Untitled Document

Ten Tips for Exploring History with Astrology
By Anne Ortelee

Wonder how to approach the astrology of a historical event after reading this Ingress? You don’t need to have TOO many planets in Cancer or Capricorn to try these 10 techniques. They will make dull, dusty history turn into a living, breathing, and exciting story when seen through the lens of the chart. You might be able to figure out a who-done-it history mystery using the planets, houses, signs and aspects. The books below are welcome additions to a novice history buff’s library. Discover how Mundane Astrology is anything but mundane!
1. Who, What, Where, When, Why and How. Like any good investigative reporter, you start to note the birth time of every thing once you become an astrologer. The reporter’s words apply to historical events. Who is involved? Get the peoples’ charts. What happened? Look at the aspects between the planets and the houses involved. Where did it happen? Get the country or city charts in addition to the event chart. When did it happen? The actual time is best. Sometimes the time is stated as an hour before sunset or at dawn so it is approximate. Use a noon chart to see how the world perceived the event if you don’t have an accurate time. With the sun on the midheaven, you are looking at the ultimate culmination ~ a very interesting point of view when examining historical events. Why and how are described by the motivations of the planets by sign, aspect, house and rulership.
2. Apply the Key Words and Definitions. Historical event charts use the key words you know and use with slight modifications. Mercury is children and communications. The moon rules the food supplies, women and the public. Venus is money and the second house shows the condition of the fiscal resources of the country. Saturn transiting to the moon is famine or a “restriction in food”. Aries is war while Libra is peace (sometimes). As the planets aren’t “conscious” and can’t modify their behavior because they are “evolved”, you see the real definition of the energy. If you ever wondered why certain planets or signs are called malefic, mundane astrology tells the story through graphic examples.
3. Who is in Charge? Look at the leader’s natal chart as well as their generals, cabinet members, enemies and opponents. The progressions and transits of the leader match the country’s need and progressed chart. The unresolved childhood issues of an unconscious leader incite them to start wars, seduce interns, use nuclear weapons and bomb countries into submission with completely “rational” reasons. Other leaders guide their countries from tyranny to freedom, emancipate slaves, or write the declaration of independence. The natal potential of the leader’s chart tells the story. You’ll see interesting transits and progressions and refine your astrology skills because you know what happened. Lois Rodden’s website, Astrodatabank.com, publishes the chart birth data for people in the news.
4. Where in the World? Look at “The Book of World Horoscopes” by Nicholas Campion to get the country chart for where the event took place at the next NCGR library night. Or better yet, put the book on your Christmas list. It has the origins of 403 countries as well as other neat dates like the fall of Constantinople, the lunar landing and the Biblical Creation of Man and is compelling reading even if you never liked history. Another excellent reference is Marc Penfield’s “Horoscopes of the Western Hemisphere.” When an event happens, you open the book up, find the country (ies) involved, and cast the chart(s). The event pops out when you apply transits and progressions to the country’s chart. Interested in events closer to home? Carolyn Dodson’s “Horoscopes of US States and Cities” is the book for you.
5. Eclipses! If you’ve studied astrology for at least a year, you’ve noticed eclipses! They make everything bigger, brighter and more dramatic. Eclipses play a huge role in world events. You can use any good computer ephemeris to get historical eclipse dates. Or, you can be an astrology geek and quickly figure them out by looking at where the moon’s nodes are. If the moon’s nodes are in Aries/Libra, the eclipses are in April and October on the new and full moons. Cast charts for the eclipses preceding the historical event using the event’s location. You’ll be amazed at how precisely the eclipse degrees of angles, houses, and planets in signs match the country, leader and event charts. For more eclipse insights, read Bernadette Brady’s “Predictive Astrology, The Eagle and the Lark” book. She explains eclipses, the Saros cycle, eclipse themes, impact and evolution over hundreds of years. Interested in future world events? Notice where the current eclipses are visible on earth to discover upcoming “hot spots” as transiting planets hit the eclipse degrees. Use Chris McRae’s “Geodetic World Map” book to create your own Where in the World wall map. She teaches Sepharial’s easy technique to map the signs across the globe. Look at it after the nightly news when volcanoes, earthquakes, floods, drought or hurricanes strike to see the sensitized degrees in action.
6. The Planets Stopping and Starting. It never fails that the “big” planets ~ Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto are busy stirring up things with Mars standing by ready to light the match to the fireworks. They cause trouble in the world when stationing on angles, planets or midpoint degrees of country and leader’s charts. Notice the stations, both direct and retrograde, of the outer planets. The “little” planets count too! Their stations and transits add the juicy details to the story.
7. The Planets Making Aspects to Each Other. When the outer planets make aspects to each other in the sky, particularly the hard aspects, the world takes notice. The aspect degree stays sensitive or “hot”. Transits or eclipses to the degree YEARS later brings up echoes of the event, follow up stories in the news, emotional reactions or startling revelations. Neil Michelsen’s “Tables of Planetary Phenomena” is an invaluable book on major planetary aspects. You can quickly look up the major configurations and other interesting information.
8. The Great Cycles. While we humans measure our lives via the moon and the sun cycles, the world measures it’s life by the great cycles of the outer planets. Thirty or 248 years is not a long time in history. If outer planets make an aspect to each other in the event you are studying, travel back in time to find the opening conjunction of the same planets using the “Tables of Planetary Phenomena”. The current event relates to the news and events of the opening conjunction. If you have time, move through the cycle’s aspects, using the concept of the lunation cycle, to see what happened during the opening sextile, opening square, trine etc. You discover the opposition and the corresponding separation of an event are the result of the seeds planted at the conjunction and all the actions taken since. Tracing the history of an event through its great cycle is illuminating and profound. You realize the long ranging implications of the choices we make as a society each and every day. In “Mundane Astrology”, Baigent, Campion and Harvey offer a college level curriculum in the great cycles and the history of mundane astrology. Pretty soon, you’ll take notes as you read the Sunday Times!
9. Watch out for the Calendar Changes. Back in 1582, Pope Gregory declared a calendar change from Julian to Gregorian dates. History “lost” 10 days and the start of the New Year moved from March 25 backwards in time to January 1. Countries adopted the change in different years based on their affiliation with the Catholic Church. Great Britain converted in 1752, almost 170 years (or two Uranus cycles!) after the rest of the Continent universally adopted it. Russia didn’t convert until 1917 while China finally agreed to it in 1949. Proceed with caution when using old event dates to make sure you have a correct one. “The Calendar” by David Duncan takes you through the fascinating history of time and how humans measured it. Ed Steinbrecher’s website on the Internet at www.dome-igm.com/convers.htm offers more specific details about when countries changed calendars.
10. Check out your chart’s relationship to the event being studied. Often you are fascinated by an event or place because of your chart’s synastry or even your current progressions and transits. Studying the relationship between charts can offer helpful and symbolic information. A visiting English Astrologer asked me how my chart related to New York City, my home of choice since age 22. I was surprised to discover that the New York City Incorporation’s chart and my chart shared 18 chart conjunctions ~ and that’s not counting any midpoints! No wonder I love New York so much!

Bibliography:
Baigent, M., Campion, N., Harvey, C., Mundane Astrology: An Introduction to the Astrology of Nations and Organizations. London, UK: Aquarian Press, 1984.
Brady, Bernadette, Predictive Astrology, The Eagle and the Lark. York Beach, ME: Samuel Weiser, Inc., 1992.
Campion, Nicholas, The Book of World Horoscopes. Bristol, UK: Aquarian Press, 1995.
Dodson, Carolyn R., Horoscopes of US States and Cities. Tempe, AZ: American Federation of Astrologers, Inc., 1975.
Duncan, David E., The Calendar. London, UK: Fourth Estate Ltd., 1998
McRae, I.I. Chris, The Geodectic World Map. Tempe, AZ: American Federation of Astrologers, Inc., 1988.
Michelsen, Neil, Tables of Planetary Phenomena. San Diego, CA: ACS Publications, 1993.
Penfield, Marc H., Horoscopes of the Western Hemisphere. San Diego, CA: ACS Publications, 1984.
Internet:
Rodden, Lois, www.Astrodatabank.com
Steinbrecher, Edward, www.dome-igm.com/convers.htm