Project Astro-Genius

A research project in astrology aiming to test and possibly improve current methods inherited from medieval practice, and to investigate new ones to ultimately provide astrologers with a handy predictive tool in diagnosis of high cognitive ability and genius. project.astrogenius@gmail.com

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Paul Cooijmans (sample delineation - 1)

I am grateful to Paul for his letting me publish a delineation about his intelligence on this blog.

Paul Cooijmans is the founder, member and administrator of the
Glia Society, of which I am one of the members.

See Paul's work at http://paulcooijmans.lunarpages.com/ ; click here to see his horoscope on which I will base my delineation about intelligence.

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A) DELINEATION OF THE PART OF REASONING:

Paul informed me of his birth time to be 20:30 (source of data is his mother), which I rectified (corrected) to 20:28:46 based on his biographical information.

His ascendant is at 29d57m Libra, and Part of Reasoning at 9d57m Gemini.
Moon is in Gemini. Thus, both the ascendant and the Moon as well as the Part of Reasoning are posited in rational signs to start with.

Disposition and aspects of the Part: The Part is in the 8th quadrant house in Gemini, which is ruled by Mercury, natural significator of intelligence. Although the Part's house position is mediocre by strength, Gemini is one of the best places for this Part to be in for its (Gemini's) natural association with intelligence and anything intellectual.

Domicile ruler Mercury receives the Part by a whole-sign (platick) sextile which strengthens the relationship between the Part and Mercury to some extent. Also Mercury is tightly square to the Part's antiscion, which is at 20d03m Cancer. Furthermore Saturn, secondary triplicity ruler of Gemini, aspects the Part by a tight square. These are enough indications to call the Part as "well-disposed".

Mars, significator of 'sharpness' casts a partile square to the Part.

If we allow larger orbs the Moon is conjunct the Part, with Venus and Sun being sextile. Although these planets do not have any dignity at the Part's location, their aspects can not be dismissed, considering each planet naturally signifies (or represents) a number of features, abilities, predispositions and aptitudes (Venus, for instance, is associated with the sense of beauty, proportion, harmony to name a few; others accordingly as well).

Except Jupiter, all planets behold the Part rendering it active and functional and possibly endowing the native with diverse abilities. Paul is a musical composer (Venus), writer, translator, web-designer, programmer, researcher mainly in fields related to intelligence and genius, thinker (Mercury) and designer of many beautiful high range IQ tests (Mercury, Venus, Saturn).

Aspects between the ruler(s) of the ascendant and the Part and its rulers:

Now let us check if the other conditions given in the definition of the Part of Reasoning are satisfied, and if yes, to what extent.

Rulers of the ascendant at 29d57m Libra are: Venus (domicile), Saturn (exaltation and triplicity=almuten), Mercury (triplicity), Jupiter (triplicity and face), Mars (bound/term).

Rulers of the Part at 9d57m Gemini are: Mercury (domicile and triplicity), Jupiter (triplicity, bound and face), Saturn (triplicity).

Of the rules and conditions given in the definition the Part of Reasoning and generally in any arabic part, most important are the aspects between the significators. After examining a lot of horoscopes for the Part of Reasoning, I am now convinced that aspects seem to supercede all other considerations such as essential and accidental dignities and afflictions of the planets. This does not mean other considerations are not important; they are. But they are of secondary importance as compared to the aspects and are useful usually in comparing two charts when testimonies seem more or less equal.

As far as checking the aspects are concerned, in principle, the hierarchy of rulership must always be observed. Most important are the aspects between the major rulers (i.e almuten, domicile, exaltation and quasi-major ruler). Thus an aspect, for instance, between domicile rulers of the ascendant and the Part is more important than when both or any of them is a minor ruler, such as an aspect between the domicile ruler of the ascendant and the term ruler of the Part, or vice versa, or between two triplicity rulers.

That said, let us now check all the aspects between the significators:

a) Rulers of the ascendant to the Part:

- Venus, domicile ruler of the ascendant is sextile the Part with an orb of 5 degrees 27 minutes. Although a 5-degree or less of orb is generally suggested for an appreciable influence, a half degree difference beyond the suggested orb will neither disqualify the aspect nor its influence. It is there and effective, albeit less than if it were, say, 3 degrees.

- Saturn, exaltation ruler and almuten of the ascendant tightly squares the Part with an orb of 2d16m, so has considerable influence in favor of high IQ.

- Mercury, natural significator of intelligence and the primary triplicity ruler of the ascendant receives the Part into his domicile (Gemini) by a platick sextile aspect with an orb of 9d52m. Because it is a large orb its influence is far less than the aforementioned aspects but can not be neglected due to Mercury's specialty. Because, Mercury;

* is the general significator of intelligence and of the Part,

* ruler of the ascendant and of the Part,

* is making a beneficial aspect (i.e sextile), and

* this aspect is by "reception" into his domicile.

- Mars, bound ruler of the ascendant and the special significator of sharpness, is square the Part. In addition, Mars is in mutual reception with Mercury. Because Mercury and Mars both are components of the Part, hence significators of intelligence in this context, mutual reception between them is certainly a plus in favor of high intelligence as mutual reception means in astrology a "mutual support and cooperation" between the significators involved.

b) Rulers of the ascendant to the rulers of the Part:

Although what has been hitherto said about the horoscopic testimonies is enough already to declare this native to be very intelligent, as obviously requirements of the Part have been met, I will list all of them for the sake of completeness of this illustration.

- Venus (domicile ruler of the ascendant) is conjunct Mercury (domicile ruler and almuten of the Part).

- Mars (bound ruler of the ascendant), to re-iterate, is in mutual reception with Mercury (domicile ruler and almuten of the Part).Mutual reception is when two planets are in each other's dignity. Here, Mars is in Virgo which is ruled by Mercury by domicile and exaltation, and Mercury is in Aries which is ruled by Mars by domicile. Mutual reception is treated like an aspect, that is, if there were an aspect between the two planets. Its significance has been explained above. So, although there is no Ptolemaic aspect (i.e sextile, trine, square, opposition and conjunction) between Mars and Mercury, they benefit from each other because of the mutual reception as if there were an aspect between them.

Condition of Mercury: Mercury is of prime importance when delineating a chart for intelligence, as it is both the natural significator of intelligence and the primary component of the Part of Reasoning. Therefore a careful examination of Mercury's condition is always necessary and revealing. A Mercury in good condition is considered an asset for any mercurial thing, including intelligence.

In theory, a planet is said to be in good condition, if:

  • it has dignity (aka fortunate)
  • is strong (i.e posited in an angular or succedent house), and
  • is unafflicted (or unimpeded)

Condition is improved somewhat if its dispositor is also in good condition, even more so if it (the dispositor) is in aspectual relationship preferably with a beneficial aspect with the planet that it disposes, which in this case the planet is said to be received.

I believe, specific to the delineation of intelligence in a horoscope, we may add to this list 'the presence of an aspect or mutual reception between Mercury and Mars' considering that Mercury and Mars, besides other significations they hold, are also special significators because they are components of the Part of Reasoning, which itself has to do with intelligence. Therefore, any aspect - especially when the said aspect is a favorable one such as trine or sextile, and even conjunction - or mutual reception between Mercury and Mars may be considered good for intelligence.

Natal Mercury in Paul's chart displays some interesting features. Some of these features are bad in astrological sense (i.e astrologically too weak to significantly favor mercurial significations, including intelligence) while some others are good.

Mercury in Paul's chart is peregrine, retrograde, combust and cadent. So Mercury is afflicted by a multiplicity of impediments. In astrological lore Mercury can also be called as 'severely debilitated'. Debilitated and impeded planets have hard time trying to act and realize their nature. The more severe the impediments are, the more difficult it is for a planet to act. In fact, it would be hard to believe that someone with such a poor Mercury can be very intelligent, let alone intelligent, unless one approaches the matter with traditional methods and systematically applies proper delineation techniques as I have tried to illustrate here.

Weakness of this Mercury is somewhat improved and the bad condition mitigated by the following:

- Mercury's being weakened by combustion is ameliorated by the Sun's reception. The Sun, almuten of the degree that Mercury occupies and the exaltation ruler of Aries, gives a reception to Mercury by conjunction. Reception is protective and somewhat mitigates the adverse effects of combustion.

- Mercury is on the exaltation degree of the Sun, namely 19th degree of Aries. This may mean "something very notable about Mercury (=high intelligence?)" is to be expected and may increase Mercury's quality for better.

- Mercury is in mutual reception with its dispositor, Mars. But because Mars is afflicted by being retrograde and by Saturn's (a natural malefic) opposition, he may not be that helpful, but it is still better to be in mutual reception than not.

- Mercury is conjunct the antiscion of Mars, which is at 20d11m Aries. Antiscion is considered to be like a sextile or trine, so that Mercury is like making a sextile or trine aspect to Mars that helps high intelligence. Because this is as if Mars - significator of sharpness - were making a favorable aspect to the ruler of the Part, that is Mercury.

- Mercury is conjunct Venus. Because Venus is considered a 'natural benefic' she may help improve the bad condition of Mercury a bit.

- Mercury receives the Moon into his domicile by a sextile aspect. Bonatti in his Liber Astronomie and William Lilly in his Christian Astrology state in their terms that Mercury in good aspect with the Moon favors intelligence.

- Mercury is quite functional by being in aspect or otherwise relation with other planets: Mercury is conjunct Venus (ruler of the ascendant) and Sun, sextile the Moon, and in mutual reception with Mars.

Taken altogether, these special factors improve the otherwise nasty (i.e debilitated = weakened) condition of Mercury.

This is a good lesson for us astrologers teaching to take into account all factors carefully and appropriately.

Condition of Mars: Mars is strong as he has succedent strength in the 11th house. But he is retrograde, thus impeded a bit. Nevertheless he is in a rational sign like Virgo and in mutual reception with its ruler, Mercury. This puts Mars in an intellectual context. This is further reinforced since:

  • Mars, the significator of sharpness of intellect, casts a very tight square aspect to the Part of Reasoning, thus elegantly satisfying the last condition mentioned in the definition of the Part. Let us also mention that Mars is the bound ruler of the ascendant and also the almutem figuris, thus has added significance in favor of very high intelligence here.

  • Mars, in addition to his being in mutual reception with Mercury - the domicile ruler of the Part -, is in a tight aspect with the exaltation ruler of the ascendant. Albeit an opposition, this aspect between Mars and Saturn is very supportive of high intelligence for this particular case as the aspect is from Mars to a major ruler of the ascendant.

B) DELINEATION OF THE PART OF SKILL:

The Part of Skill is yet another indicator as far as intelligence is concerned.

Paul's is a nocturnal birth. So the formula for the Part of Skill for a nocturnal nativity is:

{Asc + Mercury - Part of Spirit (aka Part of Sun, Part of Things To Be, or Pars Futurorum)}

The Part of Spirit is given by the formula {Asc + Moon - Sun} for a nocturnal nativity.

Therefore, after calculation we find that the Part of Skill is at 18d50m Aquarius.

Mercury is the primary triplicity ruler in Aquarius for a nocturnal nativity and we observe that Mercury casts a very tight sextile (with an orb of 59 minutes of arc) to the Part of Skill.

Now let us remind what this means by referring to its definition:

"The fifth part of the fifth differentia is called the part of skill, talent, acuity, and discipline of all arts and of memory and the like, or pars calliditatis, ingenii, acuitatis etc. It is taken by day from the mercury to pars futurorum and by night in the opposite direction, and it is projected from the ascendant. The wise took this part in this way because all these things are signified by mercury and are attributed to him, and they refer to the soul, and the pars futurorum signifies the quality (condition) of the soul, and all these things proceed forth from the power of the soul [mind, intellect].

If it is in good condition and well disposed, and it is with Mercury in a nativity or question, and Mercury is of good condition, it signifies that the native will be expert in a good skill, of sharp mind, easily taught, as competent in many arts, learning all things which he desires and which he studies with less labour than others, and he will retain well what he has learned and all these things will profit him. But if they are unfortunate or evilly disposed, he will be able to learn, but the things he learns will not be useful to him; indeed he will get evil and distress because of the aforesaid"

The Part is in good condition and well disposed as it is posited in an angular house (i.e 4th for this case) and aspected by the Sun, Venus and Mercury.

Mercury is not "of good condition" but apparently it is not in a terribly bad condition either (see above). Therefore Paul benefits somewhat from the promises of this Part as well.

In addition, It is interesting to note that Venus too aspects the Part by a sextile. Considering Venus has direct association with fine arts and music, one wonders if this aspect indicates predisposition to engagement in music as well as an aptitude for this particular native.

***

By clear testimonies of the natal horoscope therefore, we conclude that Paul Cooijmans is someone very intelligent. He posseses an active and productive mind with diverse abilities

-End of Delineation-

Last edited on 4 October 2007

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