At the Lodge - 18th October 2004

Lodge Lecture | Class | Charts Discussion

Lodge Lecture

This evening we had the pleasure of welcoming back our previous president, Wanda Sellar, to speak on the subject of the Triplicities and Quadruplicities in Medical Astrology.

She started by telling us, as did Lilly, to consider the state of the Sun and the Moon as they are the life force and the physical body respectively and will therefore give an indication of the health and constitution of the individual. Balance between the Sun and Moon can be seen in the physical processes of the body. The Sun is the natural ruler of heat and when the body gets too hot it sweats, water being under lunar rulership, which brings down the temperature.

The Sun has the primitive qualities of hot + dry, the Moon, cold + moist. The positive signs are active and energetic, the negative, responsive and absorbing. There have also been suggestions that these two may reflect acidity and alkalinity in the body. Wanda then talked us through her correspondences between the positive signs and the nervous system and the negative signs and the digestive system.

The triplicities are of a similar quality and aspects between these signs gives an easy flow of energy, there is sufficient energy, talking in a medical capacity, and there is little stress. The quadruplicities bring together signs which have different ways of seeing things and aspects between these are of a challenging nature; in medical terms, there may be too much energy. There is an old idea that the area where disease presents may not be the area in which it arose. Looking at the quadruplicities can give us a clue to the area of origination.

Wanda then gave us some specific examples using the different quadruplicities. Cardinal signs are associated with action and the muscles, bones and movement. Disease tends to be acute. Fixed signs, as would be expected, hang on to things, especially emotional baggage and disease tends to be chronic. Mutable signs are more associated with the nervous system and diseases are intermittent, having both chronic and acute phases. She also speculated that transits may be an opportunity to rebalance ourselves?

We then looked at the chart of Christopher Reeve to see how we could practically apply the theory. Looking at Reeve's natal chart, the first thing you see is the Pluto conjunct the ascendant in Leo. This is square to Jupiter in the tenth and Mars is trine the ascendant from Sagittarius. The ascendant and the Mars are also sextile to a cluster of Libra planets in the second house. This all shows a good flow of energy as shown in his life before the accident: he was a man of action, involved in sports and outdoor activities.

Looking at the condition of the Sun, ruler of the ascendant, you see it is in Libra in the second house, and tightly conjunct Mercury, the ruler of the second. This is not the best place for the Sun, in its fall and debilitating the ruler of the second house where it is found. It is also on the Mars/Saturn midpoint.

Wanda then talked us through some of the factors which were active nine years ago at the time of the accident. The Sun Mercury had progressed by solar arc to the IC, which was also on the Mars/Saturn midpoint and the Sun/Mercury midpoint, bringing the natal promise to a particular period of time. The natal Jupiter square the nodes has progressed to conjunct the natal Sun Mercury, completing the Sun Mercury theme.

At the time of his death, solar arc MC was opposing Chiron and solar arc Neptune had reached his Moon.

This was just a brief overview of the condition of his chart during these times. A very thought provoking example of how the natal configurations, not only echo through the events of a life, but through the state of the body too.

Claire Chandler

Class

Gill's write up of the class will appear soon.

Charts Discussion

We started with a blind chart of an organisation. First noted was the extraordinarily tight Sun Jupiter conjunction at 13 Cancer, one minute from exactitude, which many thought must mean it was firmly American and the tight Pluto Uranus conjunction is sextile to the Sun Jupiter with the Moon in Aquarius completing the yod would indicate something which was part of American modern culture and was familiar to every man. Questions of recent health scandals, underhand deals and a fall off in its popular appeal over the last few years matched the organisation perfectly: this is the chart for McDonalds.

Moving on to the political charts, we started with the UK and with Cherrie Booth. The time was from a letter from her father to Frank Clifford; there is another time at 1.30, both give a Leo ascendant. She has a Jupiter Uranus conjunction in late Cancer conjunct the ascendant square to a Mercury Neptune conjunction in Libra. These also pick up Tony Blair's IC and Saturn Neptune conjunction; that must make for a peaceful homelife. Her Moon is opposite his Moon and tightly square to her Venus in Scorpio highlighting the conflict between what we need and what we want. Venus is also semi-square to her Sun. Her terrific drive and capacity for hard work is shown by Mars in Capricorn in the sixth: even with a nanny it's no picnic bringing up four children and having a high profile career. Some people were surprised by the absence of planets above the horizon. This is shown by her lack of profile rather than the lack of her success. She is not a high profile player, preferring to get on with her work and not to be a figure head for causes in the way that Helena Kennedy or Hillary Clinton might. We concluded by wondering how secure and confident she was in her intelligence and wondered if she might have to keep proving her smartness to herself.

We then looked at the chart for the start of absentee voting in Florida. The polls had opened in Florida, Texas, Arizona and a few other states for people to vote ahead of time. The postal vote from the military personnel is also in progress. This could be a possible chart for the start of the election. Mars is conjunct the ascendant, but it is Mars in Libra which rules the seventh house: if this was a battle it would be victory to the challenger. We also discussed the coming quarter Moon which would tightly pick up Saturn and would perfect at the same time as the Venus Pluto square. Bush is having his Saturn return and so would be picked up by the Sun and Moon and Kerry would be picked up by Venus Saturn aspecting his ascendant.

There is a UK documentary airing at the time of the quarter Moon about the manufacturing of the war on terror. It was pointed out that Saturn, Sun and Moon are all in their detriment or fall. When we have no strength we are easily pushed around.

We also looked at Laura Bush, George's wife, to see if there were any indications of a move there. We concluded that she was one tough cookie and that she probably kept him in line quite forcefully. The emphasis on Saturn was not that far from her IC and as with Blair, it rules her MC and they live over the shop. Time, Saturn, will reveal.

Claire Chandler

Lodge Lecture | Class | Charts Discussion