Which cyclical operators in astrology ?
Patrice Guinard
"When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more or less. (...) The question is which is to be master - that's all." (Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass)
Would the American Michael Brown have become the master of the astronomers (?), quoting Humpty-Dumpty in his 2006 article, "What is a Planet ?", perhaps after his reading of my Solar System: What is a Planet in Astrology ? (2000-2002), or my uranian portrait in The Planetaries (2002), but certainly not the master of the astrologers... What makes of a body a significant planetary Operator in Astrology ? This text is a supplement to my 2000-2002 paper, and thanks to the recent discoveries of planetary objects by telescopes and astronomers (since 2002), there are now twelve planetary astrological operators : the Sun · Mercury · Venus · the Moon · Mars · Ceres · Jupiter · Saturn · Chiron . Uranus · Neptune · Pluto. And no other.
The recent discoveries of planetoids with modern telescopes has allowed a few rare astrologers (in France not many more than two) to become aware of the usefulness of a new reflection on planetary operators. Which objects of the nearby sky, within the limits of the solar system, are likely to durably inscribe their rhythm in the organism, so that a neuro-physiological impregnation can translate over time into a psychological habituation ? In other words, which planets have an effect on the nervous system ? Which celestial objects form the Planetary, not as much outside of us, but, as Paracelsus understood it, necessarily within us? As we will see at the end of this paper, I am returning to a more simple scheme than the one I arrived to through my indications of June 2000 : the planets and planetoids discovered the last two centuries (from Piazzi in 1801) can be fitted into three groups : one group between Mars and Jupiter (the asteroidal belt, in yellow on the picture), a very heterogeneous one between Jupiter and Pluto (the Centaurus, in brown), and a third one after Neptunus (the Kuiper belt, in green). There are still a few small-scale bodies gravitating on other orbits and beyond the Kuiper belt (Oort or d'Öpik-Oort cloud), but they are negligible, as are the dust and detritus which necessarily subsist in any satellized stellar system, and their remoteness has no cyclical meaning with regard to the human lifespan. These three groups each have their head : Ceres for the asteroids, Chiron for the centaures, and Pluto-Charon for the so-called kuiperian objects.
The first "plutoïd" or "TNO" (Trans-Neptunian Object) has only been detected on 30 August 1992 by David Jewitt and Jane Luu : it is the unnamed trans-neptunian object (15760) 1992 QB1. Fifty years earlier, but thirteen years after Pluto's discovery, the Parisian astrologer Dom Neroman states that "Pluto is part of another group of Asteroids" but rejects its influence : "we would be wrong troubling ourselves here" (Dom Néroman, Traité d'astrologie rationnelle, Paris, Sous le Ciel 1943, p.21). And at page 67 : "Pluto has in all likelihood been pulverised like the Asteroids." The plutonian aporia is nothing new.
The astronomers of the 26th GA of the International Astronomical Union, under the guidance of Michael E. Brown, have decided in August 2006 in Prague to oust Pluto from its status, to redefine the notion of planet, and to add to it an intermediary category defined by the label dwarf planet, including initially Pluto, Ceres and Eris, to which Haumea and MakeMake were added in 2008. That was only a start. The number of planetoids of the Kuiper belt which would meet the definition of a dwarf planet is estimated at more than two hundred, and approximately two thousand gravitating beyond. In the coming years, this category will probably keep growing with new members until... its likely implosion, and until the indications of its inanity become evident. The text of the resolutions B5 and B6 of the IAU :
In other words planets, like the so-called dwarf planets, are bodies in orbit around a star, massive enough for the gravitational forces to give them a quasi-spherical shape. But the planets have cleared the neighbourhood around their orbit as opposed to so-called dwarf planets. Unfortunately this definition does not hold up, and the astronomers of the Prague GA are neither experienced kantians nor highly qualified spinozists. According to the astrophysicist Alan Stern, only four planets (Mercury, Venus, Saturn, and Uranus), would strictly fulfill the criterion differentiating the planets from their supposedly dwarf sisters. Mars, Jupiter, Neptune and the Earth have not completely cleared the neighbourhood of their orbits. Approximately ten thousands asteroids circulate in the Earth's neighbourhood, and more than hundred thousand, the troyans, in Jupiter's (see also the communication of 19 September 2008 of the Planetary Science Institute : the astronomers seem to find themselves again in the same situation in which the astrologers have been wallowing for a century...).
Moreover, the so-called dwarf planets do not themselves have to be satellites, which excludes the satellites of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus et al., but not really Charon, as we don't know whether it is a 'satellite' of Pluto, or a co-planet (see below). We are in the presence of a kind of jurisdictional council, trapped in its own contradictions, more than in the presence of a real scientific demonstration, and even further away from what science historians have called an "epistemological rupture".
Approximate compared sizes of the Earth, the Moon, of five so-called dwarf planetary bodies and of their satellites (12-2010).
These reshuffles by the astronomical community indicate firstly that until 2006 the astronomers did not have a clear definition of the scientific object called "planet", and that they had not weighted its conditions and its significance. At least they have the merit of arousing new questions among the astrologers, or in reality among a very small fraction of them.
We have to rethink this matter from the beginning and wonder, following the discovery of these new bodies gravitating around the solar star, which are the efficient factors, in short which are the old and new planetary operators the astrologer must take into account not only for the construction of a chart, but also and above all for the organisation and harmonisation of the celestial dynamics in relation with the terrestrial receptor. Some assertions of my first text about this matter (June 2000) are outdated (see The Solar System: What is a Planet in Astrology ?). The reason is the discovery of important planetoids after this date. The following statements have become obsolete.
All the trans-Neptunian objects (TNO), named planetoids or planetesimals, have sidereal periods comparable to that of Pluto. But Pluto remains the only TNO known to possess a satellite; it is nearly 100 times more massive than the other known planetoids (with the exception of Charon), and the global mass of Pluton and Charon represents about 50% of the total mass of the planetoids.
The orbit of Pluto is the only one to cross the orbit of another planet. Some astronomers, and also the young Kant, find in that fact a criterion that justifies classifying it as the last planet of the solar system.
The question should not be whether the size of a body exceeds a certain arbitrary threshold, but rather what is the relationship of size between the given body with what precedes and what follows it. Hence the quotient of the radius R of the last planet divided by that of the first non-planet (asteroid) should be larger or comparable to the quotient of the radius of the penultimate planet divided by that of the last: R Pluto / R Ceres> R Mercury / R Pluto (the relationship Ceres / Vesta does not verify this formula). The same result emerges from the relationship of the masses if one takes the Moon in place of Mercury.
However, a comparative study of the physical and astronomical criteria of the main recently discovered bodies would tend to 'rehabilitate' Pluto (re-baptised TNO 134340 !) and to maintain its exceptional character within the Kuiper belt. The following data are continuously updated by the IAU based on the most recent observations. The astronomical data are no longer jealously protected, but they are henceforth accessible to the public. However, the different servers, updated on the same day, give slightly different data. Therefore one must only use them with caution. They are temporary data. The planetary diameters are only approximate, and even the plutonian period is not known with certainty, eighty years after its discovery by Clyde Tombaugh.
Astrometric and orbital data of planets and planetoids (on 29-12-2009 ; see below the 2015 updated data)
Number Name Inclination Latitude Excentricity Half major axis Period Diameter Magnitude Distance to Sun Discovery
50000 QUAOAR 7°59'41" 7°24' 0.03948163 43.47012711 286.6 850 2.72 43.17867 2002
90482 ORCUS 20°34'53" -18°35' 0.22724806 39.16551208 245.1 950 2.30 47.88463 2004
225088 2007-OR10 30°40'19" - 3°31' 0.49993360 67.34560394 552.7 1350 1.90 85.99164 2007
90377 SEDNA 11°55'37" -12° 0' 0.85024291 509.77600098 11510.1 1600 1.59 87.61398 2003
136108 HAUMEA 28°13'19" 27°13' 0.19740294 43.03160477 282.3 1200 0.18 51.02717 2003
136472 MakeMake 29° 0' 8" 28°59' 0.16329825 45.35434341 305.4 1500 -0.45 52.14152 2005
136199 ERIS 43°54'44" -13°43' 0.43417308 68.01042938 560.9 2400 -1.17 96.68021 2005
134340 Pluton 17° 5'20" 5° 7' 0.25024870 39.44506836 248.5 2300 -0.70 31.77660 1930
The inclination of the equator on the plane of the orbit, not mentioned in the table because it is unknown for most planetoids, is not a discriminatory factor : Mars (25.19°), Saturn (26.73°) and Neptune (28.32°) have an inclination comparable to that of the Earth (23.45°), but Jupiter (3.13°) and Mercury (0.01°) have an inclination of nearly zero, Ceres has an intermediate inclination (10.60°), Uranus (97.77°), Pluto (122.53°) and above all Venus (177.36° or -2.64°) have such a strong inclination that these planets spin round in the direction opposite to their orbit.
At the end of the 2000s, they wanted to dethrone Pluto in favour of Eris, on the pretext of a higher diameter, and with the aim of highlighting the recent discoveries. Yet the evaluations are regularly revised downward for Eris and upward for Pluto. In November 2015 the respective diameters of Pluto and Eris are estimated at 2370 and 2325 km. Pluto itself, without its huge satellite Charon (discovered on 22 June 1978 by the American astronomer James W. Christy), remains the most massive body of the Kuiper area. And they will have disqualified Pluto through the intervention of false data – which seems to have become an American specialty.
1. Pluto is the only known element having a round-shaped satellite. Charon himself has a diamater of 1200 km, larger than Quaoar, than Orcus and maybe even than Haumea. Pluto also has four other small satellites : Hydra, Nix, Kerberos and Styx.
Neither Mercury nor Venus have a known satellite. Deimos and Phobos, Mars' satellites, are shapeless, and among the 63 known satellites of Jupiter, only four have a round shape, being Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto, the other ones resembling simple "stones” discovered from 1892. [However it may be that an earlier observation of Ganymede has taken place during the summer of 365 BC by the Chinese astronomer Gan De (see the hard to access article by Xi Zezong : "The Discovery of Jupiter's Satellite made by Gan De 2.000 years before Galileo", in Chinese Physics 2.3, 1982, pp. 664-667 ; and Helaine Selin (ed.), Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-western Cultures, Dordrecht, Kluwer, 1997, p.342.]
2. The sum of the diameters of Pluto and Charon is approximately 3600 km (2370 + 1230).
Charon's diameter is higher than Ceres'. Pluto-Charon is probably a double planet. The barycentre of the Pluto-Charon pair is situated outside the two bodies. Neither of the two objects really rotates around the other, and they have a comparable mass and diameter. Because they are coming closer together, Pluto's atmosphere composed of methane particles, also envelops Charon : the Pluto-Charon binary system is thus composed of a unique atmosphere. For the astrologer interested in the planetary cycles from a terrestrial perspective, only 'the large diameter' of Pluto-Charon counts, which is for that matter comparable to the Moon's. And it is the cycle of the Pluto-Charon binary star which is registered, imperceived by the terrestrial organism, as are the cycles of Jupiter and its satellites, of Saturn and its satellites, and so on. But while the Pluto-Charon operator forms one entity, this is not the case for any other planet of the solar system.
3. The characteristics of the plutonian orbit are extreme (inclination of 17°, period of 248 or 249 years), but allow the Pluto-Charon entity into the planetary operators.
As the earth's inclination defines the angle of the ecliptic plane to the equator's plane, and as astrologers refer the planetary positions to this ecliptic, an angle smaller than 23°30 (varying with time) is acceptable. One fourth of the planetary revolution must be within a human lifespan (approximately 62 years for Pluto-Charon). Indeed, the neuro-physiological crystallisation causing a planetary body to become an operator is inscribed at the star's quadrature (see my text about the planetary ages).
4. The harmony and resonance of the uranian cycle with the neptunian and plutonian cycles is a leading factor in the rehabilitation of Pluto-Charon as planetary operator in its own right, even though it remains of a very different nature from the other planets.
What about the other so-called dwarf planets and their main challengers ?
- Only the Pluto-Charon pair has a diameter comparable to that of the Earth's satellite. The other planetoids are much smaller, including Eris, and in particular Quaoar and Orcus.
- Haumea's roundness is debatable. And the excessive sidereal period of Sedna disqualifies it.
- Due to their strong inclinations, 2007-OR10, Haumea, MakeMake, and above all Eris are bodies cyclically foreign to the terrestrial/solar dynamic.
Pluto-Charon remains the dominating element of the multiplicity of the so-called trans-neptunian objects, and more precisely of the planetoids belonging to the Kuiper belt. However, as I suggested in my last post on Cura's forum, the astrologer shall not only reason based on the physical and astronomical properties of the planetary bodies, but also keep in mind the disposition of the astrological structures (the Planetary, the planetary Ages, even the planetary Houses), because only the harmonisation between these different structures ensures the matrix cohesion inherent and necessary to astrology.
The eradication of Pluto by the astronomical council of 2006 will at least have had one favourable result : rehabilitating Ceres, which becomes a dwarf planet for the astronomer, and for the astrologer - as I recommend from now on - a planet, in other words a planetary operator in its own right. The astrologers must henceforth reckon with the discovery of Ceres, on 1st January 1801, by Giuseppe Piazzi. In his work published in Palermo in 1802, Della scoperta del nuovo pianeta Cerere Ferdinandea, ottavo tra i primari del nostro sistema solare, Ceres is properly referred to as a planet, which will be dedicated to King Ferdinand III of Sicily.
In my previous works, I had retained the asteroid from the angle of the planetary Ages (importance of language learning during the ceresian age) and from the angle of belonging to the system of the 11 common colours, but I did not recommend using it in the birth chart. As of now, I defend this option, knowing that Ceres' mass alone represents one third of the mass of all asteroids taken together. Moreover Ceres is the only known round-shaped asteroid, and has a larger size than Quaoar (diameter of approximately 950 km). Ceres is the major element of a first group of planetoids gravitating between Mars and Jupiter. Pluto is the major element of a second group of planetoids gravitating beyond Neptune in the Kuiper belt. Through the decision of August 2006, the (extremely rare) serious astrology, far from having lost one planet, has gained one.
Addenda November 2015
As for Chiron, also classified as a comet because of its high eccentricity (approximately 0,38) and despite its small diameter (approximately 225 km, but fifteen times higher than the core of the Halley comet), it remains the major element of the group of the Centaurs (estimated at almost 50.000). Chiron seems to have a rudimentary system of rings, like the giant planets (Jupiter to Neptune) and like the centaur Chariclo (of a slightly higher diameter but with an excessive inclination, 23.5°). Only in January 2009 did I identify Ceres with my 'winter Moon' and did I assign her to Pisces (see The Planetaries and mainly the French updated version). I needed 7 more years before accepting Chiron, the tiny protagonist of another asteroidal belt, the Centaurs, situated between Jupiter and Pluto. Mea culpa, all the more so as numerous mainly English-speaking astrologers have been using it for years. But what are they not using?
A planetary body, whether it is called a planet, a dwarf planet, or a planetoid by the astronomers, is significant for astrology, if its sidereal revolution is compatible with the human lifespan (or more precisely, at least the fourth of its period must be shorter than this lifespan), if the inclination of its orbit with the ecliptic plane does not exceed a certain threshold (approximately 20 degrees), and if its size makes it a distinct element or main element of a group, isolated from the other astrologically significant bodies by its orbit.
A few recent astronomical data (2015) :
Planet Half Major axis (UA) T. Bode's Law
Eccentricity Inclination (°) Period (years) Diameter (km) Discovery Moon
0,00257
0,055 5,145 0,075 3475
Mercury 0,387 0,4
0,206 7,005 0,241
Venus 0,723 0,7
0,007 3,395 0,615
Earth 1 1
0,017 0 1
Mars 1,524 1,6
0,093 1,851 1,881
Ceres (1) 2,768 2,8
0,076 10,592 4,61 975
Palermo, 1801-01-01, IT Giuseppe Piazzi Jupiter 5,203 5,2
0,048 1,305 11,863
Saturn 9,537 10
0,054 2,485 29,447
Chiron (2)
13,64
0,383
6,945
50,36
225 (3) (4)
Palomar, 1977-10-18, US Charles Kowal (5)
Uranus 19,191 19,6
0,047 0,77 84,017
Bath, 1781-03-13, G-UK William Herschel
Neptune 30,069
0,009 1,769 164,79
1846, UK-FR-G (6) (7)
Pluto (8) 39,474 38,8
0,25 17,163 247,92 2370
Flagstaff, 1930-01-23, US Clyde Tombaugh
(5) On a side note, Chiron was discovered in 1977, less than two months before a Sylvie made me discover astrology.
(6) Early August 1846 , pictures of James Challis, UK (cf. CN 84, 2000 and its English version) ; end August 1846, calculation by 'Urbain Le Verrier, FR ; 23 Sept. 1846, observation by Johann Galle, G.
Chiron perfectly fits (approximation 0.01%) in my table of Harmonies of the solar system (2000, revised and corrected) and of the dividers of the sidereal revolutions, and is in resonance with Mercury and to a lesser extent with Neptune. Generally speaking, the planetary periods are in resonance with the first eight prime numbers (2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17 and 19), or even only with six of them when removing the numbers 13 and 17 which are represented only once.
Planets S. R. (days) S. R. (calcul) error MOON 27.3216 27 1.18% - - - - - - 3 3 3 - - - - - - - - MERCURY 87.969 88 0.035% 2 2 2 - - - - - - - - - - 11 - - - VENUS 224.701 225 0.13% - - - - - - 3 3 - - 5 5 - - - - - EARTH 365.256 364 0.20% 2 2 - - - - - - - - - - 7 - 13 - - EARTH (2)
365.256 363
0.62% - - - - - - 3 - - - - - - 11 11 - MARS 686.98 686 0.003% 2 - - - - - - - - - 7 7 7 - - - - CERES 1679.78 1680 0.01% 2 2 2 2 - - 3 - - - - 5 7 - - - - JUPITER 4332.82 4332 0.02% 2 2 - - - - 3 - - - - - - - - 19 19 SATURN 10755.7 10752 0.03% 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 - - 3 7 - - - - CHIRON 18394 18392 0.01% 2 2 2 - - - - - - - - - - 11 11 - 19 URANUS 30687 30685 0.007% - - - - - - - - - - - 5 - - 17 19 19 URANUS (2) 30687 30720 0.108% 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 3 5 - - - - NEPTUNE 60190 60192 0.003% 2 2 2 2 2 - 3 3 - - - - - 11 - - 19 PLUTO 90553 90552 0.001% 2 2 2 - - - 3 - - - 7 7 7 11 - - -
The twelfth and final planet, dwarf or planetoid, of the astrological solar system falls to Sagittarius without dignity (except an "autumnal Mars" awaiting identification). The model of dignities or planetary Regents, which I conceived thirty years, can see the day.
Reference of the page:
Patrice Guinard: Which cyclical operators in astrology ?
http://cura.free.fr/2015/1511operators.html
22-11-2015
French version 2010-2015 : http://cura.free.fr/09-10/1002ceres.html
All rights reserved © 2010-2015 Patrice Guinard
Centre Universitaire de Recherche en Astrologie
Web site Designer & Editor: Patrice Guinard
© 1999-2015 Dr. Patrice Guinard