The following table shows the representation by planet of the 150 GQs, with Mars and Uranus as the clear "winners" and the Sun as the hands-down loser! A quick check as far back as 1570 BCE revealed the same solar trend. Unless the statistics of four millennia are a fluke the Sun is unquestionably the least likely player in GQs. But why? Solving this mystery became a major focus of the research.
To determine which orbital interactions make GQs possible, I proceeded to a more detailed analysis. In the 2,500 year sample:
Almost all are Moon-dependent (4 exceptions, previously noted)
101 (67.3%) include Mars
62 (41.3%) include both Mars and Uranus
125 (83.3%) include either Jupiter or Saturn or both
Almost all include at least 1 of the 3 outer planets (4 exceptions)1 but only 11 (6.6%) include all 32, with Neptune considerably less prominent than Uranus and Pluto.
Below are percentage breakdowns of planet groupings over the database of 150. In these tables 2 planets, 3 planets, etc. means that number of planets plus the Moon.3 The complete listing of 2-planet combinations is as follows:
Mars and Uranus appear together over 11% more often than any other 2-planet combination. Evidently the synodic cycle of Mars and Uranus must mesh the two together in such a way as to facilitate the formation of quintiles and bi-quintiles between them. The table below gives a detailed breakdown of the major combinations of multiple planets:
After Mars and Uranus, Pluto is the third highest GQ participant. Mars/Uranus/Pluto and Mars/Uranus/ Jupiter lead the way in 3-planet combinations. Saturn rates slightly higher than Jupiter in the overall count, apparently because, at least in the present database, it is marginally more likely to reach quintile or bi-quintile with Pluto. Both of the upcoming GQs fall in the Uranus/Pluto/Saturn grouping and the GQ of October 28 falls in the Uranus/Pluto/Jupiter grouping as well.
To leave astronomy for pure astrology for a moment, let's take note once more of those three dominant planets: Mars, Uranus, Pluto. Planets of excitation under the fifth harmonic. The energy of Mind activated by the transiting Moon. To go further with these speculations the sign data must be examined.
1. October 18, 1288, April 15, 1250, December 3, 1142, and one in the future, on March 19, 2335. Of these 4, only the last-mentioned will be tight enough by orb to uphold the complete bi-quintile interior - for all of 7 hours and 15 minutes!
2. Two strings of GQs around 1552 and 1618 were made possible by the involvement of all three outer planets.
3. Please note that these lists include all planets, i.e. where there were 6 or 7 planets in a GQ, 1 or 2 had to be members of a conjunction on one of the points of the pentagram. I have removed the impossible combinations of the Sun and Mercury and the Sun and Venus, which travel too closely together to form quintiles, but the presence of the extra planets may be slightly misleading in some cases, especially those in the lower percentile range. I believe that the presence of the additional planets (34 more than the 750 we would have if all the GQs had just 5 members) does not seriously skew the general trends. The results are still over 95% accurate.
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