At the end of a year's research two words ring more loudly in my ears than "grand quintile". One is Mars and the other is Venus. The most labour-intensive phase of this work took place at the end of last summer when Mars loomed so near in the late-night skies. I fell into the habit of taking what I referred to as my "Martian walks" to clear my head at 1:00 or 2:00 a.m., one step after another, block after block, my eyes fixed on the distant god, seeking communion.
When I saw Mars come hurtling at me out of that mass of tables and graphs as the number one planet in GQs, every minute's effort seemed well worth it. It occurred to me at once that there might be a direct correlation between the eccentricity of the planet's orbit and its traditional astrological impact on mankind. Could the orbital path be a physical reflection of its role as activator and aggressor? Mars is the most likely planet to "reach out and grab" other planets as they move in and out of range in these multi-planet aspect patterns. I wonder if this is also true of grand crosses and grand sextiles.
This is where one of the main causes for concern in this study rears its head. A GQ is a closed symmetrical energy pattern. Unfortunately for our esthetic tastes, we cannot reasonably presuppose that symmetry equals significance on the mundane level. The GQs are beautiful on the computer screen and on paper, which is, after all, where we will see them. It is just possible that the number of quintiles and bi-quintiles and their specific relationship to the Ptolemaic aspects of the day outweigh the importance of the closed pentagram. Mars, for instance, is an active player in the unfolding drama of the skies this October without directly participating in either GQ.
Dennis Elwell was kind enough to point out to me in a private communication that:
I should be inclined to consider October 8th as a key date, because Mars links in with the aspect, by arriving on the Saturn/Pluto axis. But you are more interested (rightly from your standpoint) in October 1st, because the Sun and Moon are completing the GQ. Well maybe the transiting luminaries do not have the clout of Mars. I suppose that modern astrologers would be more interested in the "excitement" of other planets arriving at the midpoint of a major contact like this...that is to say, they would be looking more for symmetries than angular relationships...So it may be that one can become infatuated with a theory, and miss the obvious. We've all been there. Thus if I look at the exact Saturn/Pluto aspect around September 27th I find that Mars conjoins Jupiter on that day, and this convergence again may be more significant than the set-up on October 1st, dearly though you love the neatness of it.
The "neatness of it" is certainly easy to love. I was also in touch with Pat White at Astrolabe1 who broached the same issue, as follows:
Stock and commodity prices sometimes respond dramatically to a set of highly integrated aspects such as this, but I don't know whether symmetry, precision, or the number and speed of the planets involved is the most important factor in producing this effect. Maybe a spiritual effect demands symmetry, whereas an effect on the market simply requires that there be a lot of planets closely involved.
This brings us to the Venus factor in the scenario. Exactly 10 minutes after the Moon passes out of its 3 degree orb with Jupiter on October 28th, Venus enters Libra, widely conjunct Jupiter. Thus the lesser and the greater benefics draw closer together just as the second GQ ends. Whatever this means in mundane terms, it is a reminder of the connection between Venus and quintiles. Our sister planet has one of the most regular of all orbits in relation to the Earth. GQs are mirror images of the Venus cycle. With five stations every eight years, Venus traces out a recurrent pentagram in the sky in eloquent mimicry of the Golden Section2, that most pleasing of all proportions in art and nature.3
Using the closest whole degree to Pluto (the slowest moving body) as the anchor a perfect pentagram approximating the degrees of our current GQs would fall at 20 Sagittarius, 2 Pisces, 14 Taurus, 26 Cancer and 8 Libra. These degrees are reflected in a Venus retrograde cycle beginning in November, 1890 and ending in April, 1905. They also synchronize with a Venus direct cycle from January, 1835 to June, 1849.
Since Ed Gillam first pointed this out to me I have been fascinated by the implications of this cosmological "coincidence". How can it be that the harmony and equilibrium of Venus' movement so perfectly reflect its role in astrological symbolism? Since the human eye is so enamoured of symmetry one can't help but speculate that there is a message here that is more than fluke. I have begun to suspect that this may be far more important to the future of astrological research than those fleeting GQs.
So - do GQs ever manifest in more concrete terms than art for art's sake? Since I cannot find any mention of systematic historical research on any major aspect pattern - grand cross, mystic rectangle, grand quintile, grand sextile, you name it - I think at present the answer is unapproachable. Without comparing (for instance) GQs or grand sextiles, to heavily "quintiled" or "sextiled" days, there is no way of intelligently discussing the relevance of symmetry to mundane events.
This comparison would take years of devoted sifting and analysis of historical data in the context of both astrology and cosmology, but with the exact right people I know it could be done!
October, 2004 marks the exact 400th anniversary of the appearance in the skies of Kepler's Star, the supernova that exploded within one degree of the great man's descendant at 22 degrees Sagittarius, conjunct the then Galactic Centre and within two degrees of Pluto in the upcoming GQs. I cannot say what, if anything, this "means", and since I lay no claim to an understanding of meaning, I won't be disturbed if I haven't mastered the harmony of the spheres by 2012, 2020 or 2050.
In any case, barring the explosion of a supernova this October, preferably conjunct the current Galactic Centre, I am unlikely to be asked my opinion on the subject! Personally, I am not overly interested in the predictive side of this type of work. Astrological symbolism can be a free-for-all in interpretation. Does it matter, for instance, that the Moon, symbol of manifestation, lies smack on the Ascendant of Lhasa, Tibet on October 1, 2004 when it arrives at the midpoint of Saturn/Uranus?
For me the most wonderful event that could conceivably occur under these patterns would be a miraculous shift in the policy of the government of China whereby the Dalai Lama was allowed to go home to Tibet. I am not foolish enough to predict such an improbable event but it seems to me that as long as we are hurtling through space around a colossal ball of hydrogen and helium, life in the sublunary world is a matter of faith. All things are possible under the Sun. Anyone who has seen Kundun will recall that poignant moment when the young leader departs on his journey with the words, "I see a safe journey. I see a safe return." May it be so!
Again - does it "matter" that the Moon conjoins the Ascendant of New York City at the moment the second GQ perfects on October 28th? It may well be significant - indeed it must be on some level - and from the viewpoint of this researcher, a major news event occurring that day in New York at precisely 23:17 UT would be ideal! But I think I won't hold my breath. The GQs are unlikely to presage war, economic collapse or the end of time. Nor are they necessarily beacons of an overwhelming flood of love from the cosmos.
I have noticed to my dismay that the mere shape of the pentacle appears to have an unsettling effect on some people's imaginations. I believe this is completely unmerited. This symbol is neither negative nor positive in its own right. When I had one GQ, and then two, I thought I had something amazing. Now that I have 150 I am considerably less credulous. In fact I have become extremely skeptical of pinning too much significance for good or ill on any one set of aspects. This is the sobering side of concentrated research and I'm glad I arrived at it before giving way to wild speculations.
So what is the point of this work? We will doubtless be able to look back with the luxury of hindsight and note the quintile "flavour" of October, 2004. In my opinion this is a meaningless intellectual exercise unless it can be extrapolated to the grander scheme of things. My focus over the past year has shifted dramatically from the mundane to the cosmological. What's important to me is why some planets are frequent players in GQs while others only rarely participate.
Why the Sun so often holds himself aloof from this dance. And why Neptune remains elusive. This obviously has to do with the interaction of the various orbital paths but to me the raw celestial mechanics are not the main issue. What matters is whether Mars is an "aggressive" member of these aspect patterns, whether Uranus displays "erratic" tendencies, and so on. Potentially, this is metaphysics in the age of quantum physics - through an astrological lens. Only the wider implications count. These patterns are just an example.
Most of the heated ongoing debate between astrologers, ex-astrologers and hard-line "scientists" strikes me as somewhat irrelevant. You can't judge Einstein by Newton's standards or deny that astrology is unprovable by the rules of mainstream science. This does not invalidate a direct correlation between the physical and the conceptual - between Four and Five - but it demands a shift in paradigm. I see this work on the GQs as a tiny chink of light under a doorway. At present I cannot pass through this doorway myself but there are those who may.
I have no doubt that what little I uncovered regarding celestial mechanics in the last year would have been child's play to any astronomer or astrophysicist worth his or her salt. But - and this is a huge but - the vast majority of them would not have been interested in planetary motion from an astrological standpoint. Most of us have neither the mind nor the disposition to travel that path ourselves. There is no failing in that. But we cannot proceed further without a growing contingent of enlightened inter-disciplinary philosopher-scientists.
We need astrophysicists in the fold.
The first batch of Pluto in Scorpio is just now arriving at university age. I'll bet on them to bring "as above" and "so below" together without disdaining the time-honoured branch of metaphysics called astrology. If the grand quintiles of 2004 do nothing else perhaps they will inspire us to meditate on that.
1. Click for the Astrolabe website.
2. GQs are measurable according to Phi, the Golden Section, a.k.a. the Divine Proportion or Golden Ratio, defined as: "The ideal proportion according to the ancient Greeks. It is visualized as the division of a line into two unequal segments in such a way that the ratio of the smaller segment to the larger segment is equal to the ratio of the larger to the whole. It is usually defined as 21:34, that is, 21/34 and 34/(21+34) both equal approximately 0.618" (dynamicstatements.com/glossary.htm). It appears in nature in everything from rose petals, to apple seeds to the shells of mollusks, to the structure of galaxies. Many artists and architects, including Leonardo da Vinci, have sworn by it. Nothing is more pleasing to the eye.
3. Drawing by Michael O'Neill, reproduced in Kollerstrom, op. cit., "Venus, The Rose & The Heart", p. 25.
Return to the welcome page.