Planetics

Planetics

A Psycho-Ecology of the Solar System

Daniel Cooper Clark

© 1994

Foreword

    I don’t practice astrology. But some years ago I did study it. As a result, I developed an astrological system I called Planetics.
    Planetics is one of many astrological systems. Like the others, it’s an experimental activity subject to change. Astrology becomes a problem when its advocates claim certainty and completeness for it, which many have done, and may always do. But I claim nothing more for it than a better than average look at a certain number of things. Still, astrology can help us.
    Like the other astrologies, Planetics is a study of the interplanetary forces active at a certain time at a certain place on the Earth’s surface. The Planetics researcher determines numerical energy levels for the forces, and determines the qualities associated with the forces, in order to learn about an event occurring at that time and place.
    Astrology cannot tell us about the essence of a person. Nor can astrology tell us about all the factors that make up an event. What astrology can do is tell us about the interplanetary components of an event. By studying those forces, the researcher can discover a certain amount of information about the person who is the subject of the event.
    When charting human births, the Planetics researcher does not investigate people. People are mysteries. The researcher investigates the place of birth and the time of birth.     The birth chart isn’t a chart of the client. It’s a diagram of the forces present when the client was born.
    All of us existed before our latest birth and we’ve gone on existing after it. We’ve traveled to places other than our birthplace. The essence of a person stretches beyond the situation of the most recent birth. And, the client may have been psychologically or spiritually “reborn” since then. People are souls.
    Still, the physical birth event exercises its influence. Few of us escape the context of our physical birth event. The soul chooses the circumstances of birth.
    Among those circumstances, Planetics investigates the interplanetary factors.
    I don’t present myself as a psychic or an authority of any kind. My purpose is not to prestidigitate, but just to demonstrate, to make the point that our lives are part of a larger life — in this case, part of the life of the Solar System.
    If I can show people that their lives are part of the life of the Solar System, they might go on to conclude that their lives are part of the life of God. This understanding is liberating. It’s the best therapy. My purpose is to open up the mind and heart so we can feel we are part of the life of God. The other information — about jobs, marriages, temperaments — makes sense to me only within that context.

Introduction

    Ages ago, people believed that when something wonderful happened on Earth, good spirits and goddesses and gods would be present at the event. Bad spirits and demons would be on the scene during inauspicious occurences. Some people said they could estimate the nature of an incident by seeing what spirits accompanied it.
    As time went by, humans learned how to increase their control of their surroundings. To do that, they had to change their mental state. One apparent result was the loss of the ability to directly perceive the presence of spirits. In its place arose the craft of Augury. The condition of plants, animals, weather, and astronomical phenomena associated with an event were omens of its character and its consequences.
    Finally, humans developed mathematics. In doing so, they lost their skill at reading the good and the bad omens. A complex science, Horoscopics, replaced the old craft.
    The location on the surface of the Earth where an event took place became the center of a wheel of twelve Earth points or zones, each signifying a practical aspect of the incident. The Sun, Moon, Lunar Nodes, and Planets indicated the general nature of the event in question.
    A vast horoscopic literature has proliferated over the past two or three thousand years. Analysts learn how to interpret events by following the directions in the old texts and adapting them when necessary to contemporary situations. I devised Planetics in an attitude of faithfulness to the ancients but also with an awareness of today’s — and tomorrow’s — needs.

Part One: Analysis

      Nature and God — I neither knew
      Yet Both so well knew me
      They startled, like Executors
      of my identity.
            –Emily Dickinson

    I operate under the assumption that planets are people: demigods.
    They’re also magnetic rings, wheels of energy. Their force fields intersect and influence each other. The Earth vibrates within this matrix.
    Her north and south poles attract extra-terrestrial magnetic signals. The intergalactic waves then flow through her crystalline veins. From there, the cosmic messages radiate out to the planet’s biosphere. They bond with the oxygen in the air. We inhale them.
    In our lungs, the iron atoms in the blood’s red corpuscles pick up the magnetic data. The impulses then circulate with the blood to every cell, regulating our lives.
    That’s the way we receive influences from beyond the Earth. Not directly. But through the medium of our home planet. And our body’s lungs and blood.
    The iron in the blood’s hemoglobin carries not only oxygen and universal magnetic patterns, but also consciousness from the soul to every part of the body. (The soul is normally located in the region of the physical heart, and consciousness is the soul’s energy extending outward.)
    Those agents sustain and shape the body and its activities. Thus, to live a full life our primary needs are proper breathing, right thinking, and action in harmony with the cosmos.
    Harmonious interaction can be achieved with the help of Planetics.
    Planetics is an Earth-based horoscopic study. It is a distinctly American practice. Of course, American culture has always been a tossed salad of many paths. So I did go abroad in order to draw from the most ancient points of view. I drew from Australia, China, Chaldea, and from the principles of South Asian Horoscopics as set down in the world’s oldest literature, the Sanskrit literature.
    The sages who wrote in Sanskrit called their horoscopic study Jyotish (the science of radiant energy). One of the many charts constructed in the Jyotish tradition is the Bhava (House) chart. I chose the Bhava chart as the focus of analysis in Planetics.
    Apart from that, Planetics is like Horoscopics everywhere. First you chart the lines of influence between a place on the Earth, the Earth itself, and the other planets. Then you use the diagram as a tool to analyze an event occurring at that place at a specific time.
    As in ecology, so in horoscopy: the whole and the parts are an interdependent system. Any change takes place in the microcosm and the macrocosm simultaneously.
    You can comprehend the universe by studying a grain of sand. And, you can learn about that particle by studying the bodies of outer space. Things occupying space occupy each other.
    Time operates within the cosmic ecology too. An event is a seed that contains its own consequences. Planetics tells us about an event, and what will happen as a result of the event. For instance, the horoscopic analysis of a human birth tells us much about the future life history of the native.
    I developed Planetics because I believe the universe — Nature — constantly worships God. Each material atom and material form takes part in that praise. All we need to do to make our lives complete is to join the all-pervading reality of worship.
    Planetics points the way to completeness by helping us to harmonize our particular lives with the entire cosmic pattern. It shows how we fit into the universe.
    Human bodies are magnets. Our fields vibrate as part of Nature’s dance of love for God. The most effective way to live that love is to join the music of the spheres.
    Planetics notates for you the choreography of your dance, and the melody of your music.

Sun Wheels

    The positions of the planets at the time of an event can be analyzed in terms of their location on the Wheel of Houses and the Wheel of Signs. The two wheel systems are studied separately, and then the results are combined. Many versions of the two wheels exist. In Planetics, the fundamental organizing principle of both systems is the relationship between the Earth and the Sun.

Houses

    When wave-particles of magnetic energy from other planets intersect with the Earth’s magnetic field, they do so at certain angles with reference to any given location on the Earth. The angle determines the House the planet occupies.
    Numerical calculation of House angles begins from the position of the Midheaven (the Zenith), which is the highest point of the Sun’s apparent path in the sky. The Midheaven is the middle of the Tenth House. There are twelve Houses. Each takes up 30 degrees of the Wheel of Houses. The center of each House (the Midhouse) is a multiple of 30 degrees from the Midheaven. The Midhouse point is the origin of the power of the House — the position of greatest House influence. Away from the Midhouse, the characteristics of a House become less distinct, diminishing symmetrically on either side of the midpoint. On the cusp between two houses, each Midhouse exerts an equal amount of (feeble) energy.
    Ninety degrees east of the Zenith is the middle of the First House, a position called the Eastpoint. It does not necessarily coincide with the physical horizon. It is a horizontal position, not a horizonal position. Nor does it necessarily fall along the event location’s latitude line. It falls on a line perpendicular to a line passing from the Zenith to the Nadir (the middle of the Fourth House). The line cutting across the wheel from the Eastpoint to the Westpoint (the middle of the Seventh House) is the Locational Equator.

Signs

    What the Eastpoint is to the Wheel of Houses, the Vernal Equinox is to the Wheel of Signs.
    The Eastpoint marks the change of the Sun’s daily travel from underneath the Locational Equator to above it. Similarly, the Vernal Equinox point marks the change of the Sun’s annual travel from underneath the Terrestrial Equator to above it. The Vernal Equinox is the position of the Sun near the end of the third week of March. It indicates the beginning of the First Sign in the Wheel of Signs.
    In contrast to the House situation, the strongest points on the Wheel of Signs are not always 30 degrees apart. The place of greatest influence varies widely from Sign to Sign, and is not as important as an energy source. So whereas the Eastpoint sits at 15 degrees of the First House, the Vernal Equinox point is placed at zero degrees of the First Sign. There’s no “Midsign” to take into consideration.
    Why does the Vernal Equinox have this significance?     The Wheel of Signs (the Zodiac) is a multi-cycle standing wave of energy created by the interactions of planetary movements within the Solar System. It occupies the disc-shaped space of the collective orbits of the planets.
    The prime Zodiac is the Wheel of Signs as seen from the Sun. The Sun conducts the music of the spheres as it spins the planets around.
    That same wheel displays a different pattern when observed from the point of view of the Earth. But we can’t see it with our eyes. So how can we know what the pattern is? The Sun-Earth relationship is the key. The two points where the Sun’s apparent path intersects the plane of the Earth’s equator — the points called the Vernal Equinox and the Autumnal Equinox — are the key. Starting from an Equinox point, the Heliocentric Zodiac may be translated into the Terrestrial Zodiac. The Spring Equinox occurs at the time of Nature’s “rebirth,” so early astrologers chose it, rather than the Fall Equinox, as the marker for the zero point of Aries. That assignment of a starting point is the method for understanding the Zodiac from our Earth-based locations.
    Despite the custom of naming the Sign Wheel’s 12 divisions after constellations, the stars have nothing to do with the Zodiac in Planetics. The Sun, with its system of planets, is the standard.

The Sun

    Both the beginning of the Wheel of Houses and the beginning of the Wheel of Signs are points where the Earth “bows down” to the Sun. That is, the path of the Earth dips below the Solar path. Thus the Sun is the indicator planet for the First House, and the Sun is exalted in the First Sign. Hindu sages call the Sun “the king of the planets.”

Interpretation

    The qualities associated with each of the nine Planets, twelve Houses, and twelve Signs are fixed. That total of 33 unvarying blocks of information is brought into play in each incident and with each person. They are the sum total of the raw material in every horoscope.
    Individuality enters in from the way the 33 are combined. According to the laws of permutation, there are a trillion trillion possible arrangements.
    The trick is, then, how to interpret the effects of the combinations. After first logical principles are understood, the researcher’s time is spent in interpretation, much of which proceeds intuitively.

Part Two: Stories

    Planetics is an American Horoscopics. It is driven by a vision of the cosmos that is indigenous to our American continents, the land masses bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the East and the Pacific Ocean to the west, between longitudes 30 degrees west and 165 degrees west.
    Planetics makes use of approaches drawn from Asian, Australian, African, and European traditions. But the central impulse is American.
    To date there has been no indigenous American Horoscopics. Those who lived here before 1500 AD were, however, in close touch with cosmic forces. They were aware of the relations between earthly and universal events. They knew that individual psychology, social change, and other factors of our daily lives are part of a drama on a larger scale, and that the features of the parts could be understood better by consulting the features of the whole.
    When the European invaders arrived, they brought with them a European Horoscopics, which they called (in English) Astrology. In the centuries that followed, systems from India and China made some impact on American practitioners. But we have yet to see a really American approach. Part of the problem is that we have no pre-1500 mathematical astrological heritage to work with. So no doubt we will have to adopt our mathematics from another land, or many other lands. Our contribution will be to invest that body with a native American consciousness.

The American Earth

    The essence of the American attitude lies in the weight it gives to the Earth.
    Pardon me while I indulge in a personal reminiscence. As a child I possessed an unshakeable conviction that God came to humans not from the sky, but from the Earth. On the other hand, I also spent hours, at home and in the classroom, drawing pictures of planets, comets, stars, and lightning bolts. Once when I was sick at home for a long time, my young classmates sent me a gift they felt was appropriate for me: a book on astronomy.
    For me, in those early years of my life, things above were material and things below were spiritual. It was a reversal of the usual opinion. (Perhaps my breech birth had something to do with it! I’m willing, I’m even happy, to admit that Planetics is a personal way of working.)
    Today I still consider the Earth more important than the heavens, though as before the dwellers in the sky capture my imagination too.
    Out of this respect for both the underfoot and the overhead I generated the horoscopic method I called Planetics. Both Earth Houses and Sky Signs are given their due. But of the two, the Earth Houses take predominance.
    Another contrast, between Asia and Europe, also works itself out here. Planetics employs a House system and a Sign system thought to be part of European Horoscopics. But I placed those technics within a non-European context. When the subtleties of interpretation are infused into the process, the myths and methods of South Asian Horoscopics feel more natural to me. I think Vedic astrology is more fundamental than the European version.
    A so-called “orthodox” Hindu astrologer wouldn’t approve of my combining the two elements. Yet I’m sure what I did fits into the actual working methods of the ancient South Asian craft.

Part Three: The Basics

    Planetics is an American astrology of the four directions and the four seasons.
    The Earth’s four compass points organize the Wheel of Houses. The Sun’s four seasonal points organize the Wheel of Signs.

The Wheel of Houses

    Picture the Wheel of Houses as a circle with the Eastpoint on the right, the Westpoint on the left, the Zenith on the top, and the Nadir on the bottom. The Eastpoint is the middle of the First House, the Westpoint is the middle of the Seventh House, the Zenith is the middle of the Tenth House, and the Nadir is the middle of the Fourth House.
    The Earth is in the center of the circle. (The circle itself stands for the apparent path of the Sun “around” the Earth.)
    Draw a horizontal line from Eastpoint to Westpoint. Draw a vertical line from Zenith to Nadir, the two lines intersecting at the Earth. You now have a circle and a plus sign merged in the diagram.
    Use this as a graph and plot the places where the sunrise and the sunset occur at different times of the year. You’ll find that (for non-Equatorial locations) the only times when the sunrise and sunset take place at the Eastpoint and Westpoint are the two Equinox dates. At the Winter Solstice and the Summer Solstice, the sunrise and sunset take place many degrees away from the right angle Equinox positions. In the winter, when the North Pole tilts away from the Sun, Northern Hemisphere sunrises and sunsets take place noticeably south of the Eastpoint and Westpoint. In the summer, when the North Pole tilts toward the Sun, Northern Hemisphere sunrises and sunsets take place a noticeable distance north of the Eastpoint and Westpoint.
    The annual travel of the sunrise and sunset along the horizon line has presented a major problem to designers of House systems over the millennia, because they tie the First House to the junction of the sunrise and the horizon. To accomodate for that, several House systems allow the assignation of unequal arcs to the Houses.
    Planetics adheres to a strict right angle system, with each of the dozen Houses taking up a 30-degree slice of the circle. The sunrise/horizon point (the Ascendant) is not considered.     This is not the way any other present-day astrologers that I know of do their work. But according to the theory and practice of South Asian Horoscopics, the House numbering system may begin at a position other than the Ascendant. The Moon’s position is often taken as the middle of the First House (Chandra Lagna), and the Sun’s position too (Surya Lagna). After making that assignment, one’s analysis proceeds using the same methods as with the usual Lagna.
    Therefore the Wheel of Houses is a sequential structure that theoretically can begin at any point of the circle.
    In Planetics, set the Eastpoint as the standard for the middle of the First House, and the analysis then proceeds according to the guidelines in the ancient literature. (I also made use of Chandra Lagna and Surya Lagna in certain circumstances.)

The Wheel of Signs

    As with the Houses, so with the Signs.
    Picture the Wheel of Signs as a circle with the Spring Equinox on the right, the Fall Equinox on the left, the Winter Solstice on the top, and the Summer Solstice on the bottom. The Spring Equinox is the beginning of the First Sign, the Fall Equinox is the beginning of the Seventh Sign, the Winter Solstice is the beginning of the Tenth Sign, and the Summer Solstice is the beginning of the Fourth Sign.
    The Sun is in the middle of the circle. (The circle itself stands for the elliptical orbit of the Earth around the Sun.)
    Draw a horizontal line from the Spring Equinox to the Fall Equinox. Draw a vertical line from the Winter Solstice to the Summer Solstice, the two lines intersecting at the Sun. You now have a circle and a plus sign merged in the diagram.
    Use this as a graph and plot the locations of the stars with reference to it over the past thousands of years. You’ll find that there’s been a constant shifting of the stellar positions. Right now the stars in the constellation Pisces are moving away from the Spring Equinox point, and the stars in Aquarius are moving towards it.
    The movement of the stars has given rise to a major dispute among astrologers. Those who do Sidereal astrology tie the beginning of the First Sign to a stellar location. Those who do Tropical astrology tie it to an equinoctal location. The present difference between the two methods, according to calculations used by many, is 23 degrees of the Wheel of Signs. They’re 3/4 of a Sign apart from each other.
    Most European and American astrologers use the Tropical system, and most Hindu astrologers use the Sidereal system.
    My acceptance of the Tropical might not seem to mesh with my general preference for South Asian Horoscopics. But according to Hindu theory and practice, the sign numbering system may begin at a position other than a star. For instance, the Wheel of Signs, usually divided into 12 arcs, may also be divided into 108 arcs of three degrees 20 minutes each. This results in nine First Signs around the circle, occurring every 40 degrees. Each of the nine charts is analyzed as if each were the entire wheel.
    Therefore the Wheel of Signs is a sequential structure that theoretically can begin at any point of the circle.
    In Planetics, set the Spring Equinox point as the standard for the beginning of the First Sign, and the analysis then proceeds according to the guidelines in the ancient literature. (I also made use of the 108-arc Zodiac.)

House Systems, Sign Systems, and Belief Systems

    Vedic astrologers have customarily claimed that they are simply following their predecessors. But in fact each of the influential writers contradicts one or more of the previous authorities on at least some, and often many, occasions. Although they all adhere to a shared body of laws, still no two of them analyze an event in exactly the same way.
    Indeed, even a single astrologer can be self-contradicting. The great 20th century analyst B. V. Raman employed a system whereby House arcs of equal size were defined by the 30 degree arcs of the Signs. The Signs took precedence, in this way: the Sign in which the eastern horizon lay at the event time was called the first “House,” and the other Signs were numbered sequentially. Yet in his book Graha and Bhava Balas Raman assumes that Houses (Bhavas) have their own regions of power independent of the Signs. He states that “the mid-point of the bhava is always the powerful point [p. 32] … the planet gives no effect at the sandhi (junction point) whereas at the Bhavamadhya [mid-point] it gives the full effect of the Bhava [p. 6].” That is, he understands that Houses have their own identities separate from the Signs. He then goes on to say, in A Catechism of Astrology, that “the lord of a Bhava is the planet which rules the Rasi [Sign] in which the mid-point of the Bhava falls.” And in answer to the question “How do you find out who is the lord of the Bhava when one Bhava is represented by two Rasis?” he answers, “Bhava Madhya represents the central point of a Bhava. The lord of the Rasi where the central point falls is the lord of that Bhava.”
    In these remarks Raman gives credence to a system in which Houses and Signs alike have their own separate arcs (though the arcs are linked by the planet managing the Sign intersected by the Midhouse point.)
    Moreover, Raman states in A Manual of Hindu Astrology that the House arcs are not defined as being equally 30 degrees wide. “According to the Hindus,” he writes, “a Bhava means one-third of the arc of the ecliptic intercepted between the adjacent angles, viz., the Udaya Lagna (Eastern Horizon), the Patala Lagna (Lower Meridian), the Asta Lagna (Western Horizon, and the Madhya Lagna (Upper Meridian).” So if the latitude of the event being studied is non-equatorial, in which case the relationship between the horizons and the meridians is not that of a right angle, then the Houses will vary in size, except at the Spring and Fall Equinoxes.
    Thus not only did Raman advocate separate boundaries for Houses and Signs, he also proposed that Houses have unequal arcs for most of the Earth during most of the year.
    Yet he did not follow those rules in his own work, at least as far as the examples in his books are concerned.
    The fact of the matter is that Hindu Horoscopics can allow, and in practice does allow, more than one House system and Sign system. To set the middle of the First House, or the zero point of the First Sign, here or there is up to the individual analyst. The method of analysis includes the analyst. It’s personal. You have to operate out of the story of the universe that you have faith in, if you’re going to be effective.
    To repeat: you have to operate out of the story of the universe that you have faith in. That story is the major premise, the foundation, of your work.
    I am an American. Therefore I am democratic and multiculturalist.
    I suggest that an indigenous American Horoscopics is
    1. Earthy
    2. Democratic
    3. Multicultural
    4. Divine.
    The strict division some people make between “Vedic” and “Western” Horoscopics is artificial. Indian and European and American and Chinese analysts use a great variety of methods of analysis and they all can learn from each other. Addey’s study of aspects applies in any region. Parashara’s technique of House-ownership Yogas works anywhere. There may be differences of emphasis between different traditions, but all that means is you can choose the one that suits you best.
    It’s important what method you use to determine the location of the First Midhouse and the beginning of the First Sign. That shows what your view of the universe is — and your view of life in the universe.
    What is a House, and what is a Sign? There are objective mathematical calculations involved, but up front there’s your personal a priori major premise controlling the numbers. So how you arrange the Wheel of Houses and the Wheel of Signs reveals how you will interpret people’s lives for them.
    You will place your clients within the kind of universe you have faith in.
    It’s the same as going to a healer of the body or mind. For your body, you can go to a surgeon or an herbalist. For your mind, you can go to a clinician or a Jungian. You choose the kind of analysis and cure that you’re going to get. The philosophy of the healer is important to the client. The same holds true for Horoscopics. There are a variety of philosophical approaches, and they are reflected in the House systems and Sign systems.

Wheels

    Quadrantal wheels play a significant part in the spiritual iconography of the cultures indigenous to our American continents. The plus sign represents the Earth. The circle represents the Cosmos. Merged together, the resulting symbol stands for the Earth in the Cosmos. As an indigenous American craft, Planetics makes use of this shape as the graphic organizer of its operations.
    Let’s not neglect other shapes, though. For instance, the Earth has several shapes. They’re all simultaneous and all true. Each shape corresponds to a certain level of consciousness and vibratory energy.
    Here’s a table of five Terrestrial shapes.

Shape         Category         Character

Sphere         Secular         Orbiting the Sun
Disc             Religious       Between Heaven and Hell
Hoop           Mystical         Halo — an energy ring
Animal         Mythical         Bovine, Turtle, others
Human         Divine           Goddess (Gaia, Bhumi, others)

    Which one of the levels to work on? Since my analyses proceeded mostly in terms of the South Asian tradition of Jyotish, I chose the hoop.
    The word Jyotish means “the science of radiant energy.” I posit that its original practitioners saw the Earth as a ring- like energy field. Perhaps that’s because, from the spherical- Earth point of view, they resided near the Equator, which is a ring. Whether that’s the reason, or whether energy-mysticism is the reason, they used the wheel — the hoop — as their Earth image.
    The hoop was also the primary world-image for the early indigenous Americans. They saw the universe as a hoop, and each nation as a hoop. The ceremonial Medicine Circle was a hoop, and the personal vision-shield was painted on a skin stretched on a hoop.
    If I were to say the Earth is flat, it would sound absurd to my contemporaries. Yet I go one step further. I say that not only is the Earth flat, it’s a wheel — a hoop — a ring.
    South Asian metaphysics bears me out. The Sanskrit word for planet is Graha, which means “energy source.” In Sanskrit, the energy sources in the human body are called Chakras, or “wheels.” Such is the shape of an energy source in the vision of the ancient South Asian sages. It is a spinning ring of power.
    We live our lives on one of the hoops, the Earth. Ages ago, when the ancients started devising the first stages of Horoscopics, they constructed a methodology that reflected the Wheel image.
    The Earth is a Wheel whose spokes divide it into Houses. The Sun is a Wheel whose spokes divide it into Signs. As the two Wheels rotate on a cosmic axis at unequal velocities, they indicate, as on a gambler’s Wheel of Fortune, the patterns of life of the dwellers on the Earth ring.

Latitudes and Longitudes

    Now that I’ve gotten myself into trouble by advocating this theory, I might as well disclose all its outrageous implications.
    Since the Earth is flat, it has no latitude lines. Every place on the planet is, so to speak, located on the Terrestrial Equator at zero degrees latitude. When calculating a Horoscope according to the Earthwheel approach, I assume zero degrees as the latitude value and go on from there.
    The longitude value becomes the only indicator of the location of an event. Longitude lines, or Meridians, are, in the Earthwheel way of thinking, not lines at all, but points on the perimeter of the Hoop that is our Earth. By using only a longitudinal figure, the analyst can pinpoint the location of an event.
    The craft of Horoscopics was first developed in regions near zero degrees latitude. In those areas, the east-west spoke of the Earthwheel (which is always ninety degrees from the north- south spoke) points to the places where the moving Sun-point intercepts the visible horizon at sunrise and sunset.
    But for most places on the planet — which in spherical- Earth terms are considered to be non-Equatorial latitudes — the Sun does not usually rise in the exact East or set in the exact West. It is the misfortune of the inhabitants of those regions that they have invented Horoscopic systems wherein the Ascendant position of the Sun (and the other planets) is considered as the determinant of the placement of the Houses.
    Of course, people are thrilled by the drama of the sunrise and the sunset. But as far as Planetics is concerned, a strict right angle must define the relationship between the four cardinal spokes of the Earthwheel and the four seasonal spokes of the Sunwheel.
    This implies that we are intended to live near the Equator as all humans did eons ago. Our travels have only brought us confusion — not the least of which is that Latitudinal Horoscopics, meant to work in non-Equatorial locations, falls apart both logically and practically the farther you get from the Equator, and becomes useless in Polar locales.
    To accomodate for this sorry state of affairs, I used a latitude-like concept I called the Locational Equator. It is the east-west spoke of the Earthwheel, but presented in spherical- Earth terms.

Part Four: Wheels Within Wheels

    In August, 1992, I heard two statements that ended my 15- year commitment to Sidereal sign measurement.
    1. A highly respected and nationally known Sidereal astrologer, whom I count as a dear friend, told me that as he understands it, Sign and Nakshatra divisions don’t refer to physical star locations. Instead, he said, they are regions of space. This shook me because I’d been thinking that Sidereal astrologers did begin their Sign calculations from physical star positions. Furthermore, Siderealists criticize Tropical astrologers for thinking of Signs as “imaginary” or “speculative” regions of space. Yet here was an authority on the Sidereal method agreeing with the Tropical viewpoint.
    2. Shortly afterwards, an astronomy teacher at the Florida Institute of Technology told me that astronomers fix the zero point of Aries at the Vernal Equinox point. I had been thinking, mistakenly, that they used a Sidereal point. I was shaken again! He went on to remind me about something I already knew but just hadn’t thought about: that the stars don’t have fixed positions. Although they move gradually, they do move, and thus are not reliable standards for Sign placement. (In the jargon of Sidereal astrology, the stars are often called “fixed.”)
    Those two conversations had the effect of tearing me loose from my Sidereal bearings. I began to look anew at the foundations of Horoscopics. This present essay, written during August, September, and October of 1992, is one result.
    I quickly came to five conclusions regarding the Signs.
    1. A Sun-based or Planet-based Sign system provides a reason for explaining why each Sign has traditionally been associated with a particular Planet. That is, the Signs starting with Leo and going around to Cancer are tied to a symmetrical sequence of Planetary orbits, starting with the Sun (Leo) and then extending through the physical orbits out to Saturn (Capricorn, Aquarius) and back toward the Sun, with the Moon (Cancer) replacing the Sun at the end.
    2. The obvious choice of a key Planet for structuring the Wheel of Signs is the Sun. It is the center of the Solar System. Its gravitational force binds the system into a whole. The Sun is second in importance only to the Earth for us Earthlings, as it provides the energy and light necessary for life here. Moreover, all the Planets were originally part of the Sun.
    3. If I’m going to advocate a method of analysis, it has to be one I can explain. I don’t trust a method clouded with contradictions and unexamined assumptions. Yes, I know, reality at its heart isn’t logically consistent. Even in the realm of logic, reasoning begins with a major premise that is accepted on faith. But after that point, the laws of inference apply. A mathematical discipline such as astrology does begin with an a priori assumption, but then it must proceed along rigorously considered rational pathways of thought. Therefore, the Wheel of Signs for me is Sun-based, not star-based. The zero point of the First Sign is the location of the Sun at the moment of the Vernal Equinox. This point is exact, directly calculable, and not subject to interpretation.
    4. The stars outside the Solar System may be potent indicators of the features of an event. And ancient analysts may have been able to divine their messages. But we have lost the art of discovering those truths. For instance, Hindu Siderealist analysts quarrel over the present location of the star Rohini, their usual referent for zero degrees Aries. Some say the star is Zeta Piscium. Some say the star has disappeared. I say that when the discourse has degraded to the extent of its present confusion, that whether or not the star is lost, it is definite that the art is lost.
    5. The Sign system, in theory, works with any beginning point. Why, then, choose the Vernal Equinox? Because at that moment the Sun’s path crosses from “below” the Terrestrial Equator to “above” it. At that moment, in other words, the Earth bows down to the Sun, and the Sun asserts its all-pervading power. It’s a display of the devotion and the grandeur that fuel the movements of the cosmic wheels.
    Coincidentally with my revision of my views on the Sign system, I was also questioning the basis of the House system. The seasonal variation of the extent of the Ecliptic arc visible above the horizon was bothering me. I tried a few different twists to correct the situation (including a diagramming method with a circular Ecliptic that could be moved up and down a rectangular House field). Finally I settled on the method I describe here.
    Again, B. V. Raman was a great help to me. In his book A Manual of Hindu Astrology he discusses the Zenith point (the Midheaven, the M. C., the Midpoint of the Tenth House, the Dasama Bhava):

    It is on the correct determination of this that the entire
    fabric of the horoscope rests. In fact, all the other Bhavas
    (houses) are very easily arrived at, after the longitude of

The Dasama Bhava has been definitely ascertained.

By placing emphasis on the Zenith as the starting point for House measurement, Raman opened up the possibility of discarding the Ascendant and adopting the Eastpoint as the middle of the First House. However, he rejected that approach. In his book Hindu Astrology and the West he writes:

    There are some who calculate the M. C. and take the ascendant as 90 degrees from the M. C. This means that the child is supposed to be born at the equator and not at the place of birth. Arguments are advanced in justification of this system also. This method was originally proposed by Zariel.

Raman’s objection to a firm right angle between the First and Tenth Midhouses is understandable, for the reason he states. But I feel the concept of the Locational Equator covers that objection.
    In Planetics, the First, Fourth, Seventh, and Tenth Midhouses form a strict right-angle cross. It is a rigid context within which can be described the angle at which Planetary energies intersect the event site. The Eastpoint-Westpoint line is perpendicular to the Zenith-Nadir line. The horizons are not considered.
    This implies that each place on the Earth is the center of the Earth.
    Each place has its own Equator, a Locational Equator, that divides the Earth in half. In that respect, the Locational Equator is like the Terrestrial Equator. It has its own authority as zero degrees latitude.
    In my system, I treated the spot where the event takes place as a point on the Locational Equator, which is not the same as the place’s conventional latitude line. The intersection of the Locational Equator with the Ecliptic defines the First and Seventh Midhouses.
    At any given moment all Locational Equators on the same Meridian intersect the Ecliptic at the same junction point. Since one of those Locational Equators is the Terrestrial Equator we’re all familiar with, and that Equator is at zero degrees latitude, then it is true that all Locational Equators are always at zero degrees latitude. As Raman put it, “the child is supposed to be born at the equator.” In Planetics, the Equator is the only latitude there is.
    Longitude lines (Meridians) remain as they are considered conventionally. So the event site is a point on the Locational Equator marked by the crossing of a certain Locational Meridian.     The Wheel of Houses and the Wheel of Signs, though measuring two different phenomena, are both founded on the relationship between the Locational Equator and the Ecliptic.
    Let the middle of the First House be the point on the Ecliptic intersected by the Locational Equator at the time of the event.
    Let zero degrees of the First Sign be the point on the Ecliptic intersected by the Locational Equator at the time of the Spring Equinox.
    In one sense, the Wheel of Houses and the Wheel of Signs are not concentric. The Houses center on the Earth and the Signs center on the Sun. But practically speaking the center of both is the event site. So the two wheels can share a common numbering scale defined from the perspective of the event site. It could be either House-based or Sign-based. Convention dictates using a Sign-based gradient. This is a gradient, starting with zero degrees of the First Sign, that moves with reference to the non-moving Wheel of Houses.
    When diagramming the Planets’ positions, I recommend making two separate charts — one for the Houses and one for the Signs. However, the two can be combined, if you’re willing to put up with a lot of confusing lines on one diagram. In India, the usual solution to this problem is to use only the Sign chart and neglect the House Chart. They assume that if a certain Midhouse point falls in a certain Sign, then the Sign arc defines the House designation. If the Midhouse of the Fifth House stands in Sagittarius, then all of Sagittarius is considered to be the Fifth House. But I prefer to maintain the integrity of the House divisions on their own terms, and to make two separate charts.
    This is a democratic, and thus an American, way of doing things. Hindus are hierarchical. Americans are egalitarian.
    The placement of the beginning point at a certain location on the wheel defines the character of the wheel — the kind of information it can give you. House wheels starting at the horizon, the Eastpoint, the Moon, the Sun, will yield different kinds of information. As will Sign wheels starting at the Vernal Equinox point, Zeta Piscium, or other positions.
    It’s your choice. That choice will reflect your state of consciousness.
    A House is an energy band in a sequence of energy bands that can start anywhere on the Wheel of Houses. A Sign is an energy band in a sequence of energy bands that can start anywhere on the Wheel of Signs. The sequence is the consistent factor in the structure of each wheel. It is a rhythm set into play by the consciousness of the analyst. When the analyst decides to place the beginning at a certain position on the wheel, that act of consciousness, which is part of the universal consciousness, initiates the House sequence or Sign sequence at that point.
    No starting point is correct or incorrect. The consciousness of the analyst is an ingredient of the wheel, as much as the Planets are.
    As students of the I Ching have discovered, external events and internal states of mind are synchronous. It’s impossible to say which one creates the other. They happen at the same time, that’s all. So it is with Horoscopics. The analyst’s mind is part of the event being analyzed and part of the system of analysis.
    It could all be psychic. If so, most analysts need a tool to help them to be psychic. The Horoscope is such a tool.
    A Horoscope is a device that an analyst uses to view the information contained in an event. The analyst uses the device that fits best. The validity of the device is confirmed by the accuracy of the results. Theory is interesting, but practice is the proof.
    The message of Planetics is that we are part of the Solar System and part of God. If we can see ourselves in the Planetary arrangements, then how can we persist in thinking that we are cut off, independent, alone, purposeless, temporary phenomena? We are not. We are on the map.
    None of us is alone. None of us is separate. We are all connected together as parts of a whole that is greater than the sum of us. Each of us is part of that magnificent whole. Each of us is marvelous. You are a wonder to behold. And even greater to behold is the whole, which is God. If we cannot see God directly, we can see God indirectly by the workings of the parts of God. We can understand that our lives are part of a greater life. We can understand that God is the primal identity, that the universe is a portion of that self, and that our activities and thoughts and feelings are a part of the cosmos, reflected in the cosmos, and that there is no clear borderline between the part and the whole, even though each of is an individual identity.
    A Horoscope cannot get us to love God. But it can give us evidence (not proof) of the existence of God. We can gain some knowledge of God by way of astrology. And the more we know about God, the closer we get to divine love. The final step over the line into the realm of love has to be taken with additional help (most importantly, with the grace of God), not just with knowledge. But knowledge of God puts us on the path.
    Planetics points the way — in an American way.
    During those three months, my basic question had been, in which system of Horoscopics should my loyalty be placed? In the European system, because that’s what I’ve seen in the newspapers all my life and heard people chatting about at parties? In the Hindu system, since I’m an initiated disciple of a Bengali Vaishanva guru? Or should I place my loyalty in this American Earth, where I was born and where I choose to live and die — in the mode of consciousness of those Americans who have lived and died here for thousands of years — in the indigenous thought patterns and religious feelings that spring out of the clay and the humus and the sand of America? I too have emerged from that soil. God, in whom my final loyalty rests, radiates out from that same American soil. That is my God. That is my being. That is my religion and my Horoscopics. The Earth, the Wheel of Houses, takes first place. The compass directions stand resolutely in charge of the Houses. The Sun and the seasons rule the heavens and the Signs. That is my world and the world of my God. To that American God I swear my allegiance and give my love. That is my duty. The Ultimate Power orders me to worship that way and I obey. No human opinion can convince me otherwise, because I am “Daniel,” which means “God is my judge.”

Afterword: Chart Interpretation

    I tried to keep it simple. Out of the dozens of possible parameters of analysis, I chose only a few.
    I relied heavily on the Hindu technique of Shad Bala (Six Strengths) to determine the energy levels of the Planets and the Houses.
    The only “subordinate” chart I used was the Navamsha, which divides the Wheel of Signs into 108 sections. The major focus of my attention was the activity within the House chart and the Sign chart, and the interactions between the two.
    Three areas of interest organized my analysis: Strength, Favor, and Sequence.
    1. Strength — described in terms of dominance and recession — is a feature of each individual agent (Planet, Sign, or House) in the chart. Depending on certain empirically perceived factors, each agent possesses a certain intensity of dominance or recession. Strength does not affect Favor in the chart. Strength is qualitative, not quantitative.
    How to do it:
        a. Determine the strength of each agent.
        b. Consider the qualities of each agent.
        c. Give weight to the qualities of each agent according

to the strength of each agent, and describe the

resulting portrait.
    2. Favor — described in terms of help and harm — is a feature of the relations among the agents (Planets, Signs, and Houses) in the chart. Depending on certain intuitively perceived factors, each interaction possesses certain conditions of help or harm. Favor does not affect Strength in the chart. Favor is qualitative, not quantitative.
    How to do it:
        a. Give management (ownership) relations full weight,
        occupancy relations 2/3 weight, and aspect relations

1/3 weight.
        b. Within that context, give weight to the relations
        according to the strengths of the agents involved.
        c. List the standard qualitative indications of the various
        relations among the agents.
        d. Describe the resulting portrait.
    3. Sequence — the prediction of the future consequences of the event — is determined according to the Hindu method called Vimshottari Dasha. Mathematical operations compute Planetary periods of time proceeding from the event time.
    How to do it:
        a. Assign the final indications for each Planet to the
        Planet’s corresponding period in the biographical
        sequence.
        b. Describe the resulting biography.

    That was Planetics. It exists now only in this essay and in some charts and diagrams on paper in my files. Will it ever be used by any astrologer? I tested it on a few friends and family members, and the results were accurate. But I didn’t want to pursue it professionally. So, Planetics remains a newborn infant, abandoned by its parent, waiting for someone to bring it up.

END