Casting Rays
Now that you have a handle on basic configurations, you need to know that each star casts seven (7) rays: three to the front of the star, three behind the star and one ray to the sign opposite the star. These are the rays Mars (or any other star) would cast when in the 10th House:
Mars at Aries 10° casts seven (7) rays:
- a left hex to Gemini 10°
- a left square to Cancer 10°
- a left trine to Leo 10°
- a ray in opposition to Libra 10°
- a right trine to Sagittarius 10°
- a right square to Capricorn 10°
- a right sextile to Aquarius 10°
The Medieval, Arab and Persian astrologers mangled the concepts of rays, and of left and right figures. The Arabs and Persians corrupted rays into the orbs that people use now. The Renaissance astrologers corrupted the orbs even more and then couldn’t understand the difference between left and right but did manage to give them cool new names: dexter (right) and sinister (left). Fortunately, Google Maps doesn’t tell us to dexter at the next intersection or merge into the sinister lane. The Classical astrologers knew nothing about rays and didn’t understand how to interpret left and right figures. Modern astrologers ignored the concept which is why they always botch chart interpretations and can’t make accurate predictions.
What about left and right in an opposition? The faster star approaching the exact opposition point is the star on the right:
In the chart above, Sun is the faster moving star approaching an exact opposition to Saturn. Sun is on the right. Saturn is on the left.
Barring any mitigating factors, Sun opposition Saturn indicates a difficult death 100% of the time in 100% of charts and to date we haven’t found a chart with Sun opposition Saturn that has any mitigating factors.
Understanding the concepts of rays, of left and right, and the natures of the stars is absolutely essential to correctly interpret the different figures in a chart.
Learn these concepts based on rays: