posted December 10, 2017 12:08 AM            

She is probably the most popular and prolific writer of books on astrology for the masses. I think she was probably the best expositor of astrology for the masses in the 20th century.

But, but, but her Mercury is shock-gasp-horror ... 'un-aspected' --? Not a single "major" Ptolemaic aspect involving Mercury, and no minor ones showing on the flat wheel (flat sky) circle chart. Yet there was no deficiency of Mercurial energy in her life or abilities since it was the focus of what she did and did so well. Clearly she was not just over-compensating by trying harder. She was good at writing, a gifted communicator. So what gives?

Well, look at her declinations:

Sun 7°28' N
Moon 4°31' S
Mercury 15°20' N
Venus 4°49' N
Mars 23°09' N
Jupiter 21°48' S
Saturn 13°08' S
Uranus 3°26' S
Neptune 15°09' N
Pluto 20°57' N

Mercury closely parallel Neptune at 15° North declination (orb only 0°11').

That aspect between Mercury and Neptune shows her exceptional, colorful, persuasive ability with words. It is a major aspect, at least equal in strength to a sextile or trine, but holding the fused nature of a conjunction. In fact, it is the tightest planet-to-planet aspect in her birth chart.

Her Mercury was even retrograde, clearly not a bad thing for her. Yes, Mercury was rising and in the 1st house of her chart, but that alone does not at all indicate the poetry of her words and the metaphysical heights she reached with her mind. Neptune's parallel to Mercury does.

Another significant factor is also found in the declinations. The 3rd house is the house of journalism and writing. Mercury parallel Neptune alone does not indicate that as occupation. That aspect was active for several days during which she was born. While the standard chart for her (based on the time of 6:05 AM) is not precisely accurate, it is accurate enough to see that Mars (Asc ruler) at 23N09 declination parallel the 3rd house cusp 23N09! There is your journalism and expository writing. Houses function in a 3D spherical + 4th time dimension, not like slices of pie on a flat sky plate.

So ...

1. The flat wheel chart never tells the full story.
2. Declinations are important in every chart.
3. The tightest aspect(s) always matter, no matter their geometry or where they are.
4. The rules or aphorisms for interpretation in flat wheel based astrology are often not reliably accurate.
5. We best learn horoscopic astrology by looking at notable human examples of a particular ability and then looking deeper for the natal chart factors that support it -- which are always there!

posted December 10, 2017 12:57 AM            

I always thought that there was something therein that Merc Tau/Venus Aries/Mars Gemini loop to explain the writing ability. I didn't know her Asc position to try and connect the dots though.

posted December 10, 2017 02:32 PM            

What I did not mention is that her Mars position is not only parallel the 3rd house cusp, but also contra-parallel the Midheaven. That joins the 3rd house cups and MC with the action of Mars.

ALL this in the declinations.