TAARP - Index -
Natal Horoscope Interpretation
Preliminary Comments
Explanations for the figures and tables in TAARP's natal horoscope chart pack are given in Block 4: A TAARP Natal Horoscope Chart Pack. Block 5 is an interpretation for Nancy's natal horoscope that is presented in Block 4.
As explained in Block 4, TAARP uses the Time Cycles, Inc. IO software to calculate the natal horoscope. Chart 1 is the IO output. The other charts are generated by TAARP software. The format of the natal horoscope data in Chart 1 is very compact, as it must be to include most of the information pertinent to the natal horoscope on one chart. IO also provides other charts that express some of the information in Chart 1 in different formats. TAARP was not satisfied with any of the IO charts and so we developed charts of our own.
It should be noted there are several pieces of information in Chart 1 that we have not yet included in our natal horoscope chart interpretation effort. Examples of these pieces of data are the nodes of the Moon, parallel/anti-parallel indicators, retrograde markers, and asteroid information. There are two reasons why TAARP has to date ignored these pieces of information. The first reason is that we feel they are not as significant or as fundamental as those features of the natal horoscope that we do pay attention to. Even with this limited approach the problem of natal horoscope interpretation is immensely complex. We have purposively limited our scope of inquiry in order to try to get our hands firmly on what we consider to be the fundamentals of natal astrology.
The second reason is simply that Crowley focuses on what we consider the fundamentals to be in his astrology books, and we are focusing on Crowley's approach to natal astrology. He sometimes, but seldom, mentions retrograde motion, the Moon's nodes, and other pieces of astrology that we now ignore. For example, in "The Complete Astrological Writings of Aleister Crowley" while he does say that serious consideration needs to be given to the parallel/anti-parallel issue, he does not refer to it again. We are fully aware that to eventually do a complete job of natal horoscope interpretation we will have to incorporate some of these additional pieces of information into our analysis.
I am firmly convinced that even an exceptionally good natal astrologer can not accomplish a comprehensive and accurate interpretation of a natal horoscope without the help of the native belonging to the natal horoscope. There are two reasons for this. First, the natal horoscope is so immensely complex that only a creative genius with powerful knowledge and experience of natal astrology would have a prayer of doing an adequate job alone. Crowley says that a proper interpretation of a natal horoscope takes a week of hard work. Coming from Crowley with his phenomenal intellect, high creativity, in-depth knowledge of all areas of the occult sciences, and incredible ability to concentrate and focus mentally this is quite a statement. The other reason is that currently I do not think that the genetic makeup an individual inherits from his parents is necessarily included or implied in the natal horoscope. I think that most probably, indications for a certain capability in a natal horoscope are necessary conditions for the capability to manifest in the individual, but are not a sufficient condition. In other words, for an individual to be of high intellect his natal horoscope must indicate high intellect and his genetic makeup must be in accord with high intellect. Furthermore, there is the issue of early childhood environment. For example, if both the cosmic environment at the moment of birth (i.e., the natal horoscope) and the genetic makeup correspond to high intellect, but as a child the individual suffered from a very poor diet and during the period of pregnancy the mother suffered form a very poor diet, then as an adult the individual will most probably be fairly unintelligent. Crowley even goes so far as to say that only those individuals who are innately blessed with great attributes provide a proper vehicle for the cosmic imprint to effectively take place. In other words, "innately" mediocre individuals are simply too much of a clouded mix-match for the cosmic imprint to be able to set in.
The point to all of this is the following. My method of natal chart interpretation is:
I think it is a travesty for professional astrologers to charge $50 to $100 an hour and talk non-stop to a client with nothing for the client to look at but something as complex as the IO chart presented herein. TAARP has never charged anyone for a natal horoscope interpretation.
The Interpretation
I will now proceed to give some comments on the chart pack given in Block 4. It is for a friend of mine named Nancy, whom I know very well. The comments that I give here are by no means the ones that I would give to someone whose chart I was interpreting if they knew nothing about natal astrology. They are in fact only the kinds of thoughts I go through with myself or with my partner Glenn. These thoughts are of course very much dependent on Aleister Crowley's three astrology books as well as many of his other books and in particular his "The Book of Thoth."
It is fairly obvious that the ruler of this chart is Jupiter. Sagittarius is rising and Jupiter rules Sagittarius. In addition, Jupiter is part of a grand trine involving Mars in Leo in the 9th House and the Moon in Taurus in the 5th House. This is a most powerful grand trial due to the propitious positions of the three planets involved. Jupiter is strong because He is rising in Sagittarius. Mars is strong because He is high in the heavens and his brutal, warlike fire is smoothed out and strengthened by Leo. He would be more powerful if He was not conjunct Saturn and square Mercury and the Sun. The Moon is exalted in Taurus. Even thought Jupiter is in Sagittarius and Sagittarius is the most spiritual of the signs, Jupiter's rising position tends to bring out his more material qualities and this is exacerbated by the material influence of the Taurian Moon with all of the earthy, lustful, sensuous, and material qualities implied by the Moon in Taurus. The saving grace in terms of a deeply religious and mystical essence is the position of the mystical Neptune culminating in the 10th House in Libra. This Librian position of Neptune is very helpful in permitting the mysticism of Neptune to assume an enlightened form and thus diminish the materiality of Jupiter's rising situation and also diminish the stupid, dull, unremitting, and primitive sensuality of Taurus. With the Moon, Sun, and Mercury in Taurus, the archetypal essence of gut level fertility is most predominant in the chart and the native might be hopelessly obsessive and compulsive if the strong Neptunian essence was not present. In fact Nancy is very mystical and very spiritual, but she is also very sexual and very materialistic. Furthermore, her mystical spirituality is almost totally involved with earthy Mother Goddess essences. She worships nature and in particular nature as it manifests in a ranch environment with horses being the primary animal of interest to her. Note that Sagittarius is the Centaur, the man-horse. Nancy is strong as a bull and as passionate as a bull. She is very kind and tremendously sensitive to all life forms, but she will castrate a horse for practical purposes like any good ranch hand with one degree or another of sadness and remorse depending upon the circumstance.
Nancy is very creative, primarily in terms of crafts, and more specifically American Indian crafts. She makes very interesting and handsome drums, for example. She also has some good potential for fine arts, but she does very little with it. She can drive a tractor, handle a wrench and hammer, stack hay, and train and ride horses with the best of men. She has a strong propensity for long, hard work. All of this is in accord with her 5th House, the house of creativity, and her 6th House, the house of work. Aries is on the cusp of the 5th and dominates the 5th , and so the 5th House ruler is Mars, who is in good shape in Leo, in the 9th House and a participant in her grand trine. Also, the Moon, which "is the life of the woman" according to Crowley, is exalted in Taurus in the 5th. So creativity is a firm part of her makeup. Not only does her artistic creativity manifest in very earthy things indicative of Sun, Luna and Mercury in Taurus, but also in addition she has two children, which indicates the most basic form of earthy creativity. Her passion for hard, steady, practical work is indicated by the Sun and Mercury in Taurus in the 6th House with Taurus on the cusp of the 6th and dominating the 6th. Hence, the 6th House is ruled by Venus, who is nicely placed in Cancer. In addition, Uranus, who Crowley designates as the true/Magickal will or a person's true purpose in life, is conjunct Venus. Uranus is explosive energy and so Nancy's Venus is supercharged and hence Taurus and Libra, which are ruled by Venus, are highly activated. So, all of the passions of Taurus and its 6th House position are extenuated, and the same is true for Libra's influence on the 11th House of friendship and 10th House of fame, reputation, and profession. Nancy is very loyal to her friends and was most passionate about her professional life as a drug and alcohol abuse counselor. Virgo on the cusp of the 10th, ruled by Mercury who is in Taurus and thus highly emotionally activated due the influences indicated above, add to the passions she had for her profession.
From ages 22 to 29 Nancy was a dedicated alcoholic and drug addict. The natal horoscope indications for this are:
The greatest blessing a person can have in life is for there to be harmony between the ego and personality on the one hand and the true/Magickal will on the other hand. Therefore, one of the most important things to do with a natal horoscope is judge how much harmony there is between the rising configuration (i.e., the rising sign and any other sign or signs occupying a large percentage of the first house, the Lord of the rising sign, the status of the Lord of the rising sign, and planets in the first house or just above the ascendant) and Uranus. Most particularly the question is whether or not the rising sign and the sign containing Uranus are compatible or harmonious with each other. When Uranus is in the 7th House this is almost never the case. To start with, signs of different elements (i.e., fire, air, earth, and water) are in general disharmonious, and signs across the zodiac from each other are always of different elements.
Sagittarius, which Nancy has rising, is mutable fire. Gemini, in which Nancy's Uranus resides, is mutable air. Sagittarius is a synthetic sign. It is where opposites unite in harmony. (Sagittarius corresponds to the XIVth Tarot Trump called "ART" in which fire and water are brought together in such a manner as to produce constructive energy just as gasoline, which is alchemically a form of water, and the electric spark, which is alchemically a form of fire, do in the combustion engine. (See Crowley's "The Book of Thoth.") Sagittarius is ruled by Jupiter and Jupiter is IAO, which is the masculine form of the synthetic number 3. Gemini, on the other hand, is ruled by Mercury who represents the dual, analytical mind which analyzes by dissecting. Moreover, Gemini is the youthful, free flowing mind, just roaming around for the joy of adventurous discovery. Furthermore, Gemini corresponds to both the VIth Tarot Trump called "The Lovers" and the Hebrew letter Zain whose primary symbol is the sword, which is an instrument of division. In short, Sagittarius, representing Nancy's ego/personality, is very disharmonious which Gemini, which is heavily involved in defining her true will. This disharmony is just as important a player in her early alcoholism and drug addiction as is Neptune, and all of the passion involved with her Moon, Sun, Mercury, Venus, and Taurus factors. The fact that Uranus is opposite Jupiter, who is both himself rising and lord of the rising sign, just aggravates the issue. However, it is very important to understand that if Nancy could ever evolve from below the abyss where the lower seven sephiroth on the Tree of Life predominate to above the abyss where the three supernal sephiroth predominate, then this opposition of Jupiter and Uranus would manifest in glorious harmony. I refer the reader to Crowley's works, and in particular, "The Book of Thoth" and "The Vision and the Voice", wherein he teaches us that below the abyss opposites are in contradiction, but above the abyss they compliment each other.
An alternative interpretation of Nancy's Jupiter/Uranus opposition is as follows. Notwithstanding, the unfortunate nature of the relationship between Nancy's ego/personality and her true will, the manifestation of the opposition aspect between Jupiter and Uranus may be her salvation. This is because there is direct contact between the central core of her ego/personality and her true will, so in terms of her conscious ego, (i.e., the thing in her that encompasses her "I-ness") if it does the right things it should be able to eventually recognize who it's enemy is and come to terms with it. What this means in effect is that the ego/personality gives in and lets the true will have its way. Without the direct contact between Jupiter and Uranus Nancy's consciousness would always be fighting a nebulous and unknown enemy. Nancy has some knowledge of and interest in natal astrology. For the last three years I have tried very hard to try to get her to consider seriously the things I am discussing here, but to no avail.
In general Nancy's life has been a fairly unhappy one. Her relationships with men have been very difficult. She has had sexual encounters with many men. She has been married twice and had several other serious relationships. The only real happiness she has found with men is a 21/2 year live-in "affair" with a man who was 66 when she joined him and she was 50. He died in an accident on his farm. All of this sad business with men is in accord with much of what has been said above about her ego/personality versus true will incompatibility and her dramatic physical and sexual passion due to all of the Taurus business, Venus in Cancer and conjunct Uranus, and Jupiter rising. According to Crowley Jupiter is both the religious instinct in Mankind and the sexual instinct in Mankind. In other words, the religious instinct is cognate with the sexual instinct. (This is something I thought was true prior to reading it in Crowley's works, but then I am terribly biased. I have 5 planets in Scorpio including Jupiter.) But just as important an indication of her difficulty with men is Uranus in the 7th House. The 7th House primarily represents partnerships, and the most serious of partnerships is relationships of love. Uranus is radical, explosive, strange, and uneasy. So Uranus in the 7th is not indicative of good, serious relationships of love, unless the partner of the native is very strange in some sense.
In terms of Crowley's concept of the astrological complex, I am fairly certain that I can not only identify an astrological complex in Nancy's natal horoscope, I am also fairly certain that I can identify the primary astrological complex. This complex is comprised of Jupiter, Mars, the Moon, Venus, and Uranus. All of the planets in the group are aspected to one of the planets (i.e., Jupiter). Hence Jupiter plays the role of what I call the "kernel" of the complex. In this case, Jupiter is also the key of the complex (i.e., it is the central factor and the other planets are viewed in relationship to it). Crowley makes it clear in his astrological writings that what I call the kernel (i.e., the planet to which the others in the group are aspected) is not always the key. The key is the strongest personal planet in the complex and when the lord of the rising sign is part of a complex it is usually the strongest planet in the complex. It is clear to me that Jupiter is both the strongest planet in the astrological complex and the strongest personal planet in the nativity. (Neptune, an archetypal planet, is culminating in the zenith and may thus in fact be stronger than Jupiter.) The reasons for this are:
So, what meaning laden sense can we make out of this astrological complex? In the first place it is a grand trine with a compound opposition in which the opposition is ameliorated by trine/sextile combinations. "Compound" is due to the fact that Jupiter is opposite the conjunction of Uranus and Venus. There are two ameliorating trine/sextile combinations. One is Jupiter trine Mars and opposite Venus/Uranus with Mars sextile Venus/Uranus. The other is Jupiter trine the Moon and opposite Venus with the Moon sextile Venus. (I have left Uranus out of this latter combination because Uranus sextile Luna has an 11-degree orb, which is greater than the 10-degree limit that TAARP usually imposes. This technical restriction may be an error when a conjunction such as the Venus/Uranus one here is manifesting.) The term "ameliorated" is meant to imply that the "harshness" of the opposition is softened. Two planets in opposition tug against each other. If there is a third planet which is trine to one of the opposing planets and sextile to the other opposing planet, then the trine/sextile effect softens or ameliorates the opposition. Now since Jupiter is the key of the complex, the other planets in the complex must be viewed as modifying Jupiter and not vice-versa. (See P-23 of Crowley's "The Complete Astrological Writings of Aleister Crowley.") So, we must begin with the basic nature of Jupiter and see how He gets modified by the circumstances of the complex.
Jupiter is the good, high, sky, father God. He loves mankind. He is humanitarian. He represents things like abundance, joy, happiness, fatherhood, fecundity, pleasure, and an easy going success. Since material abundance is among his attributes, He has more of a religious than a spiritual flavor. His more material attributes are emphasized when He is rising as is the case in Nancy's chart, but Sagittarius is the most spiritual of the signs and His position there in Nancy's chart tones down this materiality a bit. The trine of the strong, sensual Taurian Moon, however, adds to the materiality, as does the trine of the Leonine Mars. The Moon will also add fluidity to the natural fluidic mobility of Jupiter and this is further energized with the smoothly flowing fire of Mars in Leo. Therefore, so far we have a very dynamic, powerful, and momentous Jupiter, flowing smoothly with great momentum and impulse. It would probably be best for the native if some balancing element were added to this tremendous force and this is exactly what we see with the opposition of the Venus/Uranus conjunction. The opposition operates as a regulating mechanism like the governor does on the internal combustion engine. Also, it is of great importance that the regulating mechanism is itself reasonable and smooth to some degree due to the effects of the opposition/trine/sextile combination mentioned above. The unpredictability abrupt nature of Uranus prevents the combination from operating more smoothly. Also, the conjunction of Venus with Uranus is a serious inharmonious feature in any natal horoscope because Venus has so much to do with harmony herself and when she is so ruthlessly disturbed by her corruption with marriage to Uranus, who is the most inharmonious piece of the entire zodiac, the result is random bursts of violence. Venus conjunct Mars is very emotionally violent, but it doesn't have the unpredictable, explosive violence of Venus conjunct Uranus.
So, what is the cumulative effect of all these influences on Jupiter, and what is the general nature of this astrological complex? A good analogy may be the behavior attributed to flying saucers. They can hover, they can fly smoothly at very high speed, and they can make immediate and violently abrupt changes of direction. The important question, however, is that assuming I am correct in assigning this astrological complex to be the dominant factor in Nancy's natal horoscope, what is the context within which this complex operates? In other words, we need a comprehensive gestalt of the entire chart. Unfortunately, I do not yet understand Crowley's concept of the astrological complex well enough to be confident about identifying the other astrological complexes in Nancy's chart.
As discussed elsewhere (see Section E5.0: Ongoing Study of the Famous 1, The Famous 2, and the Others of Appendix E in The First TAARP Technical Report and Block 8: A Challenge for Crowley Scholars and the Ordo Templi Orientis), the problem is that planets must not only be aspected to a "kernal" planet in order for an astrological complex to form, there also has to be a coherent meaning underlying the combination. Four planets may be in aspect to Pluto and yet only Pluto and three of the other planets be part of the complex, or in fact Pluto may not be the kernel of any complex. I think this is in accordance with Crowley's astrological writings, but I am not positive. I also think, but I am not positive, that in general a planet can belong to only one astrological complex. Given these cautionary caveats, I will go out on a limb and take a stab at summing up the astrological complex makeup of Nancy's chart by judging that in addition to the Jupiter complex, she has two other complexes. One of them is comprised of Neptune, Saturn, Pluto and Mars with the Saturn/Pluto conjunction serving as the kernel. I am not sure what the key of this complex is, but my guess is the Sun. The other complex only involves Mercury. I have some thoughts about these other two complexes, but nothing that is firm enough in my mind to be worth mentioning here. Therefore, I can not adequately comment on the totality of Nancy's natal horoscope vis-à-vis astrological complexes per se, so I will simply sum up my mundane interpretation of her chart by saying a few words about how the Jupiter complex operates in terms of my overall feeling about the chart. (Note that a truly proper and comprehensive interpretation of a natal horoscope involves mundane and esoteric issues. I have not given any esoteric explanations of issues in Nancy's chart. For some examples of esoteric natal horoscope comments see Block 10).
In the first place, there is the dynamic going forth in an exploratory manner of the Jupiter complex with the Sagittarian piece leading the way. The centaur is off and running just for the joy of exercising its high spirited vigor, but the steady, determined, dull bull of Taurus is preventing it from soaring into maturity. The mystical element of Neptune in Libra in the Zenith is calling forth in support of the centaur, but Taurus is holding everything down in a practical and steady manner. In general, my opinion is that in Nancy's life this counterbalancing between the drive to soar up and out and the pull to stay sane, safe, and stable has been more troublesome than beneficial. Nancy's father made a good, secure living for his wife and three children by operating a business that his father had. The business was started by Nancy's father's father. The business is involved with things like making metal parts for repairing farm machinery. Nancy's older brother is a true entrepreneur. He owns his own business which he started that has something to do with spray painting cars. He is very wealthy. Her other brother now owns and operates the farm implementation repair business. Nancy was raised with a blue-collar attitude about life in spite of the fact that her father owned his own business. This situation is curiously somewhat similar to Nancy's horoscope in that he was independent with his own business, but the business involved blue collar work and he never made it into anything really big like his one son did. He grew the business somewhat from what his father had, but basically he was satisfied with letting it roll steadily along. So there is a bit of Sagittarian inspiration in his pattern, but the steady, safe Taurian element predominated his pattern. (I am not here referring to Nancy's father's natal horoscope, but rather simply comparing his behavior to zodiacal factors.) Nancy has two years of college. She is plenty intelligent. Over and over again in the twelve years that I have known her she has had big plans, took a few steps in the direction of these plans, and then backed off. She never could cross the blue collar/white collar boundary. Her white collar Sagittarian inspiration could never overcome her blue collar Taurian conservatism. Maybe her problem with the terrible insecurity associated with the opposing natures of her ego/personality and her true will prevented her inspirational self from sallying forth. She has guts. She has determination. I saw her buy an old, broken down and inoperative pig farm and turn it into a nice 4 acre horse ranch. She did all the planning, organizing and direction of work and she did much of the hard physical work herself. After 2 1/2 years she had to sell the farm due to financial difficulties. Her plans to become a professional graphic artist petered out when she was halfway through the college courses she needed to get the proper credentials.
As of this writing (November 2000) she is starting a new life at age 52. She just moved to Wyoming from Ohio. She is living in a ratty little trailer. She has a low paying, boring job. She has a pseudo-boyfriend whom she is nuts about, but who holds her at arms length. She has plans to expand her financial prospects by making and selling American Indian crafts, by learning how to build websites, and by purchasing horses at a cheap price in Wyoming and selling them at a higher price in Ohio. She has wanted to live in Wyoming since she was 14 years old. Good luck, Nancy!!
