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Astrologer's Notes: |
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Understanding Midpoints
– Part I
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by Basil Fearrington |
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My first awareness of midpoint theory in astrology was in the seventies through the work of the late Reinhold Ebertin. At that time, midpoints in astrology were seen as a very advanced, even strange area of astrological study. Although the inclusion of midpoints in the analysis of a natal horoscope has become more widely used, there is still a great deal of confusion and misunderstanding in practice that is intimidating to many practitioners.
First of all, since midpoint theory is never included in mainstream astrology, there is a feeling that the use of midpoints in analysis is unnecessary. While it is certainly possible to do an analysis of a horoscope without midpoints, their inclusion adds dimensions and depths to a horoscope that are invaluable in some cases and are quite often not possible to see in traditional analysis. Using music as an analogy, traditional astrology is like a song with voice, bass, drums, and piano. Midpoints are like adding a string and horn arrangement. You are still going to understand and enjoy the song without the arrangement but the addition of the string and horn arrangement gives the song a dimension that is not possible with just the basic trio and voice.
Why do midpoints work? The answer to that question is much more difficult to answer than observing that there is something substantive and reliable about what we are able to discern when a planet or point makes aspect contact to the midpoint of two planets, two points, or a point and an Angle. Midpoints work for the same reason that aspects work. It is the same principle applied to middle positions between planets and points.
If you are an astrologer that uses midpoints but you refer to someone else’s interpretation of a midpoint picture from a book, you do not understand midpoint theory! This is exactly what I used to do in my first years of working with midpoints and believe me when I say that you never be able to work efficiently with midpoints as long as you depend on the interpretation of them found in the books of other people. When you really understand the mechanics of midpoints (to be discussed in this series of essays), not only is there no need for someone else’s interpretation but you will find that another person’s interpretation almost gets in the way of things.
In traditional analysis, you do not need to look at someone’s interpretation of Saturn square Venus in a horoscope. It is instinctive because you know that Saturn’s symbolism conditions the symbolism of Venus in a challenging way. Even if you did not realize the mechanics of the aspect as explained here, you know what this aspect means. When you really understand midpoint theory, working with midpoints should be just as automatic, to a point of being able to delineate them on sight.
What is a Midpoint
The planet or position that is exactly at the middle of two other planets (or between a planet and position) is at its midpoint. For example, with the Sun at 10 degrees Aries, Moon at 20 degrees Aries, and Venus at 15 degrees Aries, Venus is at the midpoint of the Sun and Moon.
In midpoint theory, using an orb of 2 degrees, any planet or position in the horoscope that makes a conjunction, semi-square, square, sesquiquadrate, or opposition to a midpoint is said to be “at” the aspected midpoint so you never have to concern yourself with trying to decide which midpoint is the one to take into consideration (every midpoint has an opposition point).
Midpoint Pictures - The Midpoint Sort
Any planet or position at the midpoint of two other planets makes a “midpoint picture.” Using the above-mentioned example of Venus at the midpoint of the Sun and Moon, the syntax for the picture would be: Venus=Sun/Moon. That tells you that Venus makes contact with (is “at”) the midpoint of the Sun and Moon. Aspect contact is the only concern. The aspect itself is unimportant. That is, a conjunction is seen as being the same as an opposition and vice-versa.
If you are new to midpoint theory, you might wonder why we don’t use sextiles and trines. The answer to that is that they are weak aspects. That’s right! They are weak aspects that symbolize or reflect a status quo position as opposed to reflecting development in life. Hard aspects are active. Soft aspects are passive.
I was fortunate to have known and been respected by the late, great, great astrologer, Charles Harvey. Charles was just about single-handedly responsible for the development of the “midpoint Sort” in astrology and the book that he co-authored on midpoints, in my opinion, is the finest text on midpoint theory ever published.
There was no such thing as astrology software when I was first made aware of midpoints. To get a list of midpoint pictures, you had to count the degree distances between every planet and point in a horoscope, divide that distance in half and then measure aspects. It was a very tedious process that was impossible to do without errors. Charles Harvey put an end to the manual process of counting midpoints through the creation of the midpoint Sort.
The “Sort” is divided into (sorted by) Cardinal, Fixed, & Mutable in zodiacal order. As is the case with aspects, the Sort can be based on any division of 360 degrees. A 30 degree Sort will capture midpoint pictures that are multiples of 30 degrees (semi-sextile, sextile, etc.). Since our focus in midpoint theory is on hard aspects, the standard Sort used is the 90 degree Sort. It captures, conjunctions, squares, and oppositions and gives the important midpoint pictures to consider in analysis. (A 45 degree Sort will capture the same aspects with the addition of semi-squares and sesquiquadrates).
In the midpoint Sort shown below, notice the degrees from 000˚ 23’ through 88˚ 53’. The section of the Sort from 0 degrees through 29˚ 59’ shows all Cardinal midpoints, planets and points in zodiacal order. The section of the Sort from 30˚ through 59˚ 59’ contains all Fixed midpoints, planets and points in zodiacal order and from 60˚ through 89˚ 59’ shows all Mutable midpoints, planets, and points in zodiacal order.
In midpoint Sorts, we use an orb of 2 degrees. For example, to find the midpoints that the Sun makes contact to in this Sort, first find the Sun. It is located at the 86˚ point (your mind should tell you that this Sun is at 26 degrees of a Mutable Sign because 60˚ represents 0 Mutable…adding 26˚ to 60˚ gives 86˚). Using the orb, we are concerned with all midpoints between 84˚ and 88˚ of the Sort. In this case, the Sun does not make contact to a midpoint.
Mercury is located at 60˚ 18’ of this Sort so we are concerned with all midpoints (planets or points) between 58˚ 18’ and 62˚ 18’. In order, what shows listed is Ura/Asc, Sun/Plu,
Mars/Sat, Ven/MC, Nep/Plu, Moon/Plu,
ASC, Mars/Ura. The way we write this (using planetary symbols, of course) is Mer=Ura/Asc=Sun/Plu=Mars/Sat=Ven
/MC=Nep/Plu=Moon/Plu=Asc=Mar/Ura. (Please note that the symbol, “/” is always used in astrology to denote the midpoint. Mercury-Mars is not the same thing as Mer/Mars). This says an awful lot about Mercury in this man’s horoscope that is not obvious through traditional analysis. What’s more, the degree relationship between Mercury, Mars and the Ascendant in the Sort tells you that there is a close aspect relationship between them in the natal horoscope. The man’s identity (Ascendant) is closely linked to an assertive manner of thinking or communicating.
Going back to the midpoints surrounding the Sun, you will notice the picture, Sun=Sun/Nep. Whether you are doing a natal analysis or are working with midpoint pictures in prediction work, always, always, always ignore midpoint pictures that include the same planet or point on both sides of the equals sign. In a natal analysis, this situation tells you that the Sun and Neptune are in a natal aspect relationship. (You will notice that the same thing occurs with the Moon and the Moon/Neptune midpoint. These three, the Sun, Moon, and Neptune, are obviously in an important natal relationship to each other).
The Aries Point
The Aries Point (abbreviated as AP) refers to 0 degrees of Cardinal Signs. Any planet, point, or midpoint located within 1.5 degrees of 0 degrees of any Cardinal Sign is “at” the Aries Point. This is quite similar to having the position conjunct the Ascendant. It is a quality that is projected out to the world or needs to be projected out into the world for others to see.
In midpoint Sorts, the AP, can be found on the Sort between 88.5 degrees to 1.5 degrees of the Sort. In our example Sort, the Moon is just one minute out of orb so it can be included. The AP pictures are as follows: AP=Moon=Sat/Plu=Ura/Plu.
Next month’s essay will focus on the most important part of midpoint theory – the delineation of midpoint pictures.
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Basil Fearrington,
Astrologer
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Basil Fearrington is the author of "The New Way To Learn Astrology." He has been a professional astrologer for 22 years.
Basil's articles have appeared in the leading astrological publications around the world. He was the Inaugural Chairman for the MilleyDome project in Johannesburg, South Africa and taught astrology there for one year.
Basil has twice been a faculty member of UAC and spoke at Astro 2000. In addition to his work in astrology, Basil is a professional musician who has toured with and/or recorded for artists such as Stevie Wonder and George Benson.
He was on a team of composers who did the music for a network show called "New York Undercover." The same team won a Grammy award in 1980.
bfearr@aol.com
www.basilfearrington.
com
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