More on the Tea Party

Hello Tom,

My thanks for your note.  Blogger won't let me post this as a comment, so I'm making it a separate entry.  It just might turn out to be next week's newsletter.  So here is more on the Tea Party Chart.  For those of you just tuning in, see the previous entry.

"We the People" refers to the ascendant and the first house.  The exact "people" in question are determined by the ruler of the first, its house and sign placement, and the house and sign placement of its ruler, if any.

This is a rule.  In Rick Santelli's Tea Party chart, the ruler of the first is Jupiter, in Aquarius, in the 12th house.  The 12th can represent horses, Aquarius can represent rebellious groups, we could say the Tea Party concerns an abundance (Jupiter) of wild mustangs.  Metaphorically speaking, we would not be far wrong, though physically we'd be in outer space.

In this chart, Jupiter in Aquarius in 12 is itself ruled by Saturn in Virgo in the 7th.  When we trace rulerships from one planet to another, we are following a natural and logical progression.  In a mundane chart, the 7th is our enemy, as it very often is in a natal chart as well.  Sex as a lubricant helps us to overlook that, though never quite forget it entirely.  So when we see the chart ruler's ruler end up in the 7th, we know we have a dynamic chart, so to speak.

For its part, Saturn is ruled (I often say, "disposed") by Mercury, which is in the same sign as Jupiter.  "Same sign" means "same party" or same group.  Same sign also means same house.  Saturn and Mercury are in mutual reception, which means the two planets are effectively conjunct and the two houses, 12th & 7th are effectively fused.  As the two houses are in fact inconjunct, and as inconjuncts are aspects of invisibility (sorry to throw that at you), we can define the Tea Party as being angry at things that it cannot quite get to grips with.

So far as which planet, Mercury or Saturn, is stronger, note that Mercury is exalted in Aquarius, whereas Saturn is merely stuck in Virgo.  With its exalted knowledge of being superior, Mercury can pounce on Saturn, blaming it for the mess it's making in Virgo.  It's useful to remember that Saturn is not always the stronger planet.  Virgo is Mercury's bailiwick, Virgo is Mercury's responsibility.  Mercury doesn't take kindly to Saturn making a mess in its sign.  On crude levels - and mundane astrology is always crude - Saturn makes a mess wherever he goes.  Saturn in Virgo is all about not being neat.  Not being tidy.  Not getting the job done.  Not being on time, etc., etc.  Or, in Santelli's own words, not paying your bills, not keeping your house in order.  Astrological delineations must closely mirror the subject of the chart itself.  As this does.

Backing up a bit, you could say that Pisces rising puts a spotlight on Jupiter in 12, who then passes the baton to Saturn who throws it to Mercury (all straightforward rulerships) who then monopolize the game by throwing the ball back and forth between themselves, shutting everyone else out.  Mutual receptions tend to do this.  In this chart, as Mercury is the stronger of the two, it's Mercury railing against Saturn, who finds he cannot get out of the way and that he has no good reply.  Mercury, the planet of words, is giving Saturn a good scolding.  Which, again, was precisely what Santelli was doing.

So far as Pisces being universal, Pisces is a great many things.  This is not a strongly Piscean chart, which means there's not a lot that's universal about it.  The ruler, Jupiter, is not in Pisces.  Venus, which is exalted in Pisces, is instead in fall in Aries (which, by the way, gives the chart an aspect of ugliness).  Neptune, which doesn't really rule much of anything, is in Aquarius.  The Sun is in Pisces, but for the most part, the Sun in Pisces simply muddles.  Sometimes I think the Sun in Pisces is even weaker than the Sun in Aquarius or Libra.  In Aquarius & Libra the Sun KNOWS things aren't going his way.  In Pisces he doesn't even know that.

Also realize that signs are not houses and that houses are not signs.  Pisces is universal, but the 12th house is about secrets, large animals, institutions and being trapped in general.  Only in superficial ways are the 12th house and Pisces in any way related.

Buckets and bowls and locomotives and steamshovels, etc.  They're all places to begin a delineation.  Not final destinations.  In very broad terms, you've got a 12th house dominant chart with Saturn being a sore point.  When you get into the chart and look at it, you find Saturn to be a lot more than just a sore point.  In this chart, Saturn gets paired up with Mercury, which makes Mercury and Jupiter the two most prominent planets in the bucket.

In delineating a chart, there are:

Specific planets.
Specific houses.
Specific signs.
Specific relationships between all of them.

Signs can be:
Cardinal
Fixed
Mutable

Signs can be:
Fire
Earth
Air
Water

Houses can be
Angular, which is to say, prominent
Succeedent, which is to say accumulative
Cadent, which is to say, chaotic

Degree positions can be early (1-10), which is to say, young.

Middle,10-20, which representing maturity.

Late, 20-30, which is to say, old and worn out.  The very first and very last degrees of a sign (0-3, 27-30) are especially critical in this regard.

Angular is not the same as cardinal, succedent is not the same as fixed, cadent is not the same as mutable.  Signs are qualities.  Houses are drivers.  A cardinal planet in a cadent house has a hard time punching its way out of a paper bag.  Punching, an activity, is the cardinal planet.  The paper bag represents the limitations of the cadent house.

A cadent sign on an angular house magnifies the instability of the cadent sign.  Exactly what kind of instability will be determined by the nature of the sign, in particular, its element.  Sagittarius on the ascendant will magnify its (mindless: opposite Gemini, fall of Mercury) fiery energy and boundless (Jupiter) enthusiasm, in the direction of and to the aims of the house of its ruler, which is Jupiter.  If Jupiter turns up in, say, Cancer in the 8th, it will actively work (Cancer) to get lots (Jupiter) of money from others (8th house).  As the chart ruler, this will be the reason for the chart's existence, whole cloth.  Everything else is detail.  Could this also be about sex?  Well, yes, but that will depend on the condition of the Moon (ruler of the 8th) as well as of Mars, ruler of Aries on the 5th.  Sex being a lot more personal than money-grubbing.  And it could also be about death.  All 8th house matters.  The house containing the ruler of the chart is the dominant house in the chart.  This chart, Sagittarius rising, Jupiter in Cancer in the 8th, could turn up as the chart of an international (Sag rising) investment house, or as the opening gavel for a convention of undertakers.  Or an international porn expo.  The chart must be read according to which group has claimed it.  Undertakers can be quite sexy, and porn operators are well-known for luscious vampires.

By contrast, aspects and orbs, which astrologers learn to the exclusion of most everything else, can give only fragmentary results.  Not everybody has a lot of aspects, but every chart has 12 functioning signs, 12 functioning houses, and 10 planets and two nodes, which interact in many dynamic ways.  Aspects can highlight important details, but as they are fragmentary at best, aspects usually miss all the major ones.  As a result, too many astrologers are accustomed to a vague and incomplete astrology.  They literally do not know any better.  When real astrology is put in front of them, they can find it disorienting.

So far as, Am I expressing personal opinions?  Of course I am.  It's my newsletter.  It's my blog.  They exist for me and I freely admit to being craven, like everyone else.  There are charts I cannot publish because my delineations contradict established opinions, which are firmly held.  This is the beauty and the terror of astrology, that it goes its own way, revealing truth where it finds it, without regard to reputation or opinion or belief.  If, when you read a chart, it does not reveal new and surprising things to you, then you are simply not reading it.  I can publish many interesting charts when there is at least one other person who can do this sort of delineation.  Until then, it's all one-sided, alas.