Too Many Measurements Spoil the Astro-Brothby Guest Astrologer, Basil Fearrington
Basil Fearrington is a premiere astrologer in our world. His thoughts are presented strongly at BasilFearrington.com, in his several other “Analytical Techniques” essays and frequent Forum appearances on this website (see Archives), and at TheMetaArts.com site. He is the self-published author of the extremely helpfulMidpoint Manual and Director of his Correspondence Course of Astrological Study.
I was fortunate to have been introduced to astrology at the very early age of 13 years old (1967). I have spent all but thirteen of my fifty years of life studying astrology and I have probably forgotten much more than I have retained. However, that which I have retained and learned through experience is much more valuable than those forgotten techniques because for the most part, many of the techniques were discarded because of inconsistency, unreliability, and impracticality regarding the synthesis of a horoscope.
Measurements vs. People
Take a moment right now and think of a friend, relative, or someone whose life you know well. How many words of description does it take you to depict the core of the person in plain English?
In almost every instance of human life, there is a central psychological theme that develops during the all-important formative years of development (up to approximately age 14). That theme is then taken into adult life where all of the drama of the formative years becomes enacted in different ways, and our astrology profiles that for us so insightfully. –In general, people are not usually as complex as our arsenal of measurements and techniques is.
With experience in synthesis, we learn what is important and what is not important in a horoscope. Scores of aspects and techniques can never be a substitute for the art of synthesis but they are often used that way until one learns [through experience] just what is and is not key to the analysis of a horoscope. It really does take an artistic touch to humanize the science that allows us to have a horoscope. Synthesis is the art, not measurements.
Example
Almost always, a person’s life develops upon a single life-concern; it becomes the foundation for everything else that develops in that life. It is at the core of a person’s existence and it usually does not take a lot of measuring and technique to see it in a horoscope.
The data for this horoscope example is November 17, 1943; 10:45 PM EWT in Charleston, South Carolina. Please take a few moments to look at and analyze this woman’s horoscope before you continue reading here.
The woman to whom this horoscope belongs has been extremely successful. She lives life on a high level and has maximized her potentials, for sure. I recently saw a documentary about her life and was extremely impressed by how her core life-concern was so clearly reflected in her horoscope.
This beautiful woman has lived a life of luxury and prominence and is a pioneer in her field. She set completely new standards of income potential through her seven-figure product endorsements at a time when such a sum for that work was unthinkable. A world traveler, she has spent a great deal of time in other lands, especially in Africa assisting and providing aid to impoverished Africans. Through all of her recognition and financial prowess, the key to her life, the engine that has driven her psychological car, was her difficult childhood and the seed that it planted within her that was the cause of the drama that engulfed her personal life as an adult.
This beauty’s father was away at war when she was born. She was never able to reach out and touch him; she knew him only through letters. This lack of loving, paternal authority planted a seed that made her vulnerable prey in relationships, especially with a man who would reflect the qualities that she fantasized about in her longed-for relationship with her father.
She fell in love with and married a man who, to most people, would have been immediately suspect because he made her swear the marriage to secrecy, which meant that this high profile lady had to be dishonest about it to the press and media. It was a very uncomfortable thing to have to do, but she did it because of the powerful need for love that she projected onto her husband. She entrusted him with complete control of her substantial earnings (and her life), never asking any questions, never having an accountant look at the books or bank accounts. As long as the love was there, she was fine.
But it was not fine. She eventually lost a fortune because of her husband. The man that she loved and trusted for so many years duped her. It was a shattering realization to accept after nearly a couple decades of marriage.
The focus of Lauren Hutton’s documentary was on her shattered marriage. Yes, there was a great deal discussed about her professional achievements, but it was her marriage and lack of a father relationship in her life that impacted her the most. Her career was depicted as a background concern to her overwhelming need to try to find her father’s love in another man.
As you look at Hutton’s horoscope, everything that I have mentioned in this essay is easily reflected in the horoscope if you know what to look for. You see it in seconds: Saturn retrograde is in an emphasized 11th House and, no, this isn’t “friends, hopes and wishes” (please see my essay on the 11th House at www.BasilFearrington.com in the Articles section)! It is, rather, a suggestion of an overwhelming emphasis on the need for love. Whenever you see Saturn retrograde in a horoscope, immediately look to see where Capricorn is and question how the person over-compensates or carries inferiority feelings that relate to the House where Capricorn is upon the cusp or is intercepted.
This single symbolism is so strong, it can often be the key to one’s entire life. In this case, with Capricorn on the cusp of VII, we would expect the action to take place within relationships. This dimension (her marriage) of Lauren’s life dominated her being just as an aching tooth can. She needed so badly to fill the void left by the missing father relationship that she easily entrusted a man who ruined her for a period of time.
As you view Hutton’s horoscope, you obviously see her idealized, romantic mindset in the conjunction of Neptune to Venus in the 3rd House, clearly echoing the Saturn retrograde phenomenon in terms of weakness and vulnerability in relationship concerns. With just these two symbols (Saturn Rx and Venus-Neptune), the core issue of her life was easily seen with just a minimum of measurement. If you were to have a discussion with Lauren Hutton, she would talk to you for hours about this one factor of her life because it has been so centrally crucial to her development … and, basically, we did not measure anything; we just observed!
Knowing all that you know now, you can see the north-eastern hemisphere emphasis and you know why there would be an orientation to defensiveness and self-protection that is linked to those very important formative years of development. You can see the tension with the parental axis rulers (Neptune conjoins Venus, ruler of IV; Mars, ruler of X, applies to a conjunction with Saturn) and how this is corroborated by the identity formation tension that is always suggested when the ruler of the horoscope is developmentally challenged by aspects.
Furthermore, the conjunction of Pluto to the Moon and Nodal Axis should make you think, “A-ha! The mother is also prominent within this imbroglio of parental tension.” Neptune is quindecile the Midheaven – the focus of creativity, idealism and even fantasy applied to the career and her strange relationship with her step-siblings. Lauren Hutton has acted in over 30 movies.
Using just a few measurements, we have gleaned the vital horoscope information that reflects the most important concern(s) of Hutton’s life. This is the mindset to have in the analysis of a person’s horoscope. The symbols should suggest to you a central theme, with all parts echoing a whole that you then communicate to a person, in everyday language. Everything begins to repeat the previous deductions, and the story of a person’s life emerges through the symbols of the horoscope. Insecurity in synthesis should never be covered-over with a forest of measured techniques. It should be gradually eliminated by careful study of the human condition with all its needs, frustrations, changes, and rewards, and the application of that knowledge through the astrological guidelines into your client’s reality.