation of Saturn and Cancer the exaltation of Jupiter). Venus as domicile ruler of Libra in the 12th House would normally afflict or maltreat Jupiter via counteraction by placement, but again mutual reception by house-exaltation negates the affliction or maltreatment. Otherwise, Jupiter is in its own bounds in Libra. We judge Jupiter’s condition to be neutral.
Saturn: Afflicted
Saturn would normally be afflicted or maltreated being in the 12th House with domicile master Jupiter in the 3rd House but that condition is negated by mutual reception. Even so, Saturn is still afflicted badly placed in the 12th House and ruling the Capricorn 12th House.
To summarize:
- Moon: Neutral
- Mercury: Afflicted
- Venus: Bad
- Sun: Neutral
- Mars: Elevated or bonified
- Jupiter: Neutral
- Saturn: Bad
Mars is the only angular star in the chart and no stars are in close proximity, thus there is no spear-bearing in this chart.
Isn’t Jupiter midly afflicted by being in the wrong Sky? I’m sure Valens mentioned it when he talked about sect.
Lucas, sorry it took so long. I had to ask Hunter about that and he was tooling around Lake Michigan all day yesterday on his sailboat. He says Mark Riley’s footnote is wrong. Riley is a great translator (way better than Otto Neugebauer) but he’s not an astrologer and he made the same mistake the Arabs, Persians and Renaissance astrologers made.
If you want to follow along, it’s Valens Book 2 section 2.21 and is the first chart in this series of examples.
Riley’s translation: Since the birth was at night, I investigate the Moon: this happens to be in Cancer, trine with Mars. We find Mars rising just after the Ascendant and in its own house, triangle .
Riley’s footnote for that says: Valens is probably referring to the nocturnal sect of Scorpio; if Mars had been in Aries, his other, diurnal domicile, he would be out of sect.
Mars, being below the horizon, is in a diurnal position viz-a-viz the chart.
That makes no sense. In fact it’s nonsensical. The chart is nocturnal so Moon as sect leader, Venus as sect benefic and Mars as sect malefic control the chart and that is what Valens is referring to. If the chart was diurnal it would be all for naught since Sun, Jupiter and Saturn would control the chart instead of Moon, Venus and Mars.
The chart has Libra rising and Valens used whole sign so Mars in the Aries 7th House could still be below the horizon but thing is, it wouldn’t matter if Mars was above the horizon because the chart is still nocturnal.
Even worse, the Ascendant is Libra and Venus in the 1st House above the horizon in the night-time sky and Moon is in the 10th.
Mars in the Scorpio 2nd House already is in the day-time sky. It’s pretty clear Valens is referring to chart sect.
We can compare that with the translation from Schmidt-Hand:
Since, then, the nativity is nocturnal, I seek the Moon. This happens to be in Cancer in the trigon of Ares (5). We found the star of Ares to be post-ascending in its own house and trigon and in its own sect; then we find the star sharing with this, Aphrodite, to be marking the hour in its own house; third, the Moon to be culminating in her own house. It is clear beforehand, then, that the nativity is an estimable one. since the rulers are suitably figured.
Their footnote (5) reads: That is, the triplicity of Mars. Neugebauer translates this as, ‘in trine with Mars.’ The word for trine and triplicity happen to be identical, so that it would seem on the face of as either translation were correct. However, the fact that Valens goes directly into the matter of positioning Mars, and also due to the fact that the discussion is primarily about triplicity rulerships, our translation seems much more likely.
Yeah, that whole section is on triplicity rulership and Valens was showing how to use them. In that chart, it’s nocturnal, all 3 nocturnal stars are either angular or in the 2nd trine the 10th in the same triplicity.
I can see why the Arabs and Persians might have been confused, especially if they were reading Maternus because he liked to use “day sky” and “daytime” instead of diurnal which can lead to textual misinterpretations of what is actually being said.
If the chart is diurnal, it doesn’t matter whether the diurnal stars are above/below the horizon and if nocturnal it doesn’t matter if they’re above or below the horizon. That was an Arab-Persian thing with “in Hayz” and “ex conditio” and then Schoerner and the Germans gave us “halb” which is “half” in English.
Hope that clears it up for you.
Oh interesting. So stars don’t act different when in a different sky?