In ancient times, only the seven naked eye planets – Sun through Saturn – were known to exist.
Birth charts or horoscopes were scant on astrological data and to make up for the deficiency astrologers place the Moon’s Nodes, Fixed Stars and Arabian Parts to explain events that were not otherwise explainable. But with the discovery of Uranus, Neptune and Pluto are these chart extras really needed and what are they anyway?
A planet is a celestial body that transmits an astral vibration that has it correlate in the thoughts, feelings and impulses that define life. And all the thoughts, feelings and impulses that define you have their astrological correlates.
Chiron – a Centaur – is commonly used in pop-astrology. It’s a small solar system body that orbits between Saturn and Uranus. Centaurs exhibit behavior typical of comets and there’s an estimated 44,000 centaurs in our Solar System.
The largest confirmed centaur is Chariklo. Chiron and Echeclus display comet like tails so they’re classified as asteroids and comets.
There is no evidence to suggest that centaurs transmit astrological vibrations
The Moon’s Nodes
The path the Earth makes around the Sun is considered to be a level or plane surface; and the apparent path of the Sun through the zodiac (caused by the Earth’s orbit) is called the ecliptic.
The Moon’s path around the Earth is at a slight angle to this ecliptic; and this causes the Moon to appear to move through the zodiac 5° above and below the ecliptic. In doing this, the Moon crosses the Sun’s path, or ecliptic, twice.
The point the Moon crosses to north latitude is called the north node, and where it crosses to south latitude is called the south node.
These nodes are not planets – as they are usually interpreted. They are not material bodies radiating energy or reflecting energies to Earth, as do the Sun and Moon respectively.
They’re longitudinal relationships between the Sun and the Moon which in astrology are usually called aspects.
So, their influence (if any) should be investigated as aspects, but there’s a problem. They bear no constant or derivable angle between the Sun and Moon in terms of longitude, like a standard aspect does.
The traditional interpretation of the nodes is that the north node is harmonious and the south node is discordant. But now there’s a big bunch based on personal opinions so you can choose the interpretation you like.
Arabian Parts
Arabian Points are even harder to define scientifically.
There are a lot of them and the Part of Fortune is the most popular.
To find the Part of Fortune, you measure the distance in degrees between the Moon and Sun in your chart, figuring from the Sun’s position forward. And then you add this distance to the ascendant degree and the resultant longitude is the Part of Fortune.
Here again, we are not dealing with a planet or a mass which reflects energy to Earth. We are dealing with a longitudinal relationship (aspect), but since the relationship is more complicated and involves three different longitudes and their sum and difference it is harder to consider the Part of Fortune as a possible aspect.
Again, there is no set angle, or pattern of energy as there is in the standard aspects by which to gauge these points in a chart.
(The aspects used in Hermetic astrology are angular relationships that set up a resonance between two centers of energy.)
Perhaps the Arabian points have some divinatory use. But in a scientific astrological delineation, which must describe those energies which act upon your unconscious mind and nervous system, they lack definition and credibility.
Fixed Stars
Fixed stars represent a conception that has long existed because astrologers couldn’t explain what makes astrology work; but we can now better demonstrate what’s going on.
The fixed stars are the brighter magnitude stars along the ecliptic; and these stars are in constellations bearing the same name as the signs.
Since these constellations no longer coincide with the signs, the stars are in many cases in one sign and another constellation – while still having the same influence ascribed to them from the time of Ptolemy (circa 100 A.D.)
This fact is caused by the precession of equinoxes, amounting to an average 50.2" a year. (The fixed stars are only relatively fixed.)
These stars are assigned varying natures according to combinations of planets’ effects, mostly on the authority of Ptolemy.
The basis of this effect is that energy from these stars lends an influence, much in the same way that the influence of the stars of the signs do; but the energy from the stars has only the minutest effect on the Earth!
The influence of the signs does not come from the constellations of the same name. It comes from the magnetic and astral atmosphere of the Earth.
The energies transmitted by the Sun, Moon and planets pass through this ‘energy belt’ and they’re modified by their sign locations.
This realization of the nature of the zodiacal signs would seem to rule out the influence of the fixed stars.
Extensive research has shown that fixed stars, Moon’s nodes and Arabian points are unnecessary factors in astrological analysis.
They are not used in the Hermetic system of astrology.
To quote Elbert Benjamine: ‘It is one of the cardinal doctrines of science, applicable to every line of research, that so long as a consideration can be adequately explained by factors already recognized, no new factor should be introduced into its explanation.
A vast amount of statistical work in natal astrology and over a quarter of a century of checking the predictions of students of mundane astrology, together with the experience of those highly proficient in horary astrology, impels me to recommend that fixed stars, part of fortune and Moon’s nodes be omitted from all astrological charts.’
So your birth chart should only display the Sun, Moon and eight planets of our Solar System and the 12 zodiac signs.
Astrology for Aquarius – sharing our knowledge
