We all know that contradictory measurements in astrology are not easy. There are no rules to guide us, but there is a state of mind that can help.

Does night contradict day? Or is there a complementation between the two, one making the other clearer, more manageable?

Does sound negate silence? Or is one making the other more meaningful, more pronounced, more valuable?

Often, there is a way to see contradictory measurements not as contradictions but as offsets; one or two measurements offset a strong measurement to the contrary. –We’re talking about compensation, counterbalancing, making each more valuable in developmental analysis because each is clearer!

With all the experience I have had with the establishment of Saturn-rx phenomenology over almost 30 years, there have been cases here and there that could trouble the theory: the hypothesis did not apparently hold up … or it did, but it was not easy to get at it! One of these is the Saturn-rx in Tiger Woods’ horoscope [December 30, 1975 at 10:50 PM PST in Long Beach CA].

Woods was raised strongly, obsessively by his father, to be a golfer; there’s that marvelous television bit of the 2 1/2-year-old Tiger hitting golf balls on the Mike Douglas show! Day after day and night after night throughout Woods’ development the father reigned as mentor for his son’s growing golf expertise. –What wonderful attention! Or was it? Was that all there was? Did that mono-focus cause relational problems elsewhere? This would have to be checked with Tiger Woods, of course, for his perception of the paternal interaction, that relationship that was so intense. After all, that Saturn-rx opposed Mercury, ruler of Tiger’s MC and Ascendant!

**But the relationship appeared so successful. Tiger and his father appeared to share the same obsession. Something was perhaps offsetting the Saturn-rx statement. –There was/is: Tiger’s Saturn and Sun are in mutual reception (an increase in compatibility and strength always) and the Sun is precisely quindecile the MC (a parental Angle and place of the profession), the closest aspect in the horoscope.

This is an offsetting set of observations that must be with us in analysis.

Jackie Kennedy-Onassis [July 28, 1929 at 2:30 PM EDT in Southampton NY] had a prominent Saturn-rx, and her father-concerns and projection onto her marriages are very well known and studied in our literature. Saturn-rx in the 2nd House, opposed Venus, ruler of her 7th. –BUT were there compensations, counter-balances working here to strengthen her worldly poise and posture (powerful Leo Sun)? We note that that Saturn was a corner of a Fire Grand Trine with the Moon in Aries and Neptune-MC in Leo! A mighty, ego-absorbed regal defense mechanism.

The ultra-sensitive waif-like Audrey Hepburn [May 4, 1929 at 3:00 AM GMD in Brussels BEL] rose out of terrible, shamed family circumstances early in World War II to become one of the world’s most beloved movie stars. Saturn-rx dominated her horoscope at AP 00 Capricorn, quindecile Pluto!

But as well: compensating, offsetting considerations perhaps were peregrine Uranus, ruler of her Ascendant, =Sun/Moon and also MC=Jupiter/Pluto! Measurements that are anything but recessive!

–The point emerging here is not that the Saturn-rx phenomenon is lost, erased, put away; it remains, but it is tied to other measurement complexes that work to revitalize resources around it! Uranus is often involved, accentuating and rebuilding individuality with runaway strengths and confidence.

For example, Luciano Pavarotti [October 12 1935 at 1:40 AM CET in Modena ITALY]: Saturn-rx opposed Venus (!!), ruler of his Midheaven (!!!), along with Uranus quindecile the Libra Sun, ruler of the Ascendant. Additionally: Uranus=Sun/Jupiter.

Brooke Shields [May 31, 1965 at 1:45 PM EDT in Manhattan NY] has Venus ruling her 9th House and it is squared by Mars, a very high-probability suggestion that her education would be interrupted. Yet, Shields did what few other movie-stars have ever done: she graduated with continuity with honors from Princeton University! –The other measurements that suggested the Venus problem could be offset centered around her peregrine Mercury(!) in the 9th House with four planets in Gemini: Sun Moon, Jupiter, and Venus!

Flower-power, LSD guru, Harvard psychologist Timothy Leary [Oct 22, 1920 at 10:45 AM EDT in Springfield MA] had a splendid 9th House ruled by the Sun, which was trined by Moon-Uranus. –His Neptune was peregrine. Did his pedagogical trappings allow the popular success of his drug message?

–These observations are not denials of giant analytical concepts like Saturn-rx or House rulerships of important areas of development. Rather, they call attention to the dynamism of synthesis as personality development emerges from within many measurements. –Imagine the counter-balances at work in the lives of introverted actors like Dustin Hoffman and Robert deNiro who are among our most talented exciting actors in the world today!

Nor are we looking at new rules here. Rather, we are seeing frames of mind that help us understand the music in the horoscope. In the end, the measurements do harmonize, and life develops. In the end, the talented astrologer learns to fit the measurements in any horoscope to the reality being lived by the client. That’s our art.