Computing the SP Moon Position/Age in your Head!
With growing skills and confidence, we can look at the horoscope and, at a glance, focus on significant generalities ever so quickly! The students in my Master’s Certification Course eventually are able to summarize/organize the paths for horoscope delineation, with major timelines, within 45 seconds or less. –The skills we learn are magnified and anchored by the confidence!
One of the “plums of deduction” hangs on the Secondary Progressed Moontree! We can find ways to illuminate that measurement with reliable, visual generality as well.
Here’s the scoop:
In general terms, we know that the Moon travels about 12 degrees a day. That means about 12 degrees per year in SP projection!
The most telling SP Moon relationships within our horoscope life are when the SP Moon crosses an Angle and when the SP Moon conjoins, square, opposes, squares and conjoins again the planet Saturn. [I.e., the quadrature relationship between the SP Moon and natal Saturn.]
If we note the number of degrees between the natal Moon and the next Angle it will meet (in counter-clockwise motion), we know the SP-months after birth to that event. Bingo!
If we note the number of degrees between the natal Moon and the first hard contact with natal Saturn, we know the SP-months after birth to that event. Bingo again! And the quadrature cycle is set to occur at 7-year intervals from the starting age!
And finally, we know that the SP Moon returns to its natal position (or any starting point) every 28 years, speaking generally. [I know that 360 degrees divided by 12 gives 30 years. But we are using generalities, using the 12-month “daily” motion for convenience (12 months in the year). The faster Moon speeds work out, and a small discrepancy spread over a year simply doesn’t count in our generality technique.]
THAT’s the process. Practice makes perfect.
Example Let’s look at Beethoven’s horoscope: December 16, 1770 at 11:03 AM LMT in Bonn GER; Asc 19Aqu08.
Get comfortable with the Moon position at 16 Sagittarius 48, “at” the Midheaven, which is 12 Sagittarius 19.
When will the SP Moon conjoin Jupiter, ruler of Beethoven’s Midheaven? In 17 degrees; at 1.5 years of age. [Make sure you understand that.] This means that at 1.5 years, and then repeating at 30 years (1.5 plus the return cycle of 28-29 years), we will have SP Moon=Jupiter. –This is in 1800: something most beneficial for his career will probably take place; obviously, with Jupiter ruling the Midheaven and dispositing Sun and Moon. On April 2, 1800, Beethoven gave his first piano concert in Vienna, “for his own benefit”.
When will the SP Moon cross the Ascendant? In 63 degrees (a sextile plus 3), which is 5 years [63 divided by 12], plus a bit, and plus the second circuit (28): age 33+ in 1803-04. –In June 1804, Beethoven completed the Eroica symphony Number 3, the monumental, giant statement that established his personal position within music history and changed the course of that history forever.
When will the SP Moon cross the 4th cusp, opposing the Midheaven? Very simple: call that cuspal position in this horoscope the opposition to the natal position. Then divide 28 by 2 for the half cycle, and add the 14 to the 28 (the first cycle): age 42, which is 1812. This is when Beethoven’s obsessive fantasia of love for his “Immortal Beloved” fell to pieces because of neurotic links with his early home life.
When will the SP Moon cross the seventh cusp and conjoin Saturn? We know the 4th cusp age to be 42. The distance from the fourth cusp to the Saturn-seventh cusp position is 63 degrees, basically 5 more years+. At 47 in 1816, Beethoven was deeply, critically psychologically disturbed with his “Family Romance” delusion, imaging he was his nephew’s father and demanding that he be called that … and going to court to establish that “fact”!
Just remember that one cycle (the Lunar Return by Secondary Progressions) is close to 28 years; the movement is one degree per month, twelve degrees per year. And once a strong “hit” is established, the quadrature to that “hit” will be every 7 years thereafter! [Note how this SP Moon measurement gets into phase with the transiting quadrature of Saturn!]–Think it through … and practice!
Neat, eh?