posted May 05, 2008 03:05 PM         

MUSIC OF THE SPHERES: HARMONIC CHARTS

Jacob Schwartz

The Power of Number orders everything. Whenever astrologers get together, the conversation always reduces itself to a symbolic language based on Number. A horoscope describes a person's place in time, space, and number! Have you ever noticed that specific numbers repeatedly appear in your life, even numbers chosen by strangers: telephones, addresses, licenses, odometers, birthdates, and so forth. Planets reflect the power of numbers too. The power is in the distances between them.

Music is also ordered by number. The sounds of notes struck on a piano, harp or guitar are determined by the length and type of strings used and the level of pressure used. The harmony of musical sounds is produced by combining chords and the sequence of chords. The word harmony is often used to mean pleasant sounding in contrast to discordant meaning unpleasant, or dissonant, sounds. However discord has been a vital part of harmonics throughout musical history, from Bach to the Beatles.

In astrology, the chords are the aspects, or angular separation, between planets and points. For example, in the zodiac circle divided into 360 degrees, two planets placed four signs apart (each sign comprises 30 degrees) are 120 degrees apart and said to be in trine. Dividing the number 360 by three also produces 120 degrees. So, trines in the horoscope and multiplying planetary positions by three are both expressions of the Power of Three.

In music, a harmonic is a pitch sounded by a string or a column of air, such as in a flute, bagpipe, or saxophone. When planets rotate around the Sun, and the Moon rotates around Earth, rhythms and harmonics are established by the very cyclical motion. How can we apply this music of the spheres to individual charts?

Harmonic Charts

If you want to delve deeper into romantic connections with your partner, for example, you'll look at the harmonics associated with romance: Five and Seven. Five, the Fifth House and Fifth Harmonic are expressive of lovers as well as creativity, hobbies, children and business investments, whatever you want growing and developing. Seven, the Seventh House and Seventh Harmonic represent the partner, the spouse, the significant other. Lovers and partners can be the same person when, for example, the ruling planet of one house resides in the other house, or when the rulers are conjunct or strongly aspected.

A harmonic horoscope is derived by multiplying the longitude of every planet by a number to arrive at the planets' new zodiacal position in that harmonic number. Each harmonic is associated with a specific aspect determined by dividing the harmonic number into 360 degrees. The Second Harmonic chart, for example, is derived by multiplying every planetary position by Two; dividing 360 degrees by two produces a 180 degree angle, an opposition. All planets exactly in opposition in the natal chart will be conjunct in the Second Harmonic chart. The Fourth Harmonic chart multiplies each natal planetary position by four; dividing 360 degrees by the Power of Four produces square, or 90 degree, aspects. Thus, all planets exactly square in the natal chart will be conjunct in the Fourth Harmonic chart, and so forth. The Fifth Harmonic chart unifies quintiles, Sixth Harmonic with sextiles, Seventh Harmonic with septiles, Eighth Harmonic with octiles better known as semisquares, Ninth Harmonic with novile 40 degree angles, and the Tenth Harmonic with decile 36 degree angles.

Meanings of Harmonic Waves

If we're looking at your Fifth Harmonic chart to discover romantic qualities, then multiply the longitude of each planet by five. Let's say my Sun's at 3 Gemini. To multiply by five, first convert 3 Gemini to the number designation starting with zero for zero Aries. In our example, 60 degrees are consumed by Aries and Taurus, and three more until we reach 3 Gemini. So 63 degrees separate 3 Gemini from 0 Aries. To discover the Fifth Harmonic, we multiply 63 times five yielding 315. Since the 300th degree, starting with 0 Aries, is 0 Aquarius, 315 is 15 Aquarius. Do that for all the planets and points in your chart to create the Fifth Harmonic chart.

If the number resulting from multiplying is greater than 360, then subtract 360, and use the result. If the resulting number is still beyond 360, keep on subtracting 360 until you arrive at a number less than 360. But the original data must be precise, for any error in the natal chart is magnified too. Here are the meanings of the harmonic charts, the same as the meaning of the numbers themselves.

1 First Harmonic describes the natal chart representing being, survival, existence, names, identity.

2 Second Harmonic describes values, portable possessions, money, self worth, awareness of differences.

3 Third Harmonic describes communication, perception, understanding, ideas, local environments, and acknowledgement.

4 Fourth Harmonic describes real estate, fixed possessions, home, family, safety, security, roots, ancestry.

5 Fifth Harmonic describes creativity, romance, children, investments, lovers, hobbies, and being the center.

6 Sixth Harmonic describes service and service providers, perfection, colleagues, animal companions.

7 Seventh Harmonic describes relationships, steady partners, the public, contracts, polarities.

8 Eighth Harmonic describes sharing possessions and values, sex, intimacy, credit, loans, insurance.

9 Ninth Harmonic describes truth, religion, philosophy, law, morality, ethics.

10 Tenth Harmonic describes personal goals, success, leaders, bosses, parents, purposes.

11 Eleventh Harmonic describes shared creativity, investments, others' children, cooperation, teamwork.

12 Twelfth Harmonic describes karma, privacy, low profile efforts, service debts, career communications.

The Sacred Geometry of 7 and 13

The Thirteenth Harmonic describes esoteric meanings deeply tied to beginnings and endings, the alpha and the omega. Some liken the Thirteenth Harmonic to the fourth house (1 + 3 = 4). In fact, the Power of Seven and Thirteen represent awareness of new levels of consciousness because only those numbers create new circles and spheres.

Place a quarter on paper; draw a circle around it. Use that same quarter to draw circles around the first quarter's circle. You'll discover that six, and only six, circles fit perfectly around the center circle.

What's true for Seven is true for the Power of Thirteen in spheres. To prove this, take a bag of marbles all the same size. Place them in a corner of a clear plastic bag. Chose one colored differently from the rest and place that marble in the center of the others. Gradually squeeze the marbles into the corner of the bag until the specially colored one is centered.

Notice that all twelve marbles touch the one in the center. Thirteen spheres form a new larger sphere. Remove or add one marble destroys the spherical pattern. Thirteen, comprising the Power of Twelve plus the Power of One is such a sacred number throughout history. Twelve disciples and one Jesus, 12 Hebrew tribes and one Israel, 12 months and 1 year, 12 citizens and one jury.

Creativity and The Clintons

Typical astrological texts assign creativity to the fifth house -- the house of performers, artists, royalty. Perhaps the better keyword is power, including the power to create, or the power to destroy. When a married person also has a lover, the seventh house is reserved for the responsive spouse or life partnership. The fifth house is for the lover, or the one to have fun with. Remember, spouses and lovers can be the same person indicated, for example, by the ruling planet of one house is in the other house, or if planets ruling the fifth and seventh houses are conjunct or gently aspected.

No marriage in modern times has been subject to so much scrutiny, prejudgment, criticism and gossip as the marriage of Bill and Hillary Clinton. In their natal charts, the ruling planets of the fifth and seventh houses are neither favorably aspected nor in the houses of the other. So, more mysterious clues to their so far enduring married life must come from the subtlety of harmonic charts.

President Clinton's natal fifth and seventh houses (birthdata: August 19, 1946, 8:51 AM CST, Hope AR, 33N40, 93W35) are devoid of planets, and so is Hillary's seventh house (her birthdata: October 26, 1947, 8:00 pm CST, Chicago IL, 87W39, 41N52). However her natal fifth house contains the proud Sun, articulate Mercury and esthetic Venus.

However, President Clinton's Fifth Harmonic chart has the two most powerful planets conjunct, Jupiter and Pluto at 26 and 29 Capricorn respectively. Hillary Rodham Clinton's Fifth Harmonic chart compliments The President's chart very well. Hillary's Fifth Harmonic Moon is at 26 Pisces, and her Venus 24 Taurus, sextile and trine to Bill's Jupiter/Pluto Fifth Harmonic powerhouse conjunction in late Capricorn. At the same time, Bill's emotionally receptive 5th Harmonic Moon at 11 Sagittarius, interested in adventure, is exactly sextile to Hillary's Fifth Harmonic passionate powerhouse of Mars/Pluto at 11 and 14 Aquarius. These planets of passion and power are in a fixed sign, indicating she is determined to make the marriage work in spite of, if not because of, media exaggerations, prejudices and what she perceives to be political enemies determined to destroy the prestige of the President and his administration. Another romantic connection between Bill and Hillary are their Fifth Harmonic Venus ties. Hillary's Venus at 24 Taurus is opposite to her own idealistic Neptune at 26 Scorpio conjunct Bill's Venus at 25 Scorpio.

Enter White House intern Monica Lewinsky (July 23, 1973, 12:21 pm PDT, San Francisco). Had President Clinton been a student of astrology or consulted an astrologer who drew up Monica's Fifth Harmonic chart, he would have foreseen the trouble he would be inviting by the association. Yes, in their natal charts there are many connections: Monica's admiring and egotistical Sun at 0 Leo 46 joins Bill's responsible Saturn strongly placed at 2 Leo 08 in his career house. Both Monica and Bill have sensual Taurus Moons. But her aggressive symbol of courage and masculinity, Mars, in assertive Aries challenges his strong Mars, idealistic Neptune, esthetic Venus and righteous Jupiter in fair, democratic Libra. And with her Mars opposite unpredictable Uranus, there's no telling where her anger and passions would be directed. Monica's mental Mercury in Cancer forms a square with the Mars-Uranus opposition forming a T-square in cardinal signs. Her need to talk about (Mercury) her exciting and unpredictable (Uranus) affairs with men (Mars) is clear. With transiting Saturn transiting in late Aries since spring 1998 and through winter 1999, and forming a stressful square to her Mercury, and close upon her passionate Mars, those activities go into hiding.

But a look at Monica's romantic Fifth Harmonic reveals a dynamic grand cross blending sex, politics, power and unpredictability, a lethal combination for the President. Monica's Fifth Libra (opposite Bill's Fifth Harmonic Sun at 10 Aries). Monica received (Moon) and transformed (Pluto) Bill's ego (Sun) in his sixth house of service. Monica's Moon-Pluto is opposite her Fifth Harmonic assertively charming and fashionable Venus at 22 Aries close by Bill's Fifth Harmonic descendant at 27 Aries. Beauty (Venus) challenges power (Pluto) and emotion (Moon). But that opposition is square to another opposition: unpredictable Uranus (6 Capricorn) opposite politically aggressive Mars-Jupiter both at 10 Cancer. Could Monica turn Bill's head? Her politically active Mars-Jupiter opposed his mental Mercury. Monica's natal 5th and 7th house, like Bill's, are devoid of planets.

However, Bill's Fifth Harmonic Venus is at 25 Scorpio, a sign known for mystery and possessiveness; but Monica's fantasy Neptune exactly squared Bill's Venus, exaggerating the expectation of a romance with the President. Venus in his possessive second house is in a stressful 135 degree aspect to his Fifth Harmonic Sun in aggressive Aries precisely on his natal descendent symbolizing wife Hillary. Explaining the accusations regarding President Clinton's alleged extra-marital affairs, we note his Fifth Harmonic Venus is exactly sextile the same Jupiter-Pluto political power aspect, apparently many persons find his power attractive, and a source of jealousy or rivalry.

If two planets are extremely close together, let's say less than a degree apart, then they will continue to stay together throughout many harmonics because multiplying the natal positions will not drive them much further apart. For example, the President's passionate natal Mars at 6 Libra 21 is only half a degree from idealistic Neptune at 6 Libra 51. So, Clinton's superheroic Mars-Neptune conjunction stays intact in many harmonics.

Health

The pioneer researcher of harmonics, with advanced degrees from Cambridge, is John Addey (and I strongly recommend his book Harmonics in Astrology), who painstakingly analyzed thousands of horoscopes seeking correlations of harmonics with occupational and health data. He chose the number six to represent health, not only because of the tradition of the sixth house in a horoscope doing so, but because six represents two times three. Two represents polarity and the need for balance while three represents form and an almost indestructible shape.

Impotence

The Seventh Harmonic and the septile aspect (360/7) are connected with relationships in prelude to sexual intimacy. In research on the horoscopes of impotent men, Addey discovered the planet of passion, Mars, to be conjunct the planet of inhibition, Saturn, in the Seventh Harmonic chart. In the President's Seventh Harmonic chart, his glorified macho planets, Mars and Neptune at 14 and 18 Scorpio, are in a stressful square to Saturn at 15 Leo, suggesting a fear of impotence (Saturn square Mars).

Blindness, Juvenile Delinquency

Addey's research with horoscopes of blind persons showed consistent stressful aspects within three minutes of one degree of arc for Mercury, representing visual perception. In 90 percent of the charts of blind persons studied, Mercury was conjunct Mars or Saturn using the 125th harmonic! In an Australian study of almost 400 delinquent children, and only looking at sun signs, the investigator found no significant difference. However, when Addey looked more closely at the data by decanates, those are divisions of signs into three sections of only ten degrees, the size of delinquents in the first ten degrees of both Aries and Libra registered by far the largest numbers of delinquents.

In Pursuit of Truth

The opponents of astrology seek to disprove it without any guiding principle of universal order. Most often the opponents give up after the obvious statistic avenues are explored (sun signs alone) while the experienced astrologer from experience knows an order does exist, and so persists to find order (the decanates of signs in this case).

In pursuing the truth of astrology, there is one major obstacle: Doubt! Anyone doubting the possibility of solving a problem certainly will fail. One must be wholly convinced that laws of order in the universe reign supreme. Whether noticing similarities in the charts of thousands of persons or the individual couple of Bill and Hillary Clinton, one must be convinced that similarities are based on clear and definite principles. Simply because human beings have free will does not mean the laws of nature cease to exist.

The study of harmonics is the study of number. Number guides every operation in the universe. With more evidence connecting genetic inheritance and human behavior, could it be that our genes contain a horoscope chromosome determining the timing of a natural childbirth. And don't we interfere with this timing when a birth is induced by human intervention? Remember that genetics as a science was unheard of three hundred years ago. Perhaps harmonics research and astrogenetics will be a respected science in the future.

Conclusion: Expanding Astrology's Basics

Many people feel astrology is perfectly fine as it is. But no science, whether it's medicine or physics or astrology, can be effectively applied until its components are clearly defined, and this condition does not prevail in astrology. We don't know why precisely Mars refers to action and passion other than that's the subjective experience of astrological practitioners; only in the last forty years has this been confirmed by the research of the Gauquelins who found Mars consistently placed in the horoscopes of action-oriented sports champions and military heroes. Until the true basis of a science is found nothing fits perfectly and each discovery presents fresh problems. But once the basis is found, then each new discovery confirms what is already known.

Harmonics as Unifying Principle

Astrologers dispute about the right zodiac -- tropical, sidereal, draconic or another. Maybe they all work at different levels and for different things. House systems is another battleground. The aspects between planets and points makes a sound basis for objective testing. Just as each zodiac sign is neither good nor bad but embodies a definite principle, so each aspect embodies a certain principle which can be advantageous (even squares) or disadvantageous (even trines).

Harmonics is for those who love astrology because they love the mystery of order, because they see beauty in the infinite wisdom that correlates cosmic activity with human experience. Harmonics is for those wanting to penetrate those mysteries for basic principles.

posted May 05, 2008 03:08 PM         

When plotting a natal chart on a wheel, some aspects stand out immediately; conjunctions (where two planets occupy more or less the same spot) are immediately obvious, as are oppositions (where two planets are 180 apart). Most of us with a little effort can spot squares (90 separation) and trines (120 separation) as well. However, these aren’t the only aspects used in astrology, and most of the other aspects such as semi-square (45) and sesquisquare (135) are not easy to spot, and aspects such as the quintile (72) and septile (51.43) are virtually impossible to spot visually.

This problem can be overcome using the technique of harmonics, and this article looks at how this technique is used. However, using harmonics is not simply a technique to find complex aspects – it is more fundamental than that, as harmonics represent the underlying pattern in an astrological chart out of which arise all the aspects, both familiar and complex.

Resonance

Are things starting to sound rather musical? The word harmonics suggests harmony, and the ancient Greeks would have had no problem linking topics as diverse as astrology and music. Such ideas have not been very popular in contemporary scientific thinking, until a couple of years ago. The physicists’ equivalent of the Holy Grail is something called a unified field theory (Einstein spent most of his life working on this problem without ever solving it), and the latest and most promising contender is something called superstring theory. This postulates that all fundamental particles (such as protons, neutrons and electrons out of which atoms are made) are actually made of tiny vibrating, resonating loops called “strings”. The jury is still out as to whether this theory may be valid, but if it is vindicated it has a curious and beautiful conclusion: the Universe is made out of music.

Music differs from noise (except in the minds of some twentieth-century composers) in that music is structured, and when two or more notes are played simultaneously they are designed to blend to produce a pleasing tone. Any sound, whether music or noise, consists of “sound waves”. Sometimes two different sound waves will combine to produce what we hear as a pleasant combination, sometimes they will combine to produce something that sounds raucous or clashing to our ears. It has often been assumed that whether a piece of music sounds good or bad is a cultural thing, but there is some recent evidence to suggest that it’s actually something far more fundamental than this – that certain combinations of sound waves really are perceived universally as “nicer” than others.

Consider a string on a guitar. It is held under tension, and plucking the string will cause it to vibrate rapidly at a particular “resonant frequency”. The higher the frequency, the higher in pitch the note sounds. If we construct a guitar string of the right length and tension, plucking it will cause it to vibrate, say, 440 times a second. This corresponds to the A above middle C. If we halve the length of the string that can vibrate by pressing down half way along the string, it will now vibrate at 880 times a second. This corresponds to the note A, but an octave higher than the original A. If we hear these two notes played together, they sound harmonious. Certain other combinations sound harmonious, too – C and G together for instance.

The reason that some combinations sound “nice” is because they relate to particular “standing waves”. The easiest way to think of a standing wave is to imagine tying a skipping rope to a pole and holding the other end and jiggling the rope up and down. Most of the time, you would notice an irregular pattern as the rope bobs up and down. However, by jiggling the rope at exactly the right frequency, you can make the rope appear to stand still (this is the standing wave) by getting exactly one wave to appear along the rope. If you then jiggle faster, the pattern breaks down but then suddenly, at about twice the speed, you get another standing wave – this time, there appear to be exactly two waves along the length of the rope. The same things happens with three wavelengths, four and so on. These are the frequencies at which the rope “resonates”, and a similar pattern occurs in music, using air molecules in place of the rope.

Resonance in the chart

To get back to astrology – and, coincidentally, superstring theory – imagine our piece of rope with one or more standing waves, but tied in a loop. It’s circular, so it’s the same shape as an astrological chart wheel. If there is one standing wave, there will be one point of resonance on the wheel. If there are two standing waves, there will be two points of resonance, and so on. Each planet has its own “loop” of string like this; if a second planet (say Mars) occupies the resonance point of the first planet (say Jupiter), we say that the two planets are conjunct. Now imagine the case where there are two resonance points for a planet. One of these resonance points is in opposition to the first. When there are three resonance points, these points are trine to each other. When there are four, they are square to each other and so on.

So we can see that each aspect – whether it’s a simple one like a trine, or a complex one like a novile – corresponds to a resonance point. In addition, there are an infinite number of standing waves that we can superimpose on the chart – each of these waves is called a harmonic. In the same way that the final sound of Bach’s Toccata in D minor consists of several harmonious notes, our natal chart can be thought of as the basic chart with an infinite number of harmonic charts superimposed on it; a kind of “grand chord”. As the harmonic number increases, the influence of that harmonic chart reduces, so the 360th harmonic is not as important as the third harmonic (if it were as important, then every planet would be in aspect to every other planet in some harmonic and each of these aspects would be of equal importance, which we have to assume is not the case in astrology).

Using this model, everything we’ve ever considered as an aspect simply boils down to a conjunction in a particular harmonic. A trine in your natal chart in the first harmonic, for example, shows up as a conjunction if you produce the third harmonic chart.

TECHNIQUE

To calculate a harmonic chart, we must remember that there are a whole number of “wavelengths” in the circle. In the basic natal chart (first harmonic), we are interested in how far around the circle a particular planet is. For subsequent harmonics, we are only interested in how far along a particular wave the planet is.

Let’s say we’re interested in calculating the fifth harmonic. This means there are five identical “waves” around the circle, each occupying 72. So we divide the chart wheel into five segments of 72 starting, by convention, at the zero point of Aries. We then see how far into its particular segment each planet is – so each planet will have a position between 0 and 72. In this scheme, if Mars is at 5 Aries (5) and Jupiter is at 17 Gemini (77), they will both have a position of 5 within the segment. In other words, in the fifth harmonic chart, they will be conjunct. In the basic natal chart, of course, they are actually 72 apart and so are seen to be quintile to each other (although it’s unlikely you would spot this visually).

Trying to cram all the planets into a 72 segment of a circle would make the chart look very crowded, so we actually stretch the segment to occupy 360. We do this by multiplying each final position by 5 before plotting it on the chart. We then end up with a traditional looking chart, but where quintiles and semi-quintiles appear as conjunctions and oppositions.

WORKED EXAMPLE

Alan Turing was born in Paddington on 23 June 1912. His birth time is unknown, but some authorities have come up with a rectified chart using a birth time of 02:15. We’ll just look at three planets for this example: Saturn, Neptune and Chiron.

Saturn: 28 Taurus 26
Neptune: 22 Cancer 39
Chiron: 11 Pisces 07
1. Convert each position to absolute longitude:

Saturn 58 deg 26
Neptune 112 deg 39
Chiron 341 deg 07
2. Now work out where these appear within each 72 degree segment:

Saturn 58 deg 26 (within the first 72 degree segment)
Neptune 40 deg 39 (within the second segment, but that is not relevant)
Chiron: 53 deg 06 (within the fifth segment, but again not relevant)
3. Finally, multiply these figures by 5 so they map nicely into a 360 circle:

Saturn 292 deg 10
Neptune 203 deg 15
Chiron 265 deg 30
These points can then be plotted onto a chart. It is not a good idea to convert these figures into signs (for instance, to say Saturn is 22 Capricorn 10, as this simply is not relevant; Saturn is not in Capricorn in any real sense in this chart).

WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

Each harmonic chart can be thought of as adding a subtle flavour to the main chart. Research is still taking place into what each harmonic might mean, in particular whether given harmonics relate to certain times of life, such as the 41st harmonic relating to the 41st year of life. However, there are certain generally accepted meanings for many of the harmonics:

5th: style and mental creativity
7th: inspiration, vision and romantic ideals
11th: deep rooted fantasy, obsessions
13th: one’s view of existence, spirituality and death